How were the lockdowns for you?

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looking back

Going off on a tangent but did your son recover from his ASD burnout @Spendonsend? DD is 6 months into an ASD breakdown and things look pretty bleak right now.

Awful both myself and dh were keyworkers , I was doing roughly 72 hours a week ! As in healthcare my hours had been put up due to staff issues . My poor then 12 year old ds has to watch his little brother who was only just turned 3 when we worked . I feel worse for my kids than myself

Terrible.

DH and I worked the whole thing and caught COVID 3 times even with full PPE and vaccinations.

Hated all of it.

I went out to work as usual because I'm a Tube station supervisor. I read a lot of books. I hated wearing a mask with my glasses. I hated not being able to help customers with extra needs like I was used to. I hated enforcing the "essential travel" rule. Why did I have to judge if someone had a genuine reason to be out?

Around 100 of my colleagues died of Covid 19. I had it but it passed after about a week.

My father in law really declined. He was a social animal, and his health really suffered. I don't know what eas better, shielding him for his physical health or allowing him to keep hold of his mental health. He died in March, and i fully blame the regime of the previous two and a half years.

My parents also declined a bit. Got much slower and it affected their mental health. When all the restrictions lifted they got right back into taking holidays and pursuing their hobbies but they aren't the same people, really. Very wary, a bit afraid and very much slower on their feet.

My daughter developed a phobia of germs and comments on my standards of hygiene a lot. She gets antsy if I don't wash my hands regularly enough. She also hates gardening (she used to love it) because it's "dirty". I hadn't got around to doing the chores one week and she complained, so I said if she isn't happy she can do it herself. Some muttering and stomping to her room...She had Covid in early 2022 and was in bed for 10 days. We had refused the jab for her because of the lack of clinical evidence for its effectiveness. She came out the other side strong. The whole thing definitely affected her education too.

I think it's best to put it in the past now. It was truly horrible time and I hope it never happens again.

Lots of things have improved for my son yes. He takes setraline and has melatonin prescribed by cahms. He has OT daily and attends a totally different type of school now and is approaching full time. He will go out and do things. But i think recovering rather than recovered and i wonder if recovering will be a permanent state if that makes sense.

It was fine for us - fairly large garden with lots of play stuff, nice parks in walking distance, kids get on with each other - school age with their own laptops and own space to work.
Signed kids up to lots of free online activities, we ate mostly healthy food (we actually got healthier over lockdown)

But I would never go back to it. Hated not seeing people, didn't see my mum for months, kids staring at screens all the time.
Supermarket shopping was grim. Society was grim. Angry scared people. Horrible.

I'm one of the lucky ones that loved lockdowm. I was just married and living with my husband in my parents large home in London, they were living abroad. We did this to save money to eventually buy our own home. When lockdown looked like it was going to happen, my two sisters decided to move into the house too so we could all be together and look after each other. At this point we were convinced it was the plague.

It turned out to be the best time of my life. And it was a brilliant way for my sisters to really get to know my husband, and thats a bond and relationship that would never have happened in normal times.

We had four good incomes (all out jobs were safe and transitioned to wfh easily), and because there was nothing else to spend money on we bought incredible ingredients and made really good food every day.

And the weather was lush so we sat I'm the garden a lot, played boardgames, watched movies. It was sort of like a great extended sleepover.

Oh and the saving money bit? We saved more than I ever thought we could. And it made me reasses how we used money after lockdown, now that I'd found out how much could be saved. It was only through those months of saving that we were able to buy our first home.

I think I'll always look back on that time and feel lucky that we had it the way we did.

It was horrifically damaging to our society, our economy and revoltingly divisive. The hysterical overreaction once it became clear that the response was disproportionate was extremely disappointing. Our children, our elders and the poorest have been left damaged. The revolting levels of greed shown by people trying to claim every benefit and grant under the sun has had lasting behavioural consequences. The level of complicity amongst local government, the police and the general population was most alarming. We are now going to suffer the consequences with excess deaths, the collapse of the education system and the drowning in debt. And the worse part? That the selfish shrills would happily do it all over again

There were highs and lows.

A major low was having a missed miscarriage and finding out at a scan on my own, then being unable to take DH to follow up apt (even thought hospital said I was allowed) as we had no childcare for other DC.

Also worked in a stressful job, supporting people with severe mental health problems but having to do it over the phone or on zoom instead of face to face.

People were struggling so so much and it was heartbreaking. I felt totally helpless on some calls and working 12 hr shifts from home, without support from being with colleagues, was hard going.

I spent a lot of the time calling emergency services due to high suicide risks and attempts. I think that I and my former colleagues still have some element trauma from the relentlessness of trying to help people who were so isolated and desperate.

We also realised that we were working for a pretty toxic organisation, a lot of things came out during the period and staff were treated without any care or support.

However, in terms of life changing after covid and looking at work/life balance, I can only see positives.

My whole life feels like it’s separated in “before covid and after covid” , and I like this one best.

Afterwards, I tried going back to the office but just couldn’t return to that way of life, always rushing, commuting to work, DC in breakfast clubs and after school club, rushing to clubs outside or school.

So, I left and returned to a different line of work where I work only from home, paperwork based, and am self employed. It’s perfect. A risk I would never have taken previously though.

DC don’t do any clubs now apart from swimming.

One DC in particular, thrived in lockdown and coped well with the quiet and small key-worker provision. When the schools went back, she fell apart and we then discovered she had SEN that were previously not identified.

She now home schools and does some online lessons. I would never ever have considered this as even a remote possibility before, in the same way I never thought working from home was an option.

I’m less of a “rule follower” in general though, as I followed all covid rules but then realised our government didn’t, so care much less about authority generally, for example, we now take DC for term time holidays and I really don’t care about any disapproval from school.

Finally - and I aware that we were very fortunate to be able to do this - we had some great holidays from 2020 - 2022. Prices dropped so much as people were put off travelling abroad and the the “red list” kept changing so it was always a bit of a gamble.

We stayed in an amazing resort in the summer of 2020, it was 25% of the price that it is today and somewhere we would never have been able to afford, and still couldn’t, at full price.

(And @Lindy2 , just saw your post above about ASD burnout. My DD has mostly recovered - and she was severely unwell at one point, to the point where she could not function at all and it was really frightening. It hasn’t been an easy process, but there is definitely hope - I didn’t see how we could ever move forward at one point, but lots and lots of rest and removing demands did help, slowly)

Horrendous and stressful.

Loved them. No school runs, just being home. The roads were empty, deserted.

I don't think we saved any money as most of the shops were online and there were even more delivery vans up the street, we spent a lot on things for the garden and went away loads in our caravan between lockdowns in case they locked down again so probably more than in a usual year

1st one , strange feeling at first , worked liked mad throughout at a vets ,very few clients in building but no compromise to our patients , lots of kindness and gratitude.
Blissful times in the garden enjoying nature ,slow pace when home, sunshine and such clear clean air -really miss that part.
My child was in their element arts and crafts and garden , really enjoyed watching them thrive , other 2 young adults ,had to break rule and rescue one from uni by driving to get them and oldest one carried on as normal which looking back i cant say i blame them.
My working life changed from then for the better with a slight role change ,but i quickly saw that the country was going mad and the government were in the shit.
Still can't get my head around how we could still meander around wilkos, homebargains and similar buying the usual stuff when so many businesses were forced to close.
Subsequent lockdowns didn't compare , so much anger,frustration,selfishness and bad manners , i can't think of any positives.
I have not mentioned death , funerals ,care homes , isolation etc as there are no words to describe the absolute outrage of this and how people /this was handled.
I do not trust a word any government tells me and i will never obey such madness again.

It completely devastated my family. My wonderful, caring daughter worked every hour she could as a health care professional, looking after the sickest COVID patients in the most arduous conditions. As a single person, she came home alone after each shift, - she refused to "bubble" with anyone as she was terrified that the viral overload she was subject to every day would pass on to the people she loved. When exhaustion, anxiety, loneliness and the sheer horror of what she was dealing with led to severe depression, there was virtually no help or support for her from understaffed, under resourced mental health services. She took her own life last June. My family is totally destroyed by the loss of our wonderful girl and I am very, very bitter about how she was sacrificed.

@Flauralaura I am so sorry for your terrible loss.

It isn't the lockdowns that bothered me as much as idiotic attitudes like this one. Covid is not akin to a cold, and it is not over. If there wasn't a section for Covid, people would complain as they're subjected to Covid-related posts in other sections. You can't win, really.

Awful. My job got more and more stressful as time went on and despite what some people think it's not the same trying to get support over Teams. I'm lucky as I had DH for support but I genuinely don't think I would have coped if I'd lived alone.

I'm so sorry @Flauralaura, she sounds like a wonderful person.

Absolutely awful.

I have an autoimmune disease so, while I didn't go down the washing shopping/quarantining post route, I was absolutely terrified for the first few months. I thought if I caught it, I'd die. I have no friends or family (apart from DH, who has no friends/family either) so had nobody to chat to online or whatever. My health declined because I couldn't see my consultant and I wasn't able to get new meds until September 2021, when my consultant was taking appointments again. My mobility was badly affected so going for a walk wasn't always possible. We don't drive, so for months on end I never went further than a mile from my home. We're in a top floor flat with no outside space and home felt more like a prison.

When masks became compulsory, I was unable to wear one due to another health issue. I was genuinely exempt but I was abused constantly, told I should die, spat at on one occasion in a shop. So I went out even less. I got loads of abuse on here, too, when I mentioned I was exempt from wearing a mask.

I've never felt so lonely or depressed in my life and it culminated with a complete breakdown over Christmas 2020. I was self harming for the first time since my teens. Then DH had a similar thing - his usually well managed OCD went into overdrive, he was hearing voices and seeing things.

We're still recovering now. I used to be so happy, fearless, travelled, went to gigs almost weekly, all sorts. Now I feel as if I have some kind of PTSD which sounds melodramatic I know, but it's the only way to describe it. I've put on loads of weight and the damage done to my body because I didn't have access to my new meds over lockdown means I can't move like I used to. I feel like I've aged about 20 years, physically and mentally. I have health anxiety now and I didn't used to.

I've had covid nine times, so I'm not scared of catching covid anymore. But I don't know how on earth to move on or get back to how I used to be, or even if it's possible.

@Flauralaura I am so very, very sorry for your loss 💐

@Flauralaura Im so sorry for your loss

@Glorious ah yes those halcyon days of being told to use hibiscrub on my face so that my skin condition wouldnt flare up while wearing a mask There was more than a whiff of being expected to wear a mask to protect our "betters" All in this together <snort> just read any social housing tenants to see what many people think of SH tenants and that went back to the default setting soon enough.

Lockdowns were shit They changed my perspective on something i thought i was ok with which threw a bomb into my personal life.

FIL couldn't cope with wearing a mask as he was gagged and raped by his grandfather as a child. He'd never told anyone until he broke down over wearing a mask and told DH. I got told on here it didn't matter that he'd been raped as he was a man.

Honestly, awful. I absolutely hated it and I honestly think it changed me as a person, and not necessarily for the better.

DH was out at work 12 hours by myself and I was at home working full time whilst homeschooling a 6 & 8 Yr old. I have a lovely home, great DH and 'good kids' and it was incredibly difficult. I can't even imagine how hard it must have been for some.

The first one was fine, although working from home was strange as I'd never done it before. The gym moved classes online. Even the November/December lockdown was okay, but the early 21 lockdown was awful. Really brought me down and I found it very hard.