My (23F) partner (25M) is developing agoraphobia and anxiety as a result of the pandemic and I want to help him, but I’m not sure how?

My partner and I have been together for 5 years, and he’s never had any issues with anxiety or depression before the pandemic. We both are engineers and are lucky enough to work from home. We live in New England where people are taking COVID pretty seriously already.

Back in March, we both assumed we’d be going back to our offices sooner than later (his job is in electric utility, I needed to run experiments in the lab in academia), so we didn’t quarantine together when the stay at home orders started. As a result, he spent 2 months alone and developed some anxiety over going into public. He would go outside on walks only if he left from his personal patio behind his apartment to avoid shared doors and would order groceries online.

I moved in with him during the summer and he really struggled with going out in public. He would leave stores ASAP if he saw someone not wearing a mask or wearing one incorrectly, sometimes forgetting stuff on the grocery list or paying for takeout and not picking it up. This weekend was the worst, he was SO excited to make a candy slide for socially distanced trick or treating, only to leave the hardware store all upset because there were people without masks on there.

Something I can’t change that’s definitely causing issues is that his coworkers (all of which are around his age and who he used to hang out with prior to the pandemic) are also struggling with anxiety in public. Their words and actions sort of influence each other into deeper anxiety. One coworker ended up in the ER after his wife invited a friend over to sit outside in the backyard over the summer. He tried to climb a fence to get away and broke his wrist.

I’m already pretty cautious when it comes to my actions around the pandemic. I limit my trips to the store, i stay home as much as possible, I don’t go out to eat, I always wear a mask properly, so I’m not pushing him to be unsafe. I’m afraid that these anxieties will develop into something permanent when the pandemic ends, and I don’t want him to hurt like that. We’ve reached out to a couple therapists today, but we haven’t heard back. Is there anything I can do to help him and ease his fears in public? Every possible remedy is out of my control, as strangers’ behaviors with masks are unpredictable and I don’t want to be too risky with the virus.

tldr: partner is afraid of going out in public and being around others not wearing masks/wearing them improperly. I want to help him before it becomes full blown agoraphobia.

Submitted November 01, 2020 at 01:46PM by happytransformer https://ift.tt/3kOhnC4