People had to be at least slightly anxious, in order to develop the habits of masking, hand-washing and avoiding crowds in the first place. I wouldn't expect a vaccination to make all that new habit and concern go away overnight; it might take a little while.
That said, once vaccinated, expect to feel at least a little bit safer when out and about. (Even given the new variants, which so far have been shown to be effectively addressed by the Covid vaccines. And they think they can tweak the vaccines to address future variants.) If you've been vaccinated for a while and don't notice *any* change in your calmness level when you need to do something routine like go to the grocery store, you might address the anxiety with a counselor.
You are absolutely correct in your thinking, and no, this isn't anxiety. Anxiety is about irrational or exaggerated concern. You are actually up to date on current information, which is, no vaccine is 100% effective, effectiveness does indeed go down, sometimes way down, with certain variants, and because vaccines are currently rare, not common, in most of the world and in many parts of the US variants are still going to arise constantly. The virus will move to where it can survive, and it will adapt to survive. On the other hand, you can't hide forever, and the virus is very likely to be with us forever. You don't hide because of all the other infectious diseases you can get, so at some point we have to learn to live with this virus or miss out on a lot of living. I think masking indoors is still the appropriate thing to do, and I think CDC jumped the gun on telling folks they don't have to wear them if they're vaccinated. I believe there was inevitably some politics in this because humans today don't hunt and gather, they work for pieces of paper or computer code that enables them to get food, shelter, etc. We can't therefore hide forever. It would be a lot easier if Americans who do have current access to a vaccine any time they want one now would do the right thing for humanity and just get one, but they aren't doing that and it has become a political issue so we're not going to reach herd immunity any time soon and perhaps never will. We can hope, however, but then there's the rest of the world where the variants are now coming from and they don't have access to vaccines because only the rich can afford that and because other countries also have many people who won't get vaccinated. I hope this doesn't last -- we all used to just get our vaccines, but that isn't the case anymore. So in sum, your thinking is perfectly rational, not at all anxiety, but you can't let reasonable trepidation ruin your life forever. At some point we will all have to assume some risk. In the meantime, think of the benefits -- masking and some social distancing when you don't know those around you will also protect you from the flu and colds, so there's that. For now, don't consider yourself odd, consider yourself well informed and judge your own tolerance of risk and don't let it keep you from enjoying being alive. Peace.
i am not vaccinated, but i am still anxious and mask up, even if i don't have to be in certain places. i am terrified what this is going to do to me in the long haul.
Going with what Pax said, and this not being anxiety, I'm still cautious. I feel a lot like you do, Callalily. I am still not eating in restaurants, and a masking inside - though that's just as much now about not wanting a cold or the flu, which are coming back, as much as it is covid and variants.
I'm also fully vaxxed with Moderna, and feel pretty good about that, but we still don't know how long immunity lasts, when/if (probably when) we'll need a booster, etc.
So yeah, I get it. :)
No. I feel the same way as you do -- I too am fully vaccinated via Moderna and still use a disposable mask layered beneath a cloth mask every time that I set foot outside my door. Not a thing will change for me until I am convinced that the Delta variant has run its course, which does not appear to be anytime in the near future. People can call me paranoid, but I want to give myself the best chance at remaining healthy as possible. You are doing the smart thing, in my opinion.
I'm vaccinated and still incredibly anxious and I'm not sure why. I think it's just been a long stretch of anxiety for me it's hard to get out of that loop. I keep telling myself " it's all in the past" I live by myself, and retired, so I don't have much distraction from it. I notice when I'm busy, I'm better..I'm hoping I've time it goes away. My Dr even wanted to put me on Zoloft, but I've resisted it. I take valium every few days and that helps , but I realize it's addictive and resist it as much as possible.. I don't mask up because I feel it helps getting back to being normal, and after all that's what the vaccine is for...I'd love to hear any tips people have to get rid of this...I was never like this before, bit 1.5 years of being cooped up gas gotten to me
I do believe there's some anxiety involved in still being scared, but we do know that there are variants out there and don't know what's going to happen with them. I agree with Pax that we can't hide from it, any more than we've been able to hide from other diseases that could be equally deadly.
We've all been isolated for such a long time and the virus is so prevalent in the news, I'm almost beginning to think it's causing a type paranoia. My opinion, only!! :-)
I had no qualms about getting vaccinated, but I do sometimes worry about the people who aren't vaccinated and because so many are unwilling to say, we have no idea how many of the people we come in contact with are, or aren't, vaccinated. It's the ones who refuse to vaccinate, or mask up, that worry me. I wonder about people hacking and coughing in the grocery store beside without a mask... If they're sick, they should be home. I've actually put on a mask in an instance in which someone was acting/looking very ill beside me in the grocery store because I didn't want what they had, even it wasn't COVID.
All of that said, I do think we have to try to move on, safely There are so many diseases we can get, we'd have to live in a bubble in order to avoid everything.
Because you are sensible and know that viruses mutate (struggle for existence and survival of the fittest). Believe me I am same