Near the middle of March 2020, the spread of Covid-19 was becoming a much bigger concern, prompting schools and everyday life to close for 2 weeks. Or so as it seemed. Covid-19 throughout the year became more deadly and spread like wildfire across the globe. It made everyday life for everyone extremely difficult and we had to adapt to a.new way of life. Seeing my everyday life change really did affect my mental health as I had distractors from reminding me of my depression and anxiety I had.

Because of being unable to go outside and see family and friends face to face, I had to otp towards video calling. Although it was nice for awhile, I became desperate to go outside and do some activities and not be cooped up in my room the entire day. I spent majority of my time in my room, ocassionally leaving to get food or do errands. This proved to be disastrous as my mental health slowly started detoritating, prompting attitude changes and longer sleeping times. Seeing how my mood was constantly changing, my mom made me an appointment to see my doctor where I unforuntaely tested positive for depression.

I tried to combat depression by distracting myself with music or finding new hobbies. Music did prove very useless as I read meaningful lyrics that captured the emotions I was feeling, making me feel understood and heard. Developing new hobbies made me get out of my shell and have some form of stimuluation I would had if Covid-19 wasn’t so deadly at the time. I became invested in thrifting and designing. It became one of the fields that I might want to major in for college. My room was constantly revamped for my sake. I saw that redesigning my room every couple of months helped make the atmosphere of my room more welcoming and different.

Although I had distractors, it is very benefical to talk to someone about your problems. Venting to a therapist in my opinion may seem strained as you tend to hold back emotions and feelings. Talking to a close family member or friend can help you release all the pent up emotions you have. My mom really helped me getting rid of depression as talking to her daily about my problems assisted me in normalizing being emotionally weak and crying every once in awhile is normal.

Overall, mental health during Covid-19 was big struggle. I realized that sometimes mental health needs to be the #1 priority in order for me to do my best in school and everyday life. Having a mental break every so often has helped me in grades, relationships, and brought more optisism in my life.