Deconfinement has not been good news for everyone. Some people have what is called cabin syndrome, which refers to the fear of leaving one's place of confinement. How does it manifest itself? Can it last for weeks, months? We are talking about it.
The phrase is not new, although it is recent. Already theorized during the 20th century to express the fear of leaving an isolated, safe place, witness to our habits and our daily lives, " cabin syndrome Flooded the media in May 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, making it the subject of numerous articles on the subject. A sharp return to the era of deconfinement, since some individuals have been seized with anxiety at the idea of leaving their "home" and finding the outside.
If we talk about a cabin, it is for the image: imagine a cabin lost in the woods, a haven of tranquility.
But we may prefer the image of the snail, because the cabin syndrome is also called "The snail syndrome ". Curled up in its shell, the snail is protected. This syndrome does not come from the psychiatric vocabulary. Countertop psychology? Not for all that. The cabin syndrome is widely taken seriously, compared to the three months of confinement that we have suffered (or shamefully savored, that's the whole subject, at least part of the subject) and which are not without consequences on the Mental Health.
In the beginning of the cabin syndrome was the confinement
At first glance, the cabin syndrome can raise eyebrows: how to consider the fear of leaving your home after a confinement several weeks long? Remember that we have all experienced confinement differently, a question of character and constitution.
There are those who could not stand solitude (here forced) or family life reduced to a few square meters. For others, confinement was an opportunity to take time for yourself. It was also synonymous with freedom, since it exempted us from all external constraints. A vision nonetheless Manichean faced with a much more nuanced reality, which the lifting of confinement has brought to light, revealing at the same time our famous cabin syndrome. In fact, at a time of deconfinement, the most home-based French people have not always dragged their feet, but the most impatient, on the other hand, have not necessarily jumped for joy and ran into bars.
An overall personal appreciation, which does not necessarily follow from the way the confinement period was experienced, even if we can always make connections. Thus, some people have been overtaken by the unwillingness to go out, even by the fear of going out. Several reasons for this (out of order): on the one hand, we had to "tame" the confinement, so we learned to appreciate our house or our apartment, on the other hand our place of residence has become non-existent. only a refuge in the face of an anxiety-provoking exterior, but also the first solution to fight Covid-19; finally, we realized how heavy daily life could be, between obligations and injunctions.
There are several explanations for the cabin syndrome. We can cite the fear of confronting the virus, of catching it and passing it on to loved ones, and also the fear of returning to a hectic life. Not to mention that the "return to normal" does not live up to its name: between wearing a mask and government bans, life before is hardly like … life before.
Symptoms of cabin syndrome
In May 2020, France therefore lifted the confinement. Some people already felt anxious about going out, others were surprised by this anxiety at the very beginning of deconfinement, when it was time for the first exits. But wasn't this anxiety generalized, at least a bit generalized?
We have all more or less apprehended deconfinement, because we had to find the rhythm, drive our children to school, take off their pajamas and their flour, see some people we did without, and adopt a lot of actions barriers (and masks) to limit the spread of the virus that continues to circulate.
But the cabin syndrome goes further. It is not a "simple" apprehension. It affects discomfort and manifests itself physically. But does he touch on phobia? The phobia usually involves an avoidance strategy (avoiding the object of our phobia). So sometimes we can be afraid but not avoid our fear, in which case it is not so much a phobia. When you have cabin or snail syndrome, you avoid the outdoors for fear of confronting it.
The symptoms mentioned are the following: a state of stress, a feeling of deep anxiety, dizziness, visual disturbances, emotional fatigue and low motivation. Globally, these signs reflect the fear of danger, fear of danger being the hallmark of anxiety: you feel threatened. To know if you have cabin syndrome, you can therefore already review these manifestations, which occur "continuously" or when you decide to leave your home.
To go further in his diagnosis, we can also think about the term "threat", and what it represents to us now. Do we feel threatened? By others, work, the return of social relations? By Covid-19, the society we live in, the outside in general?
Solutions to get out of your cabin
The step by step
At the same time, we can therefore act. The idea is to take small steps, so as not to jostle and regain confidence gently, and to maintain some control. The control is a key notion in cabin syndrome, because the individual who feels safe at home and worried about going out feels that they are in control of their life and health.
The small steps will therefore be: a walk downstairs from home, barely a few minutes, then, later, a jump in a little-frequented supermarket. You can also entertain friends in your home, to start mixing the outside with the inside, and no longer separate these two identities as security on the one hand and danger on the other. At each step, always taking care of yourself and others and respecting social distancing, you will realize that the outside world is not an enemy, as long as you go at your own pace and stay tuned of his emotions and his condition.
Ciao the information
The good idea to allay your anxieties is to avoid the news. We choose not to watch the latest coronavirus show and not to read the news all day long. It is not about playing ostrich, rejecting the numbers and living completely disconnected from society, at the risk of becoming self-sufficient and accentuating the cabin syndrome. Only, you don't feed your stress watching TV for hours. The same advice will be given to hypochondriacs who are having difficulty going through this period, since we know how much information does not help. So we stick to the bare minimum. A few minutes a day or even a week are enough to get informed.
Take inspiration from the cabin syndrome, one avenue to explore
We take the party to question his cabin syndrome as if he were an ally, a source of advice and possible changes: what if all this enlightened us on our needs? And what if we had to telecommute more, learn to say no to remove constraints, reconnect with loved ones and precious moments, take more time for ourselves? That’s all that cabin syndrome can teach us about a happier future. What if he was the start of something? Because what we will remember from this syndrome is that we are in our cabin (or our shell), and that it is possible to pamper it while taking advantage of the outside world and what it has ( still) beautiful to offer us.
Finally, we do not hesitate to to consult a doctor or a shrink (psychologist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, etc.), because trauma linked to the coronavirus pandemic and confinement should not be overlooked. Subjects that remain too little discussed, despite the Public Health France survey, which closely follows the evolution of the behavior of the French and their mental health since March 23, 2020. We learn in particular that if the anxiety states have experienced a decrease important the first weeks of confinement, they have since remained stable. As for depressive states, they drop sharply. What if things could only get better?