For the past year, we’ve been dreaming of who we would see and what we would do when the pandemic and lockdown finally ends. But… surprise! For many, the year has been filled with traumatic experiences that will hang on long after the quarantine has lifted. For others, particularly introverts, they’ve settled into a comfortable routine and aren’t exactly looking forward to returning to the hustle and bustle of daily life. But even for the most socially active people, meeting up and having contact with old friends we haven’t seen in a year can be… well… weird.
According to a survey performed by the Center for Disease Control in 2020, nearly 41 percent of adults in the country have been struggling with mental illness or substance abuse, and 31 percent reported being anxious or depressed. So in short, if you’re experiencing some sort of post-pandemic dread, you’re not alone.
Lots of people have questions about re-entering society in the coming weeks and months, and luckily, there are answers. Polling friends and readers of the Mercury, we’ve gathered a few common, anxiety-related, real life questions, and have enlisted the help of Licensed Professional Counselor Shelley McLendon with Portland’s Bridge City Counseling to offer some much-needed advice. You may very well find some solace in her answers, or at the very least realize that many others are finding this situation “weird” as well.
QUESTION: “I can’t wait to get back out into society and rejoin everyone, yet at the same time I’ve built a pretty comfortable existence for myself, and the thought of seeing people again freaks me out. Why am I feeling these two things at once?”
McLENDON: Have you ever watched a video of an animal being set free in the wild after being held in captivity? When that cage door opens, facing out toward the forest/tundra/whatever, animals exhibit a variety of responses. Some animals take off and don’t look back. Other animals have grown to like the safety of captivity and refuse to leave the cage even though the door is wide open. And some animals are more tentative: over and over they slowly leave the cage, but then return to it. Eventually these animals leave the cage completely for their natural habitat, but they do it in their own time. This sounds like you. You can like the idea of being out in the world but also like being at home. And you may find yourself living life quite differently than you did before your year of “captivity.” And that’s okay.
