How did the pandemic leave you feeling?

[poundshoptealights]

During the pandemic I experienced workplace bullying that caused me to leave a very successful career. I had counselling and found a new role. The new role has been really disappointing. I have also had long Covid as well as lots of other illnesses (all the superbugs going about). It's been a really hard 18 months and I have been genuinely worried about my mental health because I haven't been able to pull myself out of it. I have had zero energy for anything, felt like life is just bleak, been incredibly lonely and totally demotivated.

Suddenly, after 18 months, I feel like I am getting back to my pre-pandemic self. I can't really explain why. I have worked hard on my health (prioritising diet, exercise and sleep). I am finally finding some motivation to try at my new job, even though I don't like it much. I can envisage a possible future again and, importantly, feel like it is my hands to make it happen, when before I just felt listless all the time. Life just feels... brighter.

Has all this been a 'hangover' from the pandemic? Has anyone else felt like the mental effects lasted a long time after the lockdowns? I don't know if this is what I have been feeling but am curious to know what others have found.

Very lucky as it didn't affect me much negatively, I mean I hated that it was happening but it honestly feels like a weird dream I once had. Totally appreciate how lucky I was and that for others their experience was really awful

I enjoyed it too. I wasn’t scared of Covid, and had good times hanging out with my family.
the after effect for me has been a real sadness and frustration at how much our young people have missed out on, also people who lost businesses, healthcare and diagnoses etc

My partner and I had polar opposite views on pandemic lockdowns and isolating, which has caused irreparable damage I don't think we'll ever recover from.

I hated it at the time (hated WFH, hated not being able to see friends as I am a very sociable person, hated that our teen DCs missed so much including GCSEs for one of them), but now it’s almost as if it never happened, I can go days without really thinking about it.

Tired and pissed off at restrictions that were too late so therefore had to be too harsh. We should never had had to close schools, and close outdoor socialising for more than possibly a few weeks. It was obvious as early as February but most of the western world was caught in some weird blinkered bias effect.

im still pissed off now that I had to work full time and educate two children who were too young for digital lessons.

Lockdowns we’re fine.

6 months on from Pfeizer booster l still can’t walk or drive and have severe brain fog. Happened 5 days after.

Pretty much this.

I coped fine with lockdowns and already wfh so had no issues with that side, but i caught covid pretty early on in the pandemic, had it really badly and have been left with lasting lung problems and breathing problems so thats frustrating

My husband was furloughed from a job he loved causing us money worries and all the press and people going on about lazy people who were partying and having fun on furlough and should pay the money back (with what money, we already ended up in debt from the furlough) drove me mad. Far from having fun my DH nearly ended up in a nervous breakdown from the stress of money worries, and not being able to work which makes up a huge part of his identity and routine as someone on the spectrum, and because he was reading crap about people 'like him' in the news.

Im also unhappy about how loads of people now think its okay to demand everyone goes back into an office/workplace with no sort of understanding that many of us were wfh before the pandemic and we aren't all workshy slackers who are doing it because we cant hack it in an office.

The effects of the pandemic really only hit me full on at the beginning of last year. My partner was front line and out of the house all the time and I had to work at home, full time, on my own with 2 primary aged kids that required home schooling and a 7 mnth old baby.

I wasnt eligible for furlough, and whilst incredibly grateful to retain employment, I struggled to do the work that I needed to around caring for the kids. Plus I needed to support my junior colleagues who were struggling and was trying to maintain some semblance of career progression. It was horrific. And relentless.

This time last year I sort of fell off a cliff. Still WFH most of the time, so there was no one to see me weep at my desk everyday from being just so overwhelmed and not knowing how to move forwards. I completely ground to a halt, stopped really feeling anything other than overwhelmed in all respects, put on a lot of weight which I now cant shift. Had (and still do) trouble sleeping. Lost my fitness (injury didn't help)and really just lost myself. All signs point to significant burnout. Yet- if you knew me, you'd know I was not fully loving life, but you wouldn't get how fucking bleak I felt. I think my DH knew, but there was nothing he could do so......

Its a bit better now, but I still find it difficult to really enjoy anything- including the kids. Although I could happily keep walking, just me and the dog all day long. Think it will be a slow road back, still looking for the light at the end of the tunnel

I was hospitalised with Covid right at the start - March 2020 - and left with long Covid fatigue which worsened after I caught Covid again last summer. I think after 3 years, as it hasn’t cleared up, I will be stuck with it for the rest of my life, so I will probably never get back to “normal” pre pandemic life.
I now have to carefully pace my activity, can’t do gardening for more than 40 minutes, can’t walk more than about a mile and a half, and if I have a busy day and late night, I know I will have to spend the next day lying on the sofa, exhausted and coughing.

@ginpig a lot of that reflects how I felt too. It's only now that I am beginning to feel better that I can look back and see just how bad it got.

I'm sorry you had the same.

I found the lockdowns fine and they have had no ill effects. I enjoyed being at home with DH and adult DS, worked reduced hours and pottered around the house and garden. I'm lucky in that I will remember it as a good time in my life, because I know that for many it was an exceptionally tough experience.

My family and I also managed to avoid getting covid - until now that is. After three years we've all just gone down with it, luckily quite mildly I think <fingers crossed>

The demotivating effect was huge for me and I too only just seem to have got my mojo back. All our work came to a halt. Everything had to be redesigned and relationships built again. Our work lost momentum and direction. Luckily we've found it again but it took a long time to feel fully back up to speed, 18 months I reckon. It was very damaging for a lot of the people we work with. They had very little support.

I think the 'lost' feeling went on foe easily a year after lockdown ended. As if people had lost their networks and links. Thankfully these community networks are slowly building again.

We enjoyed the lockdowns, even if worried about our business.

What I'm now very angry about is the time lost with my darling Dad who died in January this year. The media coverage put the fear of God into him, and he became very isolated/lonely but was too scared to mix. It took many many weeks to persuade him to let me visit with shopping and I had to wear mask/gloves the whole time. We missed two Christmasses with him, and lack of routine medical care meant that his cancer wasn't picked up until it was too late. A simple blood test that he was supposed to have every 3 months would have shown that something wasn't right, yet he went over 2 years without one because the NHS became Covid only treatment. His last Christmas was spent in a hospice, with him not knowing who he was/where he was.