Rewind five years and I would say that my friends and family were a happy group. We had our problems of course, but a good chat putting the world to rights over a bottle of red usually seemed to help.
Right now though my best friend is pregnant, has huge health anxiety and rarely leaves the house.
Another good friend is stressed and burnt out at work, thinking of leaving her partner but has no energy to do anything.
A third I barely hear from, never reads her messages or picks up the phone, she lives the other end of the country so we can’t just pop in to see how she is. I know money was tight for her before cost of living crisis, so I’m guessing she is stressed out.
My sister is off work with stress, she is also gutted house purchase fell through as can no longer afford a mortgage and feels really bleak right now.
My 80year old aunt who used to be such a great giggle went downhill massively during covid and now I think she is probably depressed.
My boss’s son has developed OCD and all sorts of emotional problems so we hear all about that at work.
Nobody is in the mood for celebrating and the Christmas parties, coffees and catch ups that used to happen just aren’t on the cards this year because nobody seems to have the energy, the money or frankly the cheer. I confess, I can’t be bothered either a lot of the time.
Just looking at my own circle, seems like almost everyone is just feeling really down right now. Are others seeing the same?