More than 3.7 million people in England can stop shielding from today, but for comedy and sci-fi writer, Eddie Robson, a whole year of effectively being isolated from the world was life-changing.
The 42-year-old, who has Crohn's disease and asthma, was experiencing issues with anxiety prior to the first Covid-19 lockdown. But his mental health sadly worsened during the initial weeks of the pandemic. So much so, he decided to seek support from his local GP for the first time.
"It did get really bad," he tells VT.
Mental health in lockdown
Eddie, who has been shielding with his wife and two children, found that shielding caused his anxiety to spiral so much that it made every day life a struggle. "The anxiety was generalised and would just latch onto anything and everything," he explains. "It made simple tasks almost impossible, like how to get supermarket shops in.
"I fixated on a dentist appointment for the boys that I had to cancel, and I couldn't stop worrying – 'what if they have some horrible dental problem and it's all my fault?' It was just one thing after another. If I had to do anything outside of what I felt safe doing, I would feel alright in the moment, but then when I'd get home, I'd completely stress out and feel unbearably drained."
For Eddie, who is used to working from home as a writer, this proved to be detrimental to his career. "I just couldn't concentrate on anything else. I'm used to being self-motivated and setting my own work schedule but that self-discipline is a constant challenge to maintain when you have anxiety. It was hard to get anything done."
Getting help
After his first week of shielding, Eddie knew that he needed to talk to his doctor.
"By tipping me over the edge, and making [my anxiety] worse, I was forced to address the issue, and it's been a massive benefit to me. It was one of the better things to have come out of the whole situation," he says of being prescribed the antidepressant, Sertraline.
"Medication enabled me to finally relax, more than I did before the pandemic in many ways. I stopped stressing about the next thing so much, and was able to feel satisfied after finishing a project, which was something that I'd lost in recent years."
For the writer, medication has been the best way of managing his anxiety, as he has found therapy offered by the NHS "very poor".
"I found it patronising and unhelpful," he says of the CBT sessions he was offered. "They were talking about stress management, and how to recognise stress, but it didn't teach me how to deal with it. Medication was comparatively painless."
Since then, Eddie's mental health has been up and down, but distinctly better than it was a year ago. "I've stopped getting into the constant anxiety cycles that I had in March last year," he explains. "It wasn't a nice way to realise that my anxiety had gotten out of hand but it's worked out. It's a silver lining. Now, as we get out [of lockdown], I will have a better sense of what I need to do going forward."
Classifying the 'vulnerable'
Eddie is not alone. Social distancing, the loss of loved ones, and the onslaught of bad news have had an impact on many people's wellness.
More than half of adults and over two-thirds of young people said that their mental health got worse during the initial period of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, per Mind. One of the most commonly reported issues is that of anxiety. And in March of 2020, a staggering 62 per cent of the population in the UK reported feeling anxious.
One year on and Eddie tells me that it's the "endless sameness" that has been difficult. "It feels like lockdown hasn't ever lifted in the last year. It's not felt like a series of lockdowns for me, it's felt like one long lockdown." But perhaps the most "frustrating and "depressing" thing for the Hearts of Oak writer was how the pandemic exposed "ideas and perceptions" of who is classed as "vulnerable".
He continues: "People thought it would be really old people, or people who don't have much of a life anyway. They don't appreciate how many people suffer from long-term conditions as we do lead normal lives most of the time. It's been odd to be labelled as 'the sick' or someone who doesn't really matter as much."
According to government guidelines, those who are classified as "extremely clinically vulnerable" should have received a letter from the NHS or been told by their GP that they are in this group. It includes people who have specific cancers and severe respiratory conditions.
Of course, life in lockdown has looked different for those who are shielding. The term refers to those who are at most risk of becoming seriously ill from the coronavirus, and back in March of last year, the UK government advised 1.5 million "clinically extremely vulnerable" people to not leave their home, and to minimise all physical contact.
Back to normality
Like many of us, Eddie is experiencing anxiety regarding integrating back into the world, as he will no longer have to shield from today (April 1)
"There's a mix of being fed up with lockdown, but also being quite anxious about what will happen when we go back to things," he adds. "The whole year has been so one-note for me. In the last year, I haven't been to a pub or a cafe or a restaurant, which can be such a respite. But there is worry around it, even though I've had my first dose of the vaccine."
Despite looking forward to events like football matches and, of course, catching up with friends and loved ones, Eddie reveals that he will be taking it slow for the foreseeable, and will be easing back into social situations – starting with the ones he feels most comfortable with.
As many of us know, it has been a long, and challenging year, and adjusting to yet another "new normal" as the world begins to open up again won't come without its difficulties.
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Eddie Robson is a comedy and sci-fi writer best known for his sitcom Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully. He recently published his second fiction novel, Hearts of Oak, and his latest kids' book is Secrets of a Fortnite Fan.
(Feature image credit: Alamy)