Mental and Physical Health Effects

Mary — Stress. I've never felt that kind of stress. Stress, you know, that you had heard comments about people in facilities and it's like, how can you laugh about "good there going"? That's how much the place went from being family to this is your area and this is our area and don't associate with them. That was hard. And I was just like, wow. People that you knew for 15 years that no longer would talk to you. And then it was like, "You're not going to apply to Scioto?" Why would I apply? You do know they're not accepting anyone's applications. That person would never respond. But when we talked, I never talked about that. But I truly cared about them as people. It was the mental and it was the physical stress of it. It was like grieving. I told my one friend this. When my husband passed away, it was like, Wow, this is just-- this is it. How do you keep going? Feeling this depressed or this sad? That's what it was like. When you knew that this was definitely what was going to happen. It was like grieving.

Susan Carroll — I'm pretty sure it was July 4th when they finally said, we're going to, you know, we're outsourcing. But from from February until then, every day I went through every emotion out work. I was crying. I didn't know what we were going to do. Yeah, it just it it was horrible. It felt like we went through hell from the moment they said it was a possibility all the way up until they said, you know, we are going to outsource you.

Lori — I feel like I went through a depression. Like I said, it was like suffering through a death, and I went through a deep depression. I think that's another reason why I didn't want to go searching for a job because I felt--that college just made you feel unappreciated and worthless. I just didn't--I had, like no confidence after that, in myself. Like I said, I just felt like when I went through all that I think I still--I don't know if it's because of my husband's health situation or--you know, that's why I don't even want to drive through Oberlin. I think I've only driven through there maybe three times since we lost our jobs. And that was just to get some carry out at the Mandarin Chinese [laughs]. 

Susan Carroll — That was a long part of my life, you know, and to to lose it is, you know, it's kind of like losing a family member you know what I mean?…It's like grieving, and you can grieve forever.

Marsha — I started having horrible panic attacks. Horrible panic attacks. Even if I was just laying in bed at night, out of nowhere I would have the worst panic attacks of my life, like an elephant sitting on my chest. I can't breathe, you know, feeling like you're gonna throw up on yourself. Cried. Cried a lot...The depression sets in, you know, where some days you just don't want to get out of bed. You don't wanna open the curtains, you don't wanna look outside, you don't want to help your children with their homework, you're just that emotionally drained. It was hard. It was very hard.

Eugene — Honestly, that was the most heartbreaking thing that I saw. I kind of knew that I would land on my feet eventually. I'm resilient. There were a lot of people that, like, that was their whole life. And seeing them break down and cry. People that you've seen for, you know, years and years and like you know that they're strong people and when they got that gut punch like. Just absolute devastation. 

Vince — I'm not 18 years old again. But, you know, I really have to start over. You know, you have to start over.

Eugene — I finally kind of woke up to the fact this winter that, my God, I'm depressed. And, I finally woke up from that slumber. So, even though yeah, you get a nice chunk of change and they compensated us with the health care, which was fantastic. But, you're in such a daze that it doesn't even really do any—obviously it helps—but like mentally, you're just a wreck. And then it happened in the middle of the pandemic, like mental health issues are peaked out even without any disruption. You know, it was quite a blow.