As I write this, we are currently in lockdown in the UK, it’s a lovely sunny day outside but I am staying put in my room.
I don’t want to worry anyone, based on the title of this article. I am fine and in a good place.
When the lockdown started on the 24th of March, I thought to myself I was prepared for it. I am living with my sister and her husband and child, we were stocked up with food, have our streaming services to watch, computer setup to work from home. I felt I had already beaten this lockdown before it even started.
Tough Beginnings
I will admit that I struggled with being in my own company. Even though I have my sister and other family members in the home, they had other priority which was understandable. I didn’t realise how much I enjoy meeting people during the day.
With the postponement of MCM Birmingham and my Birthday in April on the horizon, I felt really down and distant from people. I love celebrating my birthday with people but knowing that all the plans I had for it had to be canceled because of the pandemic. This was such a blow as I was really looking forward to seeing all my friends over these two events.
It got further exasperated with my birthday and my mind playing tricks on me that no one would celebrate my birthday or would forget my birthday.
I don’t think social media helped with seeing so many people’s statues showing them on video calls and yet felt I was left out. I didn’t think I would be affected by FOMO this hard.
But I turned things around
I was delighted to received so many birthday messages both on my personal and social media pages. I was smiling from side to side, all day. Here is a video of all the Instagram stories I collected on my birthday.
I don’t know why I was worried that no one would want to celebrate my birthday with me. Maybe it was my insecurity that was playing on my mind at the time.
Since the lockdown, I’ve started to stream at lunchtimes, to initially seek out other people who needed connection but I found talking to be really nice and helped with my isolation and therapeutic.
I have now evolved the live streams to include other people, making it more of a group chat or interview style stream for people to get involved in.
As for FOMO on video chats, instead of waiting for people to contact me, I decided to contact people first because I might not be the only one waiting to be contacted first. I also decided to transfer that mentality to my live stream and make sure I talk about mental health by inviting people to chat with me if they wanted to.
Like I said at the beginning of this article, I am in a good place now. I am in a good routine, I am currently using my time to do online learning, which includes learning about mental health. I am spending more time scheduling cosplay photos and articles on this website as well as my alternative photography website. Also starting a new project which I can’t wait to share with everyone.
I just want to say that even in the dark days, there are going to be good days to look forward to. Even though we are all in a lockdown, with each day of the lockdown, it’s another day closer to the lockdown being over. We can do this.
Please keep yourself busy, keep to a routine you can manage and take each day or task one step at a time. These are unprecedented times which we will all get through together. If you need to talk to myself or a professional service, here is a list of services you can contact.
- Mind Info Line 0300 123 3393 (Mon – Fri 9am to 5pm)
- Samaritans 116 123 (everyday, 24 hours)
- C.A.L.M. 0808 802 58 58 (everyday 5pm to midnight)
- HOPElinkUK 0800 068 4141
- YoungMinds www.youngminds.org.uk
- Anxiety UK 08444 775 774
- BEAT – eating disorder 0845 634 1414
- Local Services (NHS Choices or NHS 111)
- Student Minds www.studentminds.org.uk
- Boots Domestic Violence
