Post lockdown anxiety

I think I might have enjoyed lockdown too much, it’s been a great time to focus on home life, fitness, diy, meditation. The return to normal life, doing sporadic bits of work etc is filling me with anxiety right now.

I don’t even think it’s a fear of covid itself - have had my first vaccine shot last week. It feels more like anxiety around socialising, being rusty working, breaking a routine and lifestyle I have rather enjoyed and that has worked really well in our household.

Yeah I feel you. All the talk of when we will be allowed back in to the office and when life will go back to normal feels positive but also with this underlying feeling of dread. Also we got a puppy in December because I can't imagine another oportunity to have enough time to spend at home with one, and she'll be old enough to be left on her own come September when office life should resume, and she doesn't seem to have seperation anxiety issues, but I still can't help feeling like I want to stay here to look after her.

Lockdown hasn't been all roses and my health and fitness has definitely suffered due to lack of commute and motivation for training through winter so I know I should be looking forward to normal life resuming but there's still a part of my brain that wants to be a cave troll, live on the sofa and play video games all day.

I've started to get bouts of anxiety again, the odd panic attack here and there. Lockdown helped with my anxiety as it removed situations where it occurs but definitely made my mood lower because I couldn't see family and friends. The extra boozing because of the warm weather and pubs reopening definitely hasn't helped with general anxiety.

Mountain hikes/ runs and wild swims massively help with my mental well being so looking forward to that over the coming months.

I had been putting off talking to a company I do freelance work for because each time I got an email from them my heart rate escalated and burying my head in the sand felt easier. In fact the taking no action route just prolonged the pain. After writing the first post I picked up the phone and they are being really supportive. It sounds like this is something that a lot of people are experiencing, and they are happy to help me gently ease back into working.

So lucky they are being supportive.

it is all a bit weird.
at first I hated WFH and the stress of having 2 kids homeschooling and not being able to switch off from work, but as time went on we all sort of muddled through and by lockdown 3.0 we had a good routine going.
kids are back at school now and it's been good being able to walk my daughter to school and back which I couldn't do when I was commuting to work.
I have found myself getting quite anxious going into town now that the shops are open and it's much busier, but I'm trying to reign it in around the kids as I'm worried my anxieties will make them worry.

this is something that a lot of people are experiencing

Definitely. Life will feel normal again post-covid. I hope we’re able to carry forward the positive aspects of lockdown, but we might have to push for that to happen (looking at you, office life).

Feeling it too. Looking forward to seeing more people again but dreading the stress of weekends filling up with random plans months in advance.
Also struggling a little with being objective about the risks of pub etc - with the super low infection rates and high vaccinations, it's fine, but I still can't quite face it

I don’t have a fear of returning to our office in Clerkenwell we had a pretty good system in place last summer which lasted all of 5 weeks I rode in everyday from East Ham yet only 10% decided to come in. I am waiting for my second jab, I just can’t bring myself to go to a pub, dining out, even visiting family and friends in their home, my home. I’ve not seen my foster mum for over a year now. I have missed the cinema, theatre, gigs, museums, art galleries, gym, swimming pool, the reason for living in a culturally diverse city. Not sure when I’m going to do any of the above.