Can I ask how Covid has changed you

[oldandscunnered]

I do conveyancing and since the pandemic the property market has gone through the roof. Lots of people moving to surrounding islands (on the West coast of Scotland). They are mostly southerners who do not want to live in crowded places. People also want a garden. For me it's made me realise life is short and I want to see as much of the world as I can while I can. I am going three holidays this year to different places abroad. They are not that expensive but I'm doing it now in case I can't in the future. What have you all changed?

The challenges of homeschooling and lockdowns (and complete breakdowns I had over those ) made me realise I've always had ADHD. I'm diagnosed now.

If it weren't for lockdown DP and I would either not be together or be significantly behind in our relationship as she planned to go and do a course elsewhere. DP also wouldn't have found a career that she loves. We wouldn't have our dogs. We wouldn't live where we live now. So that's all lovely.

On the darker side I've not really seen people for two years. I had a major injury just as the world was opening up again and am now immobile. So that sucks.

Less sociable
More cynical
Gained weight
Heavier drinker
More suicidal thoughts than in any other period of my life

Oh and I've gained shitloads of weight

I got so sick of having everyone in the house all the time that now I never want anyone else in the house apart from my husband and children who live here.
I used to host a lot and have people drop in every weekend. Now I just don't invite people at all.

Fatter, more cynical, relationship fell apart, child missed important schooling, now less tolerant of timewasters, after a solid realisation that I was on my own during the whole thing.

Plus point, saved money, refurbished the house, started wild swimming, and became a lot more ambitious re work. Was able latterly to arrange WFH so better parent.

Also, stopped being tribal about politics - it was just completely obvious that nobody had a decent idea to deal with COVID and it was all done on the back of a fag packet and that the degree of control over us was totally arbitrary. As it is now.

Realised how uncomfortable my home was and how unhappy it made me so sold it. Much happier in new place

Moved job as old place was soul destroying due to the impact of wfh/hybrid working. Absolutely no effort to make us feel like a team so everybody felt isolated and depressed. Only about 15% of the pre 2020 team still there as most people left for same reason.
New job is still hybrid but they make such an effort to make you feel included

Cut friends out who I realised I didn’t miss during lockdown and they didn’t make an effort with me.

So on whole all good except the weight gain. That needs to get sorted

I can't decide whether I still have long covid lethargy and brainfog or I'm just getting old :(

cant pretend anymore, can barely breathe sometimes, have a really low tolerance level, call out bullshit more,

@NothingIsWrong

I ended up suicidal during the first lockdown. No one cared. I should have been more resilient apparently, and forget about mental health care, or any medical care really. I can't forget how it felt to want to die and now my relationship is faltering and I'm not great at trusting anyone. I still can't get appropriate care as I am no longer actively suicidal, and still no one really cares.

Fuck resilience.

I'm so sorry @Nothingiswrong, that must be so awful. Remember though that there are people who will genuinely care about you and about your situation. Mental health care provision in the UK is dreadful though.

Covid made me realise how awful some people were. I saw huge falling outs in decade's long friendships.. all because someone had a socially distanced date.
It made me realise how petty and power hungry a lot of people were.

Weirdly it made me more sociable. I was quite anti-social before and used to dodge nights out etc. All that forced isolation ( with the dc) made me crave the company of other adults and now I go out of my way to talk to people/ organise things.

I moved to a rural area, so that's pretty different.

Our financial situation is more precarious, partly pandemic related, so between that and stuff being put on hold due to covid I am doing a lot less.

I am more cynical and have become pretty disenfranchised from the government and also from certain political groups I used to be more sympathetic towards.

I've had some anxiety issues including a panic attack which was a first for me.

@Hbh17

Not much change at all for me, although I am horrified at how many people seemed willing to be told what to do & to surrender their civil liberties. I suppose I am far less tolerant of sentimentality, but that may just be age! Oh, and I have not watched any TV news for 2 years, which I highly recommend - I just stuck to Radio 4 & decent newspapers, in the hope of avoiding the worst dumbed-down reporting.

Yes, with regard to civil liberties. In fact I was really horrified to find out how many people did not know what civil liberties are in general, or didn't seem to have ever learned what they include or how they are supposed to work.

Very glad I read all that Dystopian science fiction/watched all those Dystopian box sets. Nothing came as a shock, particularly, though some aspects were way worse than I'd ever thought they would be.

Much, much less sociable (and I wasn't a huge fan of the human race beforehand).

Much less patient with people.

Much more irritated by the stupid decisions people make, without looking at the evidence and thinking things through.

Much more cynical about governments and many other people in power (and I was cynical enough beforehand).

Even happier that I started working from home about a year before the pandemic was officially declared.

Oh, yeah, and a few stones overweight

I’ve changed in that I can’t seem to look to the future with any relish anymore because there’s a bloody hurdle in front of everything, and even when you manage to jump the hurdle you discover that either the effort wasn’t really worth it, or there’s another hurdle coming right up and it’s a feeling of “urgh, is there no end to this?” Everything is just a bit shitter - I’m looking at the world through shit-tinted glasses.

I don’t think the people who are in charge across the world have helped. I mean, where’s the sense of celebration that country by country we are slowly getting through the pandemic, that there is light at the end of the tunnel? It’s like we’re in the tunnel, we can see the light at the end, but it’s a gloomy scene that doesn’t make me want to run towards it. I mean, who could have foreseen that almost at the end of the global shitshow, when we are just getting the confidence up to dare to hope that we will soon have our pre-COVID days back, some megalomaniac would think it a great idea to needlessly and pointlessly invade another country and kill even more more people and causing even MORE devastation. It’s unfathomable. Mind boggling. Like a bad dream that you think you’ve woken up from, only it turns out you’re still dreaming.

@Babdoc

Well I got long Covid right at the start of the pandemic, and have been disabled by it for two years. Instead of being full of energy and busy with activities, I have to limit what I can do in order to avoid relapses where I am stuck on the sofa, fatigued and breathless.

Same. It’s ruined my life. I’m so ill and so tired all the time and nobody can help.

Absolutely agree with the OP about realising how short and unpredictable life is ( see also Ukraine) and so I’m set on doing as much travel as possible before I’m too old. It seems a shame to live on this amazing planet and not experience as much of it as possible. I’ve got a couple of trips booked this year.
Nothing much else changed - my contempt for idiots has stayed constant over the last five or six years.

I’m angry in a way I’ve never been before. Angry that so many people were so quick to capitulate to draconian rules and throw away the freedoms that were so hard fought for.

Am so sorry for those who have suffered over the last few years. I lost my precious Dad who died of COVID January the 4th this year. Have had so !any comments asking of Dad had any underlying health conditions and not !uvh sympathy. People seem to have lost empathy when it comes to COVId already. I wasn't allowed to be with my Dad apart from a panicked phonrcall from the ward Dr fifteen minutes before he died asking me to come to the hospital. He died alone minutes before I arrived.I will never be the same again.

Before lockdown I was isolated at home with my disabled 20 year old daughter who is non verbal and doubly incontinent.
Same during lockdown. Same now

So no change at all.

I've started exercising a bit every day - either in the morning before work/breakfast or started back at the gym twice a week since last week. Put on weight but I think it's middle-age perimenopausal thing rather than being at home!

We are seriously considering selling up and moving back to the country we used to live in, friends and family still there.

Not being able to see them, esp for birthdays and Christmas times was hard. We also don’t like the direction our country of residence is taking, and the politics of covid management I guess further highlighted our dis satisfaction.

Maybe we just need a good normal holiday too!

Ive realised my friends aren't who I thought they were. I'm always the one to help anyone out but found myself pretty much abandoned during lockdowns and the friendships will never recover.

I'm changing jobs because being self employed has been soul destroying.

No change. Just more WFH which I am very grateful for. A positive change.