She knows that the restrictions have to go but that doesn't take away the worry. She doesn't have to use public transport and I do all of the shopping so that takes those risks away. Her biggest worry is being asked to go back to work. It is in an open plan office with a young(ish) workforce, using shared equipment for different shifts, in an area that has been a hotspot throughout the pandemic and is currently having a low uptake of the vaccine. On top of that she sees almost daily messages reminding people not to go into work if they have any symptoms.
We've had the conversation and if she is forced to return to work then the likelihood will be that she'll have to hand in her notice.
Thanks for that. It must be an incredibly stressful time and I hope that she isn't forced to return to work.
I've personally found lockdown easy, I'm relatively young, quite healthy and have got a really good employer who sent us home as soon as the pandemic hit and I've not been back to the office since.
I do however have an autistic teenage son, he doesn't live with me full time but comes and stays on weekends. He was in Year 8 when the pandemic started. He has one friend but doesn't really have a social life like a normal teenager would, he's got no interest in social media or anything like that. Before he started secondary school I was terrified about how he'd be treated, just through remembering from when I was at school how horrible teenagers can be to people who are different. I was really relieved that he adapted quite well and he was taking it in his stride, doing well and seemed happy.
Then obviously the pandemic hit, he was loving it to begin with being off school. As I said he's not really got any friends, not on social media etc but likes playing computer games. Also he loves going to the cinema when he comes to me on the weekends. Whenever it was the six weeks holidays, he'd change a bit, get really tired because his mom let him stay up too late and he had no routine. Within a week of him being back, he'd be back to normal.
So as the last year and half has gone on, he's become more and more withdrawn, he's borderline catotonic at times now. It's been devastating to see what's happened to him and I've felt completely helpless. I actually feel sick with worry when I think about him and the long term affect its going to have on him. We've started to go out and about a bit now, but he's not the same, something has shifted in him. He uses his mask as a coping mechanism and would wear constantly, even at home if he could. His confidence is non existent now, before the pandemic he'd quite happily order food in a restaurant. He can't even look at a waiter or waitress now when they bring food. It's not just that he can't do it, he'll then withdraw inside himself for hours, as if he's ashamed of himself. If you ask him what's wrong he'll just say nothing and that's literally all you can get out of him. He won't talk to anyone about how he feels.
It's been absolutely horrendous to watch him deteriorate like he has. We're in the process of trying to get some professional help but the services are overwhelmed with this type of thing apparently so the wait times are massive.
I don't think he'll ever fully get over it to be honest. Personally I don't think the cost to people like my son and alot of other people like him has really been taken into account with these lockdowns. Obviously everyone's take on it is different based on the people they know and their own circumstances, just thought I'd share my experience.
