FEAR – the most serious side-effect of Covid response
‘There are many strange resultant aspects of the past year, but one of the most serious and potentially irreversible conditions is what I’m calling FOGO (Fear Of Going Out). It’s a bit like Stockholm Syndrome.
Just in case you don’t know what that is, it’s when people start to bond with, or depend on, whatever is controlling them, like a captor in a kidnapping. They become so conditioned to psychological manipulation or abuse, they often don’t want to be freed.
And this seems to be affecting a fairly large chunk of the population.
Having been locked up and deprived of normal life and human contact for so long, many are either nervous of going out or have got so used to their new way of life, they actually like it and don’t want it to change.
Some are so frightened by the perceived threat of this virus, they’re not able to leave their proverbial prisons. I’ve got normally rational friends who are avoiding making arrangements to see others (when they’re “allowed” to) because they can’t face the outside world without full PPE.
It’s sad but it’s also scary. Sad because these are people that previously had full lives they enjoyed, and scary because they have quite happily given them up to fear of a virus which more than likely won’t even make them sick.
I understand why and I’m sympathetic – because I know it’s not their fault. The government has scared them half to death with their daily declarations of doom and gloom, but it can’t go on. People need to get a grip because if we don’t come to our senses and return to normal soon, then we almost certainly never will.’
THEWAY ISEEIT...
Wisewords fromourfeisty, fearless andfunny columnist