“It was like coming up for air too fast”: I thought I was fine in lockdown. Then we came out of it.

I thought I was killing it in lockdown (mentally). I was diagnosed with depression earlier this year so went into it aware of my triggers and had my safety nets in place: I was seeing a psychologist regularly (which became via Zoom), my antidepressant medication had found its rhythm, I was exercising.

I’m a freelance worker and so I can be flexible. My husband is on Zoom calls 10 hours a day and is not. I freely took on the mental and physical load of the home learning and all the needs of the family.

We developed our new locked down routine which involved being at various skate parks most of the day in between some hair-pulling worthy home learning with my nine and six-year-old.