The worst of the COVID epidemic may have passed, and scientists and researchers are now in a ‘looking-back’ mode during the period when the globe came to a halt. Academics at Bangor University in Wales discovered in a study that people who strictly adhered to COVID restrictions are more likely to experience stress, despair, and anxiety once the lockdown was released.
They do not, of course, argue that CCOVID limitations or any other restrictions imposed by authorities in the event of a health crisis should not be observed. The research is primarily observational in nature.
According to the study, persons who are more sensitive, caring, and aware of other people’s needs (communal personalities) adhered to the lockdown restrictions more closely than people who are more autonomous, competitive, and who want to have more control over their lives (agentic personalities).
“The more individuals complied with health advice during the lockdown, the worse their well-being post-lockdown,” said Dr Marley Willegers and colleagues as quoted by The Guardian.
The researchers discovered that the fear of catching Covid has both advantages and disadvantages.
“While increasing individuals’ worry of infection can effectively drive compliance, it also has negative consequences on people’s wellbeing and recovery,” they said.
Varied mental health responses linked to personality types
The researchers investigated how compliant 1729 individuals in Wales were to limitations during the first UK-wide shutdown. This took place between March and September of 2020. The researchers then assessed these people’s levels of sadness, stress, and anxiety between February and May of this year.
It was discovered that persons with ‘communal’ personalities still had problems with their mental health, whereas ‘agentic’ people were able to ‘bounce back’ better.
Dr. Willegers, an academic at Bangor University’s Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance, stated that for some people, the move from receiving regular health advice to no advice post-lockdown proved difficult.
“Throughout the pandemic, messaging campaigns were designed to ensure people continued to follow the rules. But there was no messaging campaign as we came out of the pandemic to help everyone safely transition back to normality.”
“Without this, certain personality types have retained infection prevention behavior and anxiety that undermines their mental well-being,” he added.