We Make Southampton Podcasts: Teenage COVID journals Episode 2: Teenager Lili speaks to Katie about the lasting impact of the pandemic on her mental wellbeing

Episode 2 Published Monday, Dec 26, 2022, Katie Interviews Lili

In this 10-minute episode, Katie talks to Lili, who feels that the initial slowed-down pace of the pandemic restrictions was beneficial for her mental health, but the restrictions led to social anxiety and other issues that have not been completely resolved to date. 

Like so many other children, she was glad to have proper family time with both her parents, who previously were out at work. But the pressures of having to try and complete all her daily homework on a single computer she shared with her two sisters, and the lack of personal space took its toll.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

vaccine, lockdown, work, virus, school, family, heard, Southampton, mum, plausible, live, announced, public health, sisters, pandemic, friends, talk, daily routine, affecting, global pandemic

SPEAKERS

Lili, Katie Halpin-Iliffe

 Katie Halpin-Iliffe  

Hi, my name is Katie. I'm a teenager living in Southampton and along with five other teenagers I've been part of a podcasting project looking into the experiences of young people during the Coronavirus pandemic. It's been really insightful to discover how ordinary people in my age group are affected by the pandemic, their social life, their learning, environment, health, and vaccination. I hope you enjoy listening to this podcast as much as I enjoyed making it.  

 Katie Halpin-Iliffe  

I'd like to thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for the project COVID teenage podcasts. So if you could please introduce yourself your age and whereabouts in the city you live

 Lili 

I am Lily. I'm 15 years old and I live in the Regent's Park area of Southampton with my mum, my dad, and my two sisters. At the start of 2020. My daily routine was: my dad would go to work in the morning before I left for school. I'd wake up, do all my stuff in the morning, and go to school, my sisters would then be taken to school by my mum, my mum would then go to her office building. And then I'd come home, be alone for a little bit. My mum would come home with my sisters, start cooking dinner, and then my dad would come home. And then that was kind of the day. On Wednesdays, I would do the swimming club thing. But I didn't really do any other extracurricular activities outside of school. For a little bit I was involved in the school production, but that was about it. And I didn't really go to many other places in Southampton because I was very introverted.

Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

And what did you enjoy most about your daily routine or life at that time?

 Lili 

School because I got to see my friends. And I'd got to learn which I was very invested in at that time period.

 Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

So obviously, the first reports of the virus came from China. Do you remember where or when you heard about these and what your reaction was?

 Lili 

I first heard about them the Christmas before everything took off. And that was just like a little joke thing going around on the internet. People were joking about it. And I was like, ‘oh, it's nothing to worry about’. But then one of my friends started wearing a mask to school. And I think about January when one of the first cases in England was confirmed and they got very worried about it. So, I think that's when I heard about it. But again, I didn't think it was very serious until March when we got sent home from school, just because we were apparently short-staffed. But then that evening, the Prime Minister announced that schools wouldn't be open until Easter and obviously that lasted a lot longer.

Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

So, at the start of 2020, obviously, the China reports of the virus came out and in January, the UK Government published Coronavirus guidance, and the World Health Organisation declared the Coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic in March. And soon after that, the first lockdown was announced. 

So, if we could just talk about that period, and what you remember from that time, you'd already touched on what you heard at school, but do you remember what your and your family's reaction was to the lockdown?

Lili 

The lockdown itself, I think we were all kind of relieved. It was kind of nice to just spend some time as a family because my dad was constantly working, and we didn't get to see him very often. And it was kind of nice to just be together as a family. But things started to get more stressful because we weren't able to take a break from each other.

Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

And there were quite a few theories about the virus started circulating when it was first announced. Did you hear any of these or no anyone who believed in them?

Lili 

I heard a lot about them. But everyone just joked about them. I didn't know if anyone was being really serious about it and the people who were being serious, there was some very crazy ridiculous theories that I personally couldn't see being real. And if I did see something that seemed plausible, I'd research it. But I never ended up coming to a conclusive like point.

Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

And were you aware at this time of the term public health and the fact that every local authority has a public health team and a public health director whose responsibility is to oversee the health improvement of the local population?

 Lili 

Not until recently, however, I do now know that they did meetings during Coronavirus. And I don't think any of me and my family really attended those meetings.

Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

So now we're going to move on to talking more specifically about the various lockdowns that the UK went through. So, what changes did you and your family have to make in this new situation?

 Lili 

Obviously, my parents were having to work from home so like they were sitting around the dining room table doing their work, me and my two sisters had to share a singular laptop for all of our like lessons which had a heavy impact on our learning and our work because we only had a few hours to do an entire day's worth of work. 

And I think that's something the schools could have done differently: take into account people's situations and how easily they're going to get work done and how plausible is for people to actually get a full day's work done. 

I think the positives were the teachers were at least uploading work however there were cons. There was a continuous list of them. 

I don't think it was handled in such a good way. However, I understand that it was a very new circumstance for everyone. And nobody really understood how to get that work across while also doing and living their home life.

And I think that's what's so much better about the second lockdown, we already knew what was going on. So like we introduced video calls, and that worked a lot better. And I was able to catch up on the work that I missed out on during the first lockdown.   

My mental health improved. However, my mental health also declined. It improved by the fact that I was able to actually take a break. But it declined in the sense that I wasn't able to interact with people. So it became scarier and more anxiety-inducing for me to go out and interact with people, especially due to like the masks and stuff like that. I was very worried that I would catch COVID. And I'm glad that those provisions were in place. But also, I saw the media a lot more. So I became a lot more self-conscious about the way I looked. And I think those are definitely things that COVID impacted. But it wasn't purely COVID. And I think I would have been exposed to some of those things, at some point without COVID., anyway.

 Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

And would you say these negative effects were still ongoing, still affecting you?

Lili 

Some are still affecting me. Not as much as they were, but I definitely say some of the body issues and image issues haven't fully gone away, because those are quite difficult to overcome.

Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

And did anyone in your family or you personally fall ill with COVID?

 Lili 

Yes, we all fell ill with COVID. However, not during the height of COVID. We were very safe during that time period. And I only fell ill with it within the 2021, September.

 Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

And what do you think could have been done differently with lockdown? 

 Lili 

Oh, think that lockdowns could have lasted longer, I don't think we should have seen a decrease and then immediately gone back. I think we should have waited for minimal cases to then go back

 Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

And talking about cases was it important for you or your family to keep up with how many there were in your local area

 Lili 

Not particularly in the local area. I just like to know if we were higher or lower than average. And I liked to see how long an estimate of how long it would kind of be before I could go out and see my friends again. However, I don't really care about the numbers I cared more about like the high and low. How close are we to minimal?

Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

So now we're going to talk about the vaccine that became available for the virus. So what were your thoughts when you heard that it was available?

Lili 

I was very excited, I was happy to know that people were gonna get protection from the virus, I was slightly annoyed that I was able to get it straight away. But I understood why I understood that I was at very minimal risk compared to other people who were getting the virus and getting the vaccine to then protect them from the virus.

 Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

And you remember how your family reacted to the news?

 Lili 

everyone was kind of happy to get the vaccine. I think everyone just wanted everything to be over with at that point. However, I did have a friend who didn't particularly and still doesn't particularly like the vaccine, because "it got developed too quickly". And "they don't look at the scientifics". And the science behind the vaccine, which I think is very important to look at. They claim that we don't know what's in the vaccine. But when you get vaccinated, they give you an entire little sheet to make sure you know what's in the vaccine. So I think those viewpoints are kind of misled.

 Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

So in your opinion, do you think it's important to have this vaccine?

 Lili 

I do think it's important to have the vaccine I think it's going to protect our society. And I think it's going to mean that COVID It's just going to become more and more of a cold and less and less dangerous, the further we go on, as it has done since the vaccination has been carried out.

Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

And did you yourself receive the vaccine? And if so, how many doses did you have?

Lili 

I've had two doses. I've had my first and my second one and I am planning to get the booster. I had a few reactions to it. I felt a bit dizzy and I had hot flashes. But that was it and me and my family never ended up in the hospital due to the vaccine. 

Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

Right, so what do you think is the best way of keeping people of our age group informed about illnesses like this

Lili 

Informational videos would be useful for full I think teaching about it in schools but especially teaching at younger ages so that that information can be ingrained when you were younger to then carry on as you get older.

 Katie Halpin-Iliffe 

I'd like to thank you again for agreeing to be interviewed and giving up your time.  I hope you enjoy listening to this podcast as much as I enjoyed making it. 

This project is a We Make Southampton community media production funded by Southampton City Council Stronger Communities team. If you haven't heard of the Stronger Communities team before, please look it up on the Council's website and sign up for newsletters as it is packed Because with information you can trust about local issues.