In many ways, I’m extremely privileged when it comes to surviving the COVID-19 pandemic—I work remotely, have excellent employer-provided health insurance, and I don’t live with any chronic health conditions. From the time people started staying home and staying safe, I was socializing less, sure, but in many ways, my life was the same: work, read, get a (solo) walk in, cook, bake, write, repeat. One thing that didn’t stay the same, however, was my mental health. Spoiler: It got way worse.
I can’t blame the pandemic entirely, though I think it’s fair to think the overall conditions and stress of pandemic life exacerbated my lifelong anxiety. I’d been in therapy off and on in recent years, and while it helped, it wasn’t quite enough. I sought out a psychiatrist through a virtual health care website (this was actually completely free, thanks again to my insurance) and got a prescription for an antidepressant that works well for both anxiety and depression. I had a lot of dread—I’d read horror stories about how psychiatric medications caused a litany of negative side effects, turned people into zombies, and stomped out creativity. In my case? The prescription gives me a way, way better quality of life.