In this piece Karen talks about the struggle that people experiencing homelessness, addiction and mental health issues have faced during the pandemic and pleads with us to all start living again. 

 

Am I’m ready to start living  and get out there and start doing stuff? Oh yeah, of course I am.  It’s long overdue. It really is. And I think it’s affected us all differently. You know, I feel that I’ve been quite lucky through the last two years. I don’t live on my own and I care for my dad so I can go down to my dad’s a couple of times a week and stay over. So I’ve had a bit of variety.  

But I know it’s not been like that for for everyone. You know, I have a lot of friends that that have really struggled with the mental health, as you know that. You know, I’m in recovery, I’m an alcoholic. And it’s been tough, it’s been tough on a lot of people, you know. A couple of my friends have relapsed.

Some we’ve just never seen again, we don’t even know where they are. We had two funerals only a few weeks ago in one week. And another friend of mine who was many, many years sober and she had good recovery as well, you know, she picked a drink up in lockdown. It’s really shocking, really, really shocked me.  

I’ve got a friend, that’s a social worker, and she was saying that domestic violence has gone through the roof. Child abuse as well, there’s just so many things that you know, that have happened because, you know, on the back of of this, this virus.  

Do I think that we’ve overreacted? In some ways, yes. You know. I can understand the panic when this virus, you know, started appearing all over the world. I can understand the panic, the powers that be, the scientists and everyone didn’t know the severity of it all and and had to research it and they did.

And, you know, they’ve done a great job, rolled out the vaccine. Most people I know and myself included have been double jabbed and boostered. And I do think, I do think the restrictions should have been lifted a long, long time ago. And I think some of the restrictions have been absolutely pathetic and not made any sense, and I think that’s that’s why the public, you know it’s enraged a lot of us, the stupidity of some of the restrictions.

But, you know, hopefully we’re through it. And I think it’s just time. It’s herd immunity. It’s just time that we we need to go out there and try and get back to some normalcy, whatever that that means.  

But for me, I’ve been in, you know, in active alcoholism from being, you know, in my teens, from being young age. I hung on for a very long time. You know, a functioning alcoholic and then eventually, you know, you lose your grip and it’s just horrendous like any addiction. So I’m I’m really, really ready to to live because most of my life I’ve lived in chaos. I’ve lived in fear. I’ve lived in abusive relationships.  

And you know, some of the things that I’ve been through have been horrendous. And alcohol was my solution, it was my best friend, and all I did was really anesthetise any feeling, any emotion. I haven’t dealt with one single bloody thing in my whole life.  

And then I found recovery and that dealt with me demons. You know, I sort of got rid of some of my fears. I learned to live with with some of the the fears, you know, I was getting to grips with life on life’s terms, and I’d worked really, really hard.

And just when I was really enjoying life bloody Covid arrived, you know, so it put a two year stop on life. And I just want, you know, I can’t make that time up, but I’m ready, I’m just ready to get out there to live, to enjoy myself to to see my friends, to go for meals, to go to the pictures, theatre all that sorts of thing.  

You know, you just don’t know what’s around the corner. And especially what’s what’s going on in other parts of Europe. For me, it’s another massive, massive reason to get out there and to make the most of whatever time and evils have because, you know, none of us know. So, yeah, I’m raring to go.  

I’m just ready to get out there. Herd immunity. It should have been herd immunity for a long, long time. But it is now, you know, and I’m just glad. I’m just glad. And I do feel for the people that, you know, suffering anxiety because of this or a bit stressed out that feel vulnerable. You know, and I’ve got quite a few friends that are going through that, and I try and talk to them about it. I try and listen to them and empathize and and, you know, give a little bit of advice if I can and and all the rest of it.  

And also, you know, we’ve got to think about the economy, that’s not a massive negative impact on the masses. You know, the homeless, the low income. People, you know, people have lost their jobs, a lot of my friends are on benefits like I am that, you know, do so many hours a week.  

They’ve lost that extra liquid that they have. And that’s just so important, you know, has the cost of living is going through the roof? So yeah, it’s it’s time to get the wheels back in motion. And I’m just so glad at the moment I’m healthy enough, I’m in the right mindset and everything to, you know, to to start living my life again. Thanks for listening.