Why so many people still feel stuck in the 'COVID pause'

"As the COVID-19 pandemic wound down, people began reflecting on the strange way it had warped their sense of time. The feeling became known as "the pandemic skip": the sense of having lost milestones and experiences while life was on hold. Five years later, the sensation persists, now rebranded as the "COVID pause." "I still feel like I felt when COVID started," one TikTok user said. "I don't feel like I aged.""

"Psychologists sometimes use the term "arrested development" to describe being stuck at the emotional age when a trauma or stressor occurred. In this case, that trauma was the pandemic. With education, careers, relationships, and independence all disrupted, many feel those formative years were stolen. Whether it's arrested development or a kind of Peter Pan syndrome, the result is the same: minds and bodies feel out of sync."

Many people report a lasting sense of lost time from the COVID-19 pandemic, calling it the "pandemic skip" or "COVID pause." People describe feeling younger than their chronological age and like key milestones and experiences were stolen. Social posts recount abrupt transitions from adolescence to adult work life during the pandemic. Psychologists describe this phenomenon as arrested development, where emotional age remains tied to the time of trauma. Disruptions to education, careers, relationships, and independence contributed to the effect. Some people report a silver lining of reduced shame about publicly expressing themselves, such as dancing on TikTok.

Read at Fast Company