Does any one else feel their mental health had improved during COVID?

[MyNameForToday1980]

In the run-up to COVID I was having pretty intense treatment for anxiety. My anxiety largely manifested as health anxiety (but would find a route to exist, so if I couldn't muster a reason I'm probably dying, it would be displaced to practically any area of my life).

Therapy was postponed at the start of Lockdown in April. My therapist kept in touch, often asking how I was.

But to be honest, although I hate COVID and I'm totally ready for it to go away now, and I dislike the 'new normal' intensely, and I'm bored behind belief of working from home and doing very little... I feel mentally heathier than I have for years.

I wonder if COVID is the great leveller, that all of a sudden lots of people are experiencing the same incessant fear of death and loss as I have for years. And somehow it being 'normal' makes it less ... personally aggressive.

Does anyone else feel like this (or am I in denial, and should I get myself ready for some sort of personal crisis)?

YABU - hold tight sunshine you're headed for a big fall
YANBU - it's all dandy

My mental health has been horrendous this year. But if yours is good enjoy it! Something is obviously working for you. Perhaps less stress from work? You mention that your workload is lower.

Good to hear yours is better op mine is worse I'm not coping at all constantly worrying about covid money the future etc and nobody knows 😪

I've had a lovely year and my mental health's really good at the moment. I'm a primary school teacher so lucky because my job's secure.

During the first lockdown and partial reopening, my classes were half the normal size which was amazing. We were teaching but not the full curriculum and had more freedom. It was very relaxing, how I imagine it must have been to teach in the 60s or 70s, pre-National Curriculum.

We're back to full classes and the usual curriculum but I think the senior team are terrified of teachers going off sick (they wouldn't want someone else coming into teach that bubble) because they are talking about our mental health. We've had them talking about work life balance, reducing workload etc before but this year they are actually doing something about it and taking away some of the unnecessary hoops that we used to have to jump through. It's the least stressful time I've had at work for many years.

Thanks for the good wishes.

If anything life is more stressful, my job is just as full on (easily 60 hours a week), parenting and working from home when the schools were closed was a juggling act of project management the likes of which I'd never seen before.

And of course money (or rather job security) is a worry, as is the health of those I love (plus the broader ramifications on society at large, and people who are already having a hard time with their health or finances).

All the stressors are there.

But I'm no more fearful than usual, but all of the fears I've felt for years are suddenly valid and 'normal', rather than something that was limited to me, and people like me.

@minimum97 and @rainbowx I'm sorry to hear you're feeling the grind of 2020. It is an atrocious year. I don't want my post to come across as smug, I am aware that I may be in the minority feeling like COVID has normalised the way I feel.

Ps it's not me putting COVID into caps, that autocorrect rather than me shouting.

Yes, mine has improved immensely.

But I got slammed for mentioning it on a thread a while back, so be prepared to hear people telling you you're smug or selfish or whatnot.

I'm so glad you're feeling better

Yes, there are certain people I don't have to see and that has improved my mental health and happiness significantly.

Yep, mine has improved massively. I have GAD (generalised anxiety disorder). I think the main reason is being able to work from home, and actually getting enough sleep now I don't need to wake up at 6am. I'm a night owl and find it very difficult to get to sleep early, so I was constantly sleep deprived.

I feel like my mental health is having the most enormous fucking work out, I hope at the end of all this my mental health is sleeker, perkier and more muscular!

Thank you oh no I dont think its smug at all I'm genuinely pleased and hope it continues for you

@HazeyJaneII love that attitude😂 Think I'll adopt that image.

OP “I wonder if COVID is the great leveller, that all of a sudden lots of people are experiencing the same incessant fear of death and loss as I have for years. And somehow it being 'normal' makes it less ... personally aggressive.“

Interesting. I’ve suffered with depression and anxiety for years (not based on fear of death though. Not sure what you mean by loss).

I can’t imagine that having people to go through the same, en masse, would make me feel better.

I’ve really been on the ledge this year. But I’ve had a couple of friends enjoy lockdown and I must be nicer than I thought because I think “at least someone is having a good time and that’s a good thing”.

@HazeyJaneII - a mental health work out sounds about right. And don't get me wrong, there have been moments when I've felt awful (as I'm sure most people have, whether they have an existing mental health concern or not). Sometimes it's felt like Covid (now on a computer so phone autocorrect is no longer capitalising it) is a slow-puncture - and over the course of weeks and months I've felt deflated (again, as I'm sure loads of people do).

@AcornAutumn - to explain, 'loss' is short-hand for my most-consuming fear, so I don't have to write it down. It doesn't make me feel better that people are going through the same. It's just that my feelings are now 'normal' and commensurate with the situation. For the past 25+ years I've felt broken by a perfectly normal life, now life isn't normal. I'm very sorry that you've been suffering, I do 'get it'.

Yes my MH is better this year. Lockdown is great! Working from home means an extra hour in bed in the morning, and an extra hour to relax in evening. It means saving money by not taking the bus, and no stress about how late the fucking bus is yet a-fucking-gain. I can go several days without speaking to anyone, which is absolutely brilliant. I don't go outside much so don't have to worry about being attacked, and I save money by not going to shops.

Even when Covid is a thing of the past, the best thing the government could do would be introduce an annual three month lockdown, just to reset our stress levels and chill out for a bit.

“ Even when Covid is a thing of the past, the best thing the government could do would be introduce an annual three month lockdown, just to reset our stress levels and chill out for a bit.”

This is a joke, right?

@ZoeTurtle and @contrmary I think not commuting might have something to do with it for me too - I sleep the same amount (not enough, we go to bed too late, and DD wakes-up too early) - but not rushing around from 7am - 9am, taking three tube-lines to work, and doing the same in the evening - it probably helps a fair bit!

[quote MyNameForToday1980]**@ZoeTurtle* and @contrmary* I think not commuting might have something to do with it for me too - I sleep the same amount (not enough, we go to bed too late, and DD wakes-up too early) - but not rushing around from 7am - 9am, taking three tube-lines to work, and doing the same in the evening - it probably helps a fair bit![/quote]
I suspect this is it really. Far less sensory overload.

Obviously people have a vastly different experience of lockdown per individual

But it does feel as if people don’t know - aren’t talking to anyone else? - what others are going through

round here, within minutes of lockdown, they had big signs drawing attention to every street camera, big signs near the flowers and blossom trees in the park "DO NOT STOP HERE - YOU ARE HERE FOR EXERCISE ONLY" - etc. There were massive warning signs about being watched all over the place if you did a 3 minute circuit walk where I live.

I'm in London

it was well documented that police were asking people what they were doing on the Tube.

my station had signs up saying "if you are not an essential worker, GO HOME"

I had to comfort a crying teenager who was on a care visit to her grandma, while i was on a care visit to my mother

My mother was worried neighbours who don’t know us might report the care visits and she’d have police at her door. She’s 82. She was forcibly separated from her support network, having been widowed, for weeks.

I did stop going for walks because you couldn't go anywhere without a sign that said BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.

oh, and police cars everywhere, and circling the park with a megaphone telling us "you are only here for exercise"

Another friend of mine lost her father during lockdown. Luckily, her friends weren’t Covid hysterics so they did go and see her.

I can’t lie, it does seem a bit odd to be happy for yourself and make zero acknowledgement of what others have gone through.

I have no fear of death and loss. I've faced it too many times to be afraid of it. I've known too many people have their lives suddenly shortened for no reason and so my bigger fear is of not squeezing every drop of joy from the lives we're living.

I'm glad your anxiety is getting better and I hope it will remain like that so that you can have a well lived life once we're out of this.

@HazeyJaneII

I feel like my mental health is having the most enormous fucking work out, I hope at the end of all this my mental health is sleeker, perkier and more muscular!

Love the humour in this, despite the knock to your mental health.

I'm in the same boat and this phrase will stick in my mind next time I'm fending off a panic attack ( that I never suffered from prior to being cooped up and isolated from March to July) .

Yes mine has.

Like you, was suffering bad anxiety on ADs, struggling to go into work, was being signed off left right and centre, in counselling etc...

Since the first lockdown I was furloughed from March to September which for me was a relief as it meant I actually had a significant amount of time off which my doctor kept telling me I needed but I refused to take because I was worried about being out of work.

Since I've been back I've also been working from home and likely will now for the foreseeable. I feel so much better and less anxious being at home, not having to commute etc.. I miss the office in some ways but could quite happily just go back a couple of days a week and do the rest from home forever.

I'm off my ADs for the first time in years.

You don't sound smug at all OP. Glad you are feeling good. May it long continue!

Two friends and I were discussing just last week how "emotionally" we're all feeling the best we have in a long time and that we've actually really enjoyed this year!

There's be no pressure to go to this pub, that weekend away, X's cousins brothers daughters christening etc etc

I've spent most of the year with the 2/3 people who mean the most to me, enjoying fresh air and outdoor activities, less alcohol and no pressure to spend money socialising or keeping up with the Jones'

It's been bloomin fabulous!

My mental health has improved massively. I've been able to take much more time for me, I've got time to exercise and I love that theres not a christening/wedding/hen do/ etc every weekend.

I know mumsnet will say I dont HAVE to attend those things but if I dont i ostracise myself from family and in reality I do have to attend

My dh and I have much more time together in the best way, my dds have bonded so well and I've focused on seeing the few really important friends which again has improved my mental health

I was also made redundant from a job that I hated and was giving me anxiety, now I'm poor as fuck but studying to do something I really want to do

I think for a lot it has removed the necessity to have as much contact with problematic people.