It is almost a year since Norway closed down for the first time. For just as long, Kristian Lyngstøl (37) has lived in almost isolation.
He lives alone at Lambertseter in Oslo, and works as a developer for Telenor. Already a week before Erna Solberg presented “the strictest and most intrusive measures we have had in peacetime”, the company sent the employees home from the headquarters at Fornebu.
Since then, the work has mainly been done from the apartment. Screens, desks and office chairs were in place, and he was thus equipped for efficient working days while the first wave of infection ravaged the country and the capital.
One year later, the days are marked by loneliness and apathy.
– I’m close to breaking point. I do not know how much longer I can manage this, Lyngstøl wrote on Twitter last week.
– I’m not desperate. Desperation requires a form of energy I no longer have.
Lost all social arenas
The Twitter thread was an expression of frustration that began to take off in him – triggered by, among others, the controversial the statement from Molde mayor Torgeir Dahl and that one new shutdown in the capital.
– It is starting to become difficult to believe that we are facing brighter times. I lose confidence in the assurances that it will get better, when we constantly go one step forward and two back, Lyngstøl says to Dagbladet.
The 37-year-old has followed infection control rules and recommendations to the best of his ability from day one: He has stayed at home as much as possible. Alone. The biggest bright spots have been weekly visits to mom and dad, a longer bike ride during the holidays and celebration of the brother’s birthday this summer.
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He also does not have a large group of friends. The job has been the most important arena to meet social needs. In addition, Lyngstøl has for several years worked voluntarily to arrange the computer meeting The Gathering, which has now been canceled for the second year in a row.
Now most of the social contact has been replaced by a daily digital morning meeting with Telenor colleagues.
– Without the video meetings, I think I would have ended up sleeping around the clock, says Lyngstøl, who says that the employer has arranged for him to come to the office a little more in the future.
When Dagbladet talks to him, he has just spent a long-awaited working day in the office – in an attempt to restore a form of routine in everyday life. In the office landscape, which usually houses a hundred employees, there has been him and one more.
Mentally ill young people: – No control
Triple in symptoms of depression
Those who live alone are the group that has reported the highest levels of symptoms of anxiety, depression and loneliness during the pandemic, Professor Asle Hoffart tells Dagbladet.
Together with research colleagues Omid V. Ebrahimi and Sverre Urnes Johnson at University of Oslo and Modum Bad he has investigated how the corona pandemic and the measures are related to our mental health.
Already during the first closure, the survey – in which 10,000 people participated – showed, among other things, a doubling in symptoms of anxiety, and a tripling in symptoms of depression.
Several international studies and metastudier point in the same direction.
These experience the greatest increase in symptoms of mental health problems:
- Young people aged 18 to 30 – including students
- Singles
- Women
- Those who have a mental diagnosis before
- Unemployed
- Minority groups
Source: Modum Bad / University of Oslo
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Several of the psychologists Dagbladet spoke to this fall, were optimistic about people’s ability to land on their feet again mentally when the pandemic and restrictions loosen.
Asle Hoffart and colleagues have seen indications that the symptoms may persist – even after the pandemic and restrictions loosen.
– The symptoms did not decrease much during the reopening this summer, compared to when the measures were at their strictest. This indicates that things can sit in. The reliefs did not have much benefit, he says.
During the summer months, only the youngest adults experienced a significant decrease in loneliness.
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Studies done in connection with previous epidemics such as SARS and MERS, according to Hoffart, showed elevated levels of symptoms of anxiety, depression and loneliness – in the aftermath of the epidemics.
– What we fear is that some of those who experience symptoms will enter into self-reinforcing vicious circles that will persist after the external situation that created them has ceased.
Among other things, researchers have seen that loneliness – basically a feeling that should drive us to seek out social contact – can lead to even more isolation, when social contact is not an option.
– It triggers brooding and worry, which can lead to a perception that “others do not want anything to do with me”. These are things that can preserve loneliness even when the opportunities to meet others change, says Hoffart.
– An awful lot of people recognized themselves
Lyngstøl has been open with friends, colleagues and family about how he is doing. He is among those who notice a significant increase in symptoms of depression.
After he also opened up on Twitter, the feedback flowed in.
– There were an awful lot of people who said they recognized each other.
He says that several of them agreed to meet for a bike ride in the beginning spring weather. However, the trip was quickly canceled, as most withdrew for infection control reasons.
– I can not imagine a less contagious activity, so it says a bit about the atmosphere here in the city. No one wants to create the next outbreak, he says.
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