This is the BBC World Service. I am Sanna Safi and welcome to World of Wisdom,

where we explore personal approaches to some of the issues that life turns up.

All over the world, people are trying to cope with the different

stages of this pandemic and even where restrictions are being lifted they can be

big challenges to face.

When you've been at home for a year,

it can be very hard to venture out again.

So it is for Alex, who lives in Detroit, Michigan.

He wrote to us for advice via our website

at BBC World of Wisdom.

Here is a shortened version of his conversation with therapist and writer Dr. Shifale.

I've really been struggling to maintain personal connections during the pandemic.

For a long time, there simply wasn't an option to visit with family and friends.

Consequently, I've drifted away from people I used to be close to.

How can I reconnect with people now that things are opening back up again?

Yeah, so what you're going through is something so many people have gone through,

not having that physical connection has made us all just drift away into isolation.

Tell me a little bit about your sense of being isolated.

Do you feel extremely isolated, mediocre? Where are you on that spectrum?

I'm feeling quite isolated lately. It's been a struggle now that things are opening up to really get back into socializing.

Does it feel very intimidating for you?

It does. It's like starting over almost.

...