“I woke up completely drenched in sweat. I called the COVID-19 hotline. 5 minutes later, a very condescending man came on. I was told I sounded ‘fine’ and was likely just ‘exaggerating’ the symptoms due to anxiety. I had a seizure. Blood had started pouring out of my mouth. I wouldn’t realize just how much until later.”
‘It started with what I thought were seasonal allergies. 2 days later, the chest pain began.’: 35-year-old mom positive with COVID-19 after ‘following all the rules’
‘I wanted it. It was my fault.’ I didn’t report the crime because no one would believe a schizophrenic.’: Woman with schizophrenia overcomes abuse, finds soulmate, ‘Everyone deserves love and beauty in their lives’
“It started with neglect and evolved into mental, emotional, and physical abuse. I endured this silently, for I thought it was what I was destined for. All the while, I was hearing voices and believing I was seeing dead people. My husband went along with my delusions. I truly thought I was a vampire and he encouraged it.”
‘I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to put you on birth control.’ The IVF clinic shut down. All I ever wanted was to be pregnant.’: Woman battles infertility during pandemic after IVF clinic closes, ‘I still have hope’
“My body left me with 3 cysts. ‘It’s not fair,’ I cried to my husband. It’s been a year since we lost our miracle baby, and now our rainbow baby has been pushed further and further away. I am unsure of when my next treatment will be. Through tears of uncertainty, I decided to stop my birth control. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”
‘They found a lump. I’m sure it’s nothing.’ It wasn’t ‘nothing.’ It was the beginning of the end.’: Covid nurse honors mother after she passes from breast cancer, ‘I became a nurse because of my mama’
“I became a nurse because of my mama. ‘We’re staying home for people like Nana because these germs would make her very, very sick.’ I played a tiny role in some of the very best and very worst days of people’s lives, while I quietly and achingly watched my own mama fight and fight.”
‘I told her I was feeling really low and just didn’t have the energy to even go to the store. The depression of being inside set in.’: Woman says friendships are about people who say ‘I’m here for you’ and prove it
“A short time later, she came to my house with a shopping bag. From 6 feet away, she placed a bag of groceries and masks on the ground. I was an emotional wreck.”
‘The dreaded texts started coming in from my friends and their husbands about that Zoom call. My anxiety was through the roof.’: Woman says ‘don’t allow yourself to sink, rely on the people who love you’
“I cried over chicken today. Then the dreaded texts started coming. We planned on times when we could all talk. I tried really hard to come up with excuses to keep me off the call. I wanted nothing to do with it. The call lasted 4 freaking hours!”
‘Hold our hands. Let us grieve. Of course we know it could be worse.’: Woman says ‘it’s okay for college graduates to be sad’
“We know that some of you missed your graduation because you were being shipped off to Vietnam. We know it because you continue to tell us. And we thank you for your sacrifice, but it’s not a contest.”
‘Week two of quarantine, I was acting like my 4-year-old to my adult spouse. ‘Please don’t let this be my karma.’: Mom of three ‘wild ones’ reminds others ‘YOU ARE NOT ALONE’
“I worried about his aggressive outbursts. Earlier that day, I was talking with a friend who was working through her anxiety about leaving her family every shift to work in the NICU. Her anxiety was real. Mine was selfish and unplaced. I was disappointed in myself that I wasn’t able to handle things better for Jack that day, or with my spouse.”
‘This morning I was tested for COVID-19. I am angry I had no choice but to be exposed to it.’: Woman exposed to virus against her will due to insurance malpractice, ‘We didn’t need to be in this position’
“Like everyone else I know, I’ve been practicing social distancing for 3 weeks now. But just over a week ago, I found myself in the Emergency Room. The one place that would put me most at risk of exposure. I’d been avoiding the grocery store, let alone an ER.”
‘I didn’t know there was a problem. If she’d been honest and said, ‘Hey, I don’t like you hanging out with my ex,’ we could have worked it out.’: Woman navigates adult friendships, boundaries after friends’ break up
“My friends Tina and Conner broke up. I won’t go into detail, but we all know the saying, ‘There are 3 sides to every story — his, hers, and the truth.’ Is it wrong to want to remain friends with a friend’s ex? He and my husband were friends, and honestly, we missed hanging out with the guy.”