Now he says, “All of my interactions are virtual, so I don’t worry about handshakes and the awkwardness of the person.”
“When I go to bed at night I know what I’m going to do the next day and I’m not worried about it,” said Mr Bernoff. He loves the predictability of life – for example, when to have lunch and dinner and where it comes from. “I don’t like sounding paranoid, but I like being in the same place as my fridge.”
Mr Bernoff hurried to say he couldn’t wait for the pandemic to end – “and go to dinner with my wife.”
“I don’t want this to go on forever,” he added, “but just for this year, this time, it was a little island of stability.”
Mr. Bernoff is fortunate to work consistently; Research shows that anxiety and depression caused by the pandemic can disproportionately affect people with more shaky economic prospects. A large-scale study of 36,000 subjects in the UK, published in the December 2020 issue of The Lancet, found that mental health problems were increased in some people at the beginning of the lockdown and then decreased with some groups in general when the lockdown subsided more prone than others.
“Being women or younger, having a lower level of education, lower income, pre-existing mental illness, and living alone or with children were all risk factors for higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms at the start of lockdown,” the study noted firmly . The researchers found that this gradually subsided as people acclimatized and lockdown subsided.
In contrast, those stricken with anxiety who experienced relief during the pandemic are likely in higher income brackets, said Ms. Maikovich-Fong, the Denver therapist. They are more likely to have jobs that they can do remotely so they can keep busy, but with less stress than before.
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