What is "Cave Syndrome?"
After over a year of staying at home and following strict safety guidelines, many people are understandably reluctant to step out their front door and re-enter society. For some, they're downright terrified. Psychiatrist Dr. Arthur Bregman calls this fear "cave syndrome," a non-medical term he's coined.
Finding the courage to leave the cave
Dr. Bregman’s recommends trying his 'MAV system,' which stands for "mindfulness, attitude and vision," which he developed in 2021.
The first step is to be mindful about what's bothering you and focus on narrowing down what that is.
Once you know what is making you nervous it's time to start to develop a positive attitude. It's important to have a positive mindset and believe good things can happen to you when you leave your house. A great way to develop this positivity is to imagine all the great activities you participated in prior to the pandemic, such as eating indoors with friends or attending concerts.
The last step is to visualise your goals and what you can accomplish when you leave your “cave.”. The sooner people can do this system, the better, as the longer people are in their cave, the harder it is to get out.
Some reluctance is normal
"Cave syndrome" isn't a formal diagnosis, and as such we should be cautious about applying the term "cave syndrome" to what for many is a normal range of experiences. What many people may be going through after living in a pandemic for a year - or more - is anxiety, is a normal and appropriate emotion to experience when faced with such a traumatic event. According to Dr. Bregman, experiencing anxiety does not mean you have a disorder or syndrome.
Bregman has theorised that people experience cave syndrome at different levels of severity, with mild queasiness at the thought of a trip to the supermarket on one end and full-blown withdrawal from friends and family on the other. There are, however, cases when it becomes clinically severe. If you aren't able to leave your house and resume your regular life, Bregman recommends seeking professional help.
On the flip side, don't feel pressured to do what your neighbour is doing. Some people are introverted and feel drained after long periods of social interaction, which is perfectly normal. People can try a behaviour-based approach called exposure and response prevention. It's a clinical strategy where you gradually expose yourself to what you fear, in this case social interaction, and you work your way up to more challenging social experiences.
An easy way to think of this approach is to imagine you're climbing a ladder. For the first step, you could try taking a walk with a friend. For a higher step, you could go to a social event. People haven't had to use their social skills like small talk as often over the past year, so it's okay to be out of practice. And when we interact with others, it may look different. Instead of talking about the weather, people might be talking about vaccine status and whether to wear a mask in a specific social situation.
For many, these last 18 months have meant people have developed a level of resilience in adapting to spending more time alone at home, with practice, patience and compassion, those social skills are going to come back.
Extracts taken from Megan Marples fromhttps://edition.cnn.com