HACKER Q&A
📣 EdwinLarkin

Are we ready to take our lives back?


I am privileged enough to work from home. I have isolated for a year now, wearing masks and not meeting anyone.

My day consists of making a coffee, joining the morning stand up call at 7:30 and then grinding through the day until it’s 17:00. I leave the apartment to buy couple of beers not enough to get me wasted but enough to get me numb.

This repeats every single day. I cant get rest. At all. I am a prisoner in my apartment.Every little noise makes me realize that there is no way I can rest at home.

I have not met my parents for a year now. They say I should.That this pandemic is fake and they are not scared.

They do know this pandemic is real but dont care anymore. Staying at home all day and not meeting with anyone is not life worth living.

I had been tested for covid 20 times already. Some cheap AGs some expensive PCRs. I had to do it because the government said I had to. I never had any symptoms. Never met with anyone at all.For some tests I had to pay myself.I can still afford it. Still. But for how long?

I keep hearing how we just have to wait a little longer. How a bunch of private corporations will make this go away.

Unless maybe it wont go away because there is a new strain because we have waited too long to roll out the vaccines.

I am ready to take my life back. No matter what happens next I am not, nor my parents are,going to live like this.

Whatever it takes I am taking my life back.

  👤 gamechangr Accepted Answer ✓
Just go meet your parents. Don't live under that tension. I know 50 people who had Covid (yes someone out there will say their situation was bad - but the vast majority of those with Covid it was not bad) - but most said it was like the flu and they were tired for 2 weeks.

My advice would be quit testing yourself and get out there. I have been eating at restaurants all year with friends. we go 2x a week. None of us have been sick. That's a lot of exposure - if one thought that restaurants were a risk.

Go see your friends and live your life. Sure - wear a mask and wash your hands and be respectful of those who are fearful or at risk (like elderly) but go out. You will be fine.

It sounds like you are measuring the risk of not going out of your apartment. That's hard to quantify but certainly should not be minimized.

👤 auslegung
I’m sorry this is difficult for you, and (for better or worse) you aren’t alone. I have a family (wife, mum, kids) and live in Florida, USA which hasn’t shut down much at all, and this has been difficult for us, I can’t imagine being in your situation. Well maybe I can, it would likely involve a lot more alcohol.

Without knowing your local restrictions, do everything you’re allowed to, safely. If you can create a COVID bubble, or just hang out outdoors in some manner with others, that would help me in your situation.

Have you considered moving to one of the tropical islands that’s advertising itself as a good place to hide out during this time? That might be a desperate move but if you’re desperate maybe it’s the right thing to do.

I don’t know your solution but I do know this is difficult, and it sucks.

👤 neom
While I personally believe this is an incredibly self-centered perspective, I also don't deny you're more than welcome to be selfish and act upon that sense of self. The "I".

Curious however: how one intends to take one's life back when most other people are staying home and, at least where I live, nothing is open....

👤 BoorishBears
It sounds to me like you should see a mental health services provider.

And I'm not saying that as a backhanded insult.

👤 Gibbon1
What I'm seeing right now is all my and my friends older parents have been vaccinated over the last two weeks. You should focus on making sure your parents get the vaccine as soon as they can.