Emily: It’s a global pandemic. It’s not something small, and it’s okay to feel scared. Just know that there’s always help there if you need it.
[Title: Lessons from Lockdown]
[Title: Lesson #1: Pets are the best.]
George: [19, from TAS] Me, and my family, because we were all home and had a bit of time to spend with her we fostered another greyhound for a few weeks.
Jestika: [23, from NSW] I adopted her maybe two months ago, aw, she’s tired!
Kai: [21, NSW] They’ve really been enjoying more time playing with their laser toy. They also really enjoy all the pats, and the constant affection because we have no one else to talk to. 
Emily: [23, from VIC] Yeah I’ve gone through university and school and I cannot teach this dog to poop in one place.
[Title: Lesson #2: Life isn't always easy... And that's okay.]
Kai: Learning to cope with a lot less money coming in because you can’t go to work!
Jestika: I lost my jobs, and I ended up having to move back home.
George: I tend to just like, jam pack my life with distractions, so that I’m really busy, I don’t have time to stop and get stuck and with COVID and isolation and stuff, all those distractions have just been removed from my life. Negative thoughts are just negative thoughts, it’s okay to feel negative sometimes, you don’t have to try and alter that.
George: Social media has been a bit a bit much for me sometimes sometimes I just have to turn that off. And it started triggering some thoughts that were quite unhealthy for me in the past. I started unfollowing pages that were posting things that were unhealthy for me, and I started following more healthy things like more puppies and kittens, and that sort of thing.
[Lesson #4: Support networks are super important.]
Jestika: By finding new places of support, whether it’s in friends, or whether it’s in your family or whether it’s in yourself. I was seeing my therapist over Zoom sessions, which was super helpful. It’s just like, actively trying to find places, and making your support network bigger and bigger, so that when some of it falls away there’s someone else to rely on.
Emily: Lockdown has been a first for a lot of people, and it’s the first time that we had so much time to think about ourselves and ruminate over thoughts that we normally wouldn’t have time to think about. It’s okay to acknowledge that it’s scary, but, it’s more important to know that you’re not alone in this, and it’s okay to be with those thoughts, but there is always support if you need it.