Coming out of the cave: As life creeps back, some feel dread – WOODTV.com
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Dinner reservations are gleefully being made again. Long-canceled vacations are being booked. People are coming together again, in some of the ways they used to.
But not everyone is racing back.
Their stories are emerging as the world begins to reopen — people secretly dreading each milestone toward normalcy, envisioning instead anxiety-inducing crowds and awkward catch-up conversations. Even small tasks outside the home — a trip to the grocery store, or returning to the office — can feel overwhelming.
Psychologists call it re-entry fear, and they’re finding it more common as headlines herald the imminent return to post-pandemic life.
“I have embraced and gotten used to this new lifestyle of avoidance that I can’t fathom going back ...