[maxduckworth]

"The pandemic has put crushing pressure on me"

What's your perception of why the pandemic has caused a shift in pressure for you?

I ask because, like you, I feel much more stressed, but I can't really put my finger on why because my job has mostly stayed the same (besides going remote). Is it all just because of a reduction in in-person social contact? Or is it something else? In the beginning of the pandemic I got into a sort of manic mode of "do more faster" which was clearly not sustainable and caused me to almost burn out. The funny thing is there was nothing external pushing me to go faster, just my own brain and patterns. Are you experiencing something similar?

[mleonhard]

I think part of it is being indoors more. My mood has been more stable since I upgraded my workspace with 22,000 lumens of 5000K LED lights.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XCYJNN6 - Feit Electric 55W PAR38 5000 lumen 5000K LED bulb, install it pointed at the ceiling in a cheap IKEA lamp

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y2QM5RGk - Feit Electric 25W A21 3050 lumen 5000K LED bulb, useful for existing ceiling light fixtures

[floatingatoll]

In essence, I am not experiencing something similar, no. While we're both experiencing similar general outcomes from quarantine such as social isolation, the exact cause of why those outcomes put such pressure on me is both precisely identified and vanishingly rare. It is definitely unrelated to the above story and to your experiences. (I don't intend in any way to diminish you or your experiences with this reply, and I wish I were more able to be of use.)