The 10 October 2021 is World Mental Health Day and I thought this might be a safe place for us to share how the last 18 mths of Covid times has affected our mental health.
There are so many words to describe the way the pandemic has affected my life it is difficult to know where to start. The feelings of grief perhaps depict it the best except it’s an ongoing grief. A grief for the life I know longer have nor any knowledge of when a life with meaning starts again. So anger, sadness etc but I definitely haven’t reached the point of acceptance. Having said that there are times when the life I am leading is routine and settled but then the anger comes back again. We have been isolated, ignored and marginalised in all this and each time something happens, say talk about holidays, ending shielding, a third primary dose or we need to learn to live with this when we are still at very high risk the anger bubbles up again. Go back to day 1 when we were told to stay inside and shield for 12 weeks and they referred us to mental health ideas that said getting outside into green spaces and exercising was good for maintaining mental health!!! I have had some very low periods but life has been better since we could go out, however, since all restrictions were lifted it has become much more precarious, certainly where I live the infection rate is higher than it has ever been since it all began and yet I’m expected to live a normal life, and my mood swings are frequent. However, onwards and upwards and a hope, if only small, of better things to come.
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Wow, @Lababe you word it so much better than I ever could, thank you so much.
I certainly think I would have struggled even more without our forum because I would have felt so completely alone and forgotten and the only one with the feelings I had.
As it is I feel everyone else listened to the government all along and I was listening to our medical experts.
Yes, the world has gone back to it’s normal lives, which, yes, makes it an even more scary place for us.
If you would like to speak to someone at the Blood Cancer UK support line their contact details are above.
But, yes, onwards and upwards and a hope, if only small, of better things to come.
Thank you, look after yourself (you cannot control what others do) and keep posting.
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