FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) – Dinner reservations are being made again. Vacations canceled for a long time are being booked. People are meeting again, in some of the ways they used to.
But not everyone is running back.
Their stories are emerging as the world begins to reopen – people secretly fearing each milestone towards normality, visualizing instead crowds that induce anxiety and embarrassing conversations. Even small chores outside the home – a trip to the supermarket or a return to the office – can be overwhelming.
Psychologists call this fear of reentry, and they are finding it more common as the headlines announce the impending return to post-pandemic life.
“I hugged and got used to this new avoidance lifestyle that I can’t imagine going back to how it was. I have every intention of continuing to isolate myself, ”says Thomas Pietrasz, who lives alone and works at his home in the suburbs of Chicago as a content creator. Their use of alcohol and marijuana also increased during the pandemic.
Pietrasz says his anxiety has worsened significantly as conversations about post-vaccine life increase. He says he got used to “hiding at home and taking advantage of the sidewalk and deliveries to avoid all situations with people”.
As the world approaches an appearance of normal life, many report challenges like Pietrasz’s manifesting in their own lives. Time at home – blockade, fear, fear, isolation – has changed them and worsened existing concerns or created entirely new ones.
“It’s been a mix of reactions,” says Amy Cirbus, director of clinical content at Talkspace, an online mental health group with nearly 50,000 current customers. “Some people are very relieved to be back to normal. Others are struggling. Many people are experiencing spikes of anxiety as they feel they are not ready for re-entry. “
While some felt constrained by the confinement of the home, others found security, comfort and even fun there, internalizing isolation in what some psychiatrists consider to be a dysfunctional baseline of behavior.
Like many others, Pietrasz said his anxiety has nothing to do with capturing COVID and much more with social interactions. Psychologists say that the fear of leaving the house has little to do with reasonable concerns about the spread of the virus and sometimes cannot be identified or is not based on reality.
In some cases, psychologists say the manifestation is subtle, like someone who starts making repeated excuses to avoid meeting friends, even in a safe and socially distant environment or if they have been vaccinated. But some cases are more extreme, says Dr. Arthur Bregman, a psychiatrist who noticed this phenomenon at his Miami clinic 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 studies the psychological impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on the world.
After this blockade, 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 struggling with anxiety, depression and other mental health problems. But some patients are experiencing these symptoms for the first time.
Dr. Julie Holland, a New York psychiatrist, says the pandemic triggered a new trauma for some, especially in the first unpredictable weeks of confinement, when people questioned whether there was enough food or whether it was even safe to touch their correspondence.
According to a survey in February, by the American Psychological Association, almost half of respondents said they felt uncomfortable adjusting to personal interactions once the pandemic was over. Surprisingly, the vaccination status had little impact on people’s responses, with 48% of vaccinated adults saying they were still uncomfortable.
“You were taught for a whole year to distance yourself from people and learned to be afraid of them because they can make you sick or kill you,” says Holland. “There is no doubt that it is easier to learn to be afraid than not to be afraid.”
Physical manifestations of fight or flight, such as a racing heart, difficulty breathing and dizziness, can be terrifying.
“People who are really free and are planning their vacation are really upsetting my patients because they are challenging their level of fear and risk tolerance,” says Dr. Sharon Batista, a New York psychiatrist who has noticed an increase in patient referrals since the holidays.
Children and adolescents are especially vulnerable. Before the pandemic, 17-year-old Erin had many close friends, but said these interactions had slowly diminished during the blockade in DC’s suburbs. Now she barely talks to them.
She is afraid of “having to catch up and go through all that small talk that no one likes,” said the high school student, who has been taking anxiety medication for years. The Associated Press is only using her first name because she is a minor.
“A year ago, I left with the hope of meeting a friend from school and going on an adventure,” she recently posted on social media. “Now, I’m afraid to leave the house because I’m afraid to find a friend from school and go on an adventure”
Nicole Russell was so afraid to leave her home in Miami that she would retire to her room for days at a time, unable to interact with others inside the house, including her 11-year-old daughter. The situation got so bad that she used to stay up all night, sleeping during the day, obsessively checking social media and cleaning constantly, even scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush.
“I didn’t leave my little hallway for days on end because I couldn’t handle the pressure of talking to other people,” says Russell, who left notes to remember to shower and brush his teeth. “I wasn’t living, for sure.”
Last month, Russell even let go of family and friends when they tried to plan something small for her birthday last month. “We were forced into isolation,” she says, “and now we get 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 has not changed, making it easier to venture out again. Others may need medication.
Russell, who described himself as “non-functional”, has taken some steps in that direction recently. She forced herself to make a terrible trip to the supermarket. She saw people laughing and talking and was inspired.
She 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 reaching everyone.”
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Follow Associated Press writer Kelli Kennedy of Florida on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kkennedyAP