Loneliness and Covid

[tlopez]

With the current pandemic, I am unable to see my partner as frequent. We went from see each other a couple days a month, to few days once every two or three months. My feelings of loneliness have increased quite a bit. So I'm curious to see what others have been doing to keep those feelings at Bay.

Special notes:
Due to his job, I do all the traveling (it's a 7 hour drive). I take all necessary precautions: social distancing, wearing a masks, wearing gloves when filling up at gas stations, limiting the times I stop at public places, and wash hands/hand sanitizer.

[Enric]

Back when the pandemic began I was about to move to Czechia for a new job. I already had passed the job interview but everything was cancelled and I stayed in my parents house. This is not great, but it's rather positive. I mean I often think that if I was living alone in a tiny studio abroad I would feel worse than what I do now in my parents house... I think I don't suffer so much from loneliness because at least I have my parents, my grandmother and my dog nearby... My life is also quite busy despite I rarely go out, and I think it also helps. And finally it's also because I already experienced loneliness many times and I don't miss 2019 when I was in Greece with no family, friends, SO or anyone around.

I'm way more concerned about my SO though. He's doing much worse than me in different ways... He's spent all 2020 alone in Manila, and he has been unemployed twice. There's no way for us to meet this year, so sadly I am just resigned to accept the distance for a long time... so our plans changed. I gave him all the money I had saved for trips and focused in helping to return to his hometown with his parents... All his family is in the Philippines, but on another island, and the controls are ridiculous even for national trips. Hopefully he'll rejoin his family by the end of this month... We will still be apart, but at least none of us will be alone and this is the little victory I'm hoping for at the moment. I think his family is going to help him to deal better with his loneliness issue. Sure it sucks when we compare it with “normal people” who have both their spouse and their parents nearby, but it's better than nothing.

So my personal recommendation is to appreciate what you already have, don't focus all your life in your SO, talk to other people too and stay busy so you won't have so much time to feel lonely.