What Is Re-Entry Anxiety And How To Manage It In The Post-Lockdown World?

Anxiety is among the most common types of mental conditions that pose significant impacts on one’s well-being. It could affect one’s emotional, mental, social, psychological, and physical aspects. Not just that, but anxiety could also hamper one’s ability to function well in their daily routine and result in drastic changes in one’s behavior.

For starters, anxiety disorders have many types and kinds. It could be generalized, social, selective, separation, or medication-induced anxiety. But, do you know that there’s also a type of anxiety related to one’s reluctance or inability to go back to their old practice after an extreme change in their way of living? This condition is known as re-entry anxiety disorder.

If you’re among those people who are struggling with this condition or any type of anxiety, there are plenty of ways you can do to get through it. Specifically, you can consult counselors for anxiety, seek professional care, or hire services from reliable facilities and centers to treat your condition.

Re-Entry Anxiety In The Post-Lockdown World

The surge of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about changes that may last for a long time. This crisis not only caused immense terror and confusion on many people but also completely disrupted the people’s way of living for good. With the ever-present risks of the deadly virus and the people’s fear of contracting it, the likelihood of developing anxiety also increases.

As a result of the frequent lockdowns and confinement measures, people have grown accustomed to staying at home and spending most of their time doing indoor activities. For many people, these practices started to become comforting and safe.

Now, even with the gradual changes in quarantine protocols, many people are hesitant to resume their old activities. This condition is identified by experts as re-entry anxiety, which is created by anxiety-provoking life events. To know more about it, continue reading below:

• Many experts also believed that this condition is a result of the brain’s response to new transitions, which is perceived to be unsafe and risky.
• People struggling with re-entry anxiety often worry about getting infected, fear for their loved one’s health and safety, and are uncertain about the next things to do with their lives.
• Re-entry anxiety may also comprise other types of worries, including parenting worries, job worries, and financial worries.
• Despite its negative impacts, some people regard re-entry anxiety as a positive condition. They think it’s healthy to experience such conditions since it allows people to prioritize their safety, exercise preventive measures, and develop appropriate behavior amidst the pandemic.

Coping With Re-Entry Anxiety

Throughout your struggle with re-entry anxiety, it’s common to feel mixed emotions and feelings. It’s also normal to have fears and uncertainties. But, wallowing in such emotions and refusing to address them might not bring you any good. Instead, it may only affect your normal functioning and affect your life.

To better cope with re-entry anxiety, there are plenty of treatment options you can choose from to regain control of your old self. It’d also help to create a checklist of your recovery plan to keep you guided and motivated. Moreover, listed below are some simple yet efficient ways you can do to recover faster:

1. Boost Your Physical Health

You might be thinking about why is this in the first part. But, when dealing with anxiety or any type of mental illness, one of the most important aspects you need to prioritize is your physical health. Particularly, you must ensure that your body is at its healthiest state to effectively battle the symptoms of your conditions.

When dealing with re-entry anxiety, you can consider engaging in physical activities and workout routines to keep you occupied. This alternative not only allows you to spend your time meaningfully but also enhances your mental well-being. In particular, regular exercise could help boost the production of endorphins in one’s brain, which is responsible for their mood and behavior.

These chemicals are primarily produced and stored in the pituitary glands that help the brain cope with stress and pain. Commonly known as the ‘feel-good’ hormones, endorphins could efficiently help manage your emotions and reduce anxiety. You can try soft exercises like brisk walking, jogging, cycling, running, and other types of workout routines to maintain your body.

2. Follow A Balanced Diet

Aside from bolstering your physical health, you shouldn’t also forget about your nutritional intake. Although re-entry anxiety may also affect your appetite and eating patterns, it’s crucial to learn how to properly counter its aftereffects.

For starters, you might like to follow a well-rounded diet to keep your physical health in shape. In creating a healthy diet, you can select foods rich in proteins, fiber, magnesium, potassium, iron, minerals, and other vitamin-enriched foods. You may also take supplements to keep your health in optimum condition.

3. Establish A Routine

When dealing with mental illnesses and disorders, it’s essential to create a comprehensive list of courses of action you can do to obtain your purposes. This may include your long-term and short-term goals and the alternative measures you can take to get through your condition.

While you may consider this aspect as trivial compared to other things, establishing a routine could help you especially if you’re struggling with re-entry anxiety. Since this condition limits you to cope with changes and life transitions, you can start by accomplishing small things and improving your daily life.

To do that, you can also consider the following:

• Start on small things: If you want to recover from re-entry anxiety, one of the best ways to succeed is to start on small things. You don’t need to pressure yourself to get acquainted with your old life immediately. Instead, you can focus on exposing yourself slowly to the changes around you and get used to them first. Through this, you can gain a sense of normalcy and comfort with your old life during the post-lockdown world.
• Write in journals: Writing your thoughts and feelings could also help you recover from re-entry anxiety. Since the pandemic crisis limited outdoor activities and required people to stay in their houses, the best thing you can do to express your emotions is to write them down in a journal. This alternative could help you keep your intrusive thoughts at bay and let out your suppressed emotions, which could trigger your condition. Plus, writing could help ease your stress and loneliness.

4. Promote Proper Mindfulness

Talking about the most important thing you can do to conquer re-entry anxiety; you can consider prioritizing your mental well-being. Particularly, you can learn a thing or two about relaxation techniques and meditation processes that could help enhance your mindfulness.

Particularly, meditation routines could effectively alleviate the early signs of re-entry anxiety and prevent other types of mental disorders. Not just that, but they could also help improve your mental aspects, control blood pressure, relieve stress, and enhance immune functions. Plus, incorporating relaxation techniques could be of great help in maintaining your mind in a tranquil state and speeding up your recovery.

5. Seek Moral Support

Dealing with re-entry anxiety or any type of mental illness isn’t easy. With its far-ranging impacts on your well-being, getting through it can be challenging, especially if you’re alone. To manage re-entry anxiety during the post-lockdown world, you can consider talking to your loved ones and seeking their support.

In most cases, people often have a hard time coping with their condition due to the lack of motivation and assistance from the people around them. With that, getting positive words and encouragement from your loved ones could efficiently boost your morale and keep you motivated to pursue recovery.

Also, you can consider discussing your thoughts and feelings with your family members to relieve your worries and fears. You can also connect with a support group with whom you can share your experiences and support you throughout the process of your recovery. This alternative could help you get through tough times and recover faster.

6. Learn New Hobbies

Aside from seeking motivation and support from your loved ones, you can also combat re-entry anxiety by promoting your personal growth and development. For starters, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the limited chances of people engaging in outdoor activities and socializing with others. It also prevented them from trying new things and learning new skills.

You can combat the risks of re-entry anxiety by trying new hobbies and empowering yourself. You can do this by rediscovering your passion, allotting some of your time to enhance your cognitive functions, and honing your talents to boost your skills. You can also establish new relationships with other people and bolster your social drive.

Besides that, here are some of the effective ways you can do to empower yourself:

• Promote creativity
• Enhance mental well-being
• Bolster personal growth
• Improve your career
• Relieve stress
• Maintain an active lifestyle
• Promote spiritual well-being

7. Consult A Professional

As easy as it may seem, recovering from re-entry anxiety may not be a walk-in-the-park experience for many people. Particularly, people who have lesser knowledge about it may find it hard to manage its symptoms. If this is also your concern, worry not, as there are many available treatment options you can consider to get through your condition, including consulting a psychiatrist, psychologist, or a counselor.

These specialists could efficiently tackle your situation and help you manage the symptoms of re-entry anxiety and prevent relapses. Plus, they could help determine the appropriate treatment option for your condition and speed up your recovery.

Final Takeaway

Like any other type of anxiety, re-entry anxiety can be challenging to manage. Particularly, this task can be challenging for first-time patients. Opportunely, these conditions can now be managed through the help of mental care services provided by facilities and centers. Not just that, but counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists could also help treat this condition.

If you’re also struggling with this type of anxiety, you can consider the abovementioned considerations and tips to recuperate faster from re-entry anxiety and get back to your old, happy life.