Dating anxiety is higher than ever right now. But why? Here are four reasons why your dating anxiety is so high due to quarantining and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic:
1. You aren’t able to meet your dates face-to-face.
In my experience, I’ve found that it’s hard to really know how you feel about a potential partner until you meet them face-to-face. You may spend weeks connecting with someone online only to find that there’s no attraction when you finally meet for the first time. That’s a huge issue with dating right now because unless you met in person before this all started, you have no choice but to trust your gut for the time being.
2. Dates no longer look traditional.
Due to restaurant closures and stay at home orders, dating has been turned on its head. You can’t meet up for coffee or dinner and a movie right now, which means potential couples must not only deal with the discomfort of meeting someone new, but they must create new ways to even meet at all.
Even if you find a way to recreate the quinicental dinner date over FaceTime or take a socially distanced walk together, it’s hard to get over your anxiety enough to talk about anything besides coronavirus.
3. You feel hopeless about other aspects of your life.
Although connecting with people on dating apps helps pass the time right now, many people are starting to ask themselves, “What’s the point?”
After all, we don’t know what the future looks like right now. We don’t know when this craziness will end, and we don’t know if we will have jobs, money, or our health when shelter in place orders do finally lift.
That uncertainty makes it really hard to imagine entering a committed relationship with anyone. How can we picture a “happily ever after” if we don’t even know if we will live to see the “ever after” at all?
4. People are looking for commitment much sooner.
One of the most interesting things with dating right now is that many newly dating individuals are looking for a commitment unnaturally early. After all, people stuck socially distancing on their own feel especially lonely right now. Because of this, people are seeking out commitment just to dull the pain.
The human need to couple up is significant — especially during these difficult times. That desire to connect is a big reason why dating anxiety seems so prevalent right now.
Dating is hard anytime, and dating anxiety has always been present. But because of the coronavirus and social distancing, dating anxiety feels sky high. Although we don’t know what the future holds, this difficult time will eventually end. So take stock of your current dating anxiety and work on overcoming it so that you can enjoy that summer love when we all start leaving our houses again.
Originally Published on YourTango
Photo by Sam Chang on Unsplash
