How to Soothe Your ‘Re-Entry Anxiety’ As COVID-19 Lockdowns Lift

When COVID-19 began spreading in the U.S., Dan Kerber was drawn to the data. The 48-year-old from Plano, Texas read about case counts and projections every day, keeping his team at the telecommunications company Ericsson up to date on the latest news. So in May, when states including Texas began to reopen before the data showed it was time to do so, Kerber began to get nervous. “If more people are out, does that mean my family and I are going to get it despite our precautions?” he thought. “Until there’s a vaccine or a treatment, I still worry about being in public.” Kerber, who says he’s never struggled with anxiety before, now feels “underlying concern or unease” when he spends time in public, in large part because he has an autoimmune condition that makes him more susceptible to coronavirus. At the same time, he says, he’s anxious about the prospect of working and living remotely for months more, or longer. “I’m concerned about going into public, but now I’m also concerned about how long I can [last] without going out,” he says. When COVID-19 lockdowns were first instituted, it felt, for many people, unfathomable to stay home nearly 24/7. But for people like Kerber, it now feels equally strange—and nerve-wracking—to do anything else after months cocooned inside. Psychologists have dubbed the phenomenon “re-entry anxiety.” Lily Brown, director of the Center for the Treatme...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news