To think some people found lockdown really hard and it wasn't their fault

I expect many of us realise where we were when we heard the news of a ''Global pandemic'' being announced...and then the first UK death.

What I find fascinating is post lockdown behaviours depending on the country.

For example I find in the UK we kind of pretend it never happened. It was a major thing for at least 3 years and it’s mentioned now and again but it’s almost like there’s been an unwritten agreement to not ‘go on’ about it.

Whereas I was in Australia, last year and people talk about loads.

It’s like the cultural trauma response of the British is to not talk about it and be annoyed if people ‘go on’ about it. And in Australia they confront the trauma head on.

Five years ago, so I couldn't give a toss and don't give them a seconds thought any more.

I find it astonishing that anyone can’t understand how and why so many found lockdown challenging and hugely damaging to their mental health.

I was a key worker throughout, rather than furloughed. It was absolutely horrendous.

I can fully understand why those who were furloughed or working from home also found it challenging, though.

A truly horrible time, fear did not bring out the “blitz spirit” we so often hear about when the war is spoken of. It brought, and has kept, out a very different, unpleasant, side,to the general public.

It really was incredibly hard for the staff working through Pandemic.
The Covid deniers are a bit like ''flat earthers'' - Pointless even engaging with them.

It was hell on earth and I never ever want a repeat. My mental health was shot to pieces from being stuck in a flat with no outside space and when we went to the local park for our daily walk you couldn't even sit down. That coupled with a toddler and a neighbour from hell who blasted drum and bass 24/7 for 9 days straight at one point we were in pieces over it. We complained to environmental health but they wouldn't come out due to covid etc....

Now we have moved, have a lovely garden, but I still wouldn't want another lockdown. The world has changed from the one we had and not for the better.

You see, I had no problems about this aspect. A pandemic had been predicted for years, it was inevitable, only the timing was unknown. Clearly there will be another. Could be a month, a year, a decade, 50 years, but will happen. Then what do you do? You restrict movement to prevent the spread. This is exactly what you want a government to do. Impose restrictions for the greater good.

Parts of it were very hard including covid, which has had significant lasting health impacts. We bought a house in between lockdowns and moved in the January while still in lockdown. That was incredibly stressful. DH had surgery and was in hospital for 2 weeks, couldn't visit him obviously, which DD found hard.

Swapping Christmas presents in a service station park with my parents was a particular low point 😢 I missed them dreadfully, DH, mum, dad and I were all sobbing, but far too worried to hug each other. It was a five minute "here's your presents, see you when we see you" meeting.

Other parts of it weren't as bad as initially we thought they would be. DH and I were both key workers so DD still went to Nursery and later school.

We aren't "going out" people so we carried on much as we always did, and the slower pace of life suited us.

I hope we never face that again.

I was against the lockdowns from daily one but was lucky enough to work in a supermarket so was out meeting people every day. Anyone who enjoyed the lockdowns must have a very small and limited life.

First lockdown was horrendous. DD has SEN and I kept her home and I was ill with covid.
Second time I sent her in to school and she was much much happier. But I lost my father-in-law. So it was still horrendous.

The ''anti splatter'' screens many shops put up shows how much people ''spit'' when talking.

Idiots not wearing masks showering others with spit and not washing hands..Pathetic.

''You can't tell me wot to doooo''

This opening sentence is how I feel too. It was an incredibly scary time with so much pain and suffering for so many. Absolutely not your fault OP.

Personally, my silver lining to lockdown was the time I was furloughed allowed me to develop a new hobby. I had been interested in it for a while but didn’t have the time to properly learn until lockdown, when I self-taught with online guides, progressed quickly and grew to love it, to the point that I now work in this field. I feel very conflicted reflecting on this time - in hindsight, I’m grateful for this reset in my life, but I had no plan leading to a career change at the time, I purely focused on the hobby as a distraction and escape from all the fear and pain lockdown inflicted.

Thankyou I knew it sounded wrong 🤣🤣

I was lucky in that me and the kids never caught Covid , I started helping out on a local area volunteer phone line to help people have their prescriptions collected and I think being "helpful " made me not think about what was happening.
But for so many people it was hell , and I think I was lucky I had a garden and let dogs to distract us , and thank god stayed healthy.
I don't think though I'll ever forgive myself for not initially believing it was going to be what it was , because I truly thought the way they kept the airports open and the flights coming in that it surely couldn't of been as bad as the scare stories at the beginning

This is a great analogy! Is it same storm different boats.

And people with few or difficult ties. I'm a huge introvert, but like the previous poster, I still need SOME contact. During lockdown I had very very little. I didn't see my parents for 6 months, although I talked to them regularly (but this involved a lot of me reassuring them, as they were isolated, elderly and struggling). My best friend I saw weekly, but from the end of her drive and again, involved me either being scared I'd infect her (she was shielding) or reassuring her. I have very few other local friends, and when I did talk to them, I was the calm reassuring sensible one, and found that actually, nobody thought to reassure me at all, because good old me, she's so calm and reassuring. Maybe that's my fault for never saying I wanted anything else, but it was really difficult for many.
I would go days and days without speaking to anyone outside of work, and that was entirely through screens.

We were lucky. Me and the kids actually enjoyed it as I was lucky and still paid normally even though I could not go into work as schools were closed (work in a school)
We did alot of olio as essential volunteers and delivered free food to care homes and charities which kept us busy as well

Now they are all older I suspect that although myself, dd2 and ds would enjoy it, dd1 at 18 would not

@asrl78 it all depends on who the virus effects as to how much people will give up their freedom. Parents will always give up anything if it affects kids....80 year old grandma with COPD due to poor lifestyle choices not so much.

We strongly believe our purpose in life is to give our son the best life possible, regardless of what that costs us mentally or physically.

We found it very hard to see the economic impact our kids will be paying for combined with missed essential years of education for what? We had our grandparents totally isolated (and signed up to clinical trials) and you could see from the China data that for the healthy COVID even originally had a very low death rate. Would I accept that risk to keep our son in school and the economy running? I don't even think it would have registered as a risk more a urgh flu thanks DS.

I look back in what was cancelled - holidays, weddings and life events you can't get back like 30th birthdays that upsets me. We lost an elderly relative to COVID the fact it was COVID not cancer doesn't mean the death is any worse in our eyes it was a minor disease that killed due to her underlying pathology.

I am so sorry, that is tragic. Friends of mine on the wards caught it, some of them multiple times, one of my mates who is only in her 30's has been left with damaged lungs. It used to make my blood boil when people either denied it existed or said "It's just a cold"

YANBU, for some it was fine, my DH couldn't have cared less. I still feel upset and traumatised everytime I think of it. I had 2 primary kids at home with home schooling, looking after them all the time, working full time in a relentless job just from home, picking up work that my team said they couldn't do due to their own childcare, I picked up all the slack and lost 3 family members during the lockdowns. It was utterly horrific and I'm generally very resilient and have the benefit of living in a huge house and gardens so we had plenty of space. For some of us it was really hard for many many different reasons. You feel how you feel and that's completely fine.

What's that saying we was all in the same boat but a different storm. I feel like i got that wrong but you know what i mean 🙈🤣🤣

Surely only people with no ties outside of their household was harmed by it. Humans are social animals, we thrive in tribes. Everybody is harmed by isolation.

What an incredibly privileged position your mother in law was in! And how self absorbed and clueless her comments are! Utter nonsense. Don't let her make you feel bad in ANY way

Your MIL is very wrong and sounds very unable to see things from others' perspectives. Of course those with small kids at the time were amongst those who had the worst of it. You couldn't organise your way out of that. There was hardly any chance for organisation anyway. It was sprung on everyone.

It was fine for me. I owned my own home with a small backyard so could go outside easily, could work from home so my job continued and I was early stages pregnancy with my 1st so could take care of myself more as I was sick and tired and didn't want to go far anyway. I'd be deluded to think others didn't have vastly different experiences to me through no fault of their own.