Do you know anyone still in Covid ‘lockdown’?

[Rattanlamp]

I’ve heard people mention that others are still living like we are in lockdown, but I don’t know anybody doing this. I’m genuinely just curious to see if you do because I find it strangely fascinating!

Far too many MNetters have been choosing to live that way since long before Covid 👀😁

I have a near-neighbour having a particular cancer treatment that has stripped out her immune system, and yes, she is rightly extremely cautious.

I’m also cautious as I’m immunocompromised due to medication.

Is that what you mean?

My aunt sort of is. However I have always suspected that’s she’s borderline agoraphobic so it’s an excuse I think. She needs mental health support but she won’t ever get it. Sad really

My aunt hasn't left the house since Covid. Her excuse is that she's diabetic. My cousin does her shopping but he's not allowed to drop in if he's got as much as a sniffle. But she's taking care of her grandson after school, so go figure. It's all rather strange and she never used to be like this.

No. I sort of wish my dad would as he’s got a year of cancer treatment but heyho. I don’t know anyone living like that but I’d assume they’re not all that social.

There are definitely people who are still living on lock down
worsening of previous mental health problems such as
OCD
health anxiety
agoraphobia

some present for treatment,
many don’t
some insist their families live in lockdown still like a folie a deux situation-

I have a colleague who's worn a mask to work every day for the last five years.

Yes, I know several. All of whom have serious underlying medical conditions.

What’s your fascination?

My mother was diagnosed with colon cancer in February 2020. A week after the first lockdown she went into hospital for a hartmans process and I didnt see her for two weeks. She came home with a stoma and was left to get on with it. Pre covid, she would have had all sorts of therapy, including physio to get her back on her feet after her op (she also developed a hernia and lost muscle mass). She had to shield for a good while as she was vulnerable and I had to take all the usual precautions.

I lost my job as I had to look after her and also home school my then 8 year old DD.

My mother is now 80 and hasn't left the house in 5 years. She's not scared of covid per se, but because of getting cancer during covid, she's now basically agoraphobic. Prior to this, she was a very gregarious, social woman.

I suppose life deals us all sorts of hands. Ones we don't always forsee.

I would say at this stage it’s a severe mental illness using Covid as an excuse. It’s gone on too long now for it to be anything else. I also wonder how on earth they fund it and find it’s only a thing amongst people wealthy enough to worry about it.

I’m obviously not including anyone recently diagnosed with something very serious or anyone very elderly.

Not quite what I meant as that’s understandable. I meant more people who have simply continued the lockdown life because they’re either still very anxious about Covid or just seem to prefer it. Sorry I sound so glib now!

No, not solely a wealthy person affliction,

some find jobs that they do from home

some are too debilitated by mental illness and on benefits

they order food in online
wear masks and decontaminate if they need work men in

it’s really sad.

My sisters friend still wears a mask when out of the house and if visiting people will only visit with them outdoors. She has her groceries delivered and wipes them all down with antiseptic wipes before bringing them into the house. She does have a medical condition although I am not sure what it is. She uses a wheelchair and has a ‘helping dog’.

My aunt is sadly, encouraged by her daughter. Hasn’t left the house , met her new great grandson through the windows a few weeks ago. Her daughter is the only one allowed in and they sit diagonally in the sitting room with the windows open. She’s 90 and before covid she went to Ireland on her own a few times a year.

Yes. I manage someone suffering from long covid and ultimately supported her as best as possible but realistically the evidence isn’t there to support the adjustments she’s requesting - such as permanent working from home.

If I’m being completely honest, I don’t think it’s just long covid that she’s suffering from as she seems to have a lot of worries and concerns about innocuous things. She is very much living as if it’s March 2020.

There's nothing wrong with being curious about something most would consider fairly unusual. Especially given that COVID caused some of the biggest social upheaval in many of our lifetime.

I'm massively interested in the long term social/psychological effects it's had on people.

My grandmother hasn’t left the house since lockdown. Genuinely hasn’t been further from the house than the garden. Completely ridiculous.

TheAutumnCrow
I have a near-neighbour having a particular cancer treatment that has stripped out her immune system, and yes, she is rightly extremely cautious.
I’m also cautious as I’m immunocompromised due to medication.

Wouldn't you be like this to protect yourself even if Covid hadn't happened?

Yes someone who suffered a heart attack during the pandemic and is now sadly too frightened to venture outside. I think some of the scaremongering during covid has left some very scared and paranoid people behind. Once a person is in this mindset it is very difficult to convince them otherwise and it is actually very upsetting to see.

If anyone is living like that they are absolutely insane. I am in remission from Stage 3c cancer, went through six rounds of chemo last year and I work on a supermarket checkout five days a week.

Really? Why not? Have you asked?

One of the other forums I read is Metafilter, which is a US site. There is a subset of posters on there who basically haven’t left the house since 2020. They work from home, live extremely online, and get extremely exercised by the “irresponsibility” of anyone who mentions not wearing a mask at all times, working out of the home, going to school, going on holiday, seeing friends or having any kind of outside interests or hobbies. Obviously it’s a minority or I wouldn’t hang about on there, but it isn’t a small minority IYSWIM.

I do get the impression that most of them probably didn’t leave the house much pre-Covid either, but this is now a cast-iron excuse for them to never see another person.

There was someone on our local Facebook group this week complaining that people aren’t testing for Covid and isolating, absolutely bonkers, plenty of comments pointing out that there’s not requirement to test or isolate and most people couldn’t afford to take time off work for that anyway. Unfortunately we’ve all got to die from something and I’d rather die having had a fulfilling life than stay alive never leaving the house and wiping everything down with antibacterial wipes.

A woman I know (early fifties, no co-morbidities) was socially active before covid. She hasn't left home since March 2020.

She has refused to see anyone indoors (apart from her husband) since March 2020.

She will only see friends if they agree to take a covid test before visiting. She then expects to sit with them her in her garden (socially distanced, of course and in all weathers) and asks them to bring their own refreshments, cups and plates. She wears a mask in company and expects her visitors to do the same.

Living as she does, she has very little conversation apart from how irresponsible most people are for not testing frequently and not isolating. "Covid hasn't gone away, you know", "People should be wearing masks", "The government should be doing more to warn people about the dangers"...

As you might imagine, very few people have bothered to stay in touch as the years have passed. She succeeded in keeping her husband in isolation for a few years, but he became increasingly fed up and left a couple of years ago.

Her father who she hadn't seen since early 2020 died last year. She refused to visit him because it would be "dangerous" and "irresponsible".

She was a nervous and anxious person before covid, but never to this extent. Covid and the campaign of fear around it has ruined her life.

Which is why I was asking.

I’m happy to disclose my knowledge of people’s circumstances if it’s a ‘let’s discuss long term behaviours after lockdown and how Covid is still a very real and valid medical concern for many people’. I’m not so happy to disclose them if there’s any hint of ‘Oh my God, some people are so weird, I don’t know anyone who would do that’. The original post was falling somewhere between those two viewpoints, for me, and so I was asking because I’m not sure if I was picking up on a tone that genuinely wasn’t there, or because she just wanted to smirk at other’s choices.