By Camille Aubin
[email protected]
Following the B.C. government announcement of its restart plan – ‘a plan to bring us back together’ -, you may have experienced unexpected emotions.
B.C. recently announced a ‘four-step plan focused on protecting people and safely getting life back to normal.’ Phase 1 officially began on May 25, allowing people to meet inside private homes with up to five other people or with one other household, or go out to lunch with up to six people outside your household or bubble, along with other eased restrictions. The next phase could happen as early as June 15, dependent on vaccination rates, daily case counts, and hospitalizations.
Some of you might have been delighted by these new regulations, but others may have been anxious about the slow return to normal social life.
The thought of meeting your family and taking them in your arms might have made you cry even before the conference ended (it sure did for me). Maybe at first, you were excited to hear that a return to normal is on the horizon, and then your joy turned to an anxious dread of ‘what if.’ What if people are sick? What if I am sick, or I get sick?
A recent survey conducted in collaboration with the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) and published in the Canadian Press revealed that 52 per cent (more than half!) of Canadians are anxious about going back the way things were before the pandemic.
In the past, we could speak freely with dozens of people each day without a second thought. Then, for the past year and a half, we have been warned by the government and health care specialists that if we are standing within two metres of someone else without protection (a mask), we were more likely to catch COVID-19, a potentially deadly virus. And now that 60 per cent of British Columbians are vaccinated against COVID-19, that provincial government has announced that we can slowly move forward with social interaction. But…what if?
In order to overcome social anxiety, we need to learn not to worry about social interaction anymore. For some, this will be no problem, and will happen instantaneously. Others will need to more gradually come to terms with the idea that social interaction is not synonymous with potential death or disease anymore.
Judging someone based on his or her fear of social life getting back to normal again is pointless. As humans, we all react differently to stress and fear. Whether you feel comfortable or concerned about the B.C. restart plan, your feelings are valid. Set your own personal boundaries, share them with those around you, and respect yourself and others in the process.
