Lockdown is making me ill

[Daisyxxchainxx]

I feel rubbish. I'm constantly tired. I feel sickly. Barely got energy. My period symptoms have got worse in lockdown. I can't sleep great. I wake up tired. I'm sluggish and defeated.

I've got two young kids.

I've got my iron levels up.

I'm taking vitamin D.

I'm drinking at least 2 more glasses of water a day.

I try my best to get out for walks.

Yesterday I went to my parents garden for two hours. Had s great morning. By 2pm I couldn't keep my eyes open. By teatime I felt sickly and needed to lie down.

Ive completely lost myself!

[SnuggyBuggy]

I get this, I'm forcing myself on walks but my diet is crap because the restrictions on supermarkets and shops make it very difficult for me and DH to by normal food regularly. I just feel exhausted and stressed all the time and I can't do much to help it.

[Waxonwaxoff0]

Me too, the stress of it all has meant my eating habits have turned to shit and I'm not sleeping properly. I feel tired and lethargic all the time. I'm taking vitamins but it's not helping. I have less energy now than I did when I was going to the office and doing all the school runs.

[TW2013]

How old are the dc? Could it be your thyroid, one of my pregnancies fried my thyroid. It is a simple hormone replacement treatment but without it you feel as if you are wading through treacle in thick fog. I would ask GP for some blood tests.

[EndlessUserName]

Following with interest, I feel the same. Hopefully someone can help x

[Daisyxxchainxx]

Glad to not be alone. When my eldest chats away to Me on walks I just feel like saying please let mummy enjoy the walk quietly. I never say it. But she just drains me with her energy. They are 5 and 2.5. both very reliant on Me still. I had bloods checked last week. I've got another 9 weeks of vitamin D. I will quiz the Dr about my energy though. I fear she will put it down to anxiety. I must admit I am starting to feel anxious about feeling better! I don't know how to get out this rut.

It's so hard to shop isn't it. Not being able to nip the the local shop with the kids for weeks has limited us too. I've been using milk and more. But it's expensive for what it is.

I have no idea why it's making my hormones worse either. I used to walk four miles a day on the school runs. Now I barely have the energy for 1 mile.

[SquirrelFan]

"Lockdown Fever", I am calling it. Can barely make it through Joe Wicks any more; I thought I'd be in better shape! Aches and pains and feeling faint. My DH is the same. Teenage kids who barely want to talk to me, so it's not them that are draining. (I suspect they feel similar.) Possibly all down to the feeling that there's nothing to look forward to...

[Daisyxxchainxx]

I bet our bodies have gone into exhausted mode. I did care work once and looked after a lad who stayed in his bedroom for ,years and couldn't walk

[pigeon999]

I spoke to my GP last night because I have ALL of the symptoms you describe. An exhaustion I have never felt before. I am not one to worry, but being so tired as to not be able to move has never ever happened to me before. I nearly fainted yesterday morning, so I called and spoke to him.

After a very thorough and lengthy phone call with many questions, he decided in fact I am suffering from significant stress. As in the proper medical condition, and not the term we throw around when things aren't great. I don't FEEL stressed as such, I did in April but now I am feeling much more chill, but still this is what it is.

You have pushed and pushed yourself, the stress and worry of the last few months - this is the outcome. Your body literally shutting itself down for protection. He offered me medication if I needed it (I do not) and suggested a few days off (in my dreams with the dc) and said it should pass. There is an NHS website you could read for more information.

He said this is all he is doing, taking phone calls from people just like me. The whole country is suffering from post peak stress, and it is coming out in lots of different ways. We have as a country been through a huge trauma, so I guess it is natural to seem some response to that.

I am not suggesting this is definitely your problem op, as I am not a doctor, you should be checked out if it persists, but just to say this is exactly how I feel and this was my diagnosis.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/understanding-stress/

[justinhawkinsnavalfluff]

Oh my goodness. I thought it was just me. So glad to see this thread. At one point due to work and covid stress I was feeling constantly dizzy.

[SnuggyBuggy]

It makes sense, I mean a few weeks back I was crying a lot and having panic attacks but I guess you can only keep that up for so long and a kind of shut down makes sense if your fight or flight response isn't resolving the situation.

[pigeon999]

Rest when you need to, build in time every day to lie down and do absolutely nothing if you possibly can each day. Encourage your children to do the same. Limit how much you do in the day, and try not to do too much. Ditch anything that isn't essential.

I believe this to be burn out (or approaching complete burn out) with the stress of going through this experience.

Burn outs are to be taking very seriously.

Auto immune diseases will follow if we are not careful. So do what you can now, get some help with the children if possible, strip everything back and rest when you need to. Don't wait until you are feeling faint.
I wonder how many millions more of us are feeling this way? I suspect it is affecting women more than men, we seem to be taking the brunt of this (again)

I posted the stress link from the NHS but there are obviously many more than can also help. Good luck everyone. Time to take a back seat for a bit.

[Daisyxxchainxx]

@pigeon999 wow thank you. I know I'm secretly panicking about my daughter going back to school. I'm thinking we can't get up at 6.30. we can't leave the house at 8am. It does make sense. I has a flare up of psoriasis when I was 16 and cured it with sunlight etc. Weirdly the last few months I've got a patch on my upper back of it. It's horrible.

I am so relieved to no it's not just me. I have been thinking my life is going to be this way forever. It gets worse with hormones changes too. Has anyone else found that? I feel so sick and exhausted with periods and ovulation. I have had anemia but my levels have risen to normsl levels. So it's not that now.

Are any of you feeling a knot in your stomach? Lije a sick feeling but not as in throw up stomach bug? X

[pigeon999]

I felt sick with it, I have lost my appetite by the evening because I feel so tired. This is all part of it according to the doctor.

It will get better, as the summer continues we will start to recover if we look after ourselves. If we need a sleep every day, and the house is a tip for a while then so what. Our health is more important than anything else.

I have asked my dh to take some time off, and take the children out for half a day. I know not everyone will have that option, but we need to use any opportunity we have to rest. Even dh has been worried, as he has never seen me lying down at 3pm before!!! I don't usually stop from dawn to dusk, so he has been quite alarmed by this too, we all have our limits op. I think we have collectively reached our limits on here

[pigeon999]

The knot in the stomach feeling is usually anxiety.

[Daisyxxchainxx]

Thanks so much. You've got me thinking with this! I am in denial because I don't class myself as stressed. I don't know how to break the cycle though. Just rest as you say I guess

[36degrees]

I finally hit a wall last Thursday and slept for two days straight. I've had medical levels of stress-related illness before and one of the things that helped was shifting to an entirely home-based job and having time to myself, Covid is conducive to doing neither of these things successfully. The other things I benefited from were regular (private) physio to reduce muscle tension and lots of time in the gym, it took nearly 2 years to feel like I was back to normal again. So it's no wonder I feel like I'm back to square one.

[Littlepond]

Oh my gosh me too. I’m exhausted! I’m supposed to be wfh full time but I keep falling asleep in my “lunch break” and the kids have to wake me up. Yesterday I fell asleep at 1.30 and the kids let me sleep, I woke at 3.30. Then I was in bed by 9.
I had suspected Covid back in March (no test) and wondered if this was just long term symptoms (my smell and taste are still fucked) but it’s horrible. So much I need to do (work, kids education, house work) and zero energy.

[pigeon999]

Alot of the things you could usually do to alleviate stress are not available. Massage is very good, physio for stretching, a spa day, holiday, time out. This would all go along way to fixing things. Maybe we can do some of these things at home. Possibly.

Hopefully this evening we will get some good news from the PM, and we can maybe book a massage, a few days off and try to unwind the damage done to our bodies and ease into a better and more comfortable stage. It has made me realise that I need to take my health and rest much more seriously.
I was lying down thinking shit I must have cancer or something, no one can be this dog tired without a major disease of some kind, but stress apparently does this to our bodies.

[SnuggyBuggy]

I think the lack of things we can do to help ourselves makes it so much worse. I miss the baby and toddler groups, even when I felt truly dreadful I could always manage to stagger to a group. DD could have a play, someone would give me a cup of tea and it didn't feel too energy consuming. Everything is energy consuming now.

[Happybint]

A couple of weeks ago I felt like I had a virus and just slept for a few days. I was exhausted and maybe this was why? I had a covid test which was negative but my main symptom really was exhaustion. Working, homeschooling and stress of everything I reckon.

[Daisyxxchainxx]

Yes that's exactly how I am. I am excited for my partner finishing work so I can lie in bed or hide in the bath. I'm so worried my kids are starting to notice I'm always in bed, lazy, feeling sick etc. I was a fully functioning mum before all this. Out the house at 8am. 30 minute walk to the school there and back. Housework and stuff in the day. Walking back in the afternoon. Home. Tea. Getting kids bathed.

I also figured u had cancer too. Or me! I've been so worried. I was anemic and poorly in Feb anyway. I've completed my iron tablets and numbers are good now. My vitmain d will be tested in 9 weeks. But it can't just me that.

The random nausea is the worst sympton. The concentration and irritably is definitely the second issue.

Then when my period comes I get headaches and muscle tension. Exhausted etc.

I feel like you have really hit the nail on the head! I've been starting to think my hormones are out of whack?? I've always had heavy periods but these side effects are new.

I even though I was going premenopausal or whatever it's called. But I'm 31.

Sending hugs to everyone who is feeling this way. I've not wanted to kill myself at all but I've even had thoughts popping into my head that I can't live with this long term.

[Daisyxxchainxx]

Also I'm painfully away I'm living a seperate life to my partner. No sex. No film nights. We sit moaning about our issues and how shit we feel. Then we go to sleep. I hate how we've become.

[Anxietyandmyself]

Another one here who is going through the same OP. Thank you for posting this, it has helped to alleviate some of the worry that something else is wrong.

I was up at 6.45 to get DC ready for nursery so I did that and then had to go and sit down in the bedroom. My muscles ache, my diet has gone to shit, I'm constantly exhausted. I'm moving less and eating more junk so the lack of proper food and exercise has just exasperated things.

Hoping you all turn a corner soon. It's miserable.

[pigeon999]

I feel relieved to have found this thread, because even after the call with the dr I was thinking how can this be?! Seriously I feel faint with exhaustion.
As I have researched stress I can see we do have all of the physical symptoms. I just didn't know enough about it in the first place.

We are at least at the end of this awful lockdown now, not at the beginning, and although it isn't over - it definitely is for now. I am hoping as things get back to normal we will all start to feel better.

When the children return to school that will make a big difference even forgetting about the other options that might help!

[Daisyxxchainxx]

Me too. It's been horrible. It's hard to untangle it all. I've gone from anemic to lockdown, then I've been given vitamin D. So I feel I've been thinking it's all to do with that. Even this morning I feel abit off. Just sat to do some writing with my DD. Then I got stomach ache. It's just really getting me down. I can't focus for long.

I definitely have dizzy smells. For three weeks my head was going dizzy like I was coming off a roundabout. But now I think was that stress too? It makes you constantly feel like you are getting a virus. I look at other people and think how do they do it. Right now I feel like I couldn't go shopping or for a day out. I thought about booking zoo tickets. But I really can't predict my own energy to do things like that. I'm going to Norfork at the end of July and I'm so looking forward to it. But also secretly worried.

Is anyone else worried to make plans for the fear of their bodies failing them?