[sammalloy]

> I think a lot of people were increasingly on edge before the pandemic, and the isolation really didn't help them with their mental health.

This is my take as well. I personally viewed it as a challenge and a stress test for my own mental health, and tried my best to make life easier for myself and others. I suppose I was lucky, as my life didn’t change and I didn’t stop working. As an introvert, it felt like a holiday of sorts, with less car noise and more clean air days to enjoy. I’m not going to lie, I felt like the guy in the Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last", and made great inroads with my reading list. I think the people who faired worse were extroverts who weren’t all that comfortable with being alone, isolated, or limited by where they could go and do, and were faced with existential issues that they had never really confronted before.

[mjevans]

Same, and my personal pandemic bubble included my nearby mom and dad; so I got to spend a year or so with my dad before dementia claimed him. The pandemic isolation did seem to kick that into high gear as he was also very immune weakened and we couldn't safely take him outside the house to interact with anyone else. Doctors on the front lines couldn't get enough (properly effective) PPE for their high risk jobs, let alone any for the elderly.