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.

I think it all depends where you were, I'm fortunate to live in the sticks, in a working farming community, and to be honest, nothing changed - it was a glorious summer, agricultural work continued, people still visited each other. I never wore a mask and can only think of one person who did (they soon gave up).

We were quite casual about restrictions, people were outdoors as much as they wanted, pub being closed indoors for a bit was the only big change, but the weather was fine.

I'm sure if you lived in a city, particularly in a flat, that must have been very grim indeed.

Life really hasn't changed (and didn't) here, COL has been a greater challenge for most - but clearly many had a much more life altering experience.

EmmaEmerald, absolutely agree with you that the effects have been long-lasting, and I think it changed us all in some way. Many still feel cheated of time - time spent with others, and time they would have used in different ways, but couldn't.

Sending good wishes.

To some extent yes. Being stuck in a flat with no outside space was awful, single people were totally forgotten about for a while and not being able to meet up with another human being was tough. My parents both declined considerably, dad died in 2022 without ever going any further than the garden. Mum’s health is a lot worse now.

DS finally went to Uni after deferring for a year and is having a great time. I’m back to doing pretty much everything I did before lockdown but am really struggling to actually care about anything. There’s just an overwhelming sense of meh about life.

I’m so sorry for all those who’ve lost loved ones.

My parents were robbed of the last couple of years when they were healthy enough to go on holiday and do trips together. My DH was a nurse who got relocated to ITU who spent several months worried that he was going to bring something home that would kill me or my parents.he watched people die every day so understandably his mental health was affected. We're both probably less resilient than we were

Yes. I lost mum in the 1st week of the 1st lockdown, dad in the 1st week of the second one and inbetween was working for a company that had won a contract to make over 5000 body bags. My MH has declined and I'm not sure I will ever get back to the person I used to be.

Reading the effect lockdown and covid had on so many of you I’m amazed we re not experiencing much fallout.
I wasn’t on MN then so have no idea what was being discussed.
One of my kids was 2nd yr at uni and had to come home….bit peeved but saved loads of money as he was reimbursed all accommodation fees
My twins were supposed to take their GCSEs but couldn’t. One retook English as his predicted was low and he got two grades higher as he only had to revise for one exam.
They were at boarding school so we were reimbursed accom fees.
The twins both got covid at school after returning, very mild but one missed an Alevel paper so missed his chance at studying medicine but is now more than happy doing medical sciences ( especially as this area will afford him a much higher salary, it’s more up his street and he can always switch to medicine if he still wants to )
My dh and I worked from home, were fully prepared with masses of supplies as we had already started stockpiling because of Brexit. We didn’t shop after the first cases were declared in Leicester.
Neither of us got Covid as we kept away from people and also used a spray on our clothes etc that the army use, no idea if that helped plus a high dose of vitD.

I miss the quiet streets, the family board games and the peace.

If it wasn’t for so many people being so badly affected in so many ways I wouldn’t mind going back to such a peaceful time.

It’s very sad to here how so many of you have suffered and still are!

I was fine during the first year of the pandemic, relished wfh and felt "grateful" for my health and life, as so many were affected. But I did feel worried for friends and family who caught covid, and always worrying about my parents. The second year was pretty awful for me though. I felt like I couldn't trust our government down to my neighbours to care for other people's health. It felt like everyone wanted to just cough and sneeze in everyone's face and make people sick, and just a general lack of community and care for people. This has since affected my experiences of every day life - shopping, eating out, going to the office even though I wfh mainly. I just hate a lot of it. I value my health and generally life a lot more, but also feel a lot of resentment towards this individualistic (selfish) culture we have here in UK.

Similar, obviously in an immensely privileged position for this to have been my experience but that is my experience. I never think about it unless I am reminded either by seeing someone at work and thinking crikey haven't seen you since 2020 or if I see it on threads etc. The only sad personal thing was that my MIL died and my FIL had to have the funeral and then we just went home with him (my husband is an only child ) rather than have a "do" which I think he would have found comforting - but that's me feeling sad for him as I wasn't close to my MIL and she'd had bad dementia for ages so it was a bit of a release for her.

The problem is that life-shit still happened, whether it was Covid-related or not, and normal coping mechanisms were stolen for such a prolonged period.
Isolation became institutionalised. Confidence in society has been damaged.
Public services are in a worse state because of backlogs then dealing with additional load triggered in the covid years.

Many coping strategies that people used to survive weren't healthy, but they can be hard to break free from.

It goes beyond what was purely legal or not. Many went well beyond restrictions and the amount of vitriol towards people struggling or doing things beyond "the spirit of the rules" was damaging. Many found themselves frozen out of society. Volunteer roles that I use to structure life were erased for 12-15 months. It wasn't a healthy time to seek new interactions when the world was so unstable.

A big hug to anyone still struggling with life post-2020 whatever the reason was for it.

I’m sorry for those adversely affected…we emerged unscathed both physically and mentally although my husband worked through it (hospital consultant) so that was a cause for concern. I actually didn’t mind lockdown and things completely returned to normal for after us lockdown and we rarely think of it all now.

Yeah my life completely changed in 2020. Most of that had nothing to do with lockdown but lockdown also made it all much more difficult to cope with. I miss the before it's taken a lot to get used to life now but I've pushed myself to adapt as much as I can.

Loved lockdown. No change to my life at all now. It was 4 years ago!!! Socialise, work is the same (nhs) and go to concerts, parties, cinema without a second thought 🤷‍♀️ I hardly ever think about it tbh.

DD15 had covid 2 weeks ago. It was like a cold.

All my friends are the same. As are my parents (both in their 80's) - in fact their social life is amazing!!

I do know I'm lucky and I feel sorry for those of you still struggling.

Yes, OP. I am a member of the Lockdown Army and miss just about the lot, especially how noone expected me to give them my time and energy. Talking about relatives in another country.
Yes, I have Asperger's.

No problem, I realised 🙂

I don't think many people on here have any real conception of just how beyond terrible it would have been without Lockdown.

Life pretty much continues as before - but the lockdown and pandemic does feel like a watershed - and I look back fondly and nostalgically on pre covid times when I felt a different person.
I am changed because of it - I think we all have to be in some way. Like life is in a slightly different hue from before.
sending love to those who lost loved ones and are still strongly affected by it all.

I think my family were generally lucky in lockdown. My husband and I are retired so life wasn't that different, we live near a beach and went for walks just didn't do shops or meals out. We sort of made up for meals out by making a picnic or later on getting fish and chips and eating them by the beach. Two of my kids had to work, nurse and teacher the other two worked from home. None of us lost out financially.

GC all seemed to come through OK from the ones who started school during covid and the one doing GCSEs. None of them seem to have any issues.

I missed family particularly at birthdays/Christmas but we all talked online, Christmas 2020 once Boris announced lockdown we jumped in the car and drove halfway to where one of our kids lives and exchanged presents in a motorway services car park and then had a BigMac together. It was fun really.

New Year 2021 we went to a local bay where cruise ships were sheltering, as a thank you for the help they've had they all sounded their horns in turn at midnight. It was haunting and very moving.

On the bad side I got covid quite badly, doctor thought I should be in hospital but I declined, if I was going to die I decided I wanted to die at home. I was ill for 8 weeks and 2 years later I still have one remaining long covid symptom that is driving me mad, I itch particularly one leg but if I get a bit warm it starts all over. I've had stages where I think I'm going mad, I feel like I have tiny insects crawling all over me. So that is the worst thing and compared to many I think we got off lightly.

I'm always puzzled when people use the argument that more people die of X than died of covid. If we hadn't had lockdown many more people would have died of covid, surely that's the point. The same with people didn't get diagnosed of X because of lockdown, well how many people would have got diagnosed of anything if the NHS had completely collapsed, overwhelmed with the people sick and dying of covid? It is like the success of lockdown is now used to prove we didn't need it.

For those arguing the difference between lockdowns and the pandemic: it is vital to make that distinction. The government and the media are constantly gaslighting us with "because of covid" "because of the pandemic". Many of the terrible things described on this thread are squarely because of LOCKDOWNS, not covid. The OP's original question was about lockdown fallout, not pandemic fallout.

As for how terrible it might have been without lockdown: it's only because of the internet that lockdown on this scale was possible at all. A mere ten or twenty years previously, there might not even have been so much panic. The internet meant that blind fear and panic spread round the world in minutes.

I saw first hand the effects of lockdowns on children. It is unforgiveable that it went on as long as it did. Children were robbed of a large part of their formative years. "Only a year" to us is a quarter of a four-year-old's life. The fallout of this will be felt for decades.

Lockdowns went on for much longer than necessary. The government made promises they knew full well they could not keep, such as "just three more weeks" again and again, and "we can eliminate covid". Nope. If the government had admitted early on that lockdowns only delayed infection, not eliminated it, and that lockdowns were causing immense damage for extremely obvious reasons, I would now be respecting the government, and maybe even a short lockdown that it might have been. But because they dragged lockdowns on and on and on, until they could manipulate the figures enough to be "seen to have beaten the virus" (and yes, I very much believe the government manipulated figures A LOT, and is probably still doing so). The government was so desperate to save face, and could not bring themselves to say "actually, we can see that lockdowns are causing terrible damage, and the virus isn't nearly as dangerous as we said it was", they dragged out the misery for much longer than was needed. (If it was needed at all.) As far as I am concerned, Partygate is the proof that the government knew that things were nowhere near as bad as they were telling us: they had access to much more information than we did. If it really was a deadly threat, they would not have partied like that. Because they infantilised the population, and cried wolf on such a massive scale, I may never believe in any "government emergency" again. That is my lockdown fallout.

I have always doubted the integrity of government since I was a teenager; although I hadn't yet learned to distrust the media. My approval of government was very low indeed when Tony Blair declared his illegal war just because he wanted to. The last four years have been the final nail in any trust I ever had in government, and the media. I used to be an avid Radio 4 listener, but I haven't even switched it on since August 2020, with the constant talk of how bad "corrrrrrronavirus" allegedly was, and Boris Johnson casually saying "we have to squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze the brakes on reopening". Now I don't believe anything the government says at all, or what the papers say; and if there's a sensational story, my immediate thought is always "what is the government trying to hide?".

Lockdown was fine for my husband. He loves solitary pastimes and walking and was happy just to see people on video calls. I'm the total opposite - very sociable and love company - so I had to give my head a wobble and get on with it (no judgement on those whose mental health means a head wobble is not appropriate!). I was always a total rule taker, but suddenly discovered that if I think my family is at risk, I'll quietly break any rules I think unnecessary. So I visited my dad when it was banned. We stood yards apart and drank wine and chatted. He's really unhappy if he's not able to socialise and he's not going to change now he's on his 90s. I figured that no matter how Covid was spread, if we were very careful to stay apart, he could see me regularly and keep his sanity and his health. And I took my daughter and family home cooked food and left it on the doorstep and waved from a safe distance. Humans are mainly social creatures. Take away interactions and we wither.

@Iwasafool 'I'm always puzzled when people use the argument that more people die of X than died of covid. If we hadn't had lockdown many more people would have died of covid, surely that's the point. The same with people didn't get diagnosed of X because of lockdown, well how many people would have got diagnosed of anything if the NHS had completely collapsed, overwhelmed with the people sick and dying of covid? It is like the success of lockdown is now used to prove we didn't need it.'
Totally agree. Covid might be mild now, but it wasn't just like a cold then. And Long Covid has robbed many of us of the normal life we had before the flipping virus hit us.

I always thought that certain restrictions were a complete violation of human rights. I also lost my dad during the second lockdown but was glad that he was at home until the day before he died. I do not think that necessary and careful hospital visits would have made much difference to the infection rates.

For me and DS, it wasn’t too bad. We’re autistic and DS didn’t mind being at home. He’s studious so he got on with his work. I continued to take my dogs out because I was in a flat with no garden (but would have continued regardless). I remember coming on here and a lot of posters had come on solely to chastise the dog walkers because they knew we’d be panicking.

I know I am not over it because I cry every time I think about it.

It seems we are globally traumatised because if we were not then I think we would feel the visceral anger that this did not need to happen!!!!! We still do not even know for sure what happened apart from some hapless individuals it seems did not contain a pathogen.

I quietly fear how this will be utilised by rogue states and bad characters and wonder what planning is taking place around that in government??

Was that a trial run?

My teen dc have had a horror of a time. Suicides and breakdowns of their friends. It’s just been absolutely horrendous.

I feel almost semi permanently burnt out because teen mental health is exhausting to support 247. And I work in MH, and I see shattered lives constantly. I feel anger and I want someone to be accountable for this global disaster.

Good for you🙂

I’m not sure if I was on original thread.
But my DM had a nervous breakdown during first lockdown, boat load of anti- depressants later and she now goes shopping (with someone) one a fortnight.
I don’t think she will ever go out alone ever again. And she use to love a wander around the shops.

I was in a relatively privileged position during lockdown except for being stuck in a 1 bedroom flat with no outside space. Not being able to sit down outside for months and months, even with nobody else around, was maddening. The police were moving on lone people in parks with nobody near them, park benches were cordoned off, it was truly mad. What was done to single people and children is unforgivable, and those who couldn’t attend significant events like childbirth, death and funerals.
My mental health has suffered hugely though from the constant government gaslighting, the drip feeding of rumours through the Daily Mail, never knowing what was coming next or how we’d next be controlled. I find myself living in fear now and being risk averse in case the government wields some kind of mad control over us again. I feel super anxious and on edge about everything now which I never did before. Many of my friend are the same, including people who had never suffered any kind of mental health issues who became suicidal in lockdown and have never recovered. It’s truly sad all round.

I’m curious about the posters who have said that their friendships haven’t recovered. What has happened that you haven’t reconnected.

From my own POV we picked up where we left off. We are doing excatly the same things as before lock down such as eating out, cycle walking, afternoon teas out, tris to the city and holidays.