The positives of The covid pandemic.

[badgergirly]

Thinking back to covid times/lockdown/the pandemic and what a horrendous time it was for many, losing loved ones, children losing their education and and generally a horrible time for the world, I'm curious to ask if anyone can take anything positive from it all?

Has life changed in anyway for you that's become a positive going forward?

My DH now works from home 50% of the time and can take out DC to school and pick up, something he would never been able to do prior to covid as he would have been in the office.

He was also able to take DC to nursery in lockdown/covid times.

We also had another baby last year, something I'm positive wouldn't have happened if covid hadn't have been present.

The national figures show a decrease in suicide and suicidal behaviour over the pandemic, although it is picking up again now

I think my finest achievement of lockdown was not punching my exH in the face when he told me 2020 has been the best year of his life when he hadn’t seen his own kids (who live locally and really struggled with lockdown) for nearly 5 months.

other than that, it was fucking dreadful in every way thanks.

No, there was a huge surge in referrals and it was down to the lockdown measures. People were alone and struggling with their MH issues.
Stop trying to downplay it.

WFH. That's it. I'd prefer to swap that and to have never heard of fucking covid though.

I have now paid off my mortgage ten years early due to hardly spending any money in lockdown. I absolutely loved having to stay In except from going to work. I now try and keep my nights out to a minimum, but they are creeping up again.

I work for a major news organisation. For the first year of the pandemic I compiled the daily death charts to be used in news graphics. Looking back, it had a fairly dramatic negative affect on my mental health. Our company could see what was coming, so we'd been instructed to WFH way before Johnson's 'You must stay at home speech'. As it turned out WFH turned out to be permanent, if we wanted - which allowed us to fulfil a long -held ambition of leaving London and becoming mortgage free in an area well outside if the capital thay we'd always loved. And yes, I do know how fortunate I am.

Two things:

The price of avocados in Victoria went down when there were no cafes to smash them on sourdough, and they have remained very reasonable.

The general courtesy around spreading one's ailments has been heightened so folk, on the whole, don't turn up sneezing and sniffling to your house.

Well I lost my job, marriage and home because the government panicked. THe Tories can FRO at the next GE

Funnily enough my savings went up which is kind of weird

• WFH
• Not having to attend social engagements
• More time with kids
• More time to exercise- walked a lot
• Saved money - no beauty treatments, eating out, holidays

-

We started wfh both DH and I and we still do. We love it, especially that we moved in our new house this year and it's our little heaven
Savings grew substantially
We could get married in 2020 with only 90 people (the limit was 100 where we live) and it was amazing, hands down one of the best days of our lives

I am not "downplaying" anything - I volunteer in this area, and have done for 30 years. I am interested in the truth.

And the truth is very much NOT what the tabloid media headlines say it is.

Firstly, the range of what is classified as a "mental health problem" has more than tripled in the last 5 years- and the number of places to refer sufferers has plummeted. leading to the commonly repeated headline that mental health services are "overwhelmed". They quite often are, but not because the rate of mental health problems has increased.

secondly the suicide rate went down during the pandemic, so did suicide attempts and suicidal behaviour.

Thirdly, the mental health of many people, and particularly children, improved during lockdown - as many people report improvement as report deterioration.

Thats not to say that some people havent developed serious problem- they have,

@XenoBitch no, it is the issue you are refering to.

You state that a friend of your child developed Tourettes due to lockdown - and I pointed out that it is genetic, and not related to lockdown.

You also said that many of her peers did too.

Many young people, who know each other, suddenly developing tics at the same time is not tourettes, and it is not related to mental health - it is entirely social.

I would bet £1000 that at least one of the original "tickers" got it from tiktok and spread it around their friends - that is how this happens

Interestingly, that’s no actually true. There has been a huge increase in tic symptoms in young people following covid lockdowns. It’s been reported in the data, and I’ve seen it in my clinical practice.

Not one.

You'd normally expect any increase to come after the event though, I think? Like how the suicide rate escalated in Northern Ireland after the end of the Troubles rather than during.

Hand sanitiser available everywhere.

More options for remote working.

Scientific advancements from the vaccine development.

A reminder that we are one human race on one world.

The opportunity for people to express the best values of humanity - kindness, generosity, community spirit, duty to others, gratitude, ingenuity, cooperation .

Out of WW11 came the welfare state

Covid was a tricky, sad and unsettling time. I struggled throughout but as things eased, it made me reassess my whole life, and then change it. My daughter left home to make her own life - I'd been a single parent throughout, I'd just had a big promotion in a job I loved but was also dangerously stressful, I'd fallen in love with someone but we were living very different lives. I lived in a house I didn't like in a busy urban area I didn't like.

The upshot? We (separately and naturally) aligned our thinking, committed to each other, bought a beautiful cottage in a very rural area, and moved to the other side of the country. I changed jobs (took a big pay cut but I love it and the stress has gone), and his business has taken off and expanded. We live a simpler life, outdoors and healthier. We walk, cycle, grow, forage, and embrace the nature around us. We have new hobbies and new friends. We rehomed a lovely dog. I wake up and take stock of everything around me, soak up the view and I have to pinch myself. We often say to one another, "Look what we've done, look at the life we're making."

I'll never know if any of this would have happened without the pandemic, I feel like it gave me, us, the push we needed to stop life passing us by and instead to grab it by the horns and create the life we wanted.
I've never felt happier, or stronger. Life's a funny old game...

yes, it is a complicated picture, obviously, and will take years to become clearer. However, even allowing for less reporting, and delayed reactions, the suicide rate fell.

Tourettes is genetic

Covid has not increased the incidence of a genetic disease!

Tics are not genetic. Tics are socially contagious. Tics are being spread hugely, and largely through Tiktok, but again this is not related to covid, except that maybe more young people went on Tiktok during lockdown?

I’ve been thinking really hard and cannot think of anything positive whatsoever about it. Nothing at all.

For me, it was 10 ways of horrific.

I do love the fact that so many others did have positives happen for them.
I appreciate that there are other perspectives and ways of looking at things, so a lovely idea for a thread OP.

Husband works from home 50% of time, not getting train at crack of dawn every day has been fantastic for his quality of life.

I’ve been left with Long Covid, all the symptoms of a neurological condition without any diagnosis or treatment, and a respiratory problem which means I struggle with a lot of the things I did before covid. I’ve lost a lot of function and had to give up some activities that I loved.
BUT
I bought a peloton and it has saved me from being significantly depressed, I’m able to manage exercise in a way that suits me, discovered different types of exercise and helps me feel more in control of my health and well-being. It’s also allowed me to connect with some lovely and inspiring people who I would never have come across otherwise.
So whilst covid was a bit shit in many respects I would never have bought the bike if we hadn’t had it and it’s the first thing (after kids and pets) that I’d rescue in a fire.

*would also rescue husband obviously - particularly if he was sitting on the bike at the time

My daughter knew she could marry and live happily with her aussie partner after he ended up locked down for 7 months in her 1 bed flat when Australian closed the borders. Wedding in June ❤️