THEY WERE MALADJUSTED BEFORE THE LOCKDOWNS.

During the corona tyranny, there were people who embraced it.  They weren't right in the head, were they?  "People who stuck by UK Covid rules have worst mental health, says survey"

For "communal" personalities, read "common scolds."

Those who followed the restrictions most closely when the pandemic hit are the most likely to be suffering from stress, anxiety and depression, academics at Bangor University have found.

They identified that people with “communal” personalities – who are more caring, sensitive and aware of others’ needs – adhered the most rigorously with the lockdown protocols that Boris Johnson and senior medics and scientists recommended.

However, people with “agentic” personalities – who are more independent, more competitive and like to have control over their lives – were least likely to exhibit those behaviours.

“The more individuals complied with health advice during lockdown, the worse their wellbeing post-lockdown,” concluded Dr Marley Willegers and colleagues.

The fear of catching Covid proved both an upside and a downside, they found. “While increasing individuals’ worry of infection can effectively drive compliance, it also has negative consequences on people’s wellbeing and recovery,” they said.

The article says little about how the neurotic lockdowners got their kicks making everybody else miserable with them.  It does, however, propose a new understanding of "mind numbed robots."

“Communal” types displayed the highest levels of continuing disturbance to their mental wellbeing. However, “agentic” people had been able to “bounce back” better from lockdown mode.

Willegers, an academic at Bangor University’s institute for the psychology of elite performance, said some people found it hard to make the transition from receiving regular exhortations about following public health advice during the pandemic to no advice when lockdown ended.

“Throughout the pandemic messaging campaigns were designed to ensure people continued to follow the rules. But there was no messaging campaign as we came out of the pandemic to help everyone safely transition back to normality.

“Without this, certain personality types have retained infection prevention behaviour and anxiety that undermines their mental wellbeing,” he added.

The enduringly poor mental health being experienced by people who adhered to the rules is “deeply disturbing.”

Not as disturbing as their behavior toward Normals during the shutdowns.

“The finding that people who complied with pandemic restrictions are more likely to have poorer mental health three years on is deeply disturbing.

“The fear, loss and trauma created by the pandemic are having a lasting impact on many people’s mental health. For some, this may have been exacerbated by the loss of social solidarity from seeing others not complying with the same restrictions,” said Andy Bell, its chief executive.

Experts say the widespread damage Covid did to mental health in Britain is the main reason demand for NHS psychological and psychiatric services has soared in recent years.

Mark Winstanley, the chief executive of the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said: “The early days of the pandemic were characterised by significant disruption, uncertainty and a lack of control, factors which can all fuel anxiety and low mood.

What would we ever do without experts? What's the over-under on "we'd do better?"