To ask about your experience of Covid?

[Magschoice]

From a mental health perspective?

Could you indicate yes or no, as to whether the pandemic has impacted on your mental wellbeing; whether it be struggles with anxiety, depression, persistent low mood, suicidal ideation or any other mental health conditions which you have developed at some point over the last year.

I will start by saying yes. It has impacted on my mental health. I was in a very bad place last summer. Better now, but still a daily struggle for me. Convinced I wouldn’t have been like this if it wasn’t for covid

No.
I have not "developed" a "mental health condition" over the last year

Is there something offensive in my post?

Not at all. Why?

Your reply seems to belittle what I’m asking. You could have simply said no you were fine rather than use quotation marks.

It seems that MN is no longer a place for solidarity. I seen a thread about the nastiness that is spread by posters and I am inclined to agree.

I can see where this is going. I attended a talk by a leading London psychologist recently who maintained that mental health just means exactly that - the health of our brains/thoughts and applicable to everyone. Mumsnet posters seem to go mad if people use it unless they have been diagnosed by a doctor. I think there's a real competitive nature to it all, a need that a certain amount of suffering needs to take place for it to be legitimate and acceptable. But I digress....

While I don't realise it at the time, I recognise that at times during lockdown I have felt in a dark place and have acted in a way I wouldn't normally have. So yes. This has been compounded by various factors: young children, WFH with my husband for a year solid, chronic pain and planned interventions postponed etc. So I'm ok - lockdown hasn't been as bad for me as many, many others - but it's definitely impacted my mood and thinking over the last 12 months.

I was answering in a way that is specific to me, just as you did, because you seem to be asking two questions and its unclear which one you want answered

Sorry if my reply to your survey upset you.

No I'm fine, no MH problems as a result of the pandemic. I had some anyway though and started treatment for them during the pandemic but they weren't related. I have managed to get treatment though, and a lot of it, which I was impressed with because I didn't expect services to be able to deliver very complex mental health treatment during a pandemic but for the most part they have done amazingly, for which I'm grateful. (I do understand that this may well not be the case in other areas and I am very sure that many people will have struggled for support and so this is just my experience, I realize ).

I'm an SEN teacher though and through work I've seen an awful lot of research about how this has affected children and their mental health- both in mainstream education and sen, and frankly it's rather scary. (There's often a request for official links on MN for claims like that but it's 3.40 in the morning so I'll leave that for now - mostly because I'm sure that it's not beyond the reach of anyone's imaginations that what I'm saying is correct! The info is indeed out there.) I'm blessed that I think my children have actually managed fine, although my DD2 can get quite angry at home, and regarding doing her work, and I would take a guess that this is heightened by the lockdowns, but she does tell me vocally when it's bothering her, so that is very helpful for me. My youngest is too young and goes to nursery so she is fine.

For anyone interested more generally in the thinking around children's schooling and mental health though, the "Recovery Curriculum" is a good place to start. Its creation was started on 25/4/19 and it was aimed at getting kids to return successfully to school following lockdown one. Which at the time no one expected to go on as long as it did. As such the curriculum has grown in time added to by professionals along the way. It gets used a LOT in SEN schools - but it is used in mainstream too. Worth a look if children's mental health and education is of interest to you.

So td;lr - no mental health issues for me as a result of covid, but my work experience with children - yes there's been absolutely massive impacts and these are, sadly going to last and children (and adults if course) are going to need help moving forward.

Not directly related to the virus, I haven't ever been worried or anxious about it. But mentally I am not in a good place trying to do a full-time job, homeschool a 5 year old and entertain a toddler. I also haven't seen family in 14 months which makes me desperately sad. It's one of the hardest times in my life.

No I haven't felt that my mental wellbeing has been impacted. But I don't have to homeschool, my income hasn't been affected and I have a support bubble. Any one of those things I feel would affect my mental health and some people have all of that and worse.

I wonder if the real effects of this might be felt later. At the moment I’m working harder than I’ve ever worked in my life, and travelling on public transport to work every other week. The whole experience is surreal and exhausting but I feel like I’m not allowing myself to truly reflect on it all because I’m so busy and also because I don’t want to just stop what I’m doing. I wonder if it’ll hit me later on. My teen DD is also suffering with her mental health but obviously impossible to tell how much is due to covid.

I have a distinct feeling of beige if that makes sense. Nothing specific just very flat and have been for months.

I feel much more anxious than usual, and a lot more stressed but I don’t think it would constitute as a mental health illness, as it’s not that extreme.

I feel quite panicky a lot which I hadn’t had before

Nope. I've had health problems for the last year which are under investigation. But I'm very happy and content, no mental health concerns at all. I've actually loved spending so much more time with my children while they're so young! And the slower pace of life has been nice because I've not been well. So no concerns from a mental health perspective.

No it hasn't.

The thing I have realised about myself from many of the posts here about the effect Covid had had on the poster's mental health, is that I have felt a lot like they describe on and off my whole life .

I have realised on here how many people have never really suffered from depression and feeling like nothing is worth doing or living for. They have rarely if ever felt so lethargic and depressed that they can't face getting up and dressed etc so now they are having those feelings because of Covid, it seems unbearable to them

I have regularly felt like this for over 40 years so can honestly say my mental health is no worse or better because of Covid.

That doesn't mean I haven't been fed up, depressed and despairing for some of the last year, just that I know based on experience that it will pass, that it is no worse than I have felt many times in the past and at least this time I have a good reason for how I feel.

Having an obvious reason for my depression hadn't always been the case and those times of feeling depressed for no obvious reason and feing were worse for me. Covid feels more like a communal experience and I feel less alone so it is not quite as bad .

GP signed me off work in August due to anxiety and depression. Never had this before.

I am depressed not by my own circumstances as such. Although I had a period in May where I was dealing with bullying, an ex employer, the union, solicitors, my father's behaviour due to advanced dementia and moving house, giving up old family home.

What depresses me most is the fact I can not completely disentangle myself from others and the way people have become cruel. Not to me specifically. In the last five years I have witnessed abuse to several vulnerable people by the very people meant to care, and thats on top of the absolutely horrendous past chronologies of their lives. My father disintegrated before my eyes but I couldn't get help for him despite knowing the workings of the system. Social Work and social care is broken. The system and those that work in it.....broken.

I'm depressed too that we have no power. This Tory scum in power have made some diabolical decisions. Its like standing by and watching a great tragedy unfold knowing what should be done but powerless to do anything.

So I'm both concerned for the breakdown of the social contact and peoples selfishness, cynical about people in general now but also still very concerned about the suffering I see. So I'm a bit torn. I'd like to become selfish, avaricious, mean and immune to the suffering of others. Except I don't, so in the main I'm just wanting to disengage with any form of social life. This makes me sad.

I'm not clinically depressed. Its more like an existential crisis. It can't be medicated.

My (diagnosed) anxiety (health, mainly) is better. I've said before that COVID is the great leveller. Everyone is a little afraid right now and any health fears I had are justified.

However my general malaise (I don't want to call it depression, it's not diagnosed, more the 'beige' feeling @harrykanesrightsock mentions above) has increased. It feels like a whole lot of joy has leaked out of life, like a slow puncture.

I suddenly had a mental health crisis last May. Never been anyway I'll before. I was so sick but am better now thanks to good support and careful medication. It shocked the pants off me because I wasn't even unhappy about life at the the. GP diagnosed GAD. Said I would have always had a tendency for it but the situation (covid anxiety and job loss) made it come out.

I'll = ill

I had a dip in April/May, after the initial hero syndrome rush of the first few weeks, when I was very busy getting things set up for remote working and contacting my user base.

I was already on antidepressants and had been very well for several months before then and planning to come off them, but put that on hold.

I recruited a friend as an accountability buddy to help me stick to my self-care plans (basically a daily walk and some time doing non-screen based creative leisure)

Felt heaps better by the Autumn and did manage to wean off the AD’s and have been fine.

Tested positive for Covid on New Year’s Eve, so the next few weeks were all about getting over it. Once I was and I realised how long this lockdown is likely to go on for, I felt a bit bleak.

The thing is, last summer and Autumn we did virtually no socialising, leisure shopping or meals out, because we were being hyper cautious not to catch it - because DH works in a care home and didn’t want to be the one to take it in. Instead, he caught it there and brought it home to me.

Now that we’ve had it, we’ve probably got a good degree of immunity, so would now be willing to do those social and fun things - but we can’t.

Hey ho - it was a minor dip, I’m over it. We are retiring and moving house in the summer, thanks to the vaccine that should be able to go ahead without issue, so I’m looking forward to/planning for that.

I still want to see my Mum, though. She lives 2 hours’ drive away. I saw her for 3 hours (lunch in the garden) in July and the previous time was early March when I took her for a medical procedure and prior to that, Christmas 2019.

No, I’m fine. The situation is obviously dismal but I’m in a better position than many and generally try to stay positive.

Yes, I was doing really well until November when I had a total breakdown. Couldn't work, couldn't deal with my family, kids etc. Just wanted to shut myself away under a duvet and had very real thoughts of how to end it all.

Luckily I have an amazing family, and am amazing employer who got me in track and have and continue to be hugely supportive.