Opinion Analysis by Karim Bassil, Staff Writer

June 18th, 2020

Governments around the world are reducing some of the strictest parts of the quarantines many have faced. After months of being locked up and forced to be socially distant, people will finally begin to socialize again with their friends and family. Employees will return to their offices. Soon, public spaces will begin to apply strategies to make returning customers feel safe. Which makes life after the virus, vita post virum, seem like a foreign idea. 

Very few will be the same coming out of quarantine as they were going in: Those with previous mental health conditions had many of their routines disappear, which were essential to help them cope, which may be leading to worsening their problems in the process. Other people have experienced new adversity, like the death of a loved one, which they unlikely properly mourned, or even the loss of a job. Everyone had to dramatically change how they lived, worked, and completed the most ordinary everyday tasks. Like grocery shopping.

Coming out on the other side from such strange and sudden circumstances will create exceptional side effects. Despite some countries already beginning to reopen parts of their economies, despite the virus still active, for a lot of people, FOMO (fear of missing out) could have been substituted by FOGO (fear of going out). Although there are few people that are ready to rub shoulders with strangers, others remain anxious about returning to the social domain. Yet, anxieties about going back public life have also been increased by our months indoors, with very little to no exposure to people and places only intensifying our fears about the outside world. During an interview in April with Vox, Sheva Rajaee, founder of the Center for Anxiety and OCD in Irvine, California, said that: “We’re going to have to work through this quarantine state of mind even when the physical quarantine has lifted.” Around the world, psychic stress is surfacing. In Wuhan, China, where CoViD-19 (coronavirus) is believed to have originated, lockdown measures have been lifted. However, restaurants remain empty, the city has active temperature checkpoints, and some residents continue to hide inside, fearing a second wave of outbreaks.

Professor Roxane Cohen Silver, from the University of California, Irvine, notes that accepting your anxieties is normal. She has been researching the response of individuals and communities to traumatic life events for about 40 years. Coronavirus and its effects, are not like something that anyone has seen before. It was unexpected and it became a global threat in a matter of an instance. There is no perfect solution for dealing with such sudden matters and changes in our lifestyle, however there are a few things that people can do in order to help with their anxiety. They should moderate the number of media exposure throughout their daily lives. Having a constant intake of bad news is not psychologically beneficial. The understanding that their feelings are normal and natural to such a global issue is essential, and that they are not going crazy. The feeling of anxiousness is very normal in this very unusual and very unstable time. Many people around the world are experiencing losses, and those emotions that they are feeling are real, and those should not be belittled. It is important to allow people to mourn their loved ones, especially that they are doing so in such unusual circumstances. 

Professor George Bonanno, from Columbia University Teachers College, believes that people need to fight apprehension by keeping themselves distracted. Professor Bonnano believes that this is not simply a traumatic moment. That this strange issue was unprecedented and people are reacting to it the only way they know how. Being cooped up in the house for a very long time, has people losing touch with their realities. Professor Bonanno claims that “It’s chronically stressful, so we begin to fall apart physically, and the stress response starts to fail to work properly, and then you start getting depressed or anxious”. Right now, some people may be freaking out at the slightest sight of a touch, and in fact they may be uneasy for some time after they rejoin the outside world. They may remain this way until there are more assurances. People have been keeping busy socially through the video communication application Zoom, foe example, however, they still need physical contact. Humor is essential in times like these, however, it is not a remedy. People need to distract themselves, even when they begin to return to their daily lives. The main idea still remains that you should keep on doing whatever it is that you need to do, if it helps, as long as it doesn’t become persistent or harmful.

Experts are also predicting that a certain degree of social touch will begin to disappear as people emerge out of their homes and back to their daily lives. Handshakes are known to be a main source of disease transfer. If social touch disappears more than just provisionally, there is no agreement on what will replace it. However, one thing remains undisputed: “Social interactions are about to start feeling really weird”. According to Professor Aaron Smith we can understand that “As we come out of quarantine and isolation, I think we’re going to see some people offering handshakes and some people not wanting to touch them with a 10-foot pole”. Professor Smith explores the pros and cons of handshakes in a recent study published in March. “There’s going to be a lot of awkwardness as people try to figure out how to greet somebody, how to professionally welcome somebody, how to meet your daughter’s boyfriend for the first time.” This ambiguity can affect those kinds of relationships. Smith predicts that “We’re going to start seeing a lot more interpersonal and family-based sorts of conflict”. If colleagues attempt a handshake or your grandmother goes in for a hug, and you suddenly pull away, “there’s going to be some pretty big ripple effects in terms of the relational dynamics that we see.”

Some might feel that personal connections are harder to have when talking to someone two meters apart or through a screen on Zoom. Researcher Juulia Suvilehto says that “You’re having to verbalize a lot more things that you would normally express with touch”. There are instances where hugging someone to show comfort or placing a hand on their shoulder feels easier and more natural to do than finding the right words to say. Which is why it could be that this new way of being, is a way to force us to voice our feelings might make us better communicators. However, Suvilehto states that; “The other option is that people will just stop communicating about emotions”. Because social touch can be a stand-in for language, people might begin to over-communicate their feelings, that you would get with physical contact, through words.

The world will never truly be like it was pre-coronavirus. People have been out of touch with each other in several places around the globe, and going back to a physical life might spike the anxiety levels in some people. It is important to note that many countries around the world are taking baby steps in order to resume their daily lives. People cannot forget that there are economic implications that came with creating lockdowns. Also, it is important to note that humans are social animals and need to interact with one another. Having Zoom calls, or other kinds of video calls, may seem like they were the answer, however, some people feel like it is not enough. People need the physical contact from each other, to feel safe and reassured in times of need. Physical contact will make its comeback in due time, as long as everyone is taking the necessary precautions.