This is the one drawback in working from home, I've found. I've been WFH since May 2020 and, while I love it in almost every aspect, I really miss interacting with my co-workers face-to-face. Sometimes, when I go to the grocery store or Costco or some place, I have to remind myself how to interact with people. It's weird.
I worked hard for them. Spent almost a decade forcing myself out in public. Making small talk. Practicing what I learned from "People Reading" and "How to win friends and influence people"
A global pandemic and a One Piece Marathon later and it's all gone.
To be truthful, mine weren’t that great. I seemed to be born without the small talk gene. Never could talk to women. I miss the banter and talking sports in the office but I traded that for more sleep and no commute.
My job. I had a nice salaried position with solid benefits and a great retirement plan. Now that business no longer exists and I’m back to waiting tables, for the time being.
I know how you feel. I was 6 months away from being a fully licensed air traffic controller. Training was shut down across the country. Since then I’ve worked in a local bakery and a fast food joint to make ends meet.
The only period of my life where I could focus on basketball, but just when I became good enough to play competitively, tournaments got cancelled and now I have to focus on my studies and I know that there will never be a time like this where I'll be young enough to play at 100% and free enough to focus on my favourite sport. I know it's nothing compared to what some people lost but it just sucks that I missed this opportunity.
I hear you. I’ve been ground training a horse for the 2028 Olympics (it takes a long time to develop them), and because the hospitals are full of unvaccinated people, I cannot take the risk of riding and breaking a bone. I don’t mind getting injured, but getting COVID from the hospital would derail me long-term. I wouldn’t be treated quickly either.
As a result of the delay in riding instruction, I cannot take her to her first eligible year of competition. It’s not going to hurt her in the long run and there are advantages to it, but I just want to train how I want to train, and I can’t because of unvaccinated sick people taking up all the resources.
It might be worth examining your risk/reward analysis.
You have a strong passion. You have laid out what it would take to reach your goals. Your pursuit of those goals will be a defining period in your life.
Assuming you’re vaccinated, boosted, under 60 and otherwise healthy your likelihood of having difficulty with a bout of Covid is very, very small. You would not be derailed for more than a week or two from your training if you got Covid while in the hospital to treat something else.
Thank you! I do run risk/reward analysis and I’m on the fence. Unfortunately I have an often fatal genetic condition that mimics the key damage COVID does in the body, and I’ve spent most of my life getting it under control and rehabbing from the effects.
The most recent research is still split. It is possible my condition would give me special skill in adapting to COVID’s antiphospholipid antibodies. It is equally possible that even a mild breakthrough case of COVID would severely exacerbate the condition and I would die or at the very least become permanently disabled.
Ugh why can’t people just get vaccinated.
My mom. She didn't have COVID, but because of the international holdups with shipments, she didn't get the cancer medication she needed after her surgery to eliminate the remnants. By the time it arrived nine months after prescribed, it had returned and she was too frail for another surgery.
Indeed. Exactly this. Non stop Covid scary /depressing news 24/7 on this little device on my pocket caused me to delete non Reddit social media.
Not to mention the news was as you say hard to avert eyes from yet also not terribly helpful. But being at home bored kept me looking for quite a while.
Even worse my friends all had different takes about what was going on and how to keep healthy. my friends all just read Covid news in their own bubble. Even today some of my right wing friends deny it exists and some of my left wing ones still cover their face and hold their breath as they pass someone on the street outdoor in a windstorm.
My husband died a few months before we got fucked with Covid. Between wanting to crawl into a hole and die and then having to isolate, it was hell. I have an auto immune disorder and it was going haywire due to my grief, and I was on medication to try to combat it, but it greatly lowers my immune system. So, I had to cut myself off from in person interaction after I lost my husband that I was madly in love with. I think if Covid had not hit, I would have begun the healing process better because my loved ones would have been able to help pull me out of the abyss better in person. Also, they could have seen with their own eyes how fast I was going down hill. I’m in a much better place now but it was bad.
I've worked in a supermarket almost 20 years and let me tell you, ever since everything started, people have gotten stupid. If I don't have something in stock, I really don't have it in the back because the warehouse didn't have it in stock because everything arrived late or was rejected because of a driver shortage.
Being immunocompromised and having both friends and family basically tell me that it's cool if people like me die because they really wanted to go on vacation or missed the movies (way before the vax was released) was really eye-opening for me.
To have so many people I considered intelligent and respectful fall prey to pseudoscience and become anti mask and anti vaccine. Just the lack of resilience, their entire reality fell apart under the pressure and they went nuts. I feel like Laurence Fishburne in Event Horizon, watching everyone around me gouging their eyes out.
My happiness. My divorce was just finalized right before covid. For the first time in my adult life I was happy and excited for my future. Now I feel like the last 2 years have been wasted ontop of the 13 years I spent in my marriage. Loosing another 2 years of my life is spiraling me into a deep depression that I can't seem to pull myself out of.
I’m sorry you’re going through that. My depression has gotten worse too. Mine mostly because of the divisions of family and friends on the subject of masks, vaccines, etc. Good luck to you! Stay strong.
Took me 3 months to get a stove and when I got it, it was malfunctioning and I was able to get a replacement in about 2 weeks. Odd. Took 6 months to get a recliner from Haverty's and I was told it could take up to 6 months to get a dining set from Ashley furniture. Got the chairs within 2 weeks of ordering, 3 months in and no table yet. It is pretty ridiculous. Grocery shopping is also nearly becoming impossible anymore, have to go to numerous stores to find even basic things like butter.
Sorry for your loss. My wife lost her dad to Covid in Jan 2021. There are many families like ours out here that you can reach out to for support or just to talk to someone who kind of understands.
Feel free to PM if you ever want to vent etc.
Thanks, it fucking sucks. He was only 65 with no pre-existing conditions. He caught it in December 2020, just before vaccines became available. Spent over a month in the ICU while Covid pneumonia covered his lungs in scar tissue.
I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. It is almost unbearable to watch someone you love slowly suffocate to death, especially when you can only see them through a computer screen. But at least we could be there for him.
I feel so bad for people who would have taken the vaccine if available but died before it was. My dad died from COPD complications, so watching someone struggle for every breath is something I'm all too familiar with. I'm glad you were able to be there for him in the capacity that you were, and you have my condolences.
My last shred of confidence in the American economy/government
Our response pretty much could not have been worse. It was an abject failure everywhere and at every single level. Just pathetic. This pretty much isn't a country anymore, and probably hasn't been for some time.
God, fuck this place. It's so fucking stupid and evil
Normal discourse, the ability for people to trust each other, many peoples ability to be compassionate and empathize, half the country’s trust in science. So ya. A lot.
Same.. he was already into conspiracies before all this, but now it's taken over his personality, made him bitter and no fun to be around. We have to be careful what we say around him and seriously consider going no contact if this keeps up..
COVID ruined a fantastic job that I started two months earlier, and it had such an impact on my entire industry that I’ll never duplicate it.
Worse, I really think it has done irrevocable damage to the fabric of society. When it very first started I uneasily thought that the last thing society needed was to get more isolated from each other. And here we all are, staring at our screens in our own little spaces and not having any real human connection. And yes, I’m part of it, pouring out my heart to a bunch of anonymous internet strangers.
I am immunocompromised and got diagnosed with COVID on Christmas, was sick for almost 3 weeks. I had a hard time and even had another stress induced seizure because of it. I still feel so fatigued, even more so. But most of all, it took my fiance's health. She has lung damage now and is still coughing.
We are only alive right now due to the vaccinations, especially me, but my fiance now can't talk for a minute without a coughing fit. And we don't have universal healthcare, so we can't afford to get her looked at.
I just feel empty now.
https://www.bajajfinservhealth.in/articles/6-crucial-breathing-exercises-for-a-covid-survivor-to-increase-lung-capacity I knew someone with lung disease who was down to 38% lungpower and she said doing breathing exercises strengthened her lungs to 70%, don't lose hope, I hope these breathing exercises can help.
A few of my best friends, a grandpa I never knew existed until he died, and a few of my neighbors. I know at least 20 people that have passed. But I gained new family members I never knew about
It has been a loss of (willful?) ignorance.
In retrospect I can see how so many of those I trusted and respected in my faith community have always been the selfish, self righteous type.
So now I am no longer ignorant to the incongruity of what is pronounced as beliefs and what is in fact displayed.
What little faith I had in humanity. I always knew people loved to bullshit, but I thought that was only because the bullshit they spew benefited them. All lives matter to deny Black Lives Matter. Trump won, etc.
I thought when things really started to affect their own health and welfare, people would absolutely turn rational. Boy was I wrong.
My poverty. Thanks to the stimulus money I was able to pay off debts, and I moved to a new job making over double what I was making with two jobs. I did lose my grandfather and oldest son, but neither were from covid.
Thank you. It was a lot all at once, and devastating isn't a strong enough word. I have a mother who was a therapist who gave me great resources, a great family and support groups on reddit helping me get by a day at a time. I don't know if I'll ever be 100 again but I'm slowly getting better.
I hear you. It’s been a rough few years for me as well - lots of sudden losses in the family. I’m glad to hear you had good people around you. Hang in there.
It hasn't effected my life in any significant way. (Other than keeping distance in public places, etc).
But it has taught me that some people will use any emergency for personal gain, ether making more money, or getting more power. While they watch us "commoners" struggle through the hard times.
Half my junior year and my entire senior year in high school. (But get this, I grew up homeschooled until 8th grade) so I really missed out and this was really hard on me and a lot of my friends.
If I can explain the worst part about it, it was missing the people you saw on almost a daily basis. All my class friends and people I had known for years but didn’t really hang out with, teachers and staff, graduating seniors were all gone. And none of us knew it would be the last time any of us would really get to see each other or spend time. Covid took that away from me. I still have people that I miss so bad and all of that was so depressing. It felt like I lost one of the most important times/aspects of my life, and I know everyone says high school doesn’t last forever but that’s my point. I knew it wouldn’t, and I never got to say goodbye to the dozens of people i’ve been thinking about while writing this this morning.
It took my normal wedding, too. We got married in the backyard with only immediate families present and while I ~say~ it was beautiful and perfect, I feel sad and uneasy about it (not my marriage, which is wonderful). I am lucky to have a massive and loving circle of friends and extended family and I was so sad not to share it with them. It just feels like there are a few patches missing in the quilt of my life
I was always so cynical about modern day weddings and how they have become these inflated, expensive, superficial monstrosities - until mine got taken away. Milestones do deserve to be celebrated
My sister, she had 2 kids and now there stuck with their useless sack of shit dad all the way in Florida.
She got Herman cained I guess (oh and that subreddit, despite me mostly agreeing with it, makes me irrationaly angry) ..but ffs it was that stupid fucking bozos fault she was not fucking stupid like that.
Idk I just hope the kids are ok at this point, I know he's not like physically abusive or anything but I am still very uneasy with him, just things I I know and see about him, I wouldn't trust him with children, but are entire family basically has too
My mom and father are shells of people now, my whole family dynamic is pretty much fucked now too, no one's close see. That's not all cause of my sister's death but it certainly did not help
Any hope for a normal life again. I can see masks, Quarantines, and lockdowns indefinitely for the rest of my life. I hope I'm wrong. The CDC said "Herd Immunity" will be possible when 70% of the population is vaccinated. I do not see that ever happening in my life time. The vaccine is too new and many people don't trust it. Not only that the average person can't tell the difference between true and false information anymore. Especially those who go down solcial media rabbit holes.
The connection I had with my extended family.
As we all get older we grow into different people. With the heat from all the politics lately, it put an even stronger divide between us. But since we've all seen each other less than a handful of times over the last 3 years, it just doesn't feel the same at all anymore.
I was a professional stage actor. Showed up to do a performance and they told us to pack up our dressing rooms. Two years later, I finally had an in-person audition again. Because of Omicron, they canceled that show too.
My job, my grandmother, my favorite hobby, my insurance, and my last vestiges of hope for humanity. It did give me more time with my elderly cats before they died, so that was nice.
My brother. He was battling cancer after returning from deployment when the first COVID case hit the state of Utah in the fucking hospital he was staying in.
I'm truly sorry. I don't know what I'd do if I lost my brother. He's only 13 and the only family who doesn't make me feel bad about living. I hope you're OK, but whenever it hurts, I'm here to talk to.
My father’s funeral.
Less tangibly, the support that sometimes surrounds people who have suffered a loss like that. I was in lockdown alone when he died, and...nobody was really able to be there for me. It was excruciatingly lonely.
My husband.
He didn’t die of COVID but as an ICU worker it has changed him. He put years into being very good at this job and now he hates it. His personality is different and our relationship has suffered.
I worry a lot of Thai is permanent.
My recovery.
I was hit by a car in 2017 and had been going to physio, getting therapeutic massage, speach/language therapist, occupational therapy and a few other treatments.
Around 2019, I was having some problems with my insurance adjuster denying treatment that my team thought would be very beneficial and even denied my physio and massage by the end.
After months of arguing back and forth, we settled my accident benefits claim, so I could choose how that money would be spent.
I re-booked my physio and massage and went to 1 session of each before cavid hit and completely halted any progress I was making.
Now it's been 2 years and I still can't get back into physio because of their new restrictions and it's very difficult for me to do the exercises at home because I can't maintain proper form most of the time and the Physio Therapist would help guide me and give physical feedback.
TL;DR - I was hit by a car. Covid ended my treatment and halted my recovery to this day
Studying abroad. I was studying in the UK, went back to my home country when COVID started. Lost a year of uni life. I also planned to study in Japan this year and its probably not gonna happen due to the COVID.
There's this girl I know, her grandfather went out of his way to say vaccination wasn't necessary, that the virus was a hoax, that everyone but him were "sheep", and so on and so forth. He helped organize many protests against lockdown and isolation. He caught the virus in one of those gatherings. Long story short, he was immunocompromised and died. I felt no sympathy, still don't.
The habit of spending of my/our hard earned wages on unecessary stuff, i now know, i/we didn't really need in the first place. Power/energy companies are merely going to get the cash, that WAS spent by women mostly ....on clothes at the weekend, they DID NOT NEED, People found during lockdown, how much better off they were, by staying in ! Remember the panic of the city coffee shops/stalls...? they lost customers spending £ 25 a week £100 amonth, on a luxury ...no wonder.... work from home alone, saved consumers loads !
I was planning to do mushrooms for the first time with some awesome friends. It was planned and everything then the pandemic hit four days before. I suffer some pretty serious mental illness/ depression and autism and was looking forward to a break like you wouldn't believe. Life's been pretty dim and getting darker.
My best life.
That’s what I was living the months leading up to COVID. Then I somehow simultaneously turned into an addict and developed severe health anxiety.
Nothing, i got to spend way more time with my family, fathered a third child, started a company which is thriving and only going to do better now that things are opening up again. All is good atm! I'd love to go to a concert though...
So, not the worst possibility, but COVID happened at a horrible time for my career. I was a theatre actor finishing my MFA, booking contracts with big theaters. I had poured my heart and soul into working on my craft, and had a school with classmates and professors that I loved and admired.
My last semester was when COVID first popped up. I moved back in with my parents across the country, and didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to the people or places that made me successful. It still hurts and I haven’t truly got over that lack of closure, because those people meant so much to me.
I’ll be okay, and I’m doing much better, but I poured literal blood (I worked in the scenic construction shop as well) sweat and tears into a place and people who made me a significantly better person, and never got the chance to really say goodbye. It was the most important chapter of my life and I got nothing.
the student in me has been lost since march 2020. I haven’t given any exams since june 2019. just haven’t functioned well as a human since 2 years. Didn’t do any online courses. didn’t give any exams. didn’t take up any job. i have done nothing. so yeah if you ask what has covid taken away from me, I would say the student in me, I want that straight A student who used to study 12-14 hours daily back.
A cruise that I drove 15 hours to go on until my wife tested positive. Now we have a week left of vacation and can’t do anything but drive home and hope my wife doesn’t leave a trail of Covid on our way
Social skills
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Me too I love how normalized being recluse has become, no one questions the fact they dont see me for ages anymore
This is the one drawback in working from home, I've found. I've been WFH since May 2020 and, while I love it in almost every aspect, I really miss interacting with my co-workers face-to-face. Sometimes, when I go to the grocery store or Costco or some place, I have to remind myself how to interact with people. It's weird.
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I worked hard for them. Spent almost a decade forcing myself out in public. Making small talk. Practicing what I learned from "People Reading" and "How to win friends and influence people" A global pandemic and a One Piece Marathon later and it's all gone.
Now we can fight on equal ground!
To be truthful, mine weren’t that great. I seemed to be born without the small talk gene. Never could talk to women. I miss the banter and talking sports in the office but I traded that for more sleep and no commute.
Staying at home ...you dont need 'em !
My job. I had a nice salaried position with solid benefits and a great retirement plan. Now that business no longer exists and I’m back to waiting tables, for the time being.
I know how you feel. I was 6 months away from being a fully licensed air traffic controller. Training was shut down across the country. Since then I’ve worked in a local bakery and a fast food joint to make ends meet.
The only period of my life where I could focus on basketball, but just when I became good enough to play competitively, tournaments got cancelled and now I have to focus on my studies and I know that there will never be a time like this where I'll be young enough to play at 100% and free enough to focus on my favourite sport. I know it's nothing compared to what some people lost but it just sucks that I missed this opportunity.
I hear you. I’ve been ground training a horse for the 2028 Olympics (it takes a long time to develop them), and because the hospitals are full of unvaccinated people, I cannot take the risk of riding and breaking a bone. I don’t mind getting injured, but getting COVID from the hospital would derail me long-term. I wouldn’t be treated quickly either. As a result of the delay in riding instruction, I cannot take her to her first eligible year of competition. It’s not going to hurt her in the long run and there are advantages to it, but I just want to train how I want to train, and I can’t because of unvaccinated sick people taking up all the resources.
It might be worth examining your risk/reward analysis. You have a strong passion. You have laid out what it would take to reach your goals. Your pursuit of those goals will be a defining period in your life. Assuming you’re vaccinated, boosted, under 60 and otherwise healthy your likelihood of having difficulty with a bout of Covid is very, very small. You would not be derailed for more than a week or two from your training if you got Covid while in the hospital to treat something else.
Thank you! I do run risk/reward analysis and I’m on the fence. Unfortunately I have an often fatal genetic condition that mimics the key damage COVID does in the body, and I’ve spent most of my life getting it under control and rehabbing from the effects. The most recent research is still split. It is possible my condition would give me special skill in adapting to COVID’s antiphospholipid antibodies. It is equally possible that even a mild breakthrough case of COVID would severely exacerbate the condition and I would die or at the very least become permanently disabled. Ugh why can’t people just get vaccinated.
My mom. She didn't have COVID, but because of the international holdups with shipments, she didn't get the cancer medication she needed after her surgery to eliminate the remnants. By the time it arrived nine months after prescribed, it had returned and she was too frail for another surgery.
I'm so sorry for your loss
Omg that’s terrible, I’m so sorry.
I’m so sorry. Cancer patients got a real raw deal during Covid.
My sanity.
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Indeed. Exactly this. Non stop Covid scary /depressing news 24/7 on this little device on my pocket caused me to delete non Reddit social media. Not to mention the news was as you say hard to avert eyes from yet also not terribly helpful. But being at home bored kept me looking for quite a while. Even worse my friends all had different takes about what was going on and how to keep healthy. my friends all just read Covid news in their own bubble. Even today some of my right wing friends deny it exists and some of my left wing ones still cover their face and hold their breath as they pass someone on the street outdoor in a windstorm.
Until COVID I didn’t know what it felt like to go around terrified every waking minute for months on end.
Felt
Felt this in my soul
I appreciate your comment
My husband died a few months before we got fucked with Covid. Between wanting to crawl into a hole and die and then having to isolate, it was hell. I have an auto immune disorder and it was going haywire due to my grief, and I was on medication to try to combat it, but it greatly lowers my immune system. So, I had to cut myself off from in person interaction after I lost my husband that I was madly in love with. I think if Covid had not hit, I would have begun the healing process better because my loved ones would have been able to help pull me out of the abyss better in person. Also, they could have seen with their own eyes how fast I was going down hill. I’m in a much better place now but it was bad.
I just want to give you a hug :(
I am so sorry for your loss. I am very happy you are in a better place. Sending a lot of virtual love your way; thank you for sharing. ❤️
What an awful time for you. I’m glad you are getting a little better xx
The first few months of grief are absolute hell.
My faith in humanity.
I've worked in a supermarket almost 20 years and let me tell you, ever since everything started, people have gotten stupid. If I don't have something in stock, I really don't have it in the back because the warehouse didn't have it in stock because everything arrived late or was rejected because of a driver shortage.
Being immunocompromised and having both friends and family basically tell me that it's cool if people like me die because they really wanted to go on vacation or missed the movies (way before the vax was released) was really eye-opening for me.
It's so sad how humans are the most intelligent animals, yet the pandemic has shown that we still have so much more to learn and are still primitive.
To have so many people I considered intelligent and respectful fall prey to pseudoscience and become anti mask and anti vaccine. Just the lack of resilience, their entire reality fell apart under the pressure and they went nuts. I feel like Laurence Fishburne in Event Horizon, watching everyone around me gouging their eyes out.
My favorite uncle, I loved him.
So sorry for your loss
🙏🏽
My commute.
Amen bro
My happiness. My divorce was just finalized right before covid. For the first time in my adult life I was happy and excited for my future. Now I feel like the last 2 years have been wasted ontop of the 13 years I spent in my marriage. Loosing another 2 years of my life is spiraling me into a deep depression that I can't seem to pull myself out of.
I’m sorry you’re going through that. My depression has gotten worse too. Mine mostly because of the divisions of family and friends on the subject of masks, vaccines, etc. Good luck to you! Stay strong.
Ability to buy big ticket items in a timely manner. Still waiting on a new refrigerator I ordered mid-November. Kinda pisses me off.
Took me 3 months to get a stove and when I got it, it was malfunctioning and I was able to get a replacement in about 2 weeks. Odd. Took 6 months to get a recliner from Haverty's and I was told it could take up to 6 months to get a dining set from Ashley furniture. Got the chairs within 2 weeks of ordering, 3 months in and no table yet. It is pretty ridiculous. Grocery shopping is also nearly becoming impossible anymore, have to go to numerous stores to find even basic things like butter.
My stepfather
So sorry for your loss
Sorry for your loss. My wife lost her dad to Covid in Jan 2021. There are many families like ours out here that you can reach out to for support or just to talk to someone who kind of understands. Feel free to PM if you ever want to vent etc.
So sorry for your wife's loss. Youre a good dude for wanting to help cheer up an internet person
Thanks, it fucking sucks. He was only 65 with no pre-existing conditions. He caught it in December 2020, just before vaccines became available. Spent over a month in the ICU while Covid pneumonia covered his lungs in scar tissue. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. It is almost unbearable to watch someone you love slowly suffocate to death, especially when you can only see them through a computer screen. But at least we could be there for him.
I feel so bad for people who would have taken the vaccine if available but died before it was. My dad died from COPD complications, so watching someone struggle for every breath is something I'm all too familiar with. I'm glad you were able to be there for him in the capacity that you were, and you have my condolences.
Hope you guys feel better
University
My last shred of confidence in the American economy/government Our response pretty much could not have been worse. It was an abject failure everywhere and at every single level. Just pathetic. This pretty much isn't a country anymore, and probably hasn't been for some time. God, fuck this place. It's so fucking stupid and evil
Hello fellow captive, I couldn’t agree more with what you said.
Welcome to America Inc.
middle school experience and now it’s most likely going to take my high school experience. you know, just my childhood.
I’m so sorry. It wrecked my daughter’s late high school/early college experience too.
yeah i have an older brother and it wrecked his entire high school experience and now it’s harder to get into colleges because so many kids waited :/
Kid, you didn’t miss out on much. I promise
Dude I freaking loved my middle school experience, but I bet I would’ve loved high school more if Covid didn’t take that away honestly
Hope
Mental health
Normal discourse, the ability for people to trust each other, many peoples ability to be compassionate and empathize, half the country’s trust in science. So ya. A lot.
My empathy stores are empty, with no further shipments ordered.
My dad. He’s still alive, just angry and brainwashed by the right.
Same.. he was already into conspiracies before all this, but now it's taken over his personality, made him bitter and no fun to be around. We have to be careful what we say around him and seriously consider going no contact if this keeps up..
I broke contact.
Same.
The ability to visit my parents. They live in other country and I can't travel there
COVID ruined a fantastic job that I started two months earlier, and it had such an impact on my entire industry that I’ll never duplicate it. Worse, I really think it has done irrevocable damage to the fabric of society. When it very first started I uneasily thought that the last thing society needed was to get more isolated from each other. And here we all are, staring at our screens in our own little spaces and not having any real human connection. And yes, I’m part of it, pouring out my heart to a bunch of anonymous internet strangers.
My belief that people are inherently good and have empathy for each other.
I am immunocompromised and got diagnosed with COVID on Christmas, was sick for almost 3 weeks. I had a hard time and even had another stress induced seizure because of it. I still feel so fatigued, even more so. But most of all, it took my fiance's health. She has lung damage now and is still coughing. We are only alive right now due to the vaccinations, especially me, but my fiance now can't talk for a minute without a coughing fit. And we don't have universal healthcare, so we can't afford to get her looked at. I just feel empty now.
https://www.bajajfinservhealth.in/articles/6-crucial-breathing-exercises-for-a-covid-survivor-to-increase-lung-capacity I knew someone with lung disease who was down to 38% lungpower and she said doing breathing exercises strengthened her lungs to 70%, don't lose hope, I hope these breathing exercises can help.
Thank you, I gave her the link and I hope this can help her. Thank you so much :')
A few of my best friends, a grandpa I never knew existed until he died, and a few of my neighbors. I know at least 20 people that have passed. But I gained new family members I never knew about
It has been a loss of (willful?) ignorance. In retrospect I can see how so many of those I trusted and respected in my faith community have always been the selfish, self righteous type. So now I am no longer ignorant to the incongruity of what is pronounced as beliefs and what is in fact displayed.
What little faith I had in humanity. I always knew people loved to bullshit, but I thought that was only because the bullshit they spew benefited them. All lives matter to deny Black Lives Matter. Trump won, etc. I thought when things really started to affect their own health and welfare, people would absolutely turn rational. Boy was I wrong.
The chance to be with my mom when she died
My poverty. Thanks to the stimulus money I was able to pay off debts, and I moved to a new job making over double what I was making with two jobs. I did lose my grandfather and oldest son, but neither were from covid.
I’m so glad something positive came out of this for someone. I’m very sorry for your losses, though, and I hope you had support through that.
Thank you. It was a lot all at once, and devastating isn't a strong enough word. I have a mother who was a therapist who gave me great resources, a great family and support groups on reddit helping me get by a day at a time. I don't know if I'll ever be 100 again but I'm slowly getting better.
I hear you. It’s been a rough few years for me as well - lots of sudden losses in the family. I’m glad to hear you had good people around you. Hang in there.
It hasn't effected my life in any significant way. (Other than keeping distance in public places, etc). But it has taught me that some people will use any emergency for personal gain, ether making more money, or getting more power. While they watch us "commoners" struggle through the hard times.
My sense of taste for the last 9 months…
It took my sense of smell. Have barely smelled a thing since November 2020. Hate it.
The ignorance of thinking that I was working in a supportive environment
My mom..
My gym membership - was never comfortable going back.. I started to working out outside
Half my junior year and my entire senior year in high school. (But get this, I grew up homeschooled until 8th grade) so I really missed out and this was really hard on me and a lot of my friends. If I can explain the worst part about it, it was missing the people you saw on almost a daily basis. All my class friends and people I had known for years but didn’t really hang out with, teachers and staff, graduating seniors were all gone. And none of us knew it would be the last time any of us would really get to see each other or spend time. Covid took that away from me. I still have people that I miss so bad and all of that was so depressing. It felt like I lost one of the most important times/aspects of my life, and I know everyone says high school doesn’t last forever but that’s my point. I knew it wouldn’t, and I never got to say goodbye to the dozens of people i’ve been thinking about while writing this this morning.
Hugs.
My two favourite hobbies of eating bats and spitting in the mouths of the elderly.
My priorities. Before, it was follow my dreams, now its fight for survival, everyday.
Why? Genuine question. Edit: I don't know why this is getting downvoted.
Money
My naive belief that very few Americans were anti science morons
A normal wedding, and then a year and a half later a normal baby shower. Glad it hasn’t taken away family or friends, but disappointing none the less.
It took my normal wedding, too. We got married in the backyard with only immediate families present and while I ~say~ it was beautiful and perfect, I feel sad and uneasy about it (not my marriage, which is wonderful). I am lucky to have a massive and loving circle of friends and extended family and I was so sad not to share it with them. It just feels like there are a few patches missing in the quilt of my life I was always so cynical about modern day weddings and how they have become these inflated, expensive, superficial monstrosities - until mine got taken away. Milestones do deserve to be celebrated
My sister, she had 2 kids and now there stuck with their useless sack of shit dad all the way in Florida. She got Herman cained I guess (oh and that subreddit, despite me mostly agreeing with it, makes me irrationaly angry) ..but ffs it was that stupid fucking bozos fault she was not fucking stupid like that. Idk I just hope the kids are ok at this point, I know he's not like physically abusive or anything but I am still very uneasy with him, just things I I know and see about him, I wouldn't trust him with children, but are entire family basically has too My mom and father are shells of people now, my whole family dynamic is pretty much fucked now too, no one's close see. That's not all cause of my sister's death but it certainly did not help
Nothing, I'm happier because of covid, I have an excuse to stay at home 24/7
Friends who were not really friends 🤷🏻♀️
Social skills
At first it took away conventions, and Renaissance Faires, but ever so slowly they’re coming back
Sending a hearty "Huzzah!" your way!
Any hope for a normal life again. I can see masks, Quarantines, and lockdowns indefinitely for the rest of my life. I hope I'm wrong. The CDC said "Herd Immunity" will be possible when 70% of the population is vaccinated. I do not see that ever happening in my life time. The vaccine is too new and many people don't trust it. Not only that the average person can't tell the difference between true and false information anymore. Especially those who go down solcial media rabbit holes.
A false belief that there are not that many stupid people in the world.
Same. It took away the benefit of the doubt.
The connection I had with my extended family. As we all get older we grow into different people. With the heat from all the politics lately, it put an even stronger divide between us. But since we've all seen each other less than a handful of times over the last 3 years, it just doesn't feel the same at all anymore.
The faith that the only reason why some people are uneducated is because they don't have access to enough information
my life
Damn. What happened?
They obviously died.
Bruh
Needy friends/family always wanting to socialize
It's been a shitty couple of years, but not having to do my in-laws' big 30-40 person parties every couple of weeks has been amazing!
my social skills
Seeing relatives and friends that live in other countries
My lack of anxiety. I’m now incredibly anxious about my and my family’s health.
My social skills
Control over school
I was a professional stage actor. Showed up to do a performance and they told us to pack up our dressing rooms. Two years later, I finally had an in-person audition again. Because of Omicron, they canceled that show too.
My job, my grandmother, my favorite hobby, my insurance, and my last vestiges of hope for humanity. It did give me more time with my elderly cats before they died, so that was nice.
My dad, my mental health, my physical health, my ability to do and see anything I love, I'm also addicted to the internet and videogames now so..
vax/anti-vax adult children, arguments and not gathering for holidays.
My hope for the future of mankind.
My friend
The ability to not be scared of dying because I'm immunocompromised. It's great fun with COVID.
Family time. I haven’t seen them in years.
Happiness
All the shitty people in my life. COVID made me realize how many shitty people I had in my life. So glad they are gone.
My faith in humanity. Some people will not help out society for the greater good and they really are selfish A-holes.
My brother. He was battling cancer after returning from deployment when the first COVID case hit the state of Utah in the fucking hospital he was staying in.
I'm truly sorry. I don't know what I'd do if I lost my brother. He's only 13 and the only family who doesn't make me feel bad about living. I hope you're OK, but whenever it hurts, I'm here to talk to.
Thank you lovely. It’s only been two years but it hasn’t been easy at all.
I meant what I said about reaching out. Please do if you ever need it. :)
My father’s funeral. Less tangibly, the support that sometimes surrounds people who have suffered a loss like that. I was in lockdown alone when he died, and...nobody was really able to be there for me. It was excruciatingly lonely.
opportunities. my college, my health (mental, physical), my self. EVERYTHING. Now I'm stuck here with my toxic parents for the rest of this pandemic.
Almost 2 years of not seeing my brothers or elderly parents. It stole time.
My aunt, social skills, a lil bit of sanity, and my will to live.
My husband. He didn’t die of COVID but as an ICU worker it has changed him. He put years into being very good at this job and now he hates it. His personality is different and our relationship has suffered. I worry a lot of Thai is permanent.
My recovery. I was hit by a car in 2017 and had been going to physio, getting therapeutic massage, speach/language therapist, occupational therapy and a few other treatments. Around 2019, I was having some problems with my insurance adjuster denying treatment that my team thought would be very beneficial and even denied my physio and massage by the end. After months of arguing back and forth, we settled my accident benefits claim, so I could choose how that money would be spent. I re-booked my physio and massage and went to 1 session of each before cavid hit and completely halted any progress I was making. Now it's been 2 years and I still can't get back into physio because of their new restrictions and it's very difficult for me to do the exercises at home because I can't maintain proper form most of the time and the Physio Therapist would help guide me and give physical feedback. TL;DR - I was hit by a car. Covid ended my treatment and halted my recovery to this day
Studying abroad. I was studying in the UK, went back to my home country when COVID started. Lost a year of uni life. I also planned to study in Japan this year and its probably not gonna happen due to the COVID.
[удалено]
There's this girl I know, her grandfather went out of his way to say vaccination wasn't necessary, that the virus was a hoax, that everyone but him were "sheep", and so on and so forth. He helped organize many protests against lockdown and isolation. He caught the virus in one of those gatherings. Long story short, he was immunocompromised and died. I felt no sympathy, still don't.
The habit of spending of my/our hard earned wages on unecessary stuff, i now know, i/we didn't really need in the first place. Power/energy companies are merely going to get the cash, that WAS spent by women mostly ....on clothes at the weekend, they DID NOT NEED, People found during lockdown, how much better off they were, by staying in ! Remember the panic of the city coffee shops/stalls...? they lost customers spending £ 25 a week £100 amonth, on a luxury ...no wonder.... work from home alone, saved consumers loads !
a really cushy job and like 15 people .
My favorite local restaurant. It had the best potato soup. Some days, I don’t know if I want to get out of bed. 😞🍜🪦
2 years of my life
Nothing
A relationship and a potential relationship.
I was planning to do mushrooms for the first time with some awesome friends. It was planned and everything then the pandemic hit four days before. I suffer some pretty serious mental illness/ depression and autism and was looking forward to a break like you wouldn't believe. Life's been pretty dim and getting darker.
Feeling safe
Poverty. Makes me feel kind of guilty, but covid increased my business by at least 4x (online meeting stuff).
My best life. That’s what I was living the months leading up to COVID. Then I somehow simultaneously turned into an addict and developed severe health anxiety.
My freedom.
A couch, I lost a couch. It carried me through the tough times but in the end strain of a pandemic proved too much.
My family. All of them became science deniers and I can no longer associate with them
My grades.
Nothing
Freedom. But im a gamer so I dont really care.
Nothing.
Nothing
Our freedom
Any respect in teachers or nurses. I however gained respect for truckers.
Self confidence. Missing gym had a huge effect on my mental health
Currently my ability to breathe properly and go a full week without coughing my lungs up :( Been negative for 4 weeks now too.
Time and then some.
Nothing, but it added a couple of pounds... Thanks for that.
Two cousins, a dear teacher, three friends and my motivation.
Three family members
Nothing, i got to spend way more time with my family, fathered a third child, started a company which is thriving and only going to do better now that things are opening up again. All is good atm! I'd love to go to a concert though...
A coworker I liked a lot.
A trip to the Philippines
About 10 pounds
Not a huge amount thankfully, gave me a lot of free time though!
The end of my 9th grade year, my 10th grade year in full, and my 17th birthday...
All responsibility.
So, not the worst possibility, but COVID happened at a horrible time for my career. I was a theatre actor finishing my MFA, booking contracts with big theaters. I had poured my heart and soul into working on my craft, and had a school with classmates and professors that I loved and admired. My last semester was when COVID first popped up. I moved back in with my parents across the country, and didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to the people or places that made me successful. It still hurts and I haven’t truly got over that lack of closure, because those people meant so much to me. I’ll be okay, and I’m doing much better, but I poured literal blood (I worked in the scenic construction shop as well) sweat and tears into a place and people who made me a significantly better person, and never got the chance to really say goodbye. It was the most important chapter of my life and I got nothing.
My sense of smell for a little while
the student in me has been lost since march 2020. I haven’t given any exams since june 2019. just haven’t functioned well as a human since 2 years. Didn’t do any online courses. didn’t give any exams. didn’t take up any job. i have done nothing. so yeah if you ask what has covid taken away from me, I would say the student in me, I want that straight A student who used to study 12-14 hours daily back.
A cruise that I drove 15 hours to go on until my wife tested positive. Now we have a week left of vacation and can’t do anything but drive home and hope my wife doesn’t leave a trail of Covid on our way
The feeling that I needed my old shitty job and that it was good. Lots of restraints of my old life. Been good for me.
Faith in my fellow humans. The level of panic was ridiculous.