FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) – Dinner reservations are being made happily again. Canceled holidays are being booked for a long time. People get back together, somehow they did before.
But not everyone runs again.
Their stories emerge as the world begins to open up: people secretly fear every milestone toward normalcy, rather than imagining crowds that cause anxiety and awkward recovery conversations. Even small chores outside the home (a trip to the grocery store or back to the office) can be overwhelming.
Psychologists call it fear of re-entry and find it more common as headlines announce the imminent return to post-pandemic life.
“I’ve embraced and got used to this new avoidance lifestyle that I can’t understand going back to how it was. I intend to continue to isolate myself,” says Thomas Pietrasz, who lives alone and works from home. his outskirts of Chicago as a content creator.His alcohol and marijuana use also increased during the pandemic.
Pietrasz says his anxiety has gotten noticeably worse as life grows on vaccine after vaccine. He says he got used to “hiding at home and taking advantage of the sidewalk and delivery to avoid any situation with people.”
As the world moves back to a normal life appearance, many report challenges such as the fact that Pietrasz plays into his own life. Time at home (blockage, fear, fear, isolation) has changed them and worsened existing concerns or created completely new ones.
“It’s been a mix of reactions,” says Amy Cirbus, director of clinical content for Talkspace, an online mental health group with nearly 50,000 current clients. “Some people are very relieved to return to normal. Others fight. Many people experience anxiety peaks as they feel unprepared to re-enter.
While some felt restricted by home confinement, others found safety, comfort, and even enjoyment in it, internalizing isolation in what some psychiatrists consider a dysfunctional baseline of behavior.
Like many others, Pietrasz said his anxiety is unrelated to the capture of COVID and more information about social interactions. Psychologists say that fears when leaving home have little to do with reasonable concerns about the spread of the virus and sometimes cannot be identified or are not based on reality.
In some cases, psychologists say the demonstration is subtle, like someone starting to make repeated excuses to avoid meeting friends, even in a safe and distant social environment or if they have been vaccinated. But some cases are more extreme, says Dr. Arthur Bregman, a psychiatrist who noticed this phenomenon in his Miami practice and dubbed it “cave syndrome.”
“The people who have the most anxiety disorders in my practice are the most affected. They can’t even get out, ”says Bregman, who has been studying the psychological impact of the 1918 flu pandemic on the world.
After this blockage, 40% of the population would be diagnosed with what we now call PTSD, Bregman says. “It took ten years to get out of people,” he says.
The pandemic exacerbated the problems for those who already had problems with anxiety, depression and other mental health problems. But some patients experience these symptoms for the first time.
Dr. Julie Holland, a New York psychiatrist, says the pandemic caused new trauma for some, especially in the unpredictable first weeks of blockage, as people wondered if there would be enough food or if it was even safe. touch the mail.
According to a survey in February, by the American Psychological Association, nearly half of respondents said they did not feel uneasy about adapting to face-to-face interactions once the pandemic ended. Surprisingly, the vaccination status had little impact on people’s responses, with 48% of vaccinated adults saying they still felt uncomfortable.
“You’ve been taught for a whole year to distance yourself from people and you’ve learned to be afraid of people because they could make you sick or kill you,” Holland says. “There’s no doubt that it’s easier to learn to be afraid than not to be afraid.”
Physical manifestations of struggle or flight such as an accelerated heart, difficulty breathing, and dizziness can be terrifying.
“People who are really free and plan their vacations really annoy my patients because they challenge their level of fear and risk tolerance,” says Dr. Sharon Batista, a New York psychiatrist who has noticed an increase in patient referrals from the holidays.
Children and adolescents are especially vulnerable. Before the pandemic, 17-year-old Erin had many close friends, but she said those interactions slowly diminished while they were locked up in the suburbs of DC. Now he barely speaks to them.
She fears “having to catch up and go through all those little things that no one likes,” said the high school girl, who has been taking medication for anxiety for several years. The Associated Press only uses his first name because he is younger.
“A year ago I took to the streets in hopes of meeting a friend from school and going on an adventure,” she recently posted on social media. “Now, I’m afraid to leave home because I’m afraid to meet a friend from school and venture out.”
Nicole Russell was so scared to leave her Miami home that she retired to her room for days at a time, unable to interact with other people inside the home, including her 11-year-old daughter. He got so bad that he was often awake all night, sleeping during the day, obsessively checking social media and constantly cleaning, even brushing the floor with a toothbrush.
“I wouldn’t leave my little hallway for days at a time because I couldn’t cope with the pressures of talking to other people,” says Russell, who left notes to remind himself that he should shower and brush his teeth. . “I didn’t live, of course.”
Last month, Russell even fired family and friends when they tried to plan something small for his birthday last month. “They forced us into isolation,” he says, “and now we’re used to it.”
Experts say taking small steps over time is one of the most effective treatments. The more patients go to the store or see friends, the more they will discover the forgotten enjoyment of social interactions and learn that much of the world does not change, making the adventure easier. Others may need medication.
Russell, who described himself as “non-functional,” took some steps in that direction recently. He was forced to make a terrifying trip to the grocery store. He saw people laughing and talking and was inspired.
He started therapy along with an antidepressant. It worked, she says, and in a week things were much better. Now, “I’m up and moving and I want to start catching up with everyone.”
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Follow Florida-based Associated Press writer Kelli Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kkennedyAP