Did covid screw anyone else's life up?

[girlmeetsboy]

Interested to hear on this as I have been reading a thread where people loved the solidarity of it all. For me it was redundancy, house lost, business lost and savings...

We can no longer afford to buy a house as we were planning to do late 2020, but other than that, life hasn't really changed. I've lost a few 'friends' but tbh if they were real friends I think we'd have managed to maintain them. I'm actually rather happy with my streamlined friendship circle

Yes, DS2, he was made redundant from a job he loved in the fashion industry. He has had to retrain and is struggling to get a job in his new sector as not sufficiently experienced .

For me and my daughter - no.
For my son - it was quite devastating. He was 17, just started at a vocational college. He found it impossible to make new friends due to lockdowns, he missed out on the invaluable and essential work experience, and his escape valve (the gym) was shut for months on end. He lost confidence, developed anxiety, has become very angry and has yet to recover.

I had just lost my mum before the first lockdown. My poor dad was unable to leave the house and now almost 3 years on he lives like a recluse and drinks 80 units a week. I had to continue working at the hospital and lost count of how many hands I held whilst they passed without their loved ones. The whole thing has left me very low in mood and anxious.
My son with ASD struggled through his GCSEs and my marriage has never recovered as I spent so much time with my dad. I had to bubble with him during the first lockdown as otherwise I don't think he would still be here now.

I have nevered suffered from social anxiety before, however, post lockdown, my abilty / desire to socialise is non existent. Not driven by covid fear, but by an unknown anxiety that has developed within me.

I also find 99%of people to be ruder, less tolerant and any service that I use is sub standard and nothing ever gets done.

My husbands cancer follow ups were ignored and his cancer spread. Such a stupid time for so many

This is now me.

Covid was the best thing that happened to me.

I got out of a shit job, got a different one same money and now WFH, with my husband who is also WFH.

We got two dogs and have quality time together, work/life balance is amazing

I don't feel the same anymore, my world has shrunk massively and I kind of feel like I've lost all the pleasure in life. My lovely uncle died of cancer which could and should have been treated and wasn't. My (previously fairly rational) DM has disappeared into a vortex of conspiracy theories and paranoia and it's pretty much like I've lost her, she barely leaves the house and is so negative to be around I can hardly bear it. I can't remember the last time we laughed together and we used to laugh all the time, she was my best friend.

And then there's the effect on MH, which is evident in me, DD(13) and DH (although he wouldn't admit it) as well as my DM. Everything just feels so bleak since Covid, like all the hope has been sucked out of us and I'm really struggling to find a sliver of positivity to drag myself back up with. I was already a bit 'afraid of life', had some pretty awful things happen to me in the last few years and the whole atmosphere of fear we've lived under since the pandemic has made that even worse. I still feel scared, and like I'm waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

I closed my business because it didn't recover from covid and I lost all passion for it. My daughter has depression and anxiety and was self harming. No access to help because oh yeah, Covid. I have distanced myself from friends because of choices they made re bubbles and frankly I feel like I was abandoned because hey, glen is the strong one she'll be fine.

My MIL has dementia but can't get a reassessment because of covid backlogs. My brother lost his business.

Basically it was a massive shit show which has ongoing consequences for so many.

Wow @MrMrsJones Read the room

I was just starting to properly recover from PND post second born when we went into lockdown. Had a breakdown this time last year after everything and I'm just starting to get things back together again. It was horrendous. In hindsight I know that being stuck mostly indoors with an AuDHD 3yo, a 1yo and being ADHD myself whilst working on zoom 3 days a week ignoring my own kids and managing other peoples kids whilst husband was in all day meetings was a fatal combination for my mental health.

Yeah, I thought that too.

Lost my health, went form a healthy fit lady that walked 7 miles a day to and from the office to a lazy working from home sloth who gained 3 stone and diabetes, fatty lover and high cholesterol. Not totally lost as working on getting myself healthy again but for a while I was an overeating, heavy smoking, depressed individual.

Lockdown was amazing for me, it allowed me to slow down and breathe and did absolute wonders for my mental health. I'm sure that I'd still be very depressed and anxious now if it hadn't happened.

The virus itself, however, has cost me almost everything.

Whoops fatty liver not lover, dont have one of them, or a slim one for that matter!

My parents were so frightened that we were not allowed in the house for months and months, even though Dad's dementia was deteriorating fast and Mum was struggling. The dementia support groups shut completely, then were online only which they couldn't access. The "protect the NHS" messaging stopped them accessing GP advice and support.

My teenagers went months without seeing their friends except on a computer screen. School exams fucked 2 years running, DS started uni in September 2021 and spent the whole year in online lectures. He was in the building 5 times all year. He withdrew, stopped looking after himself, was feeling very low and worthless and we were extremely worried about him to the stage that we engineered things so that there was always an adult at home. My 16 year old daughter could not cope with being isolated from her friends and being stuck in the house and had the most almighty toddler-style meltdowns/tantrums.

Awful time. I am struggling to think of any lockdown positives.

I'm so sorry you all have been through the mill. Its been like something from a film hasn't it. I know we will never recover financially but thankful for our health. The messages on this board are horrendous regarding MH, cancer etc etc. Huge hugs to all of you x

No it didn’t screw my life because I wasn’t going to let it and I wasn’t prepared to let it ruin my family’s life.
I have 2 very elderly neighbours who, pre covid always came for Sunday dinner: that wasn’t going to stop.
Anyone who had half a brain cell should have seen what lockdowns would do to people.
My own Doctor ( a free thinking man) told that a tsunami of cancer deaths were coming down the line.

Didn't do the teens much good, mental health wise or in terms of their education.

Yep - now CEV thanks to Covid. Work (self employed) dried up and not return. So suffering financially, although DH's job is good so we're fine.

Teenage DD suffered (like all the kids), missed education, will never get the training time for her sport back and it was at a key time for development so years of hard work impacted.

So yes, crap. 2 Million and counting with Long Covid so there are a lot suffering.

How did all that happen. Your husband got made redundant? Whose business was lost? How did you lose your house?

Thank you for starting this thread, because in the rush to 'get back to normal' we haven't really sat and reflected on what has been lost. Most if not everyone will have some kind of loss, and that is huge when you multiply it across the whole globe. That is a hell of a lot of processing.

Op, I am sorry you lost everything. How are things now? Have you been able to save your marriage? Which is always the biggest strain.

In my life my dd's friend committed suicide, he was 15, that triggered anxiety for her and stress levels went from nothing to very high. A second friend then attempted the same and became very ill. Other dd's 12yr old friend was hospitalised with anorexia around the same time (summer 2020) Some friendships didn't make it, which was sad. I was totally on top of my game in 2019 and now I feel I am not. I just can't get back to where we were. On the surface everything looks great, and we are getting there, but underneath I still feel periods of absolute exhaustion that keeps coming back. I feel semi permanently exhausted for no obvious reason.

I am so sorry for everyone that has lost someone, lost homes, lives, memories.

I try to take away the most positive elements, we now have resiliency we didn't have before, we don't sweat the small stuff, we are very close, but really we lost a lot of 'life' and I can't quite get past the sadness I feel about that. For all of us.

My mum and (nhs) colleagues died from it. The government and health service didn’t give a toss about staff safety. We didn’t have masks in outpatients for months and were forced to commute on a minimal and crowded commuter service. Pretty much everyone except ITU staff caught it in the first wave.
On a wider level the lockdowns went on far too long and we should have taken a targeted approach. It was also a huge mistake to keep reopening foreign travel and letting it re-seed. I still can’t believe they let flights leave China and land in the UK for so long.
All the above has made me very bitter.

Luckily we were hardly affected. Kept on working, wasn't ill, lost no one, dc fine. Everyone we know (closely) were largely unaffected. I know OP and many posters have been badly, and I didn't want to seem crass, but just to give balance that for some it wasn't that bad.