The Guardian view on declining happiness: it’s not all bad news | Editorial

It's no surprise that the virus is making us anxious. Nor that some groups and people are far worse affected than others

The undisguised brutality of our time is weighing heavily upon us. Tomorrow she is to be cremated, our poor Sunday child!" So wrote Sigmund Freud in January 1920, two days after his 27-year-old daughter Sophie died of Spanish flu (due to travel restrictions, he had not been allowed to visit during her illness). Just as during the global pandemic of a century ago, for bereaved families these are desperately sad times, and the enforced separations can feel like salt rubbed into wounds. In addition to grief, many families - such as those of medical workers left on the frontline without protection - are dealing with anger about the way the crisis has been handled.

But what is the mood of the population as a whole? How widespread is the sense of loss and fear about the disease and the future? New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests a sharp rise in levels of anxiety, and a corresponding decline in happiness, in the days on either side of the 23 March lockdown. About half of the people surveyed - equating to over 25 million British adults - reported high anxiety during that period, more than double the average in the final quarter of last year. The number reporting low happiness levels more than doubled - with the most common causes being personal wellbeing and loneliness, and the threat to jobs and finances.