It’s been a little over a year since the World Health Organization announced that we are in a pandemic and advised us to stay at home.
Being at home for a year has caused many to become anxious about getting back to life like before. With schools being shut down for so long and many students adjusting to online learning; there’s a little worry of how things might be after going back to in person learning.
A fear that many have about returning to in-person learning would be the chance of contracting COVID-19, but another fear that might be overlooked is the adjustment of social interactions after spending over a year in an online format.
“Mental health experts said this fraction of the population found the quarantine protective, a permission slip to glide into more predictable spaces, schedules, routines and relationships. And the experts warn that while quarantine has blessed the “avoidance” of social situations, the circumstances are poised to change,” according to The New York Times.
Quarantine has allowed for many people to stay in their homes away from others and has caused many to lose their abilities to be social with one another. This can create anxieties about returning to school, work or any public places as they may not know what to truly expect and feel uneasy.
This pandemic has been incredibly tough on everyone especially when it comes to their mental health.
“A study published in February in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry looked at the mental health impact on 1,000 young people in Canada during the pandemic, and found that 70 percent of study subjects aged 6 to 18 reported some negative impact,” according to The New York Times.
Many young kids and even adults have seen their mental health negatively impacted by the pandemic and quarantine. With this new added stress of reopening, this has led to more people becoming anxious about getting back to life before the pandemic.
Everyone has adapted to life through Zoom, especially those who attend school. Many students have anxiety around reopening schools and how that would work. Some students feel like they may have fallen behind in school and fear they may struggle even more as they would have to adjust themselves getting back to in person classes and catching up on material they have missed.
Before this pandemic many did not realize the anxiety they may have. As now everything is virtual, people don’t have to worry about the in person interaction with others like before.
“When I go to bed at night, I know what I’m doing the next day, and I don’t worry about it,” said Josh Bernoff, an author and public speaker to The New York Times. “He loves the predictability of life.”
As reopening begins many are already struggling with getting back to life because they have been so comfortable with the lifestyle of staying home and doing everything there, such as work and school.