On March 23rd, the UK was placed in lockdown due to COVID-19. Throughout the series #LifeInLockdown, young people all around the country have been talking about the impact of the lockdown on their daily lives, how it affects their mental health and their relationships, and how Coronavirus has been impacting the world - for the better and for the worse.

My name is Milo and I have officially been in quarantine/lockdown for a month and 18 days (but who’s counting?) and it has been far from easy. I have ASD and was diagnosed at the age of four. I feel like the lockdown has been triggering my autism more than ‘normal’ life usually would.

I wasn’t always a strictly social person. As a matter of fact, I was rather unsociable growing up. It’s only at the end of 2018 in the North-West Regional College (or Tech) that I started hanging out with people, namely the gaming society, and it changed my life. But changing from a being an introverted person to an extroverted person was not an easy task for me and having to go back to being introverted hasn’t done wonders for my mental health.

I find myself getting sad more frequently and for longer periods of time but keeping in contact with the people I care about helps me get through it

I went from being a social person to seeing no one. I cannot remember the last time I saw my friends face to face, and it’s been a real shock to the system.

I miss my friends, I miss the social interaction because I’m left sitting by myself in the exact same room nine hours a day and at some point the walls are talking to you, it gets really worrying.

It has been messing me up, doing some bad things to my mental health. I find myself getting sad more frequently and for longer periods of time but keeping in contact with the people I care about helps me get through it.

In lockdown, to pass the time I have been doing coursework, though I will admit that it’s been very difficult to adjust to not being in Tech. The coursework in particular, because normally I would have help, but with Tech closing I don’t have that anymore. I’m not good at taking notes. I do it of course but I get easily distracted and it takes me much longer than it would anyone else.

On the plus side, I’ve been doing a lot of writing; I am currently writing a musical. I’ve been listening to a lot more music than I usually would and discovering a lot of new artists. Netflix has also been a great boost because I like to educate myself, and I’ve been able to watch a lot of documentaries.

The first couple of weeks in lockdown really affected me, but things are getting better. It becomes easier.

I would absolutely love to go back to a sense of normality, but I know we’re probably as far away from normality as we’re going to get at this point, so I’ve just accepted lockdown is going to be normality for a while.

This article was written by Milo Quigley as part of our #LifeInLockdown series. Thank you to The National Lottery Community Fund making stories like Milo's heard.

To see some of the other content Milo has been involved in creating click here

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