Normal to Feel Anxious Easing into Life After COVID-19

May 19, 2021, 2:26 am 7.4k Views 49 Comments

By Suzanne Grimmesey, MFT, Santa Barbara County, Behavioral Wellness Department

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major effect on our lives, and right now, some are experiencing anxiety over the reopening of our community. As we start to resume some of our previous activities in a safe way, it is natural that this may also create some anxious feelings that need to be worked through.

First and foremost, it is important to understand that some people may be ready to socialize and transition back to previous ways of life more quickly than others.

There may be pressure from friends and family to get out again and to step outside of our comfort zone before some of us are ready to do so.

Here are a few tips to help you safely ease back into life after COVID-19:

  1. Set your own pace and comfort level for resuming activities and seeing friends and family. There is no need to rush back to the way things were and it can be very helpful to take small steps.

  2. It is normal to feel nervous. It may help to talk yourself through these feelings or seek out a professional to process these feelings with you.

  3. Practice getting out in public in way that feels safe for you. Choose activities that do not involve crowds of people; make plans with a friend you feel comfortable setting parameters with ahead of time.

  4. Even though some masking guidelines have been relaxed, you may choose to ask people you are with to wear a mask, stay in an outdoor setting or position your chairs six feet apart. If these actions help you feel safe, you should kindly ask those you are making plans with to adhere to them.

  5. Consider practicing deep breathing or other relaxation techniques so that you are prepared in case you find yourself in a public setting, feeling anxious.  Prepare with these techniques to calm yourself down and prepare a plan to excuse yourself from the situation if needed. Sometimes just planning ahead for a way out of a situation can help us feel more at ease in social situations.

Over the last several months, we have had to learn to live with uncertainty and returning to our activities is another step in this process. Be kind to yourself and know that you will get through this!

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49 Comments

  8. We have been having people over inside and out, vaccinated or not for a while now. Trust the science of the vaccines, and don’t become a bitter mask clinger. Only if you are not vaccinated do you need to tread carefully. If you are vaccinated, start living normally again. Hug, shake hands, share meals in your home, be a friend, and be friendly without fear.

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  9. Duke – CA has lower daily/weekly numbers than FL right now. FACT. And…. I NEVER SAID CA WAS DOING BETTER THAN FL. how many gottdam times to I need to say that???? My ONLY point has been that Florida is not doing better at fighting covid than CA.

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  10. By not destroying their economy, not bankrupting small businesses, not forcing many to loose their jobs, and not closing schools while simultaneously supporting their citizens with recommendations and accurate up-to-date information on how to go about their lives in a safe manner – with similar overall covid stats (while having an older population) Florida DID DO IT BETTER! Meanwhile, here in CA most schools are still not open full-time and vaccinated people are still mandated to wear masks because…. well it certainly isn’t science….it’s politics!

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  11. Sac – I agree to an extent but, and this is a big one for me (and I had thought for you)…in addition to quite a few less people losing their job or business, they kept schools open in Florida, they didn’t steal that year from our kids! In fact here in California many MANY schools are still closed as they completely punted and decided to just stay closed till the FALL. Last I saw California was still at less than 50% of kids back in full time school.

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  12. What you think of me is not my business. Its yours. Please try to handle it with honest self reflection and without blame, shame or tattling.
    We spent 14 months following the science and now we find the “science” in many instances was wrong, misguided, or even outright lies (example: the early white lie that masks didn’t work to keep people from hoarding masks).
    The science people claimed Florida and Texas opening up was neanderthal thinking, and murder. They were wrong.
    Schools in Florida have been open since Sept. 1 2020 and provide a wealth of scientific data that opening schools has been safe for children and so bad for adults and teachers
    https://ballotpedia.org/School_responses_in_Florida_to_the_coronavirus_(COVID-19)_pandemic_during_the_2020-2021_school_year#School_responses_timeline
    Texas data shows that the children were safe, their parents were able to go back into the workplace and while some adults some did contract COVID and the rise in adult COVID rates reflected national trends.
    One of the things science has not done well is to establish whether COVID events were due to correlation or causation.
    Also the scientists and experts didn’t help their credibility by telling us civil disorder events were not possible superspreaders, but your kids 4y.o. birthday party was. Regardless to political pursuasion, its is painfully obvious that a crowd is a crowd. That the higher purpose of BLM crowd does not and cannot mitigate viral spread mechanisms is science at its simplest. A virus cannot care about your character, your purpose for being in its space, the momentum of a virus is towards another host before the current carrier dies or gets well.

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  13. Get a grip, people. The number of new “cases” on the south coast today is 2. Yesterday was 1. Day before was 2. Number of active cases recovering is 12. That is out of 250,000 people living in 120 sq miles. Chances of bumping in to someone sick with covid? Pretty much a needle in haystack. No one has passed away in three weeks. There is for all intent and purposes NO covid in the Santa Barbara area. That is thanks to the reality of vaccination. If you are vaccinated, the chances of getting covid is zero. If you are not vaccinated the chances are still pretty close to zero. So keep up with the theater and angst if you want.
    The Big Fear will happen on June 15, a nice arbitrary date based on no science at all when California removes all covid related restrictions. Back to normal. If you feel the need, or if for some medical reason really do need to mask up, feel free. But do not expect the rest of us to do so, but we should respect your fear, even if not justified.

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  15. Bosco…except they didn’t between Florida and California. Look at the population that actually dies from COVID (the elderly are 95% of COVID DEATHS).
    California had 70% more COVID deaths in the over 65 age demo with only 33% more of that demo in the population. So on per 100k basis, California lost more older people! We’re just padding our stats by having less older people.
    46,638 people in California over the age of 65 have died from Covid
    27,045 people in Florida over the age of 65 have died from Covid

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  17. I don’t feel anxious at all. Never did. Now fully vaccinated.
    Coerced into socially distancing and wearing masks for 15+ months for the sake of the elderly, the sick and the morbidly obese (people who never gave a crap about me during 2+ years of homelessness), still having to wear one thanks to this idiotic extension of the mask mandate (which has no medical/epidemiological rationale for fully-vaccinated people),
    You’re welcome.

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  19. How is the mask protocol against the CDC guidelines, which state “except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance “? Our community case rate is still in the orange tier. Why do covidiots whine so much about something so trivial that potentially saves lives and reduces illness?

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  20. If you’re fully vaccinated, you are unable to transmit COVID to another human being. There is a tiny chance you may become infected, but with very minimal, non-life-threatening symptoms. Do you not read the papers (New York Times, other credible news organizations)? Do you not listen to NPR? So who’s the COVIDIOT now?

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  23. Because leaders have been doing whatever they wanted from day one for political reasons.
    Trump blocks China travel
    Countered by
    Pelosi encourages people to attend Chinese New Year, maskless, hugging people.
    Social distance/Don’t travel
    Hundreds of instances of politicians traveling, eating at restaurants, boating, flying, issuing no travel directives from their Cabo condo.
    Fauci goes to a baseball game with two friends is seen maskless and all are less than 3 feet away
    Masks bad
    Masks good
    Wear two masks
    Wear masks when cameras are on
    I posted a video of congress above where there are no masks, no distancing. Speaker of the House who just fined 3 members $500 for going maskless is maskless, leaning into peoples faces, shaking hands… next day at the podium she is back to wearing a mask.
    I really don’t want any of them to tell me what to do. They act like its an HOA where when you bought in you signed away your rights

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  24. Because leaders have been doing whatever they wanted from day one for political reasons.
    Trump blocks China travel
    Countered by
    Pelosi encourages people to attend Chinese New Year, maskless, hugging people.
    Social distance/Don’t travel
    Hundreds of instances of politicians traveling, eating at restaurants, boating, flying, issuing no travel directives from their Cabo condo.
    Fauci goes to a baseball game with two friends is seen maskless and all are less than 3 feet away
    Masks bad
    Masks good
    Wear two masks
    Wear masks when cameras are on
    I posted a video of congress above where there are no masks, no distancing. Speaker of the House who just fined 3 members $500 for going maskless is maskless, leaning into peoples faces, shaking hands… next day at the podium she is back to wearing a mask.
    I really don’t want any of them to tell me what to do. They act like its an HOA where when you bought in you signed away your rights

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  26. CAD, you say “live life how you feel you should” and in an earlier post here you are mocking others. So what is it; let people live or judge others?
    It’s amazing how the religious ones are always the most hypocritical.

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  27. It’s a bit weird though. Only a week after being fully vaxxed, my spouse had to travel for work. Being on a plane – weird. Eating indoors – weird. At least I get to ease myself into it a bit more.
    Those who were saying “live your life” for 12 months pretty much caused the spikes over the holidays and the ensuing deaths, because “living your life” without the vaccine was stupid.

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  33. Sac, that is flat out 100% wrong. Did you see the giant spike in Florida during the fall/winter after they removed ALL restrictions in September? Oh wait, that was CA that had the giant spike…. after shutting more things down…

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  34. VOR – Google “FL covid numbers” and see the timeline with spikes. Do the same for CA. Check out that spike in mid April for Florida….after spring break with no restrictions. Now CA. Yeah, no spike, just a steady decline after ALL states spiked in January after the holidays.
    Look, you keep saying TX and FL had no spikes, but it’s clear they did. Sure, maybe CA could have done better, but stop with the lies about TX and FL.

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  35. VOR – HAHAHA what “giant spike” in CA? There is none. There’s a small spike in mid August then a decline and steady numbers until November. FL had a steadily increasing rate from August on. You’re looking at the wrong graphs. Or, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

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  36. Interesting graphs actually…we spiked like crazy in late December while Florida had a spike in the Summer (that spiked much higher than ours) and a much less pronounced spike than ours in the winter…

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  37. DUKE – the winter spikes were easily comparable. Florida was half ours (15k 7 day to our 35-40K 7 day) with half the population. So, since those 7 day averages were not per 100K (per capita as VOR loves saying), they were pretty much identical.
    And with that, I’m done. No more arguing about which state did better. We all screwed up. But…. I will not sit idly by as VOR continues his lies. And now…… adieu, on this one at least!

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  41. VOR – stop backpeddaling. We’re not talking about deaths, we’re talking about the spikes in cases. You say CA had a “giant spike,” and Florida never did. Look at the graphs. You’re wrong and I’m done trying to “debate” with you. DONE.

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  42. Sac – True enough in the Summer…but we also hit 51,000 on January 8 (and stayed above 40k for per day for a month mid December to mid January) while Florida peaked at 19,000 January 8th (and stayed around 12k for a month).

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  43. Wait a sec anonymous one, their overall covid stats are very very similar to ours while having a much older population, and they fully reopened back in September while we locked down harder. Their schools have also been open this entire school year. What exactly was “improper” with their response?
    ig·no·rant
    /ˈiɡnərənt/
    adjective
    lacking knowledge or awareness in general;

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  44. Florida did at least as well as California…and in fact…in every single demographic better! It just so happens they have quite a few more older people…
    So…one has to be quite ignorant to think California’s response was “proper” as it didn’t achieve any measurable additional benefit.

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  46. 12:34 – don’t forget MORE THAN DOUBLE (3,000) the 7 day average of CA (1,300) with HALF the population! “But b-b-b-b-b but but…. FL has more old people, so they’re actually winning.” BWHAHAHAHA ok ok, I’m done.

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  47. California has lower cases right now…that is true! But over the course of the pandemic we didn’t do better…we did worse. We just have less of the 95% of people that die from Covid (the elderly)…so hooray…we’re a crappy place to retire and so less people do so here!!!

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  48. Sac – And California was triple Florida in pretty much all of December and January. You can ignore the CDC data, but again, who is dying from COVID? Florida, with half the population of California has 4.5 million people over 65 to California’s 6 million.
    We truly, honestly and definitively did worse.

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