Thread by @garwboy

Anyone else finding lockdown disconcertingly stressful? Like, more than you'd expect, given how it means just staying at home and not doing stuff?

It may be down to a quirk of how the brain usually deals with stress, and lockdown throwing a spanner into the works

A thread

/1

There are many valid reasons to find lockdown stressful

Risks of infection
Financial uncertainty
Reduced freedoms and less control of your own life

But normal non-pandemic life has a lot of these too. Does lockdown make them more stressful? Probably

Why? Oxytocin

/2

You've likely heard of oxytocin, aka 'the cuddle hormone'. It's often thought of as a chemical that makes people like/love each other.

That's an oversimplification, obviously. Oxytocin does a lot of things.

/3

It's involved in lactation and the birth process, but yeah, oxytocin is mostly referred to via its role in enhancing the emotional bonds between individuals. It doesn't make people 'fall in love', but if you like someone, oxytocin can make you like them more?

/4

It works both ways, though. If you *don't* like someone, oxytocin can make you dislike them even more

Even this is an oversimplification. It involves a lot of context, individual differences etc. But it definitely has an important role in human relationships

/5

And another thing Oxytocin seems to do? Reduces stress. Right down at the physiological level. It's potentially a key part of the body and brain's anti-stress process.

/6

So, if you've got a lot of oxytocin pumping through your system, you're likely going to deal with stress better

And how do you keep your oxytocin level up? Among other things, social interactions

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15834840/

/7

And what do we have a lot less of during lockdown? Social interactions. That's pretty much the whole point in a pandemic
No social interactions = reduced oxytocin = a hampered ability to deal with stress (something supplied in abundance during lockdown)

/8

Granted, we still have online interactions, which are a useful stopgap

But 'normal' social interactions have a much richer sensory component, and these are important for triggering the release of oxytocin. Virtual ones can't replace all that.

/9

So, lockdown means we don't meet with friends and family face-to-face. This lowers our oxytocin levels. This in turn means our stress response is amplified when compared to 'normal' times.

Ergo, lockdown can feel more stressful than you'd perhaps expect.

/10

As ever, it's more complex than this in reality

E.g. oxytocin can amplify the effects of negative social interactions (bullying, harassment etc.), leading to *more* anxiety, and avoidance of unfamiliar social situations

sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/…

But this is useful too...

/11

The *negative* effects of oxytocin also explain another lockdown phenomenon; people being anxious about it ending

theguardian.com/society/2021/m…

/12

For a year now, we've all been told that going outside and interacting is hazardous. There's been a negative aspect to every instance of doing so. It's not a great leap to suspect part of our brain has been tagging all social encounters as 'negative', on some level

/13

Our only 'safe' environment has been our home, really, and we've been stuck there for months. It's possible that our brains now consider outside contexts as 'unfamiliar', something we've instinctively learned to avoid.

/14

So, if we've subconsciously started thinking of going into the wider world an unfamiliar social scenario, we'll be stressed about it. That others will be there and interact with us ups the oxytocin, which amplifies the negative emotions, stressing us further.

/15

Basically, the lack of oxytocin caused by lockdown can make the whole experience more stressful. But the action of oxytocin can make the *ending* of lockdown seem more stressful too.

These aren't mutually exclusive. The brain can do both, and will, quite readily.

/16

As ever, there's much more going on than just oxytocin. It's one important cog in a machine (brain) of thousands.

But hopefully it'll help some to know the stress they're feeling about lockdown isn't weird/a sign of anything wrong. It's just your brain, doing what it does.

/end

Addendum

As ever, if you like these explanations of how your brain is being a right pain and making things difficult for you...

... please consider buying my new book Psycho Logical, all about this exact thing, and how it impacts on mental health

amazon.co.uk/Psycho-Logical…