Are You Suffering From COVID-19 Fatigue?

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It’s on the news every day, it’s the only topic of conversation in work, you see it everywhere you go. Mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing. COVID-19 has taken over our lives in an unprecedented manner. Will it ever end, Will a vaccine ever be developed to confine this terrible pandemic to the history books? At the moment, the answer is no. The toll on the physical and mental health of people is incalculable.

It’s the weekend and I’m glad I’m off work and don’t have to travel into the city. I’m glad I don’t have to wear a face covering on the sauna-like train to the point where I feel nauseous. I’m glad I don’t have to stand in queues in shops where other customers flaunt the regulations and invade my personal staff. I’m glad I don’t have to go the office and sanitise my hands every five minutes. I’m glad because it’s exhausting.

Today I can breathe fresh air on my morning run and not worry about crowds. I can sit in our back garden and write as opposed to in a cramped office with other people. I don’t have to worry about random strangers with coughs and splutters. I am in a safe place. I want to unwind, to relax, to switch off from the relentless tsunami of information, headlines and unsettling developments. Today I can retreat and recover.

It’s a fatigue of sorts. In the beginning I devoured the daily bulletins and couldn’t get enough. But it’s been six months now and tiredness is setting in. It’s ground me down and I just want it all to go away, even for a few days. Yet, here I am, blogging about it again, shooting myself in the foot, defeating the purpose of my original premise. I’ve completed the circle, turned 360 degrees, back to where it all started. Are you suffering from COVID-19 fatigue?

Published by Fractured Faith Blog

We are Stephen and Fionnuala and this is our story. We live in Northern Ireland, have been married for 17 years and have three kids - Adam, Hannah and Rebecca. We hope that our story will inspire and encourage others. We have walked a rocky road yet here we are today, together and stronger than ever. We are far from perfect and our faith has been battered and bruised. But an untested faith is a pointless faith. Just as a fractured faith is better than none at all. We hope you enjoy the blog.

59 thoughts on “Are You Suffering From COVID-19 Fatigue?”

  1. I totally agree with you and your thoughts and yet you are right inasmuch as everything comes back to Covid 19.
    I think that our lives and relationships will change and not necessarily for the better in the coming days and months.
    I find it very difficult though to understand how the Government can say that they are following the science and yet the science is truly conflicted.
    I live in West Wales and we have I think reached a point where we don’t even know what we should or shouldn’t be doing and the Welsh government is going against English rules.
    Anyway enough of this I hope that you have a restful, safe and enjoyable weekend with very little stress.

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  2. Fatigue is a good description of my thoughts toward Covid. We still have loved ones to protect from something we can’t see. While most of our lives changed at some point in March, I don’t think any of us thought about the impact or duration.

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  3. I’m lucky in that I get to stay at home and only go out if I want to. I feel for you and others who go out to work (my hubby hah!). On Wednesday, I had to go to a town some miles away from us for a PET scan at the large hospital there and had to travel by train as hubby was at work and we’re a one-car family. The train was packed and, like you say, wearing a mask gets hot and uncomfortable. It was too difficult to social distance …. then, I had some time to kill in the town (Middlesbrough) itself and no one seemed bothered at all about keeping their distance. I felt like someone in a video game dodging people all around me! The hospital was fine though, that was totally different.
    I feel so blessed that I can stay at home and escape to ‘secret’ places in the countryside where we live with my dogs.
    Enjoy your weekend with the family, Stephen.

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      1. Not the best of memories of Middlesbrough! I’ve had many horrible hangovers throughout my life … so glad those days are over.😊🙌

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  5. Yes. The fatigue is real. It’s so hard, but we can’t let down our guard. School is about to start and as a teacher, I’m struggling. Thanks for writing so honestly. Enjoy the weekend!

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    3. I am an IA at a public school that started last week. What is refreshing to see is how resilient the kids are – much more so than adults. On the flip side, all the added steps that are added for everyone’s protection are exhausting – I can’t lie. However, being around the children is uplifting. Hope you have a safe and blessed school year!

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  6. I’ve got double fatigue (if that’s possible). My wife tells me everything that’s going on in Switzerland AND in the UK (which includes what might happen next Thursday, if the government doesn’t change its mind). Grrr! 😠

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  7. I am suffering from COVID fatigue, yet as our usually not on point Governor said yesterday the thing that is worse than COVID fatigue is all the death and extremely sick folks.

    I am resigned to the fact that our lives have changed. We are now living in the age of the virus. 😢

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  8. COVID fatigue for me too. I don’t mind learning new thing relating COVID, but I can’t stand hearing the same news of people not following social distancing, wearing masks, or those who still treat it as a flu, and government refusal/inability to do anything. So I usually tune out for a few days or even a few weeks.

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  9. Yes I know exactly what you mean. For my part I have been completely insane lately, more alcoholic than I have ever been and sometimes enraged. When I peel back the layers and go back to the root it is the isolation combined with the fear.

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  10. Yes, COVID fatigue is a real struggle. Add fibromyalgia fatigue on top of that and MAN, I don’t know how I get up in the mornings.

    This virus has taken a toll on so many people, myself included. I’m so ready for it to be over….but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

    Hope you have a great weekend with your family!

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  11. I think many will relate to this…I was outdoors at a funeral mass this week and decided not to mask. And then the social distance began to shorten as late comers arrived and then…someone sneezed and didn’t cover it! I said the original plague prayer, “Bless You!” And wondered if we had been exposed. Or was it just hay fever, since they are cutting the hay close by…

    One good thing that My Mind is offering free counselling to people all over Ireland. Here is the link: /covid-19-project.

    The outreach is to people who have been bereaved or made unemployed by Covid19, those who are shielding, over 65, or working on the frontline.

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  12. As was liable to happen more cases have shown up in New Zealand. So far confined to one traceable cluster, but whether that will stay true remains to be seen. I feel that pain of a bit of me wanting to go back to quarantine in a sense. To be at home, in a safe space, for the majority of my week. I do not wish this virus in anyone or for more cases to show up, but the quiet was a breath of fresh air. Fewer places to be and decisions to make was joyous to me.

    Thank you as always for sharing your frustrations and honesty.

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  13. The sentence “I am in a safe place” really resounded with me. In the states, I’m really tired of this Pandemic being turned into a political tool club, wielded by children (some of our government leaders at all levels) with little to no compassion for others. It’s very wearying. Thirty years from now, it will be an interesting time to read about.

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  14. Being in British Columbia, Canada, as much as we are as inundated with pandemic news as anywhere else, we have also enjoyed relatively low transmission numbers. That is a blessing and a curse though, I think, because there is a false sense of security as people return to their normal lives, even as there are still plenty of indications that life is not back to normal. I wear a mask while at work, but hate every minute of it. My hands get dry and raw from the frequent washing and sanitizing at work. It irritates me when people can’t seem to follow the directional arrows at the grocery store or get too close, but it also irritates me when I see people using Lysol wipes on every piece of produce before putting it in their cart or they’re wearing a mask with their nose showing or touching the mask constantly or wearing gloves everywhere. I don’t doubt that this virus is something to take seriously, but I am not the sort to jump off the deep end into fear and paranoia. I’m also not the sort to think it is a government conspiracy. But I am so weary of hearing about it every single day. Why do they report the total number of positive cases from the beginning instead of just saying that as of today we have X number of active cases? Are they looking to sensationalize it by quoting a larger number? I don’t know. I’m just tired.

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  15. I think people everywhere are burned out from the overdose of information that is just so overwhelming. And who to believe? There is as much (maybe more) disinformation as information. And there is still so much professionals do not know. I’d really love to see it all just go away and plague us no longer (pun intended). I know that this thing is here forever now and the best we can hope for is a safe vaccine that actually works. Unfortunately that is not likely to happen in the near future so masks and hand washing continue to be our only defense. Oh yes, I am filled to the brim with Covid fatigue!

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  16. Yes, I totally get this! It is weird when only your home feels truly safe. And my family is currently battling Covid so our house didn’t even feel safe for a time. It’s getting better, though. Which gives me hope for the rest of the world.

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  19. Yes, yes, and yes! Fatigued. I am grateful I can see the beauty in nature all around me for if I had to stare at concrete in the big cities, or fight with traffic to get to a job, things could be worse. I miss though the interaction with people most of all. I do get to see my family though. Time with friends or even sitting in restaurant or hanging out for coffee after church is deeply missed. Relationships bring so much comfort…..hugs…laughing together, sharing stories face to face.

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  20. I’m fatigued and I fear my brain is breaking down due to lack of social stimulation and my body is breaking down due to lack of proper exercise. I’m trying to stay strong but it’s hard.

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  21. Well, I’ve been wondering if I am totally broken or not, however, thanks to you – I’ve discovered that I am feeling the same way that a lot of others feel. I just need to get control of myself and force myself back into the things that I have given up during the last few months.

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  22. Great post. I live in the US and I actually have more fatigue about Trump and our crazy politics right now. Our election is in November and I’m hoping things start to quiet down. I doubt they will though.

    As for the virus, the main part that’s bothered me is the isolation. I haven’t seen many friends since March. But like you said in another post, I think it’s important to just muddle through it and not overthink. I’d like some type of resolution to these problems, but that may not happen for a while!

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  24. Pingback: My Phase II – Stop Along The Way

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