Food availability, rationed though it became, was a double edged sword. I had Hungarian friends in Canada during the Cold War who had Hungarian friends who had emigrated to the West successfully, then turned around and gone back to communist Hungary.
They could not handle the unaccustomed stress of living in a society where it was possible to become unemployed. In Hungary, they were guaranteed a job of some sort and were so terrified of losing their means of sustenance in a free world, they gladly went back to communism. So the fear of the inability to get food drove them back into scratching for food.
So interesting! Reminds me a bit of the Oliver Sacks story of a blind woman who could not handle the results of her restored sight. Some folks cannot take change - I’m one of them, lol!