My social anxiety was noticeably reduced when I wore a mask during the pandemic, because it turned out a lot of my anxiety was about whether I was wearing the right facial expression, whether my face was accidentally betraying some thought or feeling I didn’t want to reveal, etc. Not having to worry about that was so freeing. (And of course, being harder to identify helped.) Makes me wish I could get away with wearing a niqab without risking harassment from at least two different groups of people.
Man, I relate to this so hard.
My social anxiety was noticeably reduced when I wore a mask during the pandemic, because it turned out a lot of my anxiety was about whether I was wearing the right facial expression, whether my face was accidentally betraying some thought or feeling I didn’t want to reveal, etc. Not having to worry about that was so freeing. (And of course, being harder to identify helped.) Makes me wish I could get away with wearing a niqab without risking harassment from at least two different groups of people.