Help! Covid has made me hate everybody :(

[candycane222]

I know IABU, but nayway...

At the start/peak of the epidemic I was, naturally, nervous around other people, even outdoors (I'm not young, and have a mild 'underlying condition'). Some of my neighbours are a bit noisy (not ridiclously so, and not for long at a time or late at night) and some of them have never shown much sign of social distancing etc and these seem to go together to has stress me out, even though I don't have to get particularly close to them (suburban street).

But now I can consciously feel myself thinking 'oh fuck off' when I hear anyone do - well anything much, really eg use a strimmer, or drive by in a noisy car. Or having a conversation on their front drive. Just generally make me aware of their existence I suppose! I am even starting to get annoyed by kids playing outside -ffs, I have always been please to hear that sound in the past, and was sad in the early days of Covid when their parents were keeping most of them in. And similarly when I am out for a walk in our pretty quiet nearby woods, I instinctively avoid people if I can by turning off paths even in I meant to go that way.

I mean this is semi lighthearted, but I can feel it getting worse and my anxiety levels starting to creep up if I have to go out anywhere, especially to shops etc, even though they are really quite quiet and well-managed round here.

Is anyone else feeling anything similar? How can I become more tolerant and accepting of my fellow humans, just getting on with their own lives the best they can?

Covid isn't going to go away - and neither are other people. Can anyone help me cope a bit better?

DP and I have both got a bit grumpy. We have been spending a lot of time on property websites and fantasising about living in the middle of nowhere.

DP is getting quite carried away with the idea of living in a jungle and has started emailing estate agents in Costa Rica. 😊

He was telling me cheerily he was going to "finally sort the garden out soon", which actually, stupidly, makes me feel physically anxious. I know what he means: he does not mean he is going to think to himself "this weekend I am seriously going to get on top of the weeding" and potter around out there with a fork and a trowel. no. This means he is going to get some builder mates over; walk around shouting with them; get lots of beers in; they'll have a loud radio, and lots of machines; he is going to ask to take things through my side gate and go backwards and forwards, half naked (he and all his friends are going to wear very little and proudly strut about sticking their tummies out) ; he's going to rip out mature shrubs and trees and expose more of my space to him; hes going to find the loudest machines to do all this that he can, and then he's going to install some fucking stupid ugly tacky decking for rats to live under, and probably some abomination like a fucking hot tub and basically live in it and ruin my life.

God sounds like our dreadful neighbours. Can't do anything quietly, even sitting in their garden on a sunny afternoon.... if they do, the rest of us know about it. I fantasise about a sink hole plummeting their house and every noisy fucker in it, deep into the Earth.

I know what you mean. I can hear a neighbor next door but one constantly droaning on, kitchen window open playing elexa, woman other side of me out in the garden on her phone with the speaker on all the time. I feel like telling them to shut up. I've never been much of a people person anyway but now I can't face being near anyone

I've found my people! I was always a bit nervous/anxious deep down but externally the noisy fun one, just needed a bit of peace and quiet now and then, but now... I hate people, they are everywhere, too close, too noisy, and whilst I find it quite lonely WFH and miss my direct colleagues, I'm already dreading the idea of being back in the office with too much Noise and too many people
And don't get my started on the ndn one side who we see nothing of all day but they appear after dark crackling vdrinking beer and chain-smoking noisily, and the kid the other side bouncing a ball on concrete ALL AFTERNOON

Yeah, interesting how people don't seek you out (by text) when you stop initiating chats. It's hurtful, but I'll live! I'm so over covid...

Actually since reading your OP I’ve realised I feel quite similar.

How strange.

I think when you work in an office you are protected from a lot of the daily doings of life like people cutting the grass etc, maybe it’s that?

I feel the same especially regarding noise. I am trying to work from home and every bit of noise is irritating me. I am so sick of noisy exhaust cars going up the road and this particularly noisy lad across the road who seems to fix others noisy cars as a hobby. All summer I have listened to this lad on the front with his mates and he coughs and coughs the whole time, so irritating. last night one of his mates turned up in yet another noisy old banger and zoomed off down the road at speed frightening next doors timid cat and I just saw red and shouted at the lad that I was sick of his noisy effing cars. I'd just had enough. neighbours must have wondered what on earth had got into me, I'm not normally like that.

I hear you, OP! Today a drone came over my back garden and I went guns all blazing, both hands in the air, middle fingers up (in case there was a camera). I realised, too late, that it was probably my lovely neighbours two doors down (I really do like them but they also piss me off regularly because they have no social barrier). I have found my neighbours exhausting over lockdown. Just the constant noise and loud, newfound hobbies and World's Loudest and Greatest Dad winning his own prizes in his back garden every day for nearly 4 months, has gotten to me! And by god, hasn't everyone become Bob the Builder over lockdown? EVERYONE'S an architect or a builder. Bang bang bang. Drill drill drill. How LOUD are people? That's what I've noticed. People are so loud. They constantly seek attention. "Here, all of you neighbours surrounding me! You don't even know my first name, but how about some of my SHIT music BLASTING you into permanent tinnitus all.day.long! You love it! Admit it!"

And two houses behind me had the builders in for the entire lockdown. So the pneumatic drills at dawn, the screaming kids in the garden at night, the kids playing on our drive, the outdoor stereo systems, the neighbours who partied every other night throughout lockdown and continue to do so, the bonfires- for the love of god, the bonfires, (Oh yummy! Is that more plastic you're burning? Nice! Thanks for the unwanted carcinogens!) they have all chewed up my nerves.
It's all calmed way down but what I notice is now that we're able to mix and see people we love and cherish and haven't seen for months, I don't want to! I'm exhausted! I'm 'peopled' out! Weird, isn't it?

Haha babyroobs so you live in my street, that sounds exactly like my neighbour's 'hobby'. Vroom vroom, me got vroom vroom car

And I know what you mean vanguard about not even wanting to see your dearest family. Confession: my dear mum is shielding so to visit, I had to book a static caravan near her for a few days. I HAD IT TO MYSELF and it was in a field way out the back of someone's house. My God, it was bliss!! I think I need to see her again soon...

..and actually it was lovely to see her, and then scuttle off to my bolt hole at the end of the afternoon ...

But yes, v nice local friends are inviting us over for drinks in the garden, and god, the effort .. awful isn't it! ( Very wrong of me to want it to rain so we can't go, but there it is)

We're lucky to have quiet neighbours each side at the moment. One has just got divorced and it's bliss because her ex used to be a really noisy twat who couldn't do anything quietly - he was the type who'd hire a mini digger to do the weeding and a cement mixer to lay a couple of stone flags, not to mention playing loud boom-boom music in the garden from around 7am every morning in good weather.

Unfortunately the woman across the road has been a pain in the arse for years and lockdown has made her a million times worse. She has an incredibly loud and irritating voice - even in our back garden, we can hear her "talking" in her back garden. She has two teenage children who each have weekly house parties, with loud music, shrieking drunken laughter, even through lockdown, that start mid afternoon and carry on through the night, often resulting in broken bottles on the road, and even police called to fights in the past. Yes, they have a succession of "friends" with loud cars too. At least when she was at work and the kids at school during the day, we had a reprieve, but she's now "working from home" - what a laugh, she's a social worker, so probably on full pay, but doing bugger all, she's can't be working because all day is party day now, with her, her kids, her friends, her kids friends. You should see the stacks/piles of beer/wine bottles she puts out for the bin men.