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Has Covid cause your depression to get worse?

I was in a bad depression since before Covid hit, my medications have been adjusted and readjusted since January and are still being changed and adjusted. Nothing seems to be helping. I have no motivation to do things I normally would enjoy, I just play video games all day. Since Covid hit, my depression has only gotten worse. I am isolated in my home, alone, as I have a compromised immune system with diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure. When I do go out to get groceries I am hyperaware of everyone around me. Are they wearing a mask, are they wearing it properly, are they using their sleeve to cough into even though they are wearing a mask?  My anxiety is very high when I need to go out and I'm a nervous wreck by the time I get home. I just don't know how to dig myself out of this and it is getting worse as positive Covid numbers are rising every day, even more now than when it started.
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973741 tn?1342342773
We are getting ready to lock down more here.  We've got a curfew now and our school is closed for a couple of days.  I handle it, it seems, by making food for my family.  lol  Whew, I'm like plotting what to get and where and when, making it and cleaning it up like 24/7.  But my son is depressed during all of this.  So, I hope we don't fully lock down.  I don't want to add to his depression by isolating him any more.  His mental health is just too fragile. He definitely needs the connection of being in school.

Hopefully, stormpower, you can change that living location sooner rather than later.  And being alone is far better than being with a bad man!  

I agree that there are online things to do right now, sweetie.  It's hard though and I'm sorry you are feeling so alone.  hugs
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If covid ever does end, I recommend looking for a group house.  I lived in them for many years, and they're like having a family without having a family.  And you'd have a house.  You do have to share everything, but it works.  
20879826 tn?1560494038
Hi dear, it has for me too.  Yes I think it is the fear and the isolation.  Do you have hobbies?  I suppose being active helps a lot too.  I putter around the kitchen a lot.  I also do a little bit of gardening.  And physical exercises - even just simple calisthenics or something.
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Yes, I am very isolated, I am now totally on my own for the first time, I have always been in relationships with men who were abusive, I left the last one just this past September. I no longer have daily contact, my phone doesn't ring anymore. It is very lonely being alone, but there is also a sense of freedom because for the first time in my 53 years, I have total control of what I do, there is no one telling me I can or can't do this. I had hobbies, I used to love reading and adult coloring, I have not been able to pick up a book or enjoy my coloring like I did before, I guess it has been more than a year now. I don't get much exercise, I live in a rooming house, so all I have is a room, not even big enough to fit in a proper bed to sleep in at night. I sleep in my chair. I don't go outside my room much because I am the only woman living here and all the men are alcohol and drug users which I am not either of these which is even more isolating for me. I get out to get some groceries once a week as we are in a lockdown again.
Sounds tough, to me. Why not develop some computer-based hobbies? There are (free) games and also topic-based chatrooms, they can be a bit habit-forming but also very cheering. I'd also be on the lookout for a better place, even if it's just another rooming house it doesn't have to be full of drunks and addicts. Where I live there are some women's services groups, maybe if you contact someone like that in your area and explain your undesirable living situation, you can find some assistance in getting a place where at least you have enough room for a proper bed and aren't at risk of being hassled all the time by men who are somewhat out of control.
Avatar universal
Yeah, it has for me too, but I'm not sure for the same reasons.  I guess we all have our own reaction to things.  I was pretty isolated before covid due to getting injured in too many places, so I'm not sure covid altered that for me.  I sleep in the day, or try to, and so I'm not really up when others are anyway.  But I do have a wife, sort of, as we don't spend a lot of time together and we are quite different.  It's what happens when you marry later in life, I think, you do it for different reasons than young people do.  But for me, I think the real downer is what covid has shown us about ourselves and our gov't.  If you grew up idealistic, this is a bad time to be alive.  I get you on the mask thing, but I don't think I look so closely, I just can't believe Americans are so self-centered that so many of them can't bear wearing one even if it means helping others.  So that's where it has increased my depression, it is the revelation of how Americans really seem to be.  It didn't turn out how I thought it would coming from where I came from and when I grew up.  I would say, do you go out and exercise?  Work in the yard?  Are you able to do that?  Because outdoors you can time your exercise to where you don't have to wear a mask and social distancing is easy, such as not going out until it's dark out or going to big parks where there's lots of space and it's pretty.  It gives a little bit of normalcy to everything.  But I don't think most people are happy right now.  It's something we have to get through, not something we want to be doing.  I don't have an answer for you or for me other than to suggest finding things to do that do feel kind of normal.  As for your isolation, if I recall you recently freed yourself from a really bad relationship but you're now in covid and that makes it hard to find another.  As Americans, we have had a pretty easy life in general for a long time now, but for many people life has never been easy and throughout history life has always been hard.  At some point in all our lives, there will be very very hard times.  This is one of them.  It's no fun having to live through one of these periods, but they do eventually either go away or people get used to them and a new normal.  Time is your ally.  In the meantime, learn all you can from the internet, such as meditation or new forms of exercise and the like.  This is easy to say, and it isn't how I'm living, but there was a time when I would have.  Maybe you can as well.  And know that medication seldom makes it all go away.  At best it just makes it more tolerable for most of us.  Some get tremendous results, but most of us don't, so we have to keep trying therapy to get over it.  This is also something you can do online.  Just keep telling yourself time tends to fix a lot of things if you can just get past the present.  Peace.
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Thankyou for your response Paxiled,  I only go outside if I have to go somewhere. I do not live in a safe area and when I moved in, I didn't know this area but it is known as the worst crime street in my city. I am looking into finding better housing, filling out applications for subsidized housing. I am in therapy but it is online with my therapist who I had started seeing back in November last year. My doctor's appointments are by phone unless I really need to go in to see my GP. I wish medications would make all the depression go away, then that is not thinking realistically. I have 3 scheduled phone appointments a week with a Social worker who is working with me but he is not my social worker personally and he has been helping me try to sort things out in my mind and he gets me through my meltdowns. He is the best support I have ever had, but it seems I am always struggling with something. I know Covid is new to everyone around the world and the people who are living through it, well, this is the first world pandemic the majority of us have experienced and I know everyone is struggling through it. Some are just dealing with it better than others. They say time heals all wounds, this is so not true, we learn to live with them and cope in our daily life and I am still learning these skills. Peace back to you.
I still highly recommend getting outdoors.  High crime neighborhoods obviously present challenges, I've lived in them, but the people who live in them do not stay cooped up at home.  As I said, you can go to large park areas where it's pretty and exercise there and you'll be around others without having to be close to them.  You can see animals.  You can watch birds.  You can see dogs.  It's a way of feeling like you're around people without actually being with them.  All the best to you.
Yes, that sounds like a good idea, to go to a park.  I have never thought about enjoying it in the way you described, watching all the animals and the beauty of nature. This is something I will give a try, although with snow just around the corner will be more challenging. Thank you
Snow is beautiful.  It's fun.  If you're exercising, you warm up quickly.  And dogs love snow, so people will be out with their dogs and you can watch them from a distance.  When it's in a park, you don't have to shovel it, either.  Peace.
I am leery of snow and ice as a fall last year had me in an ankle boot for 1 1/2 months and the year before last year was 3 falls on my back from slipping  and I really wrecked my back, still take pain killers for it. I know snow is beautiful and I Love winter, I just don't want to slip and fall again, I'm only 53 years old but feel like I have a 80 year old body.
There is a way to deal with that.  It fits around your shoes, and it's basically just made of springs.  I used to use them for running and long walking when we still have normal winter, you know, before climate change made winter kind of extended fall or early spring.  Peace.
I have a pair of these, I have just been afraid to try them, I don't know if I can trust that they will work
They worked great for me, but to try them out, just wrap them on the bottom of your sneakers and try them out in front of your home and see how they do.  They do tend to break but they're cheap.  A lot easier than learning how to walk on snow shoes or learn how to cross country ski, though those are great exercise as well.  
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