I have had Covid now for three weeks. I work part-time for Solent Mind but live in Wiltshire where, last week, government data recorded a ninety per cent increase in cases.

I know at least ten people who currently have it or recovering from it just in my local area. Far from being the ‘bad cold’ that everyone now seems to think the new Omicron variant BA.2 is – for many people, is an awful, debilitating illness.

I have had three jabs and I know there has been so much debate around the anti-vax movement but all I can say is I am so grateful I had them. I can’t imagine how ill I would have been if I hadn’t had them. I can honestly say that I don’t know one person who has had the jabs, who has had any side effects apart from a sore arm and feeling a bit under the weather for a day or two.

Having now had Covid, I know I made the right decision. If you get it and you are hospitalised – it’s too late to change your mind.

Even with those vaccinations I have fought for breath and just walking up the stairs has been a struggle. I have had a painful, hacking cough which would not stop once it started and made my whole chest feel like it was on fire. The worst thing, however, has been the awful fatigue, which I still have.

I haven’t got the energy simply to walk to the convenience store around the corner or pick up my little boy from school. I feel like an old woman.

So what? You may ask. Lots of people have had the same.

And they have. Millions across the world have died and I am not special but what I am saying is that for me, and the thousands of us now across the country with Covid, not being ‘special’ is part of the problem.

Since ‘Freedom Day’ Covid has become a kind of ‘non-issue’ in people’s minds. Understandably, they are tired of hearing about it in the media and want to get on with their lives. They are pleased it has been relegated to somewhere between a bad cold and the flu; and hospitals are not being flooded with dying patients anymore.

I feel the same. But for those of us who do catch Covid now, it puts an enormous pressure on your mental health to ‘get well’ and ‘get over it’.

I feel like I should be ‘over it’ by now. And I am constantly greeted by people who say: “Gosh, are you still poorly?”

They don’t mean it to sound rude – but in their minds Covid is just a ‘bad cold,’ so why wouldn’t I be over it?

A well-meaning friend invited me to stay for the weekend before I got Covid and then invited me the following weekend. When I told her I still felt very ill, she said: “Gosh, sorry I thought you would be better by now.”

Again, she didn’t mean to sound rude, but it made me feel as if there was something wrong with me because I haven’t yet recovered.

I feel anxious that I am still not well and worry that people think I am making up my symptoms to gain sympathy or more time in bed.

Believe me – I am doing neither. If we think back to April 2020 and how we felt when we heard that someone we knew had caught Covid, we genuinely worried they might die – now we shrug our shoulders.

Covid may not be killing people and our hospitals may not be over-flowing, but this doesn’t mean it’s not a horrid illness that wipes out people’s capacity just to get out of bed.

It’s important to remember that although vaccination jabs may mean our symptoms are not quite as bad as they could have been, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t bad.

Everyone responds differently to Covid – look at Derek Draper and how the disease has ravaged his body. Now compare him to a friend or colleague who has had no symptoms at all.

Remember - like grief – it’s not a competition about who’s suffered the most. Everyone’s situation is different and comparing people doesn’t help anyone.

If you have Covid right now - it’s okay to feel awful. Trying to get up and ‘do stuff’ to prove you over it will only mean it will take you longer to get over it.

The best remedy is good, old-fashioned, self-care and rest. Please don’t beat yourself up like I have been doing. And if people say something – remind them you have the same illness that has wiped out millions across the globe.

Also, imagine what you would say to your best friend if they told you they felt guilty for being in bed after two weeks, then snuggle up with a good book, binge on a feel-good Netflix series, make a hot-chocolate and then have a sleep which is nature’s best remedy – oh, and have a slice cake which just makes everything better.