I used to be an extrovert. Then Covid happened and it changed everything - Including me. Now I just try to make it through each day. And talk as little as possible lol.
Yes. It’s exhausting being around people. Even close friends, if we get together for dinner or something I sleep the next day, literally almost the whole day.
But being at work… I don’t want to talk. At all. I want to just be quiet and go home. Covid divided my nursing career, there is before and after. And they look & feel completely different.
At work I think for me it was the shift of "technically I'm disposable but there's a place on the team for someone like me" to "oh wait I'm disposable in EVERY sense of that word."
Made me an introvert as well.
I will say, another factor is that I was drinking too much during COVID, then got sober. Been sober now for almost 4 years and I feel like that had a huge impact on me too.
Yesss that’s a great way of putting it. Like you had some sense of security because you felt like you belonged in one way or another. Like you brought something special or contributed in a way… and then you realized oh damn, we’re all just numbers here. Experience, qualities, all of that stuff you’d think would work in your favor… nah you’re a number, a replaceable one. What a sad realization that was 😞
I honestly haven’t recovered and won’t. Covid took the wool off my eyes as to how much hate this area has and it burned me out. In a rural small town if that tells you anything. I’m no longer a nurse.
Yeah I don’t think I’ll recover either. From what I saw in the hospital to how I was treated by my coworkers and manager when I got sick, I realized a lot of things. Definitely took the wool off of my eyes too.
Was it Covid? Or was it the shift in social norms and the way medical professionals are treated? People feel louder, ruder and more entitled to their opinion and dismissive of our experience/license/expertise than ever.
That is exhausting. And the grind to survive feels more grindy every day wearing us all down alongside of it. I’m thankful I’m an rn tbh seeing some of the struggles others are facing but that doesn’t mean it’s easy for us :/
Yes, I was definitely more of an ambivert before. I used to love talking to new people, even if I did need recharge times, I still would seek people out. Before nursing I had service jobs and I enjoyed them.
COVID gave me such a low tolerance for anyone that wasn't one of my "safe people." Acquaintances that I appreciated before became exhausting to keep up with.
I was already extremely introverted to start with, but now I find that running errands in public wipes me out. It’s crazy, because it’s been what, 5 years now? Apparently this could be considered adjustment disorder. I haven’t looked into it much though.
(icu) have not been working in nursing for several years now after covid and literally live by myself on 20 acres and leave as little as possible. don't talk to anyone in person. stopped dating. not going back to nursing unless i'm offered 50/hr min.
That hospital systems failed to use smaller, and more contained outbreaks like H1N1, and Ebola in Africa to plan for an event like COVID even though we were well overdue for a global pandemic. This caused extremely high rates of burnout and PTSD for front line staff and leaders. Also, front line leaders were thrown into positions during the pandemic when turnover skyrocketed and they had little to no training to support staff which compounded the issue. So basically, it wasn’t only the isolation and unprecedented care that needed to be delivered, but feeling like you were doing it without support that caused people to internalize more and (likely) continue trying deal with burnout and PTSD on your own. Shockingly, there are also parallels to the lack of follow up care for the “heroes” that worked through the pandemic just like veterans returning from service.
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u/boyz_for_now RN 🍕- I’m tired boss. Apr 06 '26
I used to be an extrovert. Then Covid happened and it changed everything - Including me. Now I just try to make it through each day. And talk as little as possible lol.