FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) – Dinner reservations are gladly made again. Canceled holidays are booked. People come together again, in some ways they used to.
But not everyone runs back.
Their stories appear as the world begins to reopen – people secretly fearing each step towards normalcy, imagining instead crowds that cause anxiety and awkward recovery conversations. Even small tasks outside the home – a trip to the grocery store or back to the office – can feel overwhelming.
Psychologists call it the fear of re-entry and find it more common as headlines announce the imminent return to post-pandemic life.
“I hugged and got used to this new lifestyle of avoidance that I can not understand going back to how it was. I have every intention of continuing to isolate myself, ”says Thomas Pietrasz, who lives alone and works from his home in the Chicago suburbs as a content creator. His alcohol and marijuana use also increased during the pandemic.
Pietrasz says his anxiety has increased significantly as we talk about post-vaccine life. He says he used to “hide at home and take advantage of the curb and delivery to avoid any situation with people.”
As the world moves toward a normal life, many report challenges like Pietrasz playing in their own lives. Home time – blockage, fear, fear, isolation – changed them and made existing worries worse or created whole new ones.
“It was a mixture of reactions,” says Amy Cirbus, director of clinical content at Talkspace, an online mental health group with nearly 50,000 current clients. “Some people are very relieved to be back to normal. Others are fighting. Many people experience anxiety peaks because they feel unprepared for re-entry. ”
While some felt restricted by closing the house, others found safety, comfort and even pleasure there, internalizing isolation in what some psychiatrists consider a dysfunctional basis of behavior.
Like many others, Pietrasz said his anxiety is largely unrelated to catching COVID and more about social interactions. Psychologists say that fears about leaving home do not have much 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 that the manifestation is subtle, like someone starting to make repeated excuses to avoid meeting friends, even in a safe, socially distant setting or if they have been vaccinated. But some cases are more extreme, says Dr. Arthur Bregman, a psychiatrist who observed the phenomenon in his Miami practice and called it “cave syndrome.”
“People who have the most anxiety disorders in my practice are the most affected. I can’t even get out, “says Bregman, who has studied the psychological impact of the 1918 flu pandemic on the world.
After this blockage, about 40% of the population would be diagnosed with what we now call PTSD, says Bregman. “It took 10 years for people to get out of this,” he says.
The pandemic has exacerbated the problems for those already facing anxiety, depression and other mental health problems. But some patients experience these symptoms for the first time.
Dr. Julie Holland, a psychiatrist in New York, says the pandemic has triggered new trauma for some, especially in the first unpredictable weeks of deadlock, as people have wondered if there would be enough food or if it would be safe to reach their mail. .
According to a study In February, by the American Psychological Association, nearly half of respondents said they were worried about adapting to in-person interactions once the pandemic ended. Shockingly, vaccination status has had little impact on people’s responses, with 48% of vaccinated adults saying they still feel uneasy.
“You’ve been taught to stay away from people for a whole year, and you’ve learned to be afraid of people because they could make you sick or kill you,” says Holland. “There is no doubt that it is easier to learn to be afraid than to be afraid.”
Physical manifestations of fighting or running, such as a racing heart, breathing problems and dizziness can be terrifying.
“People who are really free and planning their vacations really upset my patients because they cause their level of fear and tolerance for risk,” says Dr. Sharon Batista, a New York psychiatrist who has seen an increase in patient referrals. since the holidays.
Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable. Before the pandemic, 17-year-old Erin had a lot of close friends, but she said those interactions slowed down while they were stuck in the suburbs of DC. Now he barely talks to them.
She’s afraid of “having to catch up and go through all those little things that nobody likes,” said the high school junior, who has been taking anxiety medication for several years. The Associated Press uses her first name only because she is a minor.
“A year ago, I went out hoping to meet a friend from school and go on an adventure,” she recently posted on social media. “Now, I’m horrified to leave the house, because I’m afraid I’ll run into a friend from school and go on an adventure.”
Nicole Russell was so afraid of leaving her Miami home that she retired to her bedroom for days on end, unable to interact with others in the house, including her 11-year-old daughter. It got so bad that he often woke up all night, slept during the day, obsessively checked social media and cleaned constantly, even brushing the floor with a toothbrush.
“I wouldn’t leave my little corridor for days on end because I couldn’t cope with the pressure of talking to other people,” says Russell, who left notes to remember taking a shower and brushing his teeth. “I certainly didn’t live.”
Last month, Russell even made a sign to her family and friends when they tried to plan something small for her birthday last month. “We were forced to isolate ourselves,” she says, “and now we’re used to it.”
Experts say that 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 pleasure of social interactions and learn that a large part of the world is unchanged, which makes it easier to venture again. Others may need medication.
Russell, who described himself as “dysfunctional”, recently took a few steps in this direction. He was forced to make a terrifying trip to the grocery store. She saw people laughing and talking and was inspired.
He started therapy with an antidepressant. It worked, she says, and in a week things were much better. Now, “I get up and move and I want to start catching up with everyone.”
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Follow Florida Associated Press writer Kelli Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kkennedyAP