In this blog, i am going to be talking about how the covid-19 pandemic has affected the confidence of people who are in care but most importantly those who are exiting into independent living. From my own experience during the lockdown, I was lucky as when everything started with the pandemic and use all moving from socialising to being isolated either on our own or with family, I was able to stay in control of my emotions and feelings to a degree, as I had my flat mates around me, and I was having regular contact with friends and family over Zoom and messages, but this was not the same for everyone and the pandemic has most importantly effected everyone in various of different ways.
I can remember when being in lockdown, a lot of my friends who were care experienced as well, they all suffered with the pandemic differently, weather this was with their mental wellbeing, social interaction or even the issues of coping financially, but the one thing that I saw a lot from friends who were both in care and those who were not, was the reality of their confidence both in society and on themselves, being affected.
From my own experience of living through the pandemic and seeing a lot of time with my friends, the main issue of the lockdown was all of us losing our confidence of both our mental health and more presently within some of the population of the UK that has also stretched into the care experienced population, people’s confidence in themselves and self-awareness of the way that they look.
In my opinion, the reality of self-awareness among care leavers and care experienced people more prominently is very importantly, as when comparing care experienced people to our peers, we do not really have the strong support network among us to help us with the issues that can come with when people are feeling that they might not be themselves or hating the way that they look and everything in between.
But how has the lockdown, impacted care experienced people with confidence with who they are and their own personal confidence. From my own time of being in care and now as a care leaver who has gone through the pandemic in higher education, more and more issues have risen since we all got placed into lockdown as everything changed for us and we were isolated with our own thoughts and feelings. When we were not in lockdown, a lot of the time many of us could have used interacting with friends or going to work as something to keep their mind off how they were feeling, but being in isolation, we have been vulnerable to our feelings and emotions having a massive impact on our every day to day lives.
However, this is not the same for everyone, as a lot of know that the pandemic has affected us all in different ways and for many of us it has been affecting us in worse ways then our peers or the rest of the community that we live in. In my own opinion, the reality of the pandemic has impacted on our confidence in many ways and in my own experience it has affected people’s mental health much worse than anything else.
From the pandemic, it is important for all of us to know that if we are ever suffering with a downfall in our mental health or even feeling that your confidence is deteriorating, always reach out to someone close or someone that is easy to get in touch with, as dealing with it alone can and might make you feel worse, so getting some help from someone is better than dealing and suffering in silence.
By Anonymous Care Experienced Blogger
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