Have you been feeling this lately?

During lockdown all I could think about was heading back out for dinner, travelling and meeting up with friends and family again. Now that things are starting to open up again and I can actually start meeting people I haven't seen in ages, while there is happiness, there is also a lot of anxiety. I never really realised how use I had become to being at home or seeing just the people I live with all the time but FOMO has definitely been replaced by FOGO. FOGO or Fear of Going Out (sometimes also referred to as FONO - Fear of Normal), has become the new norm for a lot of people. After spending the guts of two years in and out of lockdown, it is only natural that many of us are apprehensive about getting back to normal, but FOGO seems to be a heightened version of that. According to Sarah Gundle, a New York City-based psychologist in Manhattan;

"FOGO is the perception that something scary is out there, even after being told the danger is no longer present."

But what is this danger that a lot of us are fearing? Is it concern based solely on catching Covid or is it the fear of something else? Personally, I feel my social skills have suffered greatly during lockdown. I've always been an introverted person, but the lockdown has made me completely anti-social and I would be lying if I said I wasn't struggling to get back into the swing of things. There's also more serious instances in which some people may fear going back to the office because they were dealing with in work harassment, or they will now have to see relatives at family gatherings again that have hurt them in the past. Whatever the danger is in our mind, FOGO is now very much a thing that many of us are dealing with. For most of us it will probably go away gradually but if you feel that your FOGO is taking a toll on your mental health you can contact the Samaritans on 116 123.