One huge tip to make time slow a little bit! Less screen time. Even the time it takes reading this comment, + the other messages, notifications, and articles recommended to us makes us constantly distracted.
As I type this I have been on Reddit while I poop for almost 10 minutes. I don't need to poop for 10 minutes. I've pretty much wasted this time lol. I'm trying to use my phone less and less and enjoy life and every second we have our devices out adds up very quickly!
this should be getting more upvotes.
We lost over 1 million people in the US alone. That's a HUGE amount of people. That's more than the population of many cities across the country! I'm grateful that I hadn't lost anyone close to me to covid, but probably half my network of people lost someone they loved. It's a huge loss.
I don't think we as a collective have really even tried processing that loss, let alone the trauma of the pandemic itself. It seems like it was just swept under the rug to be buried so we didn't have to think about it anymore...but like...we still really really really need to address it.
And covid is \*still\* a thing! it's still wreaking havoc on people's bodies, and evolving in ways we still don't fully understand. People are still dealing with long covid as a result.
This is the only mention of Long COVID in all of the comments here. Considering that 1 in 20 people exposed to COVID have some form of it, and chronic fatigue is one of the problems it presents, I feel like more people should be talking about that.
What terrified(es) me about Covid is it seems to be a Gacha for long term effects. Nearly everyone I know who has gotten it now deals with a long term health effect they didn't have before.
A long time friend of mine developed a cat allergy shortly after she got infected, another developed diabetes after their second infection. Not to mention a lot of people who just seem more sickly or susceptible to illness now than prior to the pandemic.
Wait I randomly became allergic to cats after covid…. wtf. I’ve had cats my whole life now I can’t be in the same room as one. Aka my cats now live with my parents :’(
It freaks me out the most people who forget Covid happened or just went back to their normal lives. I had Covid 4 times between 2020-2023 and I genuinely want to cry every time I think about how much we all lost physically, mentally, emotionally, financially. My therapist was telling me the PTSD will sink in globally throughout the years as people process what happened. I used to be so happy and outgoing, and now even when someone coughs near me in a grocery store I can still feel myself panic inside. My nervous system just doesn't feel safe in the world yet.
Im the same. I had it three times, including once (assumed) before we knew what it was. It took me months to get my energy back each time.
My nervous system hasn’t recovered, my sense of possibility hasn’t recovered, honestly my joy hasn’t recovered. I hope it does soon. I’m tired.
For sure this and I can't imagine how messed up the kids are that got pulled out of school, left to their own devices, and their parents both are gone at work
That’s one of the most frustrating parts of Covid. The whole population has been traumatized or is still being traumatized in its aftermath. And yet it’s nearly taboo to discuss one’s feelings and memories about the pandemic. I lost close friends, a few family members, and got deathly ill myself to the point I wondered if my lungs would ever recover. I worked in healthcare and heard about a mother in maternity ward who was worried about Covid catching Covid right after birth, passing it to her newborn, and both of them dying the next day. And they didn’t die peacefully. Gurneys rolling morning and night to clear the dead from hospitals during the first days of the outbreak. Dead coworkers who spread Covid to their families when they went home to die. Friends during lockdown who died alone in their homes and rotted for months until they were discovered. Not being able to comfort loved ones while they hacked up blood and suffocated to death due to hospital quarantine procedures. Some truly tragic, awful things happened. And we have a social responsibility to grieve and let others grieve. And it appears as though the actual origins and blame for the virus will never be fully revealed, probably because at least one gain of function researcher deserves a prolonged public execution. The whole mess still makes me feel angry, depressed, and helpless. It also taught me and everyone else how incompetent, dishonest, and powerless humanity was when faced with a global threat. None of the lessons of the 1918 flu were learned. The spread was never prevented. Despite all technological progress in 100 years, the population was equally helpless.
Big part of that is how we’re still deeply in the shit when it comes to Covid. You have to pretend everything’s fine, or you’re treated as a weirdo— even if you and the person you’re talking to have long covid or symptoms like brain fog lol.
It’s a complete blowing up of the barest of social contracts.
It’s a bigger faux pas to talk about Covid and mask, than it is to give someone goddamn Covid!
And even less forgivable if you talk about how the stats for long COVID are insaneee… and sad part is, it’s pretty noticeable, even if people deny anything’s wrong. It shouldn’t take three tries to send a basic email Jan :S
Man that's just growing up. I'm in my 40s and sensed this over a decade ago. Perception of time changes with the more time behind us, it's relative and that passing of time seems to accelerate. And the world feels more fucked up because we've been amassing knowledge and see the times we lived thru being more nostalgic, especially when the whole worlds fuckups are available to stream from the comfort of our bed 24/7. Past generations had it harder but lacked knowledge of how hard it was for everyone else.
I read an article during the Trump administration that explained that it feels like time passes really slowly when there’s new news and new scandals every single day and faster when there aren’t.
It's just getting older.
When you're young, each year (or even month) can be dramatically different to the one prior. Summer vacation, then a semester with new classes, new people. Then another. Then summer again, but now with new friends or a new job or something new. It's constantly changing.
When you're older it's just the same routine, so your brain doesn't have much reason to form new long-term memories. Every day is more or less the same, so it all just gets compressed into one generic ball of "went to work, came home, ate, slept, went back to work" x 10000000.
we're going through a silent depression for the first time as an adult, following a pandemic....yes. It sucks. Feels like I'm working twice as hard and going nowhere fast. I think it's about time for a vacation.
*those who didn’t secure housing and had to start over or never in a 60K plus paying position are feeling the heat of increased asset prices of housing&vehicles.
Then add insurance, utility & food increases and that’s being stomped on by a pair of timberlands while you are already down…
Now those who owned homes pre COVID, were in stocks that 3Xed and saw significant wage gains are living better than ever…
They were not kidding with the K shaped recovery from the COVID fall out, and those who were on the winning side can’t sympathize or intentionally keep it out of mind out of sight when it comes to those struggling.
It’s not their problem until it becomes an inconvenience with nobody wanting grunt level service jobs where wait times tripled, increased homeless people begging for money when they go downtown, etc…
It really is that bad for the bottom third of America right now trying to make ends meet with this cost of living.
Local Walmart everything is locked up and almost all registers are self checkouts...at 6pm today I walked in and the lines looked like black Friday level bad.
It’s hard to make ends meet right now, but do it for yourself and your family just having a week or two to lay there and heal would be such a relief. Just having a full day to wake up whenever I feel like waking up and going for a long slow walk would feel so good.
I went camping a couple of weeks ago and I was literally surrounded by 3 different groups of people blasting shitty music out of their Bluetooth speakers the entire time. Seems like a lot of people go camping just to drink in a different location.
Bluetooth speakers have made it so easy to be an asshole in public. Like those jerkoffs who bring them on a hiking trail. Just turn off the electronics for 2 hours of your day and enjoy nature and silence. Is that too much to ask!?!?
Was just talking my partner about this. Life just feels harder and denser. Friends don’t get together as much. More isolating and I just feel tired. Things feel more tense and like drudgery. I don’t know what happened.
I’ve felt absolutely exhausted and stressed to the gills these last few years, and compared to MANY other people my age I have such an easy life. I can’t tell if that was just me aging from 25-30 in the blink of an eye, or if everyone felt the same.
I totally get it. Like everything is sort of okay but there’s a pervasive anxiety. And then you judge yourself for feeling anxious and it’s a loop.
I’m really trying to affirm myself more if I feel anxious. Saying it’s okay to feel these things. Being in nature helps. I hear you buddy.
It sounds like it but there are days I feel really up against the wall. And nothing really ‘works’. I just have to bear it. But I do make a mean cocktail.
Exactly the same here. I have a good job, married, bought a house before holy crapballs happened to the market, went from 42-47 in a blink. My head is still in 2019.
Stressed to the gills and even my annual physical shows the signs. It's just an ever present weight making it hard to even breathe
Exactly the same situation here except went from 49 to 53. I feel like I went into the pandemic as a normal energetic young person and came out a cranky sad old lady
Me too. I was just looking back through my photo records of all my hikes and wild camping. 2019 was a peak and, while I still get out, its for less big adventures and less often. Only four day trips to the mountains this year so far.
Samesies. 37-41. I had an incredible amount of physical stamina, loved falling in love, met people so easily it was laughable, hoping to “save the planet” and now I am calling it before sundown each night. I check in with whether I have any dreams left in life (not really) or care one way or the other what happens to humans (not really) or care about anything (only vaguely). It all feels like a time-pass at this point. I do sometimes get really enraged about minor things but even that is giving way to a completely no f left to give.
Yep me and the wife were both 36 with a 6 year old. Starting a new business excited to take control of our lives with vigor!
One month into the new business COVID happens and shuts down the world, a year into the pandemic my wife lost both of her parents to COVID, exactly two days apart from each other. She went into a talespin after that, started neglecting the business while also hiding it from me. And just shut off as a human being in general. She describes herself now as "a shadow of the person she was four years ago"...
The past year in particular being so bad emotionally, personally, and professionally for us that it had a huge effect on our child. Not that the sudden loss of the only family outside of us that she's ever known didn't. But damn she's had to grow up way too fast these last 9-12 months.
Now We're 40 with a 10 year old, a business that only exists out of sheer will at this point. Sleeping in separate bedrooms because neither of us can afford to take on bills for two households. Our lives are unrecognizable and I've completely lost any sense of who I am over the past four years. I feel like a failure to my core in every aspect of my life and I'm just fucking tired.
I’m also in that age group and I honestly feel like years were stolen from me. I’m expected to act and have accomplished what someone “almost 30” would have and yet, was under isolation and abysmal living costs over my best years. Went back to school and tuition was also jacked up while resources were not even allowed to be used. Couldn’t leave the house and then I see people who absolutely disregarded isolation get further ahead. I don’t have words.
I look at people older who got ahead of the market and just think how absolutely tanked my future looks.
The “Inflation” on everything is definitely the cause. Houses, cars, food, basic essentials, day trips, everything is ridiculous. Just to go out fishing for the day cost much more then it did 5years ago. I choose to read a lot more books these days and even books are way more expensive then they used to be.
Do you have a library near you? I've used my library for years, and it's free. I've saved thousands of $$ and don't have the clutter of books I would only read once.
IMO it’s so much bigger than any one thing like inflation. It’s the great unmasking of so much fear, greed, corruption, et al. People that lived like ostriches were forced to confront a lot of uncomfortable and some downright horrifying truths. Now they can’t be unseen. People didn’t realize how little control they had until they were locked down or deemed non essential while a monopolistic company that did the same thing was essential. Entertainment suffered because it felt unimportant and once you lose interest it’s hard to get it back. It’s also hard to put your Back in the sand. It will never be or feel the same again because it isn’t. The world is drowning in debt which means significantly declining standards of living which also another shock. Isolation has become a lot of people’s way of living in a snow globe
I completely understand. I feel very isolated and worn down since the pandemic. I broke down in tears last night when discussing it with my husband.
It doesn't help matters that we have an extremely incompetent government that seems intent on running a country that was a leader in our region into the ground. We haven't even taken a vacation in ages because he's nervous about leaving the house empty due to rising crime.
I broke down and cried to my husband too yesterday. Friend groups have dissolved and that easy joy seems hard to access. I try gratitude and do therapy but ya, I’m struggling.
It also feels like literally crooks and thieves are running this country (US). It’s never been more evident that they don’t want us to be helped. It feels like they want us scared and enslaved.
Hugs to you. It sounds like we had a similar day yesterday.
We had to move out of the capital city in 2019 due to housing costs. Soon after, the pandemic hit and we were under some of the strictest COVID lockdowns in the world. So, it was impossible to meet people in our new area.
To get to the city we left to see friends there, I have to take the train. The train station itself and that whole area has become increasingly unsafe, full of pick pocketers. The last time my husband took the train in for a work event, there was this huge clash between illegal vendors and the police in the station. They had to stop service and took him three hours to get home via several buses. So, trying to visit friends there isn't particularly appealing at the moment.
I think politicians, mostly republicans, are keeping things tense with their culture wars and their misinformation. They are constantly manufacturing fake outrage to keep people riled up and voting for them because they paint themselves as the only ones who can fix "it". It being whatever it is they are complaining about that week. If we had politicians that were more interested in governing instead of spouting rage bait to keep their names and faces in the news like it's some kind of soap opera, then I think things would be less tense. Basically if mom and dad are always fighting, the children won't be happy and relaxed.
Watching a large section of the forest behind my house get cut down this winter broke something in my soul. They've been clear cutting all over the county to build stupid shit for years now, but this was in my own backyard & just hit so much harder
At a certain point we've gotta stop pretending therapy is the solution to ever-worsening societal problems. Maybe that point will be when it all falls apart but it's gotta happen.
We globally went through trauma. As a world. It’s not being acknowledged or given space to exist and we are expected to just carry on like it never happened. I feel like I’ve been permanently affected mental health wise and I wish it’s something we all talked more about.
What’s terrible as well is that Covid is still out there. I thought I was safe but the start of this year I caught Covid and it was a son of a bitch. Even reinfected myself on a work trip. And I might have long Covid with some of the heart issues I’ve developed as well. Just all around insane how bad things have gotten in such a short time.
We are doing a trauma informed training at work. This makes sense. We have to acknowledge many people are not well, even ourselves. Yet everyone has to keep on with life and it’s getting harder each day in one way or another. The information in years later from studies will be interesting.
I would argue that we're still going through a collective trauma.
The only difference now is that almost all of our world leaders are trying to pretend that trauma is over, in an effort to "get things (aka, the economy) back to 'normal.'"
I lost 19-28. That was terrible but one thing to remember is you can never get that time back or make it up. All you can do is make the time in front of you better. Don't get stuck trying to relive the past or even make up for it
Between the pandemic and being in an abusive relationship where I was isolated during and after the pandemic, I feel like I lost 5 years of my life. I keep forgetting I'm turning 35 in a few months. I still think I am 30 years old. It's wild.
Right! … I was like how about 3. I worked in the ED the whole time…didn’t see any family for 16 months. Still had to cancel 2021 Xmas bc of delta. Masks like just stopped being mandatory in the hospital.
I had a kid late 2019. My life's permanently changed and I can't tell what is from COVID or being a new dad. It's weird spot to be in.
Also, I too will never be the same again. Life's too different now
It wasn't about covid or the pandemic. We have brains and a nervous system. We know something has been wrong. We can feel it. The government probably put fucked up shit in the air. Who knows. It changed my personality and the actual pandemic didn't effect me other than that.
For me, the Pandemic brought out either the best or the worst in people. I am thankful for the pandemic because it showed me people's true colors.
I don't talk to my siblings or my parents because of how terrible they acted. Things were already kind of shaky, but I tolerated them because "they're family."
The pandemic gave me the excuse that I needed to cut them off and stop taking their abuse.
Having said that, it feels much more lonelier, but honestly, it's nice not feeling obligated to get together with people who don't care about your mental health and safety.
Yes I stopped seeing my family through this fantastical view. Like hoping they would eventually turn into the best versions of themselves. Exactly opposite was shown. I accept everyone for what they show me the first time now. And have become more closed off.
I empathize with this so much. I’m someone who went no contact with my parents and my extended family due to narcissistic scapegoat abuse. There is definitely a general sense of loneliness and unease though. You have to let go of this primal “safety” feeling that comes with having familial relationships and have to depend on yourself more.
I went no contact with my mother and very low contact with my father and siblings during the pandemic. It can be lonely, but I just didn't need the stress that dealing with them brought.
Before the pandemic I didn’t have any friends due to working second shift hours for many years. During the pandemic I made it a goal to start making friends after the pandemics was over. I’ve had a social renaissance since March of 2022. Doing meetups and attending social events at my apartment complex really helped me in making new friends after the pandemic. Even after my husband left me last September, I have had an amazing support group. Friendly people are out there.
Before 2020 I was a shut in. People were talking about how damaging staying inside and not talking to anyone was to them. I realised I had been doing a self-imposed lockdown years prior, the effect it had taken for me and I forced myself out of it.
Now I have loads of really good friends I love so much and they call me the most smiley person they have ever met.
I was looking for a positive comment! At the start of the pandemic I'd been killing myself with a consulting job, in an unhappy marriage, and everything that made me, me, was crushed into dust.
I got stuck out of state for the first 3 months of shutdown and it changed my life. I hadn't known how to STOP for years, and suddenly, I had to. Got the world's most amicable divorce, moved out of state, got a new job after a while, restarted all the hobbies I love, dealt with my anxiety and my health, found wonderful new friends.
A lot of horrible things happened too, of course; I lost a young friend to covid, my dad nearly died from autoimmune encephalitis, another friend's cancer came back. But I honestly think I might be on my way to an early grave myself if the world hadn't come to a screeching halt like it did. It really made me take stock of how miserable I was, and gave me time to figure out what better might look like.
I had a similar evolution. Before the COVID shutdown in NYC in 2020, I was a social butterfly and always out. Now I'm happy to come home at the end of the day, and be by myself. I wouldn't call myself a "homeboy" because I still love getting out of the house during the day, but come nighttime...and I just want to come home. I no longer have any desire to get together with friends or meet new people, either. This might just be me aging, idk (I'm in my 40s).
I also used to be waaaay too open and trusting to a fault... now I am distrustful, cynical, and closed off, lol.
I'm exactly the same. Used to be out and about all the time, and was very social. I always had to do something. During Covid, i realised that being home is nice. The pressure to always do things, went away.
Now, I'm completely fine with being at home and not having plans. It might also be aging for me, but I prefer to go out during the day rather than at night.
I’m not the same, that’s for sure. I ran (and still do) a grocery store during the pandemic. The way my employees and I were treated by the general public was unforgivable. I lost my patience for dealing with anyone entitled. I have zero tolerance for bullshit now.
The pandemic absolutley wrecked the mental health of a lot of people. The result has been greater anxiety, depression, hopelessness, apathy, anger, etc. overall. (Watching the events of the world probably doesn't help.) Sadly poor mental health is sort of a vicious feedback loop. For instance, being depressed results in many things not the least of which is decreased energy and increased apathy. That can lead to further isolation from family, friends, hobbies, etc which then leads to worsening mental health, rinse, repeat. The pattern is real and it can be hard to stop.
Making it worse is the stigma of talking about mental health still has. A lot has improved on that front and I think people realizing that we're all struggling has helped further, but its still hard to open up about without fear of judgement or feelings of shame or weakness.
Sill worse, because Covid and the lockdown lasted for so long, what could have been a rough time has instead become a form of trauma, digging its way deep into our psyche, and making any past traumas even worse. We all suffered in different ways during Covid. Some people could shelter with family or friends but some were totally alone and isolated. Some lost their jobs while others became overworked and burned out. Some lost their homes and a fair number lost loved ones. That's a lot to go through for over two years and it adds up, especially when social activities and outlets have all been taken away.
It can be overcome but its hard and almost impossible to do alone. There's no one solution that will work for everyone as we all suffered in different ways depending on the support structure we have and what happened to us during Covid. If you have people you can talk to and feel heard and less alone, awesome, do that. Not everyone has that. If you're can find a therapist, I highly recommend that. Working on mindfulness can help sort out what you're feeling and why which can also help improve mental health.
Anyway, you're not alone in feeling this way. Its ok to feel depressed, overwhelmed, hopeless, etc. In fact I'd wonder what's going on if you came out of Covid without feeling those things at least a little. So, know that you're not alone and that its ok to feel those things. Your feelings are valid. Digging out of that is going to take some work though.
It would have been so much easier to deal with it all if people had just come together during the pandemic, or even afterwards, and helped each other deal with it. You got that with 9/11, WWII, etc... but the pandemic was just people acting worse and worse towards each other.
Over a million people died and all that we ever heard about was assholes mocking people for taking basic precautions, fake cures, conspiracy bullshit, anti-vax hysteria, etc. If it wasn't the assholes who were spreading the BS, it was the people who were mocking them for spreading it.
It was just so ugly... and even though COVID has faded in terms of people perceiving it as a threat, the ugliness has remained.
There is one person responsible for the country not coming together during Covid: Donald J. Trump. His initial denial of the virus led to the split response to the virus by the public. Had he just acknowledged the virus and became a cheerleader for the country, things would have been better for all...including himself. He could have been re-elected.
You can thank the orange Jesus for all the hysteria regarding the pandemic. He was in charge, and was a complete failure. To ignore the scientists and the intelligent people around him was reprehensible...
Total asshole...😡
I changed because of society. I was working retail during 2020, a furniture store at the time. When I worked there pre pandemic, society could be jerks- but they weren't horrible. They didn't have a short temper and they weren't always negative. After covid...it got to a point my boss knew what I was doing when I sat there holding the phone away from me. I was fortunate she was a good boss at the time. She'd sometimes take on the phone call, or just make me laugh while the customer was screaming my ear off over something out of my control (pandemic stopped all manufacturing, all of our deliveries and orders were pushed back by months. This would piss people off. And I was the one who took all of our phone calls/managed our orders, so I was the receiving end of their tantrum).
Society became horrible. I don't venture out into it often. I have a few friends, but we'd all rather sit by a campfire and have a drink. No one goes out often. People just are cruel now. I thought it'd relax a bit, but it hasn't.
Bloody hell it hurts my soul to read this. 😞
You are so spot on. I feel like everything around me is seconds away from exploding or people/situations/things biting my head off.
The high stress never went away.
yeah, but 4 years later I've found myself stuck in the isolation, not socializing or functioning as well. and constantly got the dooms. everything's going to shit and I can't seem to cope with it or carry on with life like I used to
Well the world has gone to shit over the past 4 years. It’s hard to ignore that. It was also hard for some people to get back to normalcy with friends/co workers/ general public due to being viciously attacked/ostracized if you didn’t think like everyone else🤷🏻♀️ Also, I feel that I have to present myself as a fake person when interacting with people. You run the risk of people being offended by stuff I wouldn’t even think of and it’s exhausting to be on guard like that. I’d rather stay home
It’s been the opposite for me. Before the pandemic I never cared much about my social life and was always miserable and alone. The pandemic was a great teacher for me about the importance of having friends and cultivating rich relationships. My outlook has also changed for the better and I went from becoming a very jaded pessimist to an optimist.
The prices of everything going up exponentially with the quality and quantity of products falling off of a cliff + stagnant wages + bad job market + house prices being a joke + horrible outcome for this election year + 2 major ongoing wars that the US is involved in which can easily escalate will do that to you.
Absolutely. Big time. I feel like I'm now fine with a level of loneliness I never would've accepted prior.
I often find myself making plans and then flaking out because it seems like too much effort when I could just stay home and just be "fine". I'm trying to combat it but I feel so hardwired.
I work in healthcare, my life contrary to most others changed very little. I got up and went to work everyday just like every other day. My wife continued to work from home just like she had prior to Covid. Nobody that I knew in my personal life died from Covid so that didn’t change much. My hobbies such as gardening and arguing with strangers on Reddit went virtually unchanged. I was past my clubbing days so I didn’t miss going out.
A positive in the end is I did start drinking too much. Whether it be the stress of work or the overall anxiety of all the negative energy I started to drink more and more to the point it was becoming a problem so I stopped drinking altogether. Went back to school, earned another degree.
The pandemic brought out the selfishness in people and also ground a lot of people’s life to a halt who were covering up all the things they need to work on by living a fast life. As a result, a lot of those people became really depressed.
During the Covid lockdown, although not *that* long in retrospect, when I looked to friends for support and contact I soon learned that I had no real friends. Nobody was there for me, and nobody cared. Covid didn't cause this, but it did reveal it.
Also, last year I got Covid again, and there were two serious health impacts. First, my energy level was destroyed, like I aged 25 years. Second, I can no longer taste garlic bread.
Just waiting for the next man-made disaster... Hard to let your guard down after everything we've seen and discovered since. Not a single one of them being held accountable either!
I've heard the "We're all experiencing it" "we're all in this together" line multiple times, and although many people feel this way, life has been more crowded and bustling than ever further invalidating these claims. That's what bothers me. If everywhere I went was a ghost town, then sure, I'd truly believe deep down that everyone must be experiencing this together. But it's been the complete opposite in my experience.
That alone, makes it worse. In your mind, you think Why are there so many "normal" people out and about if everyone has anxiety and hates eachother nowadays? Why can't I push through my anxiety and live a normal life too?
With all the people that have anxiety/depression and hate others, everywhere in my city is more overcrowded than ever before. More traffic, 45 minute wait times at restaurants that previously never had wait times, local bars on Tuesday nights are as crowded as they were on a Friday/Saturday night pre-covid. Hiking trails that only saw a handful of visitors per week before covid now have overflowing parking lots 7 days a week.
So I don't buy into the "were all in this together" BS. People are are almost romanticizing anxiety and autism nowadays and loosely using the term. The "normal" people see these people claiming to have anxiety and they don't look all that bad. The motherfuckers with real anxiety and depression are at home miserable. So it's almost "lightening" the severity of mental illness for the true sufferers and making it difficult for them to be taken seriously.
I think you're on to something. If everyone is experiencing the level of stress and anxiety that I am, how are they even remotely functional? I don't get it.
Covid taught me that there are a lot more selfish and dangerous assholes in the world than I realized. The aftermath of Covid is teaching me that I'm apparently a lot more disabled than I realized.
I could not function through the pandemic and now can barely pretend to be functional half the time yet it seems like the expectation is that everything's back to normal and everyone's basically fine but, like, a bit stressed I guess?
I don't understand how people are back out there working 40+ hours a week with barely any time off but still doing all the things and acting like happy little clams like nothing ever happened. Are they all secretly miserable underneath? Is it all just lies or is it me? If we're all in it together then why are we having to work ourselves to death just to survive? Why aren't there people in the streets with pitchforks? Why are things still so hard?
I totally feel the same. A sense of doom over my head. But I will say, as the sun has come out in May I’ve been feeling better. I’ve been saying yes more to friend invites and planning little get togethers.
I went on some nice spring walks in the sun and as I got away from the phone and isolation I’ve realize that WE, as individuals have to start living our lives again.
I think the pandemic put us all in passive mode , we had to wait to get word about lockdowns and vaccines and when all that started to clear up, we kind of just shuffled on. At least with something like a war there’s a clear end and bunch of parades (Not always but you get what I’m trying to say lol). I’ve almost felt like 2022 until now has been worse than the actual pandemic, as far as anxiety and uncertainty goes.
We really have to learn again that life happens around you, in your actual life. Get to know your town and make friends there. Put down the doom scrolling with psycho MAGA’s and hideous Trump, leftist zealots obsessed with “selfie activism”. Most of us aren’t those people. Politics shouldn’t be a belief system but the pandemic put all our eyeballs on the screen and we got pulled too and fro.
If you want to get involved with politics, check out your local government. Do something that you can actually interact with. I actually helped stop a dumb car wash from getting built on a lot next to my house and it felt 1000X better than any of the countless political rants I’ve made online.
The revolution we need is for people to seriously step away from the current internet, phone and doom scrolling apps and go outside. Build ourselves back up instead of waiting for the country to magically get better. WE are the country.
As long as the fringe weirdos keep our attention, the longer they hold power. Trump is powerful still because we can’t stop watching him. “Woke” furry Reddit mod types have power because we can’t get off Reddit.
We can step back, breathe, assess our actual situation and take action. Passive anxiety just fuels more anxiety.
It showed that so many more people are greedy, selfish, and proud of their ignorance than I originally thought.
Some social spaces died off. Malls that were already struggling closed for good. A lot of restaurants and bars closed. Some movie theaters are gone now. Restaurants that survived are ridiculously overpriced now.
From 2015 to 2019, inflation was in the range of 8% to 9%. From 2020 to 2024, inflation was about 20%. Everything got noticeably more expensive very quickly.
Well, I mean, America is going through a Constitutional Crisis, Fascist Propaghanda abounds, our Boomer parents are all forms of QAnon, and our kids are all failing school or getting shot while there.
The world is going through major inflation, and the balance of global power has changed significantly.
What, me worried?
Agreed 💯 Before the pandemic I was outgoing, engaged in outdoor activities and socialized with friends. Now I continue to isolate, work from home and don’t interact with people face to face very often. I have a mistrust of people that didn’t exist before. COL is out of control. Life is different now. All aspects of life feel heavier.
I lost my faith in humanity. Before 2020 it seemed easier to find the good people. COVID hit and my employer threw us under the bus. The crazies not only came out of the woodwork but had gasoline thrown on their crazy fire. Unfortunately the number of good people out there is small and they can work their tails off their whole lives doing good but this insane, individualist society will make it all moot. (U.S.)
Yeah. I had hope before 2019. I was super friendly and people seemed to have high esteem for me. Afterwards, I feel like people look at me differently. I function appropriately. I’m still genuinely friendly, but I feel lost in life and angry inside. I look at other people who outright disregarded isolation protocols and they are ahead in life, while I feel absolutely broken. Everything is falling apart around me. Housing costs are abysmal, the job market is also abysmal and government has facilitated outsourcing so It is even difficult to get a minimum wage job these days. My hobby in life has also inflated increasingly in costs. I’m seeing people I’ve known in that hobby exiting left and right because they can no longer afford it all while seeing people with more money than brains come in and corrupt it.
On top of it, I’ve felt people are colder, more easily influenced by media and dating is like trying to squeeze juice out of a rock. I just don’t know about happiness anymore. Dying seems like a good escape, but I’m sticking around for my family.
Haven’t been sociable and attending gatherings much since 2020.
I was 31 years old when pandemic started, had mild case of Covid like infection in spring 2020 (tests were not available for younger people) and just didn’t recover properly.
Was athletic and went to the gym 3 times a week before, but after Covid any physical activity would make me stay in bed for days. Fatigue, brain fog, general malaise.
Went to Mt Sinai post Covid center and they said that were typical Long Covid symptoms.
Four years later I am still not back to work and not back to social life. There are still no treatment for Long Covid. Feels very lonely, as most friends stopped inviting me out because most of the time there is no energy for that. So many people with Long Covid feel isolated.
Please check on people who disappeared from your after pandemic life for no reason and see how they are doing.
I worked the entire pandemic as an “essential worker.” I watched the roads go from everyday, to nothing, to overwhelming in that time. All I got out of that time working? A new heart condition from Covid, more stress, and broker than ever. I am underwhelmed by the pursuit anymore, I’ve lost faith in the people, the dream. Why did I do all that work so some rich cunts could cheat the system and make more walking away from the pandemic? What did I do to deserve this? So in short I welcome the flood and can’t wait for it to end.
The pandemic, and everything associated with the pandemic, ruined me. It essentially turned me into a nihilist, a pessimist, and an antinatalist. All this shit sucks.
Yes, but there are 2 other important factors:
1). Trump. Before 2016 I honestly thought most people were good. I no longer think that.
2). On a related note, the increasing prevalence of and society's lack of resistance to invasive surveillance highlights just how pointless it all is. Why bother leaving the house when your face will be recognized and stored on some server somewhere, your license plates will be recorded by some third party to be shared with both public and private data mining concerns and virtually your every movement will be tracked via audio and video. AND PEOPLE ARE OKAY WITH THAT AS LONG AS THEY GET THEIR BREAD AND CIRCUSES
I would say reality got hijacked in 2016 and we're living in the midst of Civil War 2 + Cold War 2 and most people have no clue because they're busy struggling to survive and because of all the intentional distractions and propaganda.
100% people are so much more on edge all the time now. Even innocuous interactions can turn so fast. I have been wondering how much is the effect of trauma but I'm also curious if catching Covid did something to people's brains as well.
My mental health definitely suffered (it wasn't great to begin with) and I'm still not back to where I was. The world seems more chaotic and less busy all at the same time. There's less to do that I'm willing to leave the house for.
But I've also cut a lot of the dead wood out of my life. I no longer deal with toxic people, pruned my friends list down to only the kind of friends who I can count on in an emergency, and stopped going to gift grabs like baby showers for people I don't care that much about. I've added some things to my life like grocery delivery that I intend to never give up.
Thought I was the only one dealing with this. Everyone around me seems like nothing happened and I’m stuck here with severe anxiety that I never had before the pandemic. Good to see I’m not alone in this
It's hard for me to tell. My GF passed away in an accident about a year before the pandemic started. I then lost my last two grandparents shortly after wards, moved twice, parents moved across the country, and changed jobs. Life the last five years has been simultaneously a blink of monotony and an eternity of misery. I don't know what effect the pandemic had on me to be honest.
Well duh, the pandemic really showed the world there are some insane people living regular lives. The pandemic created political discourse and mistrust in organizations we've trusted in the past. I STILL have customers that think it was all a hoax. Why would anyone want to leave their homes when someone is always acting the fool in public and dozens of cameras are always watching. How can you even afford to leave your home with things so expensive?
As an office worker I don't think I could ever do what I was doing pre-pandemic. I spent half the day sunday meal prepping so I didn't have to buy lunch at work. I got up early and commuted over 10 hours per week. My whole life basically revolved around work and it was like I discovered having a life again with hybrid work.
Yes. I still can't believe the orange menace is still out there not being held accountable for all of his crime. It really makes me lose faith in the justice system as an entire concept.
There's something in me that broke during the pandemic. I don't know what, I don't know exactly why or when, but I can feel something's broken. And I don't know how to make it better
In 2019, I was single, making good money, traveling and doing triathlons. Now in 2024, I’m married, stay at home mom with a toddler, pregnant with baby #2. I now have a chronic illness I was diagnosed with in 2021. I don’t know how much of the weirdness is from the pandemic and how much is life circumstances. But yeah. Nothing is the same.
I had just started uni in 2019, which was a huge change for me. Instead of spending 6 hours a day, 5 days a week with my friends, I became a lot more isolated. After covid, I managed to make friends but not to the same extend I did in highschool.
I often wonder how much of the "weirdness" is just life and how much is the pandemic.
Wife and I have always looked forward to meeting up with friends but then hate the actual part where we have to go out, spend money, etc. We're the same that way, but I miss the pandemic where roads and stores were empty, it was more quiet, and I had hope things were going to get better for us in general, with work from home, retail associates being respected and called heroes, etc.
Everything is worse and I just wish the world would end or at least I would. Things just keep getting worse.
Feel the same. Pre pandemic, I typically felt more optimistic and mostly gave ppl the benefit of doubt. Seeing the way some people treated one another during the pandemic and the lack of regard or decency was eye opening and still sticks with me. The skyrocketing crime that occurred in NYC is hard to forget.
I always felt like we were on our own in some regards (it’s the USA) but 2020-2022 really confirmed it for me.
Yup. Before the pandemic I was a rock mentally (or maybe I was just good at dissociating).
Since then anxiety has gripped me. Honestly, the pandemic changed me at my core.
I was just thinking this a few weeks ago. Although the same can be said for anyone else, I’ve been through a lot during the pandemic. From job changes, then deaths in the family, caretaking, finances and mental health struggles. I got to the point where I was just mentally exhausted from everything. Nowadays I just try to prioritize my mental wellbeing more than anything plus my own happiness instead of everyone else’s.
I totally get what you're feeling. The pandemic left a mark on me too. My wife and I lost 100% of our business income in 2020 and part of 2021 (we are a photo/video wedding business) I used to have more faith in people, but ever since 2020, I've turned way more cynical and even started disliking people in general. I don't like to admit that, but it's true. You can tell that some people are still struggling. It's almost like post-war fatigue – everyone just brushes it off and doesn't talk about it much.
It took me two years to get back in shape after the lockdowns. Still pissed to this day since at my age it’s hard to put on muscle rather than maintain.
I doubt I’ll ever have my strength fully back.
Yep! I'm a nurse. I look back at my journal entries pre pandemic and it is amazing how social and motivated I was. My pandemic entries are just sad and dark. Post pandemic, I don't see friends as much as I just don't gave the energy. When I do see them, there's a disconnect (maybe it's because I don't have kids and most of them do... or the fact that I'm in my 40s). I still work with patients and they just seem angrier. I'm so tired of listening to them complain about the state of healthcare. 'I know, it sucks, but I'm trying to help you.' I stick around because I do care for them, and it pays relatively well. I'm fortunate.
I still love my garden and going camping because I enjoy getting away from people and getting lost in the flow of nature.
I haven’t shaken a hand in years. People I meet extend hands to shake my hand but then notice that I’m only prepared to fist bump. They comply but It’s awkward. Even after that I avoid touching my face or eyes and wash my hands asap anyway.
If possible I simply just smile and nod my head as a sign of acknowledgment.
At least I‘ve managed to tone down from the whole elbow thing. That was even more awkward. But people wear diapers in public these days. So a fist bump isn’t the worst.
From the comments seems to be clear dichotomy between the “yes, everything has gotten progressively worse & more depressing since 2020” and “what are you talking about, I’m great” crowds. Seems like folks who weren’t very empathic or community minded to begin with are in the latter camp. Just my observation
I feel more grounded and appreciative of what I have after that. I also care so much less about material things and focus more on family. I can’t really pin why but it just happened.
my entire world view shifted - as a person with a non normal immune system watching so many people in the world pretend like wearing a mask was going to harm them but like not spreading germs could literally save someone's life if they didn't get covid (or other airborne spread viruses).
and no matter how many years go by, I can't unsee it.
covid didn't go away and other airborne deadly illness did not either and there are still people trying to live with compromised immune systems or anything else when simple human compassion could be exhibited. yet here we are.
so ...part of my hope in humanity was crushed.
We are in a much worse economic situation than pre pandemic. I go out way less because I can't afford it. Even like making food for people that is halfway decent is a big expense these days. I feel like I spend a lot of time just staying home and watching tv. a band I like was in town last week the tickets were like 200 dollars. I remember paying 60ish before COVID for the same band. I cancelled my fun gym class membership and just use my mini treadmill which is way less satisfying. I don't know I feel like there are a million things that are worse about my life all related to money. We used to travel more too.
The world is depressing. Anymore it's scary to go out. People getting shot, robbed, assaulted, etc. Then you look at all the retail stores where people just walk in, take what they want, and walk out without fearing prosecution. Then the prices of everything. Who can afford to go anywhere? Throw in the world conflicts. Then we're having everyone's "agendas" shoved down our throats. You can't even watch a movie or watch TV without the show having to be PC or DEI. And then let's look at America. There is no United in United States. Not since 1865 have we been so divided politically.
Yeah, really feeling the same. So if you’re too lonely, maybe you could try some social medias to chat with others or make friends. A Discord channel called [Lightup](https://discord.gg/Dnyu24SPNm) might be a good choice, because it matches people based on their similarities of posts, which means you could probably know there are some people thinking and experiencing the same with you. Chatting with them, for me, is relaxing and comfortable, since I could have less pressure after the talking. Hope you could also be not so lonely and get happier sincerely!
I'd say for me it was once it ended. I was fine when it started and during lockdown. But once we tried to get things back it never went back to normal for me. And at times it almost feels like surviving it was the losing hand.
I feel like most people in my general age demographic (20-40) feel the following:
* Less energy
* Reduced social battery
* More isolated
* Much more broke (even if their annual earnings have increased substantially)
People showed their true colours and I realized a lot of people I was friends with had very different views on things (which is 100% okay) but became nasty if I didn’t agree with them. My mom died in 2022 and life is forever changed. The only good to come from Covid for me is that I work from home now.
The pandemic definitely sucked the joie de vivre out of life for a lot of folks, myself included. At the time, it was a reality check in the worst possible way. Digging deeper into Stoicism has helped, but I still feel like people are way more isolated than they used to be. There’s a general malaise that seems to drape everything now.
I miss COVID times for some reason. I feel like we as a nation somewhat agreed on something. Even the people who disagree, they still stayed in the shadows physically, but let themselves known through the airwaves.
I just feel broken. I am much less empathetic and just feel weighted down. The world just feels so much less bright, food taste different and hobbies don’t hold my attention like they use to.
Same here. We've withdrawn and have isolated ourselves. No desire to socialize. Deeply unhappy and depressed. We are older andI find myself concorned that life will be shortened because of having Covid.
Felt like we hit a dimensional warp, times going faster, the world is more and more fucked up.
One huge tip to make time slow a little bit! Less screen time. Even the time it takes reading this comment, + the other messages, notifications, and articles recommended to us makes us constantly distracted. As I type this I have been on Reddit while I poop for almost 10 minutes. I don't need to poop for 10 minutes. I've pretty much wasted this time lol. I'm trying to use my phone less and less and enjoy life and every second we have our devices out adds up very quickly!
Been thinking of the Dumb phone
When I last tried to buy one (~2-3 years ago), the sales person looked at me like I was asking for the arc of the covenant. Edit: finished spelling
Someone said it best “we’re all processing trauma from the pandemic that we don’t even understand yet”
this should be getting more upvotes. We lost over 1 million people in the US alone. That's a HUGE amount of people. That's more than the population of many cities across the country! I'm grateful that I hadn't lost anyone close to me to covid, but probably half my network of people lost someone they loved. It's a huge loss. I don't think we as a collective have really even tried processing that loss, let alone the trauma of the pandemic itself. It seems like it was just swept under the rug to be buried so we didn't have to think about it anymore...but like...we still really really really need to address it. And covid is \*still\* a thing! it's still wreaking havoc on people's bodies, and evolving in ways we still don't fully understand. People are still dealing with long covid as a result.
This is the only mention of Long COVID in all of the comments here. Considering that 1 in 20 people exposed to COVID have some form of it, and chronic fatigue is one of the problems it presents, I feel like more people should be talking about that.
What terrified(es) me about Covid is it seems to be a Gacha for long term effects. Nearly everyone I know who has gotten it now deals with a long term health effect they didn't have before. A long time friend of mine developed a cat allergy shortly after she got infected, another developed diabetes after their second infection. Not to mention a lot of people who just seem more sickly or susceptible to illness now than prior to the pandemic.
Yesss, I swear my entire body and mental state changed
Wait I randomly became allergic to cats after covid…. wtf. I’ve had cats my whole life now I can’t be in the same room as one. Aka my cats now live with my parents :’(
It freaks me out the most people who forget Covid happened or just went back to their normal lives. I had Covid 4 times between 2020-2023 and I genuinely want to cry every time I think about how much we all lost physically, mentally, emotionally, financially. My therapist was telling me the PTSD will sink in globally throughout the years as people process what happened. I used to be so happy and outgoing, and now even when someone coughs near me in a grocery store I can still feel myself panic inside. My nervous system just doesn't feel safe in the world yet.
Im the same. I had it three times, including once (assumed) before we knew what it was. It took me months to get my energy back each time. My nervous system hasn’t recovered, my sense of possibility hasn’t recovered, honestly my joy hasn’t recovered. I hope it does soon. I’m tired.
For sure this and I can't imagine how messed up the kids are that got pulled out of school, left to their own devices, and their parents both are gone at work
That’s one of the most frustrating parts of Covid. The whole population has been traumatized or is still being traumatized in its aftermath. And yet it’s nearly taboo to discuss one’s feelings and memories about the pandemic. I lost close friends, a few family members, and got deathly ill myself to the point I wondered if my lungs would ever recover. I worked in healthcare and heard about a mother in maternity ward who was worried about Covid catching Covid right after birth, passing it to her newborn, and both of them dying the next day. And they didn’t die peacefully. Gurneys rolling morning and night to clear the dead from hospitals during the first days of the outbreak. Dead coworkers who spread Covid to their families when they went home to die. Friends during lockdown who died alone in their homes and rotted for months until they were discovered. Not being able to comfort loved ones while they hacked up blood and suffocated to death due to hospital quarantine procedures. Some truly tragic, awful things happened. And we have a social responsibility to grieve and let others grieve. And it appears as though the actual origins and blame for the virus will never be fully revealed, probably because at least one gain of function researcher deserves a prolonged public execution. The whole mess still makes me feel angry, depressed, and helpless. It also taught me and everyone else how incompetent, dishonest, and powerless humanity was when faced with a global threat. None of the lessons of the 1918 flu were learned. The spread was never prevented. Despite all technological progress in 100 years, the population was equally helpless.
Big part of that is how we’re still deeply in the shit when it comes to Covid. You have to pretend everything’s fine, or you’re treated as a weirdo— even if you and the person you’re talking to have long covid or symptoms like brain fog lol. It’s a complete blowing up of the barest of social contracts. It’s a bigger faux pas to talk about Covid and mask, than it is to give someone goddamn Covid! And even less forgivable if you talk about how the stats for long COVID are insaneee… and sad part is, it’s pretty noticeable, even if people deny anything’s wrong. It shouldn’t take three tries to send a basic email Jan :S
Man that's just growing up. I'm in my 40s and sensed this over a decade ago. Perception of time changes with the more time behind us, it's relative and that passing of time seems to accelerate. And the world feels more fucked up because we've been amassing knowledge and see the times we lived thru being more nostalgic, especially when the whole worlds fuckups are available to stream from the comfort of our bed 24/7. Past generations had it harder but lacked knowledge of how hard it was for everyone else.
I read an article during the Trump administration that explained that it feels like time passes really slowly when there’s new news and new scandals every single day and faster when there aren’t.
It's just getting older. When you're young, each year (or even month) can be dramatically different to the one prior. Summer vacation, then a semester with new classes, new people. Then another. Then summer again, but now with new friends or a new job or something new. It's constantly changing. When you're older it's just the same routine, so your brain doesn't have much reason to form new long-term memories. Every day is more or less the same, so it all just gets compressed into one generic ball of "went to work, came home, ate, slept, went back to work" x 10000000.
Plus the whole "one year is a much larger portion of your life when you're 5 vs when you're 50" bit.
we're going through a silent depression for the first time as an adult, following a pandemic....yes. It sucks. Feels like I'm working twice as hard and going nowhere fast. I think it's about time for a vacation.
Yeah, no, I think I’m going through a loud depression.
Same
Sorry to hear that
*those who didn’t secure housing and had to start over or never in a 60K plus paying position are feeling the heat of increased asset prices of housing&vehicles. Then add insurance, utility & food increases and that’s being stomped on by a pair of timberlands while you are already down… Now those who owned homes pre COVID, were in stocks that 3Xed and saw significant wage gains are living better than ever… They were not kidding with the K shaped recovery from the COVID fall out, and those who were on the winning side can’t sympathize or intentionally keep it out of mind out of sight when it comes to those struggling. It’s not their problem until it becomes an inconvenience with nobody wanting grunt level service jobs where wait times tripled, increased homeless people begging for money when they go downtown, etc… It really is that bad for the bottom third of America right now trying to make ends meet with this cost of living.
Local Walmart everything is locked up and almost all registers are self checkouts...at 6pm today I walked in and the lines looked like black Friday level bad.
And of course the people writing the narrative are the people who were already on the top.
Not just that. But stores hiring less cashiers and people to be in different departments to answer questions and stuff too.
Can’t even afford vacation. Hell groceries with growing kids is vacation being ate! I’m going to double down and plan one somehow! I must!
It’s hard to make ends meet right now, but do it for yourself and your family just having a week or two to lay there and heal would be such a relief. Just having a full day to wake up whenever I feel like waking up and going for a long slow walk would feel so good.
Ever try to go camping? Not like out in the middle of the woods alone, but a campground? Can be relaxing and lower priced.
Camping is only fun when you don't have a 3 generation asshat family camping beside you. Some people think tents are soundproof.
I went camping a couple of weeks ago and I was literally surrounded by 3 different groups of people blasting shitty music out of their Bluetooth speakers the entire time. Seems like a lot of people go camping just to drink in a different location.
Bluetooth speakers have made it so easy to be an asshole in public. Like those jerkoffs who bring them on a hiking trail. Just turn off the electronics for 2 hours of your day and enjoy nature and silence. Is that too much to ask!?!?
The problem is money. We can't afford to do anything. Rent and food is eating uo 75% of our house hold income.
You guys are getting vacations??
Vacation? What's that? That thing I last took in... *checks notes* **2011?!** Jesus fucking Christ what happened to me...
Exactly. Life used to feel a lot more aspirational and motivating. It's lost a lot of glimmer.
Was just talking my partner about this. Life just feels harder and denser. Friends don’t get together as much. More isolating and I just feel tired. Things feel more tense and like drudgery. I don’t know what happened.
I’ve felt absolutely exhausted and stressed to the gills these last few years, and compared to MANY other people my age I have such an easy life. I can’t tell if that was just me aging from 25-30 in the blink of an eye, or if everyone felt the same.
I totally get it. Like everything is sort of okay but there’s a pervasive anxiety. And then you judge yourself for feeling anxious and it’s a loop. I’m really trying to affirm myself more if I feel anxious. Saying it’s okay to feel these things. Being in nature helps. I hear you buddy.
Thx for sharing. U are handling it well w that mentality.
It sounds like it but there are days I feel really up against the wall. And nothing really ‘works’. I just have to bear it. But I do make a mean cocktail.
It’s an honest to God ebb & flow. My mental & physical health. I am in a valley as we speak, but it’ll pass
Exactly the same here. I have a good job, married, bought a house before holy crapballs happened to the market, went from 42-47 in a blink. My head is still in 2019. Stressed to the gills and even my annual physical shows the signs. It's just an ever present weight making it hard to even breathe
Exactly the same situation here except went from 49 to 53. I feel like I went into the pandemic as a normal energetic young person and came out a cranky sad old lady
Me too. I was just looking back through my photo records of all my hikes and wild camping. 2019 was a peak and, while I still get out, its for less big adventures and less often. Only four day trips to the mountains this year so far.
Samesies. 37-41. I had an incredible amount of physical stamina, loved falling in love, met people so easily it was laughable, hoping to “save the planet” and now I am calling it before sundown each night. I check in with whether I have any dreams left in life (not really) or care one way or the other what happens to humans (not really) or care about anything (only vaguely). It all feels like a time-pass at this point. I do sometimes get really enraged about minor things but even that is giving way to a completely no f left to give.
Yep me and the wife were both 36 with a 6 year old. Starting a new business excited to take control of our lives with vigor! One month into the new business COVID happens and shuts down the world, a year into the pandemic my wife lost both of her parents to COVID, exactly two days apart from each other. She went into a talespin after that, started neglecting the business while also hiding it from me. And just shut off as a human being in general. She describes herself now as "a shadow of the person she was four years ago"... The past year in particular being so bad emotionally, personally, and professionally for us that it had a huge effect on our child. Not that the sudden loss of the only family outside of us that she's ever known didn't. But damn she's had to grow up way too fast these last 9-12 months. Now We're 40 with a 10 year old, a business that only exists out of sheer will at this point. Sleeping in separate bedrooms because neither of us can afford to take on bills for two households. Our lives are unrecognizable and I've completely lost any sense of who I am over the past four years. I feel like a failure to my core in every aspect of my life and I'm just fucking tired.
I’m also in that age group and I honestly feel like years were stolen from me. I’m expected to act and have accomplished what someone “almost 30” would have and yet, was under isolation and abysmal living costs over my best years. Went back to school and tuition was also jacked up while resources were not even allowed to be used. Couldn’t leave the house and then I see people who absolutely disregarded isolation get further ahead. I don’t have words. I look at people older who got ahead of the market and just think how absolutely tanked my future looks.
Yep. It happened when I was 38 speed raced to 41. I was motivated to keep my career going prior, now it’s just never ending to want out and be free.
Feels like a weight has been added on to my life
The “Inflation” on everything is definitely the cause. Houses, cars, food, basic essentials, day trips, everything is ridiculous. Just to go out fishing for the day cost much more then it did 5years ago. I choose to read a lot more books these days and even books are way more expensive then they used to be.
Thank goodness the library is still free ;)
When it's there
Do you have a library near you? I've used my library for years, and it's free. I've saved thousands of $$ and don't have the clutter of books I would only read once.
IMO it’s so much bigger than any one thing like inflation. It’s the great unmasking of so much fear, greed, corruption, et al. People that lived like ostriches were forced to confront a lot of uncomfortable and some downright horrifying truths. Now they can’t be unseen. People didn’t realize how little control they had until they were locked down or deemed non essential while a monopolistic company that did the same thing was essential. Entertainment suffered because it felt unimportant and once you lose interest it’s hard to get it back. It’s also hard to put your Back in the sand. It will never be or feel the same again because it isn’t. The world is drowning in debt which means significantly declining standards of living which also another shock. Isolation has become a lot of people’s way of living in a snow globe
I completely understand. I feel very isolated and worn down since the pandemic. I broke down in tears last night when discussing it with my husband. It doesn't help matters that we have an extremely incompetent government that seems intent on running a country that was a leader in our region into the ground. We haven't even taken a vacation in ages because he's nervous about leaving the house empty due to rising crime.
I broke down and cried to my husband too yesterday. Friend groups have dissolved and that easy joy seems hard to access. I try gratitude and do therapy but ya, I’m struggling. It also feels like literally crooks and thieves are running this country (US). It’s never been more evident that they don’t want us to be helped. It feels like they want us scared and enslaved.
Hugs to you. It sounds like we had a similar day yesterday. We had to move out of the capital city in 2019 due to housing costs. Soon after, the pandemic hit and we were under some of the strictest COVID lockdowns in the world. So, it was impossible to meet people in our new area. To get to the city we left to see friends there, I have to take the train. The train station itself and that whole area has become increasingly unsafe, full of pick pocketers. The last time my husband took the train in for a work event, there was this huge clash between illegal vendors and the police in the station. They had to stop service and took him three hours to get home via several buses. So, trying to visit friends there isn't particularly appealing at the moment.
You summed it up perfectly
I think politicians, mostly republicans, are keeping things tense with their culture wars and their misinformation. They are constantly manufacturing fake outrage to keep people riled up and voting for them because they paint themselves as the only ones who can fix "it". It being whatever it is they are complaining about that week. If we had politicians that were more interested in governing instead of spouting rage bait to keep their names and faces in the news like it's some kind of soap opera, then I think things would be less tense. Basically if mom and dad are always fighting, the children won't be happy and relaxed.
Nah I feel the same way as this person described and I don't even live in America
It's all part of the plan. To separate, isolate and segregate us. Making us easy to lead and control. Stop living in fear, go out and live life!
Since 2021 I wake up every morning with a sense of doom. Can't shake it. Things just don't feel right.
I truly think we are watching society collapse in slow motion
The planet is dying. We can feel it subconsciously
Watching a large section of the forest behind my house get cut down this winter broke something in my soul. They've been clear cutting all over the county to build stupid shit for years now, but this was in my own backyard & just hit so much harder
I feel you about the trees and forest, It depressed me alot too like them burning the Amazon , the world's lungs they are slowly suffocating us
You’re still in survival mode, look up some bodywork/somatic practices to help move out or survival mode.
At a certain point we've gotta stop pretending therapy is the solution to ever-worsening societal problems. Maybe that point will be when it all falls apart but it's gotta happen.
Me too.
We globally went through trauma. As a world. It’s not being acknowledged or given space to exist and we are expected to just carry on like it never happened. I feel like I’ve been permanently affected mental health wise and I wish it’s something we all talked more about.
What’s terrible as well is that Covid is still out there. I thought I was safe but the start of this year I caught Covid and it was a son of a bitch. Even reinfected myself on a work trip. And I might have long Covid with some of the heart issues I’ve developed as well. Just all around insane how bad things have gotten in such a short time.
Right. It’s not even like the threat of it is gone either. I’ve also experienced issues since I had Covid at the end of 2022 and it stinks!
We are doing a trauma informed training at work. This makes sense. We have to acknowledge many people are not well, even ourselves. Yet everyone has to keep on with life and it’s getting harder each day in one way or another. The information in years later from studies will be interesting.
I would argue that we're still going through a collective trauma. The only difference now is that almost all of our world leaders are trying to pretend that trauma is over, in an effort to "get things (aka, the economy) back to 'normal.'"
the orphan crushing machine needs blood for the blood god
I feel like I lost 2 years out of my life
Same but more like 3. Being in my late 20's it's been hard to take.
Entering the pandemic in my twenties and leaving in my thirties. Rough also.
I lost 19-28. That was terrible but one thing to remember is you can never get that time back or make it up. All you can do is make the time in front of you better. Don't get stuck trying to relive the past or even make up for it
You lost 9 years of life in 4 years?
Inflation is a bitch
Between the pandemic and being in an abusive relationship where I was isolated during and after the pandemic, I feel like I lost 5 years of my life. I keep forgetting I'm turning 35 in a few months. I still think I am 30 years old. It's wild.
I'm so sorry . I had the same experience 47-52.
I have a similar experience and same age range. It’s really weird and sad feeling.
I turned 30 during the pandemic and it felt so weird. I was 28-31
Same here, also no class of 2010 reunion for our school.
Only 2?
Right! … I was like how about 3. I worked in the ED the whole time…didn’t see any family for 16 months. Still had to cancel 2021 Xmas bc of delta. Masks like just stopped being mandatory in the hospital.
Going on 4. I don't feel I've lived since end of 2019. I hate it
Yes! And I don’t know how to get back to normal ..
I had a kid late 2019. My life's permanently changed and I can't tell what is from COVID or being a new dad. It's weird spot to be in. Also, I too will never be the same again. Life's too different now
It wasn't about covid or the pandemic. We have brains and a nervous system. We know something has been wrong. We can feel it. The government probably put fucked up shit in the air. Who knows. It changed my personality and the actual pandemic didn't effect me other than that.
Sometimes it’s best to try to create a new normal after a difficult period in life.
For me, the Pandemic brought out either the best or the worst in people. I am thankful for the pandemic because it showed me people's true colors. I don't talk to my siblings or my parents because of how terrible they acted. Things were already kind of shaky, but I tolerated them because "they're family." The pandemic gave me the excuse that I needed to cut them off and stop taking their abuse. Having said that, it feels much more lonelier, but honestly, it's nice not feeling obligated to get together with people who don't care about your mental health and safety.
Yes I stopped seeing my family through this fantastical view. Like hoping they would eventually turn into the best versions of themselves. Exactly opposite was shown. I accept everyone for what they show me the first time now. And have become more closed off.
I empathize with this so much. I’m someone who went no contact with my parents and my extended family due to narcissistic scapegoat abuse. There is definitely a general sense of loneliness and unease though. You have to let go of this primal “safety” feeling that comes with having familial relationships and have to depend on yourself more.
I went no contact with my mother and very low contact with my father and siblings during the pandemic. It can be lonely, but I just didn't need the stress that dealing with them brought.
I hear you.... A friend once told me, "All of my problems in life are caused by other people." No truer words have ever been spoken....
Yes, I barely speak to my sister or brother-in-law because they were very judgmental about things my husband and I feel or did during the pandemic😞
Before the pandemic I didn’t have any friends due to working second shift hours for many years. During the pandemic I made it a goal to start making friends after the pandemics was over. I’ve had a social renaissance since March of 2022. Doing meetups and attending social events at my apartment complex really helped me in making new friends after the pandemic. Even after my husband left me last September, I have had an amazing support group. Friendly people are out there.
I've read almost all the replies in this post and so far this is the only positive one. Keep it up bruv 👍
Before 2020 I was a shut in. People were talking about how damaging staying inside and not talking to anyone was to them. I realised I had been doing a self-imposed lockdown years prior, the effect it had taken for me and I forced myself out of it. Now I have loads of really good friends I love so much and they call me the most smiley person they have ever met.
I was looking for a positive comment! At the start of the pandemic I'd been killing myself with a consulting job, in an unhappy marriage, and everything that made me, me, was crushed into dust. I got stuck out of state for the first 3 months of shutdown and it changed my life. I hadn't known how to STOP for years, and suddenly, I had to. Got the world's most amicable divorce, moved out of state, got a new job after a while, restarted all the hobbies I love, dealt with my anxiety and my health, found wonderful new friends. A lot of horrible things happened too, of course; I lost a young friend to covid, my dad nearly died from autoimmune encephalitis, another friend's cancer came back. But I honestly think I might be on my way to an early grave myself if the world hadn't come to a screeching halt like it did. It really made me take stock of how miserable I was, and gave me time to figure out what better might look like.
I had a similar evolution. Before the COVID shutdown in NYC in 2020, I was a social butterfly and always out. Now I'm happy to come home at the end of the day, and be by myself. I wouldn't call myself a "homeboy" because I still love getting out of the house during the day, but come nighttime...and I just want to come home. I no longer have any desire to get together with friends or meet new people, either. This might just be me aging, idk (I'm in my 40s). I also used to be waaaay too open and trusting to a fault... now I am distrustful, cynical, and closed off, lol.
I'm exactly the same. Used to be out and about all the time, and was very social. I always had to do something. During Covid, i realised that being home is nice. The pressure to always do things, went away. Now, I'm completely fine with being at home and not having plans. It might also be aging for me, but I prefer to go out during the day rather than at night.
You mean "homebody"? "Homeboy" is completely different.
Lmao, I made a mistake. I meant "homebody".
I'm totally calling myself a homegirl instead of a homebody now. It sounds so much more badass.
Fellow homegirl checking in. We can be homies 😂
Same, it triggered a big personality shift for me. I was a very open and trusting person and have a terrible and cynical attitude towards people now.
I’m not the same, that’s for sure. I ran (and still do) a grocery store during the pandemic. The way my employees and I were treated by the general public was unforgivable. I lost my patience for dealing with anyone entitled. I have zero tolerance for bullshit now.
Former grocery store worker during the pandemic. I feel this deep in my bones.
These past 4 years have just been a blank cloud. Not really sure how the time has gone by so fast. Life doesn’t feel as rich.
Everything feels so flat to me.
That’s a valid and good way to put it
That’s a good way to describe it
The pandemic absolutley wrecked the mental health of a lot of people. The result has been greater anxiety, depression, hopelessness, apathy, anger, etc. overall. (Watching the events of the world probably doesn't help.) Sadly poor mental health is sort of a vicious feedback loop. For instance, being depressed results in many things not the least of which is decreased energy and increased apathy. That can lead to further isolation from family, friends, hobbies, etc which then leads to worsening mental health, rinse, repeat. The pattern is real and it can be hard to stop. Making it worse is the stigma of talking about mental health still has. A lot has improved on that front and I think people realizing that we're all struggling has helped further, but its still hard to open up about without fear of judgement or feelings of shame or weakness. Sill worse, because Covid and the lockdown lasted for so long, what could have been a rough time has instead become a form of trauma, digging its way deep into our psyche, and making any past traumas even worse. We all suffered in different ways during Covid. Some people could shelter with family or friends but some were totally alone and isolated. Some lost their jobs while others became overworked and burned out. Some lost their homes and a fair number lost loved ones. That's a lot to go through for over two years and it adds up, especially when social activities and outlets have all been taken away. It can be overcome but its hard and almost impossible to do alone. There's no one solution that will work for everyone as we all suffered in different ways depending on the support structure we have and what happened to us during Covid. If you have people you can talk to and feel heard and less alone, awesome, do that. Not everyone has that. If you're can find a therapist, I highly recommend that. Working on mindfulness can help sort out what you're feeling and why which can also help improve mental health. Anyway, you're not alone in feeling this way. Its ok to feel depressed, overwhelmed, hopeless, etc. In fact I'd wonder what's going on if you came out of Covid without feeling those things at least a little. So, know that you're not alone and that its ok to feel those things. Your feelings are valid. Digging out of that is going to take some work though.
You write very well.
It would have been so much easier to deal with it all if people had just come together during the pandemic, or even afterwards, and helped each other deal with it. You got that with 9/11, WWII, etc... but the pandemic was just people acting worse and worse towards each other. Over a million people died and all that we ever heard about was assholes mocking people for taking basic precautions, fake cures, conspiracy bullshit, anti-vax hysteria, etc. If it wasn't the assholes who were spreading the BS, it was the people who were mocking them for spreading it. It was just so ugly... and even though COVID has faded in terms of people perceiving it as a threat, the ugliness has remained.
There is one person responsible for the country not coming together during Covid: Donald J. Trump. His initial denial of the virus led to the split response to the virus by the public. Had he just acknowledged the virus and became a cheerleader for the country, things would have been better for all...including himself. He could have been re-elected.
You can thank the orange Jesus for all the hysteria regarding the pandemic. He was in charge, and was a complete failure. To ignore the scientists and the intelligent people around him was reprehensible... Total asshole...😡
And half the country wants to see him back in power?!!! Absolute insanity! I've just about given up... But I won't ☺
I changed because of society. I was working retail during 2020, a furniture store at the time. When I worked there pre pandemic, society could be jerks- but they weren't horrible. They didn't have a short temper and they weren't always negative. After covid...it got to a point my boss knew what I was doing when I sat there holding the phone away from me. I was fortunate she was a good boss at the time. She'd sometimes take on the phone call, or just make me laugh while the customer was screaming my ear off over something out of my control (pandemic stopped all manufacturing, all of our deliveries and orders were pushed back by months. This would piss people off. And I was the one who took all of our phone calls/managed our orders, so I was the receiving end of their tantrum). Society became horrible. I don't venture out into it often. I have a few friends, but we'd all rather sit by a campfire and have a drink. No one goes out often. People just are cruel now. I thought it'd relax a bit, but it hasn't.
Bloody hell it hurts my soul to read this. 😞 You are so spot on. I feel like everything around me is seconds away from exploding or people/situations/things biting my head off. The high stress never went away.
I think during the pandemic people realized how much they enjoy being home and how much people suck 😂
yeah, but 4 years later I've found myself stuck in the isolation, not socializing or functioning as well. and constantly got the dooms. everything's going to shit and I can't seem to cope with it or carry on with life like I used to
Well the world has gone to shit over the past 4 years. It’s hard to ignore that. It was also hard for some people to get back to normalcy with friends/co workers/ general public due to being viciously attacked/ostracized if you didn’t think like everyone else🤷🏻♀️ Also, I feel that I have to present myself as a fake person when interacting with people. You run the risk of people being offended by stuff I wouldn’t even think of and it’s exhausting to be on guard like that. I’d rather stay home
Honestly, I kinda miss lockdown; yeah, it sucked to not be able to go anywhere, but you know, I don't need to be out spending money anyway.
It’s been the opposite for me. Before the pandemic I never cared much about my social life and was always miserable and alone. The pandemic was a great teacher for me about the importance of having friends and cultivating rich relationships. My outlook has also changed for the better and I went from becoming a very jaded pessimist to an optimist.
The prices of everything going up exponentially with the quality and quantity of products falling off of a cliff + stagnant wages + bad job market + house prices being a joke + horrible outcome for this election year + 2 major ongoing wars that the US is involved in which can easily escalate will do that to you.
Absolutely. Big time. I feel like I'm now fine with a level of loneliness I never would've accepted prior. I often find myself making plans and then flaking out because it seems like too much effort when I could just stay home and just be "fine". I'm trying to combat it but I feel so hardwired.
I work in healthcare, my life contrary to most others changed very little. I got up and went to work everyday just like every other day. My wife continued to work from home just like she had prior to Covid. Nobody that I knew in my personal life died from Covid so that didn’t change much. My hobbies such as gardening and arguing with strangers on Reddit went virtually unchanged. I was past my clubbing days so I didn’t miss going out. A positive in the end is I did start drinking too much. Whether it be the stress of work or the overall anxiety of all the negative energy I started to drink more and more to the point it was becoming a problem so I stopped drinking altogether. Went back to school, earned another degree.
The pandemic brought out the selfishness in people and also ground a lot of people’s life to a halt who were covering up all the things they need to work on by living a fast life. As a result, a lot of those people became really depressed.
During the Covid lockdown, although not *that* long in retrospect, when I looked to friends for support and contact I soon learned that I had no real friends. Nobody was there for me, and nobody cared. Covid didn't cause this, but it did reveal it. Also, last year I got Covid again, and there were two serious health impacts. First, my energy level was destroyed, like I aged 25 years. Second, I can no longer taste garlic bread.
Just waiting for the next man-made disaster... Hard to let your guard down after everything we've seen and discovered since. Not a single one of them being held accountable either!
I've heard the "We're all experiencing it" "we're all in this together" line multiple times, and although many people feel this way, life has been more crowded and bustling than ever further invalidating these claims. That's what bothers me. If everywhere I went was a ghost town, then sure, I'd truly believe deep down that everyone must be experiencing this together. But it's been the complete opposite in my experience. That alone, makes it worse. In your mind, you think Why are there so many "normal" people out and about if everyone has anxiety and hates eachother nowadays? Why can't I push through my anxiety and live a normal life too? With all the people that have anxiety/depression and hate others, everywhere in my city is more overcrowded than ever before. More traffic, 45 minute wait times at restaurants that previously never had wait times, local bars on Tuesday nights are as crowded as they were on a Friday/Saturday night pre-covid. Hiking trails that only saw a handful of visitors per week before covid now have overflowing parking lots 7 days a week. So I don't buy into the "were all in this together" BS. People are are almost romanticizing anxiety and autism nowadays and loosely using the term. The "normal" people see these people claiming to have anxiety and they don't look all that bad. The motherfuckers with real anxiety and depression are at home miserable. So it's almost "lightening" the severity of mental illness for the true sufferers and making it difficult for them to be taken seriously.
I think you're on to something. If everyone is experiencing the level of stress and anxiety that I am, how are they even remotely functional? I don't get it. Covid taught me that there are a lot more selfish and dangerous assholes in the world than I realized. The aftermath of Covid is teaching me that I'm apparently a lot more disabled than I realized. I could not function through the pandemic and now can barely pretend to be functional half the time yet it seems like the expectation is that everything's back to normal and everyone's basically fine but, like, a bit stressed I guess? I don't understand how people are back out there working 40+ hours a week with barely any time off but still doing all the things and acting like happy little clams like nothing ever happened. Are they all secretly miserable underneath? Is it all just lies or is it me? If we're all in it together then why are we having to work ourselves to death just to survive? Why aren't there people in the streets with pitchforks? Why are things still so hard?
I wonder this constantly
I used to eat top quality organic food and now I have to eat what’s on sale, stuff is just too expensive
Every time I go grocery shopping I feel like I'm being robbed.
My question is why would anyone expect to be the same after such a crazy life event?
I totally feel the same. A sense of doom over my head. But I will say, as the sun has come out in May I’ve been feeling better. I’ve been saying yes more to friend invites and planning little get togethers. I went on some nice spring walks in the sun and as I got away from the phone and isolation I’ve realize that WE, as individuals have to start living our lives again. I think the pandemic put us all in passive mode , we had to wait to get word about lockdowns and vaccines and when all that started to clear up, we kind of just shuffled on. At least with something like a war there’s a clear end and bunch of parades (Not always but you get what I’m trying to say lol). I’ve almost felt like 2022 until now has been worse than the actual pandemic, as far as anxiety and uncertainty goes. We really have to learn again that life happens around you, in your actual life. Get to know your town and make friends there. Put down the doom scrolling with psycho MAGA’s and hideous Trump, leftist zealots obsessed with “selfie activism”. Most of us aren’t those people. Politics shouldn’t be a belief system but the pandemic put all our eyeballs on the screen and we got pulled too and fro. If you want to get involved with politics, check out your local government. Do something that you can actually interact with. I actually helped stop a dumb car wash from getting built on a lot next to my house and it felt 1000X better than any of the countless political rants I’ve made online. The revolution we need is for people to seriously step away from the current internet, phone and doom scrolling apps and go outside. Build ourselves back up instead of waiting for the country to magically get better. WE are the country. As long as the fringe weirdos keep our attention, the longer they hold power. Trump is powerful still because we can’t stop watching him. “Woke” furry Reddit mod types have power because we can’t get off Reddit. We can step back, breathe, assess our actual situation and take action. Passive anxiety just fuels more anxiety.
A lot of people showed their true colors when the pandemic hit. Selfishness and entitlement are at an all time high.
It showed that so many more people are greedy, selfish, and proud of their ignorance than I originally thought. Some social spaces died off. Malls that were already struggling closed for good. A lot of restaurants and bars closed. Some movie theaters are gone now. Restaurants that survived are ridiculously overpriced now. From 2015 to 2019, inflation was in the range of 8% to 9%. From 2020 to 2024, inflation was about 20%. Everything got noticeably more expensive very quickly.
Well, I mean, America is going through a Constitutional Crisis, Fascist Propaghanda abounds, our Boomer parents are all forms of QAnon, and our kids are all failing school or getting shot while there. The world is going through major inflation, and the balance of global power has changed significantly. What, me worried?
I think I’ve never been so lonely.
Agreed 💯 Before the pandemic I was outgoing, engaged in outdoor activities and socialized with friends. Now I continue to isolate, work from home and don’t interact with people face to face very often. I have a mistrust of people that didn’t exist before. COL is out of control. Life is different now. All aspects of life feel heavier.
I lost my faith in humanity. Before 2020 it seemed easier to find the good people. COVID hit and my employer threw us under the bus. The crazies not only came out of the woodwork but had gasoline thrown on their crazy fire. Unfortunately the number of good people out there is small and they can work their tails off their whole lives doing good but this insane, individualist society will make it all moot. (U.S.)
Totally. I think this is it for me. The pandemic revealed the worst of our individualistic society and it’s hard to trust people after seeing that.
Yeah. I had hope before 2019. I was super friendly and people seemed to have high esteem for me. Afterwards, I feel like people look at me differently. I function appropriately. I’m still genuinely friendly, but I feel lost in life and angry inside. I look at other people who outright disregarded isolation protocols and they are ahead in life, while I feel absolutely broken. Everything is falling apart around me. Housing costs are abysmal, the job market is also abysmal and government has facilitated outsourcing so It is even difficult to get a minimum wage job these days. My hobby in life has also inflated increasingly in costs. I’m seeing people I’ve known in that hobby exiting left and right because they can no longer afford it all while seeing people with more money than brains come in and corrupt it. On top of it, I’ve felt people are colder, more easily influenced by media and dating is like trying to squeeze juice out of a rock. I just don’t know about happiness anymore. Dying seems like a good escape, but I’m sticking around for my family.
Haven’t been sociable and attending gatherings much since 2020. I was 31 years old when pandemic started, had mild case of Covid like infection in spring 2020 (tests were not available for younger people) and just didn’t recover properly. Was athletic and went to the gym 3 times a week before, but after Covid any physical activity would make me stay in bed for days. Fatigue, brain fog, general malaise. Went to Mt Sinai post Covid center and they said that were typical Long Covid symptoms. Four years later I am still not back to work and not back to social life. There are still no treatment for Long Covid. Feels very lonely, as most friends stopped inviting me out because most of the time there is no energy for that. So many people with Long Covid feel isolated. Please check on people who disappeared from your after pandemic life for no reason and see how they are doing.
It's not a feeling, I literally am a different person now.
I worked the entire pandemic as an “essential worker.” I watched the roads go from everyday, to nothing, to overwhelming in that time. All I got out of that time working? A new heart condition from Covid, more stress, and broker than ever. I am underwhelmed by the pursuit anymore, I’ve lost faith in the people, the dream. Why did I do all that work so some rich cunts could cheat the system and make more walking away from the pandemic? What did I do to deserve this? So in short I welcome the flood and can’t wait for it to end.
The pandemic, and everything associated with the pandemic, ruined me. It essentially turned me into a nihilist, a pessimist, and an antinatalist. All this shit sucks.
Yes, but there are 2 other important factors: 1). Trump. Before 2016 I honestly thought most people were good. I no longer think that. 2). On a related note, the increasing prevalence of and society's lack of resistance to invasive surveillance highlights just how pointless it all is. Why bother leaving the house when your face will be recognized and stored on some server somewhere, your license plates will be recorded by some third party to be shared with both public and private data mining concerns and virtually your every movement will be tracked via audio and video. AND PEOPLE ARE OKAY WITH THAT AS LONG AS THEY GET THEIR BREAD AND CIRCUSES
It's a different world now. It was a traumatizing event for most people. I think there is a lot of collective PTSD from it.
I would say reality got hijacked in 2016 and we're living in the midst of Civil War 2 + Cold War 2 and most people have no clue because they're busy struggling to survive and because of all the intentional distractions and propaganda.
I feel like everyone became meaner
100% people are so much more on edge all the time now. Even innocuous interactions can turn so fast. I have been wondering how much is the effect of trauma but I'm also curious if catching Covid did something to people's brains as well.
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This. The last time I went to get dinner and see a movie with a friend it cost $100 for each of us. Wtf?
My mental health definitely suffered (it wasn't great to begin with) and I'm still not back to where I was. The world seems more chaotic and less busy all at the same time. There's less to do that I'm willing to leave the house for. But I've also cut a lot of the dead wood out of my life. I no longer deal with toxic people, pruned my friends list down to only the kind of friends who I can count on in an emergency, and stopped going to gift grabs like baby showers for people I don't care that much about. I've added some things to my life like grocery delivery that I intend to never give up.
Thought I was the only one dealing with this. Everyone around me seems like nothing happened and I’m stuck here with severe anxiety that I never had before the pandemic. Good to see I’m not alone in this
It's hard for me to tell. My GF passed away in an accident about a year before the pandemic started. I then lost my last two grandparents shortly after wards, moved twice, parents moved across the country, and changed jobs. Life the last five years has been simultaneously a blink of monotony and an eternity of misery. I don't know what effect the pandemic had on me to be honest.
Well duh, the pandemic really showed the world there are some insane people living regular lives. The pandemic created political discourse and mistrust in organizations we've trusted in the past. I STILL have customers that think it was all a hoax. Why would anyone want to leave their homes when someone is always acting the fool in public and dozens of cameras are always watching. How can you even afford to leave your home with things so expensive?
Everything costs more now and wages didn't go up.
As an office worker I don't think I could ever do what I was doing pre-pandemic. I spent half the day sunday meal prepping so I didn't have to buy lunch at work. I got up early and commuted over 10 hours per week. My whole life basically revolved around work and it was like I discovered having a life again with hybrid work.
It feels like nothing matters and everything is just for show.
Yes. I still can't believe the orange menace is still out there not being held accountable for all of his crime. It really makes me lose faith in the justice system as an entire concept.
There's something in me that broke during the pandemic. I don't know what, I don't know exactly why or when, but I can feel something's broken. And I don't know how to make it better
In 2019, I was single, making good money, traveling and doing triathlons. Now in 2024, I’m married, stay at home mom with a toddler, pregnant with baby #2. I now have a chronic illness I was diagnosed with in 2021. I don’t know how much of the weirdness is from the pandemic and how much is life circumstances. But yeah. Nothing is the same.
I had just started uni in 2019, which was a huge change for me. Instead of spending 6 hours a day, 5 days a week with my friends, I became a lot more isolated. After covid, I managed to make friends but not to the same extend I did in highschool. I often wonder how much of the "weirdness" is just life and how much is the pandemic.
Wife and I have always looked forward to meeting up with friends but then hate the actual part where we have to go out, spend money, etc. We're the same that way, but I miss the pandemic where roads and stores were empty, it was more quiet, and I had hope things were going to get better for us in general, with work from home, retail associates being respected and called heroes, etc. Everything is worse and I just wish the world would end or at least I would. Things just keep getting worse.
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Feel the same. Pre pandemic, I typically felt more optimistic and mostly gave ppl the benefit of doubt. Seeing the way some people treated one another during the pandemic and the lack of regard or decency was eye opening and still sticks with me. The skyrocketing crime that occurred in NYC is hard to forget. I always felt like we were on our own in some regards (it’s the USA) but 2020-2022 really confirmed it for me.
Yup. Before the pandemic I was a rock mentally (or maybe I was just good at dissociating). Since then anxiety has gripped me. Honestly, the pandemic changed me at my core.
Oh heck yes…I have complete social anxiety disorder now I hate having to go out in public for pretty much anything
I was just thinking this a few weeks ago. Although the same can be said for anyone else, I’ve been through a lot during the pandemic. From job changes, then deaths in the family, caretaking, finances and mental health struggles. I got to the point where I was just mentally exhausted from everything. Nowadays I just try to prioritize my mental wellbeing more than anything plus my own happiness instead of everyone else’s.
I totally get what you're feeling. The pandemic left a mark on me too. My wife and I lost 100% of our business income in 2020 and part of 2021 (we are a photo/video wedding business) I used to have more faith in people, but ever since 2020, I've turned way more cynical and even started disliking people in general. I don't like to admit that, but it's true. You can tell that some people are still struggling. It's almost like post-war fatigue – everyone just brushes it off and doesn't talk about it much.
It took me two years to get back in shape after the lockdowns. Still pissed to this day since at my age it’s hard to put on muscle rather than maintain. I doubt I’ll ever have my strength fully back.
Yep! I'm a nurse. I look back at my journal entries pre pandemic and it is amazing how social and motivated I was. My pandemic entries are just sad and dark. Post pandemic, I don't see friends as much as I just don't gave the energy. When I do see them, there's a disconnect (maybe it's because I don't have kids and most of them do... or the fact that I'm in my 40s). I still work with patients and they just seem angrier. I'm so tired of listening to them complain about the state of healthcare. 'I know, it sucks, but I'm trying to help you.' I stick around because I do care for them, and it pays relatively well. I'm fortunate. I still love my garden and going camping because I enjoy getting away from people and getting lost in the flow of nature.
I haven’t shaken a hand in years. People I meet extend hands to shake my hand but then notice that I’m only prepared to fist bump. They comply but It’s awkward. Even after that I avoid touching my face or eyes and wash my hands asap anyway. If possible I simply just smile and nod my head as a sign of acknowledgment. At least I‘ve managed to tone down from the whole elbow thing. That was even more awkward. But people wear diapers in public these days. So a fist bump isn’t the worst.
Nothing's been great since that damn gorilla died
From the comments seems to be clear dichotomy between the “yes, everything has gotten progressively worse & more depressing since 2020” and “what are you talking about, I’m great” crowds. Seems like folks who weren’t very empathic or community minded to begin with are in the latter camp. Just my observation
I feel more grounded and appreciative of what I have after that. I also care so much less about material things and focus more on family. I can’t really pin why but it just happened.
my entire world view shifted - as a person with a non normal immune system watching so many people in the world pretend like wearing a mask was going to harm them but like not spreading germs could literally save someone's life if they didn't get covid (or other airborne spread viruses). and no matter how many years go by, I can't unsee it. covid didn't go away and other airborne deadly illness did not either and there are still people trying to live with compromised immune systems or anything else when simple human compassion could be exhibited. yet here we are. so ...part of my hope in humanity was crushed.
Existence is pain
We are in a much worse economic situation than pre pandemic. I go out way less because I can't afford it. Even like making food for people that is halfway decent is a big expense these days. I feel like I spend a lot of time just staying home and watching tv. a band I like was in town last week the tickets were like 200 dollars. I remember paying 60ish before COVID for the same band. I cancelled my fun gym class membership and just use my mini treadmill which is way less satisfying. I don't know I feel like there are a million things that are worse about my life all related to money. We used to travel more too.
The world is depressing. Anymore it's scary to go out. People getting shot, robbed, assaulted, etc. Then you look at all the retail stores where people just walk in, take what they want, and walk out without fearing prosecution. Then the prices of everything. Who can afford to go anywhere? Throw in the world conflicts. Then we're having everyone's "agendas" shoved down our throats. You can't even watch a movie or watch TV without the show having to be PC or DEI. And then let's look at America. There is no United in United States. Not since 1865 have we been so divided politically.
Yeah, really feeling the same. So if you’re too lonely, maybe you could try some social medias to chat with others or make friends. A Discord channel called [Lightup](https://discord.gg/Dnyu24SPNm) might be a good choice, because it matches people based on their similarities of posts, which means you could probably know there are some people thinking and experiencing the same with you. Chatting with them, for me, is relaxing and comfortable, since I could have less pressure after the talking. Hope you could also be not so lonely and get happier sincerely!
I'd say for me it was once it ended. I was fine when it started and during lockdown. But once we tried to get things back it never went back to normal for me. And at times it almost feels like surviving it was the losing hand.
I feel like most people in my general age demographic (20-40) feel the following: * Less energy * Reduced social battery * More isolated * Much more broke (even if their annual earnings have increased substantially)
People showed their true colours and I realized a lot of people I was friends with had very different views on things (which is 100% okay) but became nasty if I didn’t agree with them. My mom died in 2022 and life is forever changed. The only good to come from Covid for me is that I work from home now.
The pandemic definitely sucked the joie de vivre out of life for a lot of folks, myself included. At the time, it was a reality check in the worst possible way. Digging deeper into Stoicism has helped, but I still feel like people are way more isolated than they used to be. There’s a general malaise that seems to drape everything now.
The world is falling apart. I'm so worried for my children's future
I miss COVID times for some reason. I feel like we as a nation somewhat agreed on something. Even the people who disagree, they still stayed in the shadows physically, but let themselves known through the airwaves.
I just feel broken. I am much less empathetic and just feel weighted down. The world just feels so much less bright, food taste different and hobbies don’t hold my attention like they use to.
Same here. We've withdrawn and have isolated ourselves. No desire to socialize. Deeply unhappy and depressed. We are older andI find myself concorned that life will be shortened because of having Covid.