Fleeing the nest during Covid

When the UK lockdown hit back in March 2020 I panicked. A lot. I love my family to pieces but being around them so much was a huge trigger for my anxiety so when I found out that I would be under house arrest with them for good I didn’t react too well. I moved out. At the time I had been with my boyfriend for two months and was staying over almost every night, we were best friends and when the news of us being apart and him losing his job and part of his income that would have been his rent came up we decided that I would just move in.

My family weren’t too pleased with the sudden decision but I put up a fight and soon I was packing my bags. It was only supposed to be temporary during lockdown but lockdown just kept coming. Soon it was summer and lockdown eased a lot. We decided that it was time for me to move back home only to find a week later that living back with my family was a huge struggle and we made the decision once again for me to move in. Permanently this time.

Now the lease on that flat has ended, our flatmate has moved out and we moved to a new flat closer to our work. Here is where I OFFICIALLY move out. It was a lot harder than I expected. Finding a new place with lockdown restrictions in place was difficult, we had to isolate so we had to get my mum to view the flat for us. Paying a deposit, rent, buying stuff for the flat, moving, unpacking (still hasn’t been finished snd it’s been a month now) it’s all very stressful and time consuming, not to mention the amount of money it cost us!

There has been a lot of downsides to moving out and living without my family. Getting comfortable in a new place and learning to think of it as home, cooking for myself, shopping for myself, paying rent and bills. They are only small issues. The real issue has been trying to deal with any relationship issues and my struggle with mental illness. It has been very hard to get space from each other in the flat and has caused many an argument and many frustrations. But we have powered through and our relationship is incredibly strong and I believe it to be down to us learning to communicate with each other about any problems instead of being able to just run away from them and avoid each other. My mental health has declined many times over the last year and with only one person to see and get support from it has felt incredibly isolating but with lockdowns end coming into sight it’s great to know I will soon be able to get all the love and support that I once had and I am forever grateful for all of the help, love and effort my boyfriend has put in over the last year.