A new book by Professor Paul Crawford, Director of the Centre for Social Futures, looks at how people cope during prolonged periods of isolation. It explores how people avoided ‘cabin fever’ during lockdown and provides a reflection that may help us understand its impact on our mental health.

The Covid-19 pandemic and prolonged confinement and isolation during lockdown have had a detrimental impact on the mental health of people around the world.

In a new book, Cabin Fever, Professor Paul Crawford and Jamie Orion Crawford, use their research to look at the threat of cabin fever during lockdown and the kind of antidotes that have countered it.

"Whilst we have faced the greatest period of isolation in our lifetimes, we must remember that cabin fever is not new, it happens at sea, on land, in the air and in space. But perhaps most importantly, it occurs in our minds." 

As part of their research, the book delves into the origins and history of cabin fever, in particular how the psychological folk syndrome developed out of the affliction of physical infection, notably in the case of typhus, which spread from the overcrowded, rural cabins of Ireland in the Great Famine to the pioneering frontiers of North America.

The authors explore the evidence of mental decline caused by prolonged or extreme social isolation, in particular what we can learn from penal history and solitary confinement as well as the importance of social connectivity in maintaining good mental health. Accounts from literature, memoir, and reportage reveal the fascinating and sometimes frightening aspects of the phenomenon.

Professor Crawford said: “In the last year, we have all had to learn how to live with lockdown, and sadly this may now be something we have to do in the future too. We hope the book will help people as they come out of lockdown to make sense of it, better understand the experience and mental health challenges they faced and plan ahead in case variant infections escape the available vaccines and we all have to head back indoors.”

Cabin Fever is in bookshops now and you can listen to Professor Crawford speaking to BBC Radio Nottingham's Mark Dennison about the book and the psychological pressures of confinement. Listen again from 20 mins into the programme via the BBC Sounds website.