Welcome to The Lockdown Blues. This is a space for sharing experiences or observations on loneliness and isolation before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.
We understand that loneliness is a difficult topic. People don’t always find it easy to talk about, and it’s a feeling that’s different for everyone. We want to find out what loneliness has meant for people in South West England. We also want to create a place where solace can be found in reading, writing, and creating, to establish solidarity in shared experience and expression.
Many of us felt lonely before the pandemic, and the lockdown might have made this better, worse, or made no difference at all. Some of us have become isolated recently in a way which is unfamiliar. Living alone during lockdown might feel different to how it felt before; our relationships might have changed or suffered; and we might feel sad about keeping a physical distance from others, with no touching. We might have discovered we have different priorities and views to the people we care about. We may also feel unsupported or abandoned by the government and the decisions they’ve made about our well-being.
Some of us could be worried about what comes next, and if life was difficult before the pandemic, then we might not want to return to the way it was. It’s also not clear if our new support networks and different ways of communicating will stay or go, and whether some of us might be left behind.
This space is an online scrapbook for the thoughts, feelings and experiences of people living in the South West. Whatever your preferred method of expression, we’re inviting submissions to be shared on the website. It could be a short sentence, a letter, poem, song, essay, painting, sketch, photo, video, meme – whatever your chosen medium, this can be your platform.
If you fancy seeing some inspiration for your contribution, or just want to browse, you can visit the scrapbook to see what other people have shared. We’d love to hear from you, and we think that others would too.
You can also contribute by social media, using the hashtag #lonelycovid
