To think that life just hasn’t been the same ever since covid

[Youcantbeseriousmate]

Does anyone feel the same?

It feels like something changed. Life carries on and there are sometimes good times, but it doesn’t feel the same, people don’t seem genuinely happy anymore.
When I think back to before covid, it seems like a different world

Life is pretty much the same again for me. I think I'm more content doing things at home though now rather than going out as much. I enjoy going out but I also enjoy being home.

Life has been very difficult for my autistic teen but I don't know if it's lockdown related or whether we would have had these difficulties anyway.

I agree with pp litter is depressing and dog poop

That has ramped up since Christmas in particular

I didn't realise before covid how much I maintained my mental health by booking day trips/ holidays and having something to look forward to.

When the restrictions were released I suffered with anxiety constantly thinking things would be canceled at the drop of a hat and I had this feeling the OP seems to have of things are going to be like this for ever.

However time has healed things for me and I've started to feel normal again. There are still some things that seem to have sticked that really annoy me .(having to book everything in advance for example )

On the plus side we have WFH and better bond with our children and a load of big jobs completed on our house that never would have got done with out all that time out.

DS - 17 came home said he and his mate were complaing about how relentlessly negative all the news was.

I was 17 it was end of John Major government constant rangling about EU - and Bosnian War - yet it never felt quite so bleak felt like opposition had plans and just had to wait it out plus I was excited about hopefully getting to uni - DS is - DD1 enjoying uni currently - but he worried about uni debts - finding work rents prices as well.

I think public trust has been eroded in many insitutions and basic infrastructure - we had ever rising public transport costs with declining reliablity - but never seen so many pot holes on roads in my life.

Personally we are doing well or no worse - yes there constant money pressure - but I think it's external negativity - the zeitgeist being decline and depression.

Keyworker school was the first time my kid with SEN felt comfortable in school because it wasn’t such a noisy bunfight all the time.

I feel like Covid made us realise things about ourselves that haven’t fitted in with trying to return to ‘normal’ though. It sounds like quite a few people feel that way. We haven’t had the money to change things though so it’s not quite working for us or a lot of people. Everyone seems stressed out and anxious.

I wanted the new government last summer to mark a big 1997 style optimistic emotional change of gear. They just seem dour and stressed too. No sense of a positive collective vision for us as a country. I do wonder if we live in an unequal age where all governments are just going to have to re arrange the deckchairs while for the vast majority, living standards and public services hugely decline and we have a handful of stratospherically wealthy people at the top.

I'm not stopping anyone from mentioning anything. I am merely stating my own perspective - it isn't my place to speak for others.

And fwiw, as an employer, I am very much feeling the impact of recent policy changes, and particularly the NI increase, which will be very costly for us. I'm pretty underwhelmed by the Labour government's performance to date. But I still think they're better than what we had before.

Life pre-Covid was pretty shit. During-Covid I lived my best life - I am self-employed and WFH meant my job took off in a way that I could never have predicted. I had no time to think or worry or be down because I was working round the clock. Plus I never tested positive for Covid or felt that I had caught it.

Post-Covid I'm still doing a lot of remote working and work has quietened down, though thankfully not back to the pre-Covid lows. So life post-Covid is definitely better than it was pre-Covid but not as good as it was during Covid. Appreciate I'm probably an outlier.

Yeah I agree with you OP

Of course it's impossible to isolate causes and say some things would have changed anyway but there are some things I've noticed myself that seem (from SM, newspapers and MN) to be replicated on a wider level that seem directly due to covid

e.g. so many threads on here about people being flaky, dropping out of events or just not wanting to socialise and I've experienced the same. Of course it could be just that everyone is 5 years older but it's interesting - before/during covid mostpeople would probably assume that after months of having their freedom heavily curtailed everyone would want to make up for what/who they've missed, and socialise more, but it seems to be the opposite - people got used to being at home, safe and comfortable and don't want to come out!

school refusal rates have shot up and I think that's a pretty direct correlation that can be made with lockdown, even if other things like social media use or whatever might exacerbate it - if you tell kids they don't always have to go to school, and that doing so can be scary and even life threatening, they will take that on board!

Apart from anything else the way people reacted to lockdown was enlightening. So many people so keen to follow/scared of breaking "rules", even when they were patently ridiculous, and also so keen to judge others for utterly minor things/things that weren't even wrong, to the extent they informed on the neighbours to the police! The way some police forces completely overreacted and took advantage of their powers to enforce laws that either weren't in place at all and they had made up or misinterpreted, or that just needed a bit of common sense. Conversely, the people (government) who created laws that they seemed to think didn't apply to them. How quick some people were to 'write off' those of less use to society.

Of course there were some good examples too, the way some communities rallied round, dedication and effort shown by medical staff and others. But whereas before I perhaps had a slightly naïve 'that was then/they were them/things wouldn't happen like that here and now,' outlook on various historic regimes and despotic dictators, now I can completely see how quick people are to turn on each other and look out for number one - whether that's hoarding toilet roll or looking for scapegoats. Once you lose that lack of trust in society it's hard to get back, and I think a lot of people have (consciously or not) taken that onboard and amended their own outlook, and the way they behave, accordingly.

@TodayIsTheGreatest "I wanted the new government last summer to mark a big 1997 style optimistic emotional change of gear."

Me too! And initially it felt so eerily similar, a flat Tory government being booted out after many terms in power and a labour landslide sweeping them into Downing Street. But very soon after Keir and Victoria drove in I felt disheartened that it didn't have the same vibe of hope and optimism as it did when Tony and Cherie Blair did in 97. It all felt a bit flat somehow and it hasn't improved since.

I’m not some Johnny-come-lately. I have been teaching for 30 years. I am telling you it is different. It’s not being ‘naughty’, it’s completely different behaviours and attitudes from kids and parents.

Please don’t minimise my experience.

I'm so much happier since covid. The ability to work from home means more time and energy for socialising, cooking, exercising etc which in turn means I'm happier and healthier than pre covid.

I don't feel this. I was lucky and lockdown was a positive experience for us. Since life has returned we seem to be doing more stuff that we enjoy, and seeing people. I don't know anyone that feels like that either

Although Scotland had already held their own very divisive referendum in 2014. Also, Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader (2015) and the influence of left-wing pressure groups such as Momentum encouraged a more aggressive form of politics.

Back to normal but don't feel the same. I pretty much worked remotely before, now I am almost 100% remote but what's different is most of my colleagues are also almost 100% remote (we have occasional office days). I moved further away from Central London.
But in terms of how I feel? Tired. Stressed. Can't sleep. Pain all over. Noticing lots of people being diagnosed with autism and ADHD and mystery tiredness and I wonder if that's a consequence of covid. I have ADHD symptoms that I never had before. Almost everything is done online; in-person social interaction is more rare. Occasionally you still see signs about masks and the ghosts of the social distancing arrows on shop floors.
My grandfather died alone in hospital from Covid, thankfully his decline was quick so he didn't suffer for long.
It does feel like something changed but it's difficult to put my finger on what it is.

I gave up my job 2 years ago because I've never recovered from lockdown/covid. It was stressful and traumatic and I'm a completely different person to who I was before.

Things will never be the same as they were before COVID. We learned things that can never be forgotten. Our minds were poisoned by horrific propaganda that came from those who should have known better. People were forced to remain separate from friends and family, deprived of the social interactions that are fundamental to a stable and caring society. Greed and corruption flourished in the upper strata of society, reminding us of the gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. And all those responsible have simply walked away into the sunset, or the House of Lords. Scary.

What has changed is people are more thoughtless and selfish than before and more likely to react violently when called out on it. Travelling by train was never so dominated with gobshites and the tinny sound of smartphones pre-COVID as it is now. With authorities reluctant to enforce bylaws for fear of violence, people get away with poor behaviour and it has now become an entitlement which everyone else is on the receiving end of. More locally, the quality of play at my former bridge club dropped off a cliff post-pandemic as loads of people decided to continue playing online and the evening sessions dropped to 3-4 tables. When it became apparent things were never going to improve (partly thanks to a biased committee) I voted with my feet and now play at a club where they value old fashioned F2F social interaction.

Main problem with the Labour goverment is their dreadful attempts at communication and publicity. If you look at the actual data, rather than the toxic right wing tabloids, it can be shown that pensioners are better off now than last year despite the now means tested winter fuel payment. This is because energy costs have come down by the equivalent amount as the winter fuel payment and pensions have got better. Labour should be publicising this to the public.

I feel genuinely so much happier since covid. I think it gave me time to reevaluate what was important in my life and have lived that life since. Got off the treadmill lived my authentic self!

I mostly agree with this. Labour could be telling us what is going right, and giving us something to hope for. They don't have the Tory press on their side, so it is harder for them. I know they are careful to under-promise and over-deliver, that they inherited a total shit show, and I'd rather have boring old Starmer than the grinning clowns we had before, but even I think that the flatness has gone on for too long.

I know that politics is the art of the possible, but I have mixed feelings about politicians promising utopia, and the moon on a stick. This was the modus operandi of Boris Johnson, who frequently promised miracles (including during Covid, such as "Build Back Better"), and to some extent, Tony Blair, who was pledging this, and pledging that. Every time I read a headline "Blair pledges", I groaned.

Agree OP. I know I will never feel the same again. Everything feels different. Worse.

I worked from home while having 2 kids plus me and then boyfriend decided to start living together so a massive change . I love the time with my children but hated the time away from the rest if my family as they all live abroad and I didn’t see them for 2 years . I think the reason why so many didn’t return to normal was we managed to see how life without all the work stress was. Many worked from home or didn’t work , kids didn’t have the stress of school and we probably realised daily is all it matters . I don’t think those of us that feel this way will ever go back to normal .
I refused a promotion since. Work is a means to pay stuff only and I no longer care as much with it as I used too . My goal is travel more with the kids , work less and remind the kids of what truly matters .

Absolutely agree - I don’t see friends now my partner and son are depressed - not very fun here.

I agree too. It seems that people have also lost their work ethic too. So many people "working from home" They got too used to getting money for nothing on furlough. Of course it doesn't apply to everyone. I think the global uncertainties don't help either and the 24 hour news cycle.

Phoning large organisations have become a trial since so many staff are working from home and you have to contend with dogs barking or babies screaming in the background or the member if staff not having the right paperwork in front of her/him!