By Trinity Bittermann

Ever since December, I had very severe anxiety about the virus. As months went by, the anxiety got worse. Then the first or second week of March I started getting sick, signs of strep and flu. I had throat pain, non-stop coughing and headaches that made me sick to my stomach. I couldn’t get out of bed, I couldn’t eat and I lost my appetite. I had a fever of 103 for two weeks straight. I was already high-risk (for COVID-19) because of my asthma, so getting it was very scary. I was sick for four to five weeks with the same symptoms and two to three nebulizer treatments every day for that entire time. I had a nasty cough for six weeks and finally got better late April. When I was sick, the test for it (COVID-19) had just come out and was very new. When I went to the doctor, they ran three tests on me, the flu came back negative, strep came back negative, then they took the swab up the nose test and sent it to a lab. They called us saying I had COVID and they didn’t know what to do except to tell us to “stay at home, fluids, humidifier” the usual for strep or flu. It did not progress to where I had to be hospitalized, and that I am so grateful for. The following Friday everything started to shut down, which made my anxiety so much worse, this is now much more than it was in the news. I became very sad and down from being separated from my friends and family, it was at a point where I would sob every night looking at old pictures of me with my friends and family. My mental health took a huge hit, but I actually decided to talk to someone about it for the first time independently without being forced to do it by counselors.  It really helped me get through this time and getting help and talking to someone is very important and if you have been struggling please talk to someone, it will help you to get it all out.