Has Covid and the pandemic broken you?

Due to my health anxiety it dictated quite a bit. My closeness to others. My trips to town. And my visits and outings with friends. Then I found the courage to get vaccinated knowing what the shots alone could do to my body. Every direction concerning how to deal with the pandemic tested my anxiety and that did play a part in my depression keeping me distant from the life I once threw myself into. Losing my FIL to Covid played up the fear of what could be and fed the need to withdrawal even more. But last month we attended a major sporting event. There wasn’t a mask in sight and for the first time in two years the world I was in felt normal. And I absolutely loved it despite my health anxiety whispering “what if” in my ear more than a few times. I’ve done everything I can do to protect myself, but I feel I’ve lost a good chunk of myself in the process. My love told me it’s time to live when he sensed my hesitancy in attending that sporting event he knew I’d have fun at, and it’s a phrase I repeat to myself everyday now. I choose to get back to the life I once knew and loved. It’s a process but one that’s a lot better than the one that dragged me away from it.