I’m struggling with lock down and home schooling

[Clare23]

I have had depression and anxiety on and off for most of my life. I speak with a psychologist weekly, take anti-depressants. Before Corona, I had been doing pretty well. I had a lot of things that I enjoyed or was looking forward to in life.

Now I’m so depressed again. I’m not coping with home schooling or even just having the kids at home. I miss all the things I used to enjoy, like meeting up with friends, going out for dinner, going to the shops. My kids are given so much work and my son fights doing home school. I have no time or mental energy to do anything else in the house.
My husband is helping as much as he can with the home school at the moment. A huge point of contention between us is that he wants us to continue lockdown until there is a vaccine or cure for covid 19. Things are meant to be opening back up a bit to see friends and family. He said we can see our parents only because we can trust they are careful outside. He doesn’t want me to meet with friends or let our kids see their friends. He doesn’t want the kids to go back to school while covid19 is still around. I just feel so hopeless. I just want some normalcy back.

[Sophie_M]

Hey Clare23, welcome to the Beyond Blue forums. We're really glad you've chosen to reach out tonight, it's not always an easy thing to do. 

Its sounds like your home life is quite stressful at the moment. We can imagine it would be really overwhelming to take on all these new responsibilities to home school your kids. It also sounds like you don't have much time to yourself and even if you did you can't do the things you enjoy. We understand this must be really difficult and would leave you exhausted and upset. 

If you feel up to it, we'd recommend reaching out to our Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service. The website will be regularly updated with information, advice and strategies to help you manage your wellbeing and mental health during this time. You can also call our dedicated support line, staffed by mental health professionals, which is available 24/7 on 1800 512 348.

Many of our members have felt similar and will be able to talk through these feelings with you.  If you would like to post further, please tell us more about what's on your mind and how we can best help you get through this tough period.

 

[uncut_gems]

Hi Clare,

Welcome to the forum! I'm so sorry to hear that you're dealing with all this, but grateful that you found the forums and were willing to share a bit. You're definitely in the right place.

It's no surprise that Covid-19 has knocked you back a bit– it is a radical change to our daily lives, and in all honesty may be the defining event of the foreseeable future. It's so great that you are set up with a psychologist and meds, that really puts you head and shoulders above many people similarly struggling. Have you been able to bring up any of these concerns with your psychologist?

In the meantime, try if you can to go easy on yourself. You're asked to be a wife, a mother, and now a teacher all at once under extraordinary circumstances. Of course you need your social and personal time to rejuvenate. I think what your husband is saying is coming from a very understandable place of fear and care for his loved ones. Given all the conflicting information and how new this all is, I think it's reasonable to think the way your husband does, but not actionable in trying to lead a good life.

Every day we are learning more about how the virus spreads and works, and with that will come newer and and more accurate guidelines about which freedoms we can start introducing into our lives. If you don't think your husband is up for a reasonable discussion about all this yet, just talking about it with your therapist is a great way to start.

Would love to hear more about how you go in the coming days and weeks as we all figure this out together!

Warmly,
Gems

[SapereAude]

Hi Clare,

Thanks for reaching out and telling your story. It's really brave and not easy to do.

Mother, wife and home-school teacher definitely ensure your life is busy. Well done on your psychologist appointments. It is totally reasonable for not only your husband to be stressed but also yourself in these uncertain times. Your kids also are probably finding it tough. These challenging times are difficult but we can all work together to get through them.

My personal view is that we won't be rushing out to see all our friends and family. Just our parents/grandparents for the moment. Hopefully if things don't worsen again, we can extend that to other family and friends and start taking the kids out shopping etc. Presently though we will air on the side of caution. I can understand the frustration though as being homebound isn't for everyone.

I hope you find this site useful.

Take care.