How has Covid changed you?

[L0stinCyberspace]

Been working in spare room for 18 months with some massive stressors during that time (including a friend taking her own life) and I realise I'm a profoundly different version of myself returning to the office.

I'd imagine I'm not alone in this? How different are you?

Realisations include:

I can dress comfortably but still rock my own style.

No matter how bad shit gets, every day I get pleasure from choosing clothes and makeup.

I own far too many dressy clothes.

My f*cks have flown a long time ago.

I'm quite resilient.

I'll need retraining before I can eat in front of non-family members.

I use box hair dye, instead of highlights at hairdresser

Generally, staying indoors, not socialising much

It's made me appreciate how lovely my immediate family are

I lost my beloved job just before lockdown due to PHE restructuring, retrained for 18 months and hate my new career.
DC haven't coped well with the lack of structure from school and are turning into unpleasant people and the guilt I feel for letting them down is paralizing me.
My marriage has stagnated and I can't even remember what we did before it all went to pot.
DM has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and I'm too far away to be much help and this is the first time I don't know how to make things better.
So actually covid hasn't really made any of these things happen it's just added another layer to the general shitness of life.

My mum's carers and the company they work for are great but it's not great when the carers arrive late so mum doesn't get lunch, or they're new and they try to force entry. Can I not complain about these things just because they were great during the pandemic?

My friend is a severely disabled adult who has several hours of care per day, including helping her with catheters, cooking, cleaning and personal care. Her care has been so bad lately she ended up in hospital with an infection as the only carer available had a virus (she is immune suppressed too) and then the care agency illegally stopped her care package.

There's a difference between complaining about bad care and the fact that carers have gone from being respected to being bottom of the pile again.

A huge part of the problem is the fact that carers are paid a pittance and also treated really badly. They simply can't recruit enough carers and the ones that already work in the sector would rather work in Amazon warehouse so only stay in the job for a couple of months.

The system is utterly broken.

At the beginning of the pandemic, people wanted to protect people like your mum but now society as a whole don't care again.

I was strong AF pre Covid. Now stronger TF post Covid.

I'm a bit heavier and sadder.

We have a new house with room for my parents to stay... but they won't see us anymore. Until winter or Covid () are over. Not even outside.

I work in a school, the DC are at two schools and DM especially doesn't want to catch Covid. Parents are double vaccinated, but worried about long Covid, permanent side effects. DM even mentioned brain damage. Not hugely sensitive when we don't have a choice about working and school attendance!

I'm gutted, and feel like the only person left who still can't see family.

I've become antisocial, introverted and impatient. Shorter fuse too.
I've also become unmotivated and fat.
Tbh, not purely down to covid, age (peri-menopause), life stresses and career/job.

@TerraNovaTwo u neatly summed up how I feel

I am probably more health-anxious, but I've always been health-anxious, even pre-Covid. I have learned that my mental health has not recovered nearly as much as I thought from a childhood and youth of undiagnosed chronic illness and (as we would now say) clinical vulnerability. I have learned that the song 'Everybody Needs Good Neighbours'.which I always ridiculed in the past, is actually fairly true in its sentiments. I wouldn't have survived even as well as I did without some really lovely neighbours. I have learned to appreciate the value of medical research even more than I did previously

The pandemic has confirmed that I’m in the right job for me. Other than that it’s been all negative. I nursed two parents through Covid, risking myself in the process. I then lost one of them which broke me. I have buried 4 people in twelve months. I used to have a low tolerance of BS, I now have zero. If someone is not adding value to my life then they don’t need to be in it. I’m a much sadder person as a result of this pandemic.

A sobering yet inspiring read.

My situation was and is unusual. I am old. within easy reach of 80 and I have CFS/ME to a disabling degree.

A year before covid was even heard of ( seems strange now that there ever was such a time) I started asking on various expert places about the effects of old age on CFS/ME.
To be told that no one really knew as few with it lived into extreme old age. And that the main cause of death ? Overwhelming infection,

As I knew already that a simple cold floored me for months? My family are all overseas.

So I decided on isolation. It was not a huge step as I live alone naturally and easily and was by then living by choice on a small offshore island .
Supply lines were easy to set up and when covid hit there was no real difference except that there was more support etc.
And the numerous offshore Irish islands were quarantined and got priority fr vaccination. Althoiugh my immune system is npt able for vaccines

So I was and stayed beyond reach of covid in person

Mr extended faith family work overseas eg gathering in newborn girls in India as they get abandoned in the rubbish
We lost five of them ad many babies to covid,

And here the necessary lockdowns which Ireland instigated very swiftly and strictly took over mainland life.

covid has changed life and changed the future.
So many deeply moving testimonies to that here.