To ask what the last 5 years has done to your mental health?

[Wouldloveanother]

Mines ruined to be honest.

I feel like a lot of my naivety about life has been stripped away and I’ve been left with a feeling of exhaustion and dread. My life is basically unrecognisable since March 2020.

I thought I would be ‘over it now’ but I’m not.

not looking for anything in particular, just a solidarity moan.

The Brexit vote didn't worry me nearly as much as the aftermath. Previously I had been blind to the nasty dehumanising side of social media and broadly viewed it as fun, as long as you were aware that it also wanted to sell you stuff.

Lockdown was necessary but it was obvious the government didn't really have a clue what to do. I'm more upset about masks and the move to permanent WFH than lockdown which was always going to be temporary. The masks 90% of us use are cheap crap and bad for the environment; in most settings they are much more a sign of rule-following than medical necessity but if you dare question it then you are frowned at and told that it may give an anxious or vulnerable person confidence which WASN'T THE POINT but the school prefects are now dominant and they will keep coming up with justifications.

As for permanent WFH, I always found getting up and going to work in the morning gives you a purpose but according to my best friend: "I get up at 9.05 for a 9.00 start, pull on the least stained top and some tracksuit trousers over yesterday's knickers, pretend to work while I'm having naps and TV breaks, none of us bother with cameras for our Teams meetings so I don’t really listen, stay logged on for no reason until half an hour after finish time to look keen, slump in front of the TV until bedtime. They will probably sack me but I can't bring myself to care."

My life has become smaller, largely by choice. I don’t have the energy or capacity to socialize with all and sundry, as I did pre-Covid. And while I’m traveling, seeing core friends, family etc. I feel ever watchful, as if something else terrible will emerge soon enough. I was never a doom monger, but Covid, environmental shifts, Roe being overturned, the Insurrection (I’m in the US) have all fundamentally changed me as a person.

Dogwhistle propaganda of the most insidious kind, and utterly distasteful to wield it in a thread where people are sharing their trauma and vulnerabilities.

THIS, is exactly the kind of thing I am talking about. I should thank you for showing such an example so others can see what I mean. How dare you come onto a thread a try to reframe and give sinister intent to other people's genuine concerns? Just vile.

Worse. I just feel that there's not much positive stuff on the horizon. I don't think we will 'solve' climate change and I don't think we will solve addiction to (choose one or all, they're all linked anyway): screens, shit food, porn, junk media, consumption.

Trying to quantify this feeling, bear with me. My faith in governments as agents for good has gone from 90% to around 5%. My faith in markets and firms as agents for good has gone from 80% to 20%.

I kind of feel that Russia and China are going to dominate this coming century and therefore the winds of change won't be blowing songs about freedoms and rights.

"Think what I think! Don't express yourself in a way I don't like or have concerns or ideas that I don't value or believe necessary for others to consider. I don't like that you said that, it doesn't fit with my perceptions or opinions so I will accuse you of nefarious, sly intent, of hurting others with your own agenda and try to shame you into shutting up"

@InPraiseOfBacchus I wonder if you realise just what a perfect example of exactly the kind of behaviour I am describing, you just provided there?

It's a phrase that is often used to confuse and unsettle people and make them STFU because they can't be sure that haven't inadvertently broken some kind of code and caused offence without meaning to. It's complete bullshit.

I'm sorry. That's so shit. 🌻

Surprisingly it has improved massively.
I've had crippling OCD since i was 5 years old, and depression and PTSD since my teens. Years of no friends, being taken advantage of and abused in every way possible by several men in long distance "relationships" meant my teens and entire adult life was awful, with many suicidal periods. 2010 also saw the traumatic death of my mother and the complete abandonment from her whole family afterwards because i wasn't "normal".
2018 i found an online community and slowly made some like-minded friends, my confidence grew and my happiness level raised. August 2020 in that community i met my wonderful partner, we got together in Oct 2020, and once restrictions lifted in march 2021 we were able to meet up and have gone strength to strength since, which has improved my entire outlook on life as for the first time ever, i feel like i have a future to live for. Together we have also branched out into similar online communities and i have made a good few friends. I had therapy specifically for my PTSD in 2021 which has made a big difference to my self esteem, self worth and self identity. My OCD has also improved to the point i am the mentally healthiest i've been in over 15 years, my entire adult life.

I was going to name change again but fuck it.
Honestly, I haven't been well at all. Everything in my life has turned to worse. I don't know if it's my mental health that caused it or mental health worsened BECAUSE of what happened.
I often feel like if it wasn't for my DC I'd kill myself. I know about Samaritans and going to GP.

Not great tbh on the verge of a complete mental breakdown.

Took my self to bed in the afternoon and have stayed there drifting in and out of sleep

Currently watching Emma and Serena's match from earlier on Amazon which is quite soothing

Worked hard on my MH over the past 5 years so while it has improved (in that I have learned to recognise some of my triggers and prevent my MH from plummeting to its usual regular lows), my anxiety has gotten worse. Fears of a recession looming on the back of a 2 year pandemic, cost of living at an all time high for my age, dunno where it'll end and how we'll afford to live.... 😪

Find comments like "the 80s was worse" grossly unhelpful on a thread like this 🙄

I concur.

Very cynical of authority, able to work very smartly with very little management oversight, very self disciplined. When anyone mentions lockdown I tear up a bit but very emotionally resilient now.

I'm very lucky and the last 2.5 years have been great for me. Covid redundancy meant I retrained at home and now have a great job I love and better prospects, I have an excellent work life balance and the lockdowns instilled in me a realisation that I don't have to socialise as much as I was before and I now happily say no to events in order to do my own thing.

The tide is slowly turning though, the cost of living crisis is starting to worry me and I have noticed myself beginning to feel anxious. I worked hard to retrain and I'm so proud of myself but it's shit that my now £14ph job won't be enough to keep up with the rocketing prices

I am used to hard times. My life has been hard for many years. So, from that point of view it’s business as usual. Money wise, I am looking at how to cut things even more, daughter has lost her glasses for the third tome this year so we can’t get NHS, bills coming at me from all angles and working ridiculous hours which I feel lucky to be able to do. Waiting for a magic wand to be waved to lower the cost of living and make life normal again.

I’d agree. My anxiety for the future has never been higher and I was never an anxious person. For me the start of it was probably 2016 Brexit Vote which felt like a big step away from the human rights-based post-Ww2 solidarity across Europe. It was social media pushing people and years of failure of the Tories since 2010 to deliver economic success and hope to the whole of the UK. Then almost straight afterwards, the incredibly tiny majority that had voted for it was reversed and has stayed as a minority on every poll. That vote felt like an awful, socially disastrous and incredibly economically expensive fluke in which people were realising they’d been conned to support Leave by politicians and business interests on social media. That’s when I really started to feel our standards of living and social mobility will be going into reverse, combined with the already-too-high cost of housing in the UK. Exactly that is happening but even quicker than I feared. Then same anxiety in 2017 with Trump getting in. Those audio tapes of those kids crying for their parents having been separated at the border crossing in the US. Horrific.

Nothing, same as before. Peri menopause has caused some anxiety though mainly at night. But overall I feel the same.

@AlmostAJillSandwich thats amazing, lovely to read your post. If its ok to ask what kind of therapy did you have for PTSD?

I have MH conditions that existed for before the last few years, but during the first lockdown I was living alone. Completely isolated. During that time period I had an abortion alone at home, was sexually assaulted, succumbed to addiction, went through a divorce, developed a stomach problem that meant I was unable to eat properly for a year and had a relapse of my eating disorder as a result, which meant giving up the sport that gave me my social network as well as physical health.

I ended up in a pysch hospital for 3 months last year and now only have my DS for 2 evenings per week because of that.

Currently I'm in a weird situation where my life is coasting, I struggle with parenting, I don't enjoy my job, I have zero social life and I don't feel a sense of purpose, but due to the cocktails of high dose meds I'm on (that finally work!) I feel pretty content despite that.

I'd had many previous episodes but the social isolation during Covid as an autistic person, who needs prompting for certain daily tasks, left me suddenly without routine or structure.

I have read each and every response and I really feel for everyone who has had a very tough 5 years.

Im also really pleased for the handful of posters who have managed to turn their MH around for various reasons.

And as others are saying, looming environmental collapse which needs global solidarity not selfish individuality to avoid. What are the chances of that happening? How will our kids and their kids cope?

Now we have toxic masculinist Putin waging literal war and economic war in Europe. Boris Johnson aggressively carrying on holidaying while Kabul fell to the Taliban this time last year meaning that Islamist extremism will only strengthen and women and girls there are left to suffer. Roe V Wade being reversed in the US the same, a parting gift from Trump.

I still feel like we need proper real serious intelligent adults in charge in politics. We don’t have those to choose from at the moment.

For various reasons, and especially because of Boris Johnson and now with Truss and Sunak as candidates too I have lost my faith in politicians even giving the appearance of trying to lead a government selflessly, which I had felt secure in before.

I look back to the days of Blair and Brown doing peace deals in Northern Ireland and trying to help ordinary people in the UK and can’t believe how lucky we were.

Personally I have long term health problems that got neglected over the lockdown, and the isolation of lockdowns and doing home schooling alone in a high pressure job are all still playing out for me and the kids and won’t be resolved any time soon.

I’m so sorry for all the posters who were living alone and struggling in lockdown, or have had bereavements during lockdowns, and/or who were at work caring for people in hospital who were dying in unprecedented numbers, what an absolutely horrific experience to live through. I really hope that time will heal even a little bit for you.

Our dd1 had a terrible accident at the end of 2019 and has been through so much in the last couple of years ,operation after operation and has struggled to rebuild her life - then covid hit and we lost family members and dd2 &3 struggled massively with their mental health.
We have struggled but pulled together with many difficult times .
Thankfully we are all in such a better, happier place and I will forever appreciate what we have together.
Dh and I have worked through so many major issues in our family and marriage.
My mental health is better than it's been in my entire life as I so appreciate that life can change in an instant and it's made me realise so much of life is out of our control but to enjoy every day with the people I love.
It's been so hard,as I know it has been for so many, but I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel.

I ended up in a pysch hospital for 3 months last year and now only have my DS for 2 evenings per week because of that.

I'm so desperately sorry to read that. I had a full scale breakdown while still married to my ex and was unable to care effectively for my children for around 8 months. I don't know your story and wouldn't want to draw parallels with you but I think I can understand some of how you've found yourself here, given my own experiences and I hope very much that things get better