Jess, a 30-year-old from Essex, chooses to live in her family home rather than move out and deal with the private rental sector after being “wracked” with anxiety in her early 20s. “I didn’t want to move into a flat share with strangers,” she says. “I didn’t want to pay 80% of a salary into a place I hated that wasn’t fit for purpose. The version of how I wanted to live wasn’t within reach, so why compromise?”

Money is also the primary anxiety-driver for Tash, a 24-year-old from Kent. “The idea of having to do it all by myself is frankly so scary,” she says. “I sometimes kind of spiral about just how expensive it would be and then just keep putting off thinking about it.”

Another contributing factor to the anxiety of moving out is the pandemic.

For Amani, a 24-year-old from London, moving out might just be financially possible with her job, but she still feels uncertain. “Maybe it is the pandemic but I often find myself worrying about things that could go wrong,” she says. “What if I lose my job? What if I have horrible flatmates?”

“When you look at the research, [anxiety is one of the] lingering effects of the pandemic,” Dignan says. According to Dignan, the pandemic serves as proof that things can go wrong. “And that’s about that particular age range of between about 18 to 25. [They’ve seen that] the unheard of does happen. Nobody could have ever predicted the pandemic. So it gives validation to that fear that the unheard of definitely does happen.” In turn, many young people may subconsciously seek to avoid unpredictable situations where things could go wrong. Staying home becomes a means of protection.

Then there’s the fact that this kind of anxiety can… well… make you feel even more anxious simply because you’re not where you think you’re supposed to be. Amani says, “It’s a real fear, but I do often feel like I’m failing.” Jess also used to be hard on herself for feeling anxious about leaving home. “It’s incredibly hard to rid yourself of the shame and social stigma that comes with not moving out,” she says.

As Armani and Jess note, it can be hard to accept that all of this fear isn’t a “you problem” — especially in the age of social media.

“Social media is about comparison,” Dignan says. Often, content online presents us with “an unrealistic life. I hear a lot of younger people comparing themselves and saying, ‘Well, I’m not at that point yet, and everybody else seems to be getting married or starting a family or buying a first home, and I’m not there. So somehow I’m lacking.’”

However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s a fact — it’s one of the hardest times — both practically and psychologically — to be brave enough to fly the nest. And it’s understandable that many young people are delaying the big move.