Anyone still suffering lockdown fallout?

[EmmaEmerald]

I don’t want to tag any of the original people who helped me out a lot as I know this thread will attract a lot of nasty folk

but every so often I feel absolutely in shock still at how the fallout goes on.

suppose I’m seeking reassurance it won’t be like this forever but it might be, I guess.

No, I was home stay and my husband always worked from home, so for me lockdown was absolutely nothing, just plain annoying sometimes. We explored local walks and I made many online friends with online courses , groups and ladies meet ups. Found jobs outside the home while still masks were obligatory. Had covid , very mild, all this as non vaccinated, asthmatic person. Home schooled my daughter with energy. Not sure what fallout means.

In some ways/ my family does. My (much) younger half sister was in her last year of mandatory schooling during the first lockdown.

went completely off the rails, dropped out half a year later from her (initially) chosen college. Claimed that she had never wanted to go despite having worked incredibly hard to get in. I think she had just gotten used to not going to school in some way.

massive escalation of conflict with her / our parents, relationship breakdown etc.
Didn’t finish her apprenticeship either.

I am aware that she’s a young adult (nowadays) and that there’s a level of personal responsibility.
But she was barely 16 during the initial lockdown and things just went really wrong for her… even though she had a lot of external support. I think she was a kid that really needed the structured environment provided by going to school.

the lack of social life (sport, various clubs etc.) seemed to affect her terribly as well. MH really took a hit.

edit: the announcement that grades wouldn’t be effected by results during / right after lockdown was definitely well-meant. But in her case it simply lead to her doing nothing at all.

I am not going to comment with nastiness, thank you for hosting the thread, I am interested in it

I also have PTSD (not joking) from crafts and indoor activities.

No, you fucking don't.

May be I should say I am introvert-ambivert. I am very much adaptable to be alone , to be out going, to be home, to work in hospitality, to study, to have a break, to do a course, to volunteer, basically whatever comes up, I usually embrace it. So this is why am interested in others' stories what fallout means, why couple of months staying home is regarded as the drama of the century

In fairness, lockdown was a political decision. As not locking down would also have been. You can't have pandemic management decisions that aren't political, because of the way it involves weighing up harms and benefits and prioritises the welfare of some over others. Especially not in a country where those in charge know they'll be facing the electorate again in a few years max. The problem is when people are selective about what they say was political.

Yes, directly and indirectly.
Me - physical health issues which I got after getting covid in 2022. Possibly DS too.
DCs - awful mental health during lockdown and beyond. They are both still dealing with this & while they had anxiety prior to lockdown the lack of routine and social life really had a massive impact and particularly left DS vulnerable.
Our social life also suffered as we lost touch with some people and also groups disbanded.

Same. I don't know anyone who has been long term affected by it, other than financially for some self employed friends.

It wasn’t ‘a couple of months staying at home’ though was it? It was March to July-ish, then the following Jan-July we were restricted massively.
Schools were closed for 2 terms, my DCs didn’t do their A levels or GCSEs in 2020, start of uni was a disaster etc. no in-person lectures or seminars. Some students were virtual
prisoners in halls.

I have two teenagers with Autism.
One is just about pulling around now.
One really isn't. They found it very distressing & also it rocked their confidence that any adult in charge actually knew what they were doing. (I agree...)

I hope things improve for you, OPx

Far more bodies are going to pile up post covid, due to the decimation of the economy and in turn NHS.

I'm quite surprised so many of you actually did lock down. I didn't and neither did hardly anybody I spend time with. We pretty much all worked throughout though, and set up a local pub in each other's houses in turns.

If it were just people staying at home for a few months it wouldn’t matter would it?

But surely it’s not hard to understand that some people didn’t have a nice home to stay in, or were in very cramped conditions with no outside space, or relied on outside help to stay at home, that people had businesses go under, teens and young adults had two years of vital education interrupted, younger children’s development was affected negatively, elderly and disabled people were isolated, serious illnesses like cancer were missed and some women had to give birth alone or were deprived of support, others had to postpone funerals and grieve alone.

All of the above consequences of Covid and lockdown were well documented at the time so it’s a bit disingenuous to pretend you haven’t heard of any of them.

I developed anxiety which I still can’t overcome, it wasn’t anything to do with being scared of Covid but lockdown almost ruined us financially, we were so lucky that we had savings but it’s all gone and we’re still trying to get sorted financially. And I worried about my teen children being so isolated in their rooms all day homeschooling, my son’s hair started falling out at one point and we just had to say enough was enough.

In a lot of ways, I'd say the opposite actually. I mean, in terms of work, I am still trying to clean up mess that was delayed and then ran over (a lot of my work is with clinicians, most of who were reassigned during COVID), and with all of us who had extra caregiving responsibilities with lockdowns, meant that work didn't get done on time, so all that work had to happen outside of working hours later on down the line as everything I do is project based. There's no room to make up for lost time. I'm still trying to finish things that probably should have happened end of 2020 if projects hadn't come to a grinding halt.

We locked down pretty tightly and took things pretty seriously (my work is in infectious diseases, though not COVID specifically), so we weren't lockdown breakers. Lots of things in life had to change as a result, and actually we lost out on a house purchase, and ended up moving to an entirely different part of the country after. Kids changed schools. Dh moved business. Some things happened in our wider family during lockdown (not COVID related) that led to us going NC with family. I was drinking too much. So it was a pretty difficult time while we were in it.

But life now is much better overall than it was pre-COVID. Not because of COVID, per se, but because of the big life changes we made at the time - big move, new house, new schools, more headspace from dysfunctional family, different priorities, gave up drinking and got sober. I think we have a really good quality of life now. I have no doubt the kids probably didn't have an easy time - at the time - because it was stressful, but then I think about the stresses I experienced as a child, and I don't think the impact of COVID was near as damaging or long standing, if I was to compare them. I'm sorry though that you've had a hard time. It doesn't sound like it's been easy for you.

So this is why am interested in others' stories what fallout means, why couple of months staying home is regarded as the drama of the century

This type of minimising really fucks me off. It wasn’t ’just a couple of months staying at home’; it was two years of varying restrictions, during large parts of which virtually everything was taken away. It was illegal for my daughter to see another child for months on end (only child and she was too young to go out and meet anyone by herself). I developed clinical anxiety from worrying about her, which triggered a flare up of my chronic physical health condition. I didn’t see one of my siblings and their family for a year and a half due to travel restrictions. My granny was in a care home and no one was able to see her for months on end before she died in 2021. You can believe lockdowns were necessary but please don’t bloody pretend they were without consequence.

I feel for DC transitioning into or out of school milestones. I am massively concerned for my DC socialisation. Maybe a generational thing, they do not seem to have the friendships we had.

For me isolating at home made me feel very safe. That time with my family is very precious. I am lucky we were able to make the most of it. My OH was unpaid for a lot of it.i was lucky to be able to WFH amd thrived. The downside was my newly widowed Dad was isolated and heartbroken. I am still very worried about him.

I cannot imagine everything going back to socialising or going to the office in the same way.

The cost of living crisis on the back of pandemic, means the pressure has been constant. Food, energy and mortgage means it is too expensive to socialise regularly.

The corruption of MPs makes me resentful. MPs partying when people died in hospital alone or buried relatives without family still disgusts me. PPE and money wasted and the pressures on NHS and schools is hard to reconcile.

I can't understand how anyone would minimise it

We were locked down for a YEAR in total!

March-June 2020
Local lockdown in London and other places September - November 2020

And January - July various tiers 2021

That's a WHOLE YEAR of restrictions

The corruption of MPs makes me resentful. MPs partying when people died in hospital alone or buried relatives without family still disgusts me. PPE and money wasted and the pressures on NHS and schools is hard to reconcile

agree. I feel the same about anyone who thinks they are clever because they flaunted lockdown.

Same it was major policy to do something so all encompassing

It’s a big shame the damage won’t be weighed up against the benefit.

I’m doubtful that will happen for a while, hopefully one day

In short, yes I am still dealing with the fallout from covid.

My child had many, many reasons why they should have been in priority childcare from the start. However her school point blank refused to have her claiming that their provision was only for NHS workers. Through no fault of our own, we ended up going down a safeguarding route. The school then changed their mind very quickly.

However, what it did do was take an already difficult (with very good reason) relationship with the school and completely shattered my trust in school staff full stop. My child is now in a different school. I now have PTSD type issues when it comes to dealing with schools. And the CFS/ME that I had but was at a low level has progressed to the extent I am now a wheelchair user, disabled and completely dependent on others for just about everything.

I'm not even 40

I obviously meant affected.
but the effect was certainly disastrous.

This type of minimising really fucks me off. It wasn’t ’just a couple of months staying at home’; it was two years of varying restrictions, during large parts of which virtually everything was taken away
For some of us it really was just a couple of months staying at home. I know this comes from a place of massive privilege and I am absolutely not undermining anyone else's experiences or minimising our privilege but it is some people's experience.

I don't think it was appropriate for someone to come on this thread particularly and speak of it so flippantly but as it's already here I will defend it a bit by saying for me that isn't minimising my experience. That is how it felt.

I think people are conveniently forgetting that lockdown was to prevent overwhelm of our health service.
We created an extra 150 ICU beds in our Trust, that was how many people required ventilation and that was with lockdowns
I was redeployed along with many others as so many staff were off with MH issues, self isolating and many just went on long term sick or left.
The thought of what might have happened without lockdown is unthinkable.
People would have just died in corridors or outside.
Absolutely sick of the whiners still banging on about how hard staying in their own bloody home was for them .
Try working 18 hour shifts in full PPE in 36 degree heat, watching people die and there's nothing you can do.
So glad it's over and we can all move on.

Sorry I was agreeing with you @BMW6 not have a go !

Don’t tell me to basically suck it up and move on from losing my dh!

have you ever lost your dp in a lockdown? Have you ever had to choose which one out of your four children could come to your hospital wedding? Only five were allowed, what a choice.

dont even get me started on the funeral. Did you spend your wedding night holding onto your husbands hand on 2 hospital chairs pushed together.. cancer that was missed because he couldn’t get seen in time.

ever seen your kid want to kill herself because she couldn’t say goodbye to her dad.

ffs.

be grateful that you’ve never had to go through this.

My mental health is shit, my dds mental health is shit and yes we are struggling. Live life to the fullest, yeah sure when I’ve lost so much