Has having covid, not catching covid or knowing someone whose had it changed your view on how you first thought of it

[potentiallyme]

Before anything else I'd like to say so sorry to you all that have lost precious ones from covid (or any other reasons you've lost someone for that matter)
I feel beyond grateful that covid has not yet taken anyone I know. I was beyond panic stricken at the start of it all, now almost 2 years later I'm no where eat as frightened.

Completely yes.

I am at high risk due to underlying health conditions and sadly have been in a state of panic since last Jan/Feb. I was so so scared of catching it and honestly thought I would end up in hospital.

My DD caught it a few weeks back, inevitably followed by me and DH. I'm double jabbed and sue my booster and all I had was about 6 days of bad headache, feeling tired, bit of a cough on a morning and sore throat.

I can't believe I have put my entire life on hold and been so so scared for the equivalent of a bad cold.

Disclaimer - certainly not playing it down for those of us who have been badly affected or have lost loved ones. Just that it was so much milder than I was expecting.

My mum and mother in law both have friends who’ve passed away from it. We have one friend who passed away from it and at that stage, we’re terrified of getting it.
When we got it, I was thankful that there was a lot of information out there about what to do and we did all the vitamin d, vitamin c, anti inflammatory drinks, even gargling with listerine. We had an oximeter and were thankful we did it all as dh needed medical attention but recovered well. I dread to think what could’ve happened.
He was overweight but now has lost weight so hopefully will fare better with immunity and better health if he’s unlucky enough to be reinfected.
I feel more relaxed for us but other family members haven’t had it and even though they’re all vaccinated, I still worry for our elderly relatives.

I was pregnant in March 2020 and very frightened. I then caught it a week into the first lockdown, as did my mum and my husband. Dd4 didn't get it off us (or was asymptomatic). We were all off our feet with high temps for about a week but nothing we couldn't cope with a home. I had a cough for many weeks after and was fatigued like I'd never experienced before. Regardless, I was so glad to have had it over with so early on and it made us all much less worried about getting it again, especially as we are all double jabbed now too. I wouldn't want it again but I'm not worried about it. Grateful this was our experience.

4/5 of us had it in the summer. Completely wiped us all out. I dread to think what we would be like if we hadn’t had the vaccines. Everyone except me has recovered. I’ve got long covid. It’s really changed me, I’m so depressed with feeling so ill

No one in my family has had it. Not parents, in-laws etc.

People I work with have.

Only one of my friends has. She's under going chemotherapy at the moment and she was poorly but not to the extent I was worried she'd be.

I might have had it really early on. Was ill last March after coming back from Spain. But no testing then, so I'll never know.

Not in any way to make light of those who have lost loved ones but honestly the devastation caused to my friends and family has been awful and none of us have had covid. Jobs lost, house will be repossessed, depression, relationship breakups and worst of all suicide has taken more than one.

Dh and I haven’t had it, his kids have, friends have, one work colleague. Dh’s parents v worried about it.

We are all all jabbed up.

No one close to me has been that ill with it.

Yes my view has definitely changed. I was in a really anxious state at the beginning, my mental health really really suffered. Then my ds caught covid and we didn't, then my dd caught it and we didn't. I now have no fear of covid at all, and am doing more things than I was pre covid.

My 3 y/o DD and DH tested positive December last year, I tested negative but believe I was just a couple of days behind. Christmas was a horribly anxious time but everyone was fine. My former childminder however is still suffering with long Covid nearly a year later.
The last almost 2 years, with other stuff going on in my life has battered my mental health, so I refuse to worry about covid anymore. It’s forced me to care more about my health so that’s a plus I guess.

I’ve never managed to develop any anxiety about it. ‘A mild illness for most people’

Had it very early on, had fever for a few days so in bed but not totally wiped out then gastro interruptions for about a month.

Kids had it and wouldn’t really have known other than the LFT showed it up.

The only thing I’ve been worried about is passing it to vulnerable people unintentionally.

My view has not changed since the first minute it was mentioned, namely that it's a great big fuss about very little, in the grand scheme of things. I'm more concerned about antibiotic-resistant viruses, not least as young people (i.e. our children) would have no defence against them. I'm also more concerned about the mental health of all the people who suffered far more from lockdown than from Covid.

“ My view has not changed since the first minute it was mentioned, namely that it's a great big fuss about very little, in the grand scheme of things.”

Not so for me - my husband died aged 54. Please don’t minimise the losses of bereaved families.

Hugs to all those affected on this thread. 💐

Its so unpredictable is what scares me , for some its so mild its not Noticed , for others like a cold or flu , but then for some it kills even those that are healthy , it may not happen a lot but it happens and when you have high case numbers even a small percent is a lot
So i feel about the same as i did in the beginning

@TheScenicWay

My mum and mother in law both have friends who’ve passed away from it. We have one friend who passed away from it and at that stage, we’re terrified of getting it. When we got it, I was thankful that there was a lot of information out there about what to do and we did all the vitamin d, vitamin c, anti inflammatory drinks, even gargling with listerine. We had an oximeter and were thankful we did it all as dh needed medical attention but recovered well. I dread to think what could’ve happened. He was overweight but now has lost weight so hopefully will fare better with immunity and better health if he’s unlucky enough to be reinfected. I feel more relaxed for us but other family members haven’t had it and even though they’re all vaccinated, I still worry for our elderly relatives.

@TheScenicWay what is an anti-inflammatory drink?

It’s so varied in its effects isn’t it? to those who are suffering or lost loved ones.

I still haven’t had it. People I know personally: 1 died from it early on,1 was ventilated and survived with COVID related organ damage and is now bed bound, a few said it was like bad flu and it had taken them 4-6 weeks to feel fully recovered. Around 8 had it and it was like a bad cold, although 1 said it was a headache they just couldn’t shift. I’ve kept working but been careful throughout.

No. I've never had any anxiety or fear over Covid but have done my part, so to speak. Got vaccinated as soon as I was allowed, stayed home when asked and still wear a mask both at work and when out running errands
Both my DP and I had it earlier this year and we experienced nothing more than a cold. Likewise for the other ppl I know who've had it.

I have just got over it, I’m double vaccinated and was shocked at how ill I was and how long it took me to feel better. But, I did get over and make a good recovery, so that had taken the covid fear away a bit, I was being very careful so also a little surprised that I caught it, so being careful doesn’t necessarily work perhaps. Because I did catch it after being so careful I’m pretty sure that I will prob get it again. I’m a few weeks over it and I have started to feel quite nervous going out and about again, especially when I see so many people not taking many precautions. I want to go up and shake them and say look at me, I’m healthy and I was so poorly with it.

I’ve never managed to develop any anxiety about it. ‘A mild illness for most people’

Similar to me. I looked at data early on coming out of China and it was obvious even then that someone of my age/state of health was very low risk indeed. I don't think I ever felt fear on a personal level.

I had two very elderly acquaintances in nursing homes who sadly passed away in the first lockdown. Apart from that, almost everyone I know who's had covid has had it mildly or asymptomatically. That includes lots of kids and parents of kids.

The unpredictability is odd though. A colleague of mine, in his 70s was very ill with it and was hospitalised. He took a long time to get better but is thankfully almost there. His 99 year old mother on the other hand breezed through.

Interesting question. At first I was mainly nervous about the changes to society - I remember people saying ‘oh the kids will be back in school in a couple of weeks’ and it was so obvious, even in March/April 2020, that we were going to have restrictions on and off for a long time to come. But I wasn’t so worried about catching it because of my age and health.

Then long covid emerged and now I really, really don’t want to catch it. A lot of friends in my exact demographic (healthy, athletic, double jabbed women in their 30s/40s) have had it recently and been very ill. And one of my good friends has died.

I've just had it. It's made me even angrier with people who have stopped wearing masks on crowded public transport (and with the government who said that was ok.)
I've done everything properly and I still got it.
I was terrified when I tested positive. Fortunately it wasn't too bad and me and my son have recovered fine but isolating as a single parent for 10 days has been worse than I thought jt would. My mental health has taken a massive hit and it's going to take a while to recover.

Dh and I and the kids have it now. I am really unwell. Haven't felt this ill since I had the flu when I was 17. It's awful. I was of the camp that we all need to get on with life, but honestly, this has floored me. I have a normal BMI and am pretty fit. I may have just been unlucky and got a high viral load but I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Oh and I'm double vaxxed

My whole family had it, fairly early on. It's not changed my perspective really, which some would say is not worried enough.

I've always taken a very pragmatic view of death, though, that it's inevitable, and I don't consider something like covid an unnatural death or a person who had something taken away in some sense different than if an elderly or ill person dies of any other natural illness. Life has a 100% death rate and most of the time, the end sucks, at least for a while. So I'm cognizant of how I want to live, and to what extent I am willing to compromise that to potentially live longer.

The problem of covid for me has always been about systems and making sure they continue to function long term, and I think that's where our social responsibility lies and also the proper use of the authority of the state. The way goalposts have been moved on this and, in my opinion, the way people have been led up a garden path thinking that we will stop covid, I've found really concerning and upsetting.

No. Never been scared at any point of Covid. My mum was the first person I know to catch it in April 2020. She was ill for about a month and then recovered fine. DS and I caught it in August this year, no more than a cold for us.