Anyone else find it difficult to be "back to normal " since covid?

[kobacat1981]

It's something that I have been really struggling with. For the past 2 weeks where I live things have gradually started to open up again and there is a sense of excitement, which I totally understand, but for me I think lockdown made me feel even more anxious and afraid of being around people.

I was already struggling with social anxiety and agoraphobia to a degree before covid due to both past trauma and my autism, but it's like it's at a whole new level now. Speaking to my therapist only brings me so far and I'm trying to be kinder to myself and not push myself into doing anything I don't feel comfortable doing, but I just sometimes wish I had the same sense of excitement as everyone else about things returning to normality

We are in a different situation because one of my children is CEV and is now being home educated.
We've hardly been anywhere for 2 years. We made the most of last summer by eating in places that have outside seating and spending as much time in nature as possible.

I'm not back to normal. My volunteer position I used to have no longer exists, and my "friends" no longer want to be my friends as they are unhappy I didn't want to meet up with them in 2020.

But new year, new me. 2022 is about enjoying what I do have.