Dr Kristopher Lovell

13 September
I thought I would get used to working from home but I haven’t. I haven’t heard the words “new normal” for a long time either, which I imagine is because most people seem to have decided to just go back to behaving how they did before. Crowds in streets, shops and bars, parties with grandparents and extended family, kids back to school…

And yet mental health is at an all time low for a lot of people. Anxiety is spiking, depression is deepening, and even some of those who are throwing caution (and social distancing) to the wind are in turmoil about the uncertainty of the future.

Seeing local lockdowns seeming to creep around the country, slowly spreading outwards is fuelling those fears. Like I said, I haven’t got used to working from home. I hate it. The loneliness and the lack of support from colleagues, the mounting pressure and stress of supporting mental health for people who have lost their support networks, who relied on routine and structure and don’t have it… and the prospect of further lockdown here really makes me feel cold inside.

Not that I want things to return to “normal” as it was. This is an opportunity to change, and grow. To build local networks and communities, and to change the way we work and live. It just doesn’t feel like we’re moving that way. Half of us are sitting static, unsure of what to do, whilst the other half drag us back (seemingly to the 1950s in some cases…)

This is what it is to live through history.