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Despite how tenuous the state of the world remains, in some ways, life is starting to snap back into pre-pandemic normalcy in countries with high vaccine rates, like the US and UK.
Major sport events are reopening to capacity crowds, indoor restaurants are bustling, people are going on maskless dates and air travel has nearly rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. The best part? It’s all with the blessing of national health agencies (for vaccinated people, at least).
And yet, for many, the idea of getting on a packed plane to fly and visit elderly relatives for a holiday filled with hugs seems horrifying. It’s so far from what we’ve grown accustomed to over the last year and a half. Even if you’re vaccinated, it might feel near impossible to revert back to ‘normal’, as though nothing ever happened.
Why is it, amid a mostly re-opened world, that some of us still feel scared and hesitant to embrace the ‘normal’ lifestyle we all craved as we were shut up in our own homes for more than a year? Experts say that for confronting anxiety in general, some people opt for a more gradual approach, and that the post-pandemic age will be no different. And even though some permanent social effects of Covid-19 are unclear, many people will get to that feeling of ‘normal’ – eventually.
The scars are real
Fear and trepidation around returning to normal in the Covid-19 era is called ‘post-pandemic anxiety’ or ‘re-entry anxiety’. Health-care practitioners around the world have begun to address and treat the issue. Part of confronting that anxiety means confronting the reality of what happened over the last 16 months.
As of this writing, nearly 4 million people across the world have died from Covid-19. For their loved ones, ‘normal’ might feel like it may never come. And many of those who haven’t suffered traumatic losses are also reeling, struggling with ‘long-haul’ Covid symptoms that endure for months. Additionally, more 100 million people have lost jobs during the pandemic, another trying factor.