Your New Normal
For some, the promise of returning to pre-pandemic life feels liberating and a welcome relief, while for others the roadmap of loosening restrictions, culminating in so-called ‘Freedom Day,’ has become a source of anxiety, stress and uncertainty.
Just as we were assimilating our new way of living, we’re now being ask to face a monumental psychological shift, which may be unsettling and challenging for many, bringing up emotional struggles of all different kinds.
It may not actually be the end of mask-wearing or no longer being required to physically distance that is causing any worry; rather your anxiety may have been triggered because you’re facing yet another significant change. Change, any change, can be a terrifying prospect – especially change which we are now expected to be accountable for while the day before it was the Government’s call. Being told to exercise our own judgement and decide for ourselves puts the responsibility firmly back on us.
Many of us crave certainty, firmness and clarity. Lockdowns for many were reassuring and the message was easy to internalise. There was no deliberating, no ruminating, the Government, public health officials and scientists had all been telling us what to do and what not to do.
Now we’re being asked to accept new arrangements, to shed our concern, caution and reticence about the lifting of Covid-19 shackles during a time of rising cases, daily bulletins informing us that the pandemic is by all means of assessment far from over and predictions that a spike in infections will almost definitely be the outcome of opening up our society.
The challenge is to face these readjustments under our own autonomy. We must consider whether to go with it or to maintain an existence that may feel isolating and out of kilter with others.
Many of us will have family, friends and colleagues who have embraced their re-acquired freedoms, but what about those who have not: vaccinated grandparents or elderly parents who continue to feel the need to isolate, teenagers who have psychologically barricaded themselves in their bedrooms, friends who have retreated into introversion and are overwhelmed with social anxiety. Perhaps you yourself feel like this, or prior anxieties and depressive symptoms are spiralling and are reaching a new level of feeling overwhelming.
What we all may have been feeling, whether apparent or not, is the pressure of chronic stress, and with the 19th July comes this expectation that we should be grateful at regaining our previous freedoms. It is important to realise you have BOTH emotional and logical responses and fears about coming out of lockdown. The rational is around the dangers of the virus itself; while the irrational is much more difficult to deal with and make sense of, and is individual to each of us.
Having got used to a pattern of rules and accepted behaviours to keep us safe, there is a natural anxiety of lifting of this framework because it is this structure that has protected us. We may feel we don’t know the rules, like being let out of prison and feeling uncertain of how we should behave now.
One size definitely does not fit all. There is a different impact on every one of us. Try not to focus on how others are behaving or feeling, and untangle yourself from others’ expectations and demands. Go at your own pace. How you feel about the changes and the meaning behind the steps you now take are important. Allow yourself the freedom to choose what you want and accept your new normal as normal for you.