Covid has definitely taken a toll on lot of us, especially if you have lost a near or dear one. It also disrupted our social fabric and as working professionals, once you lose touch with people, it’s difficult to get back in.

Would like to share my insight and you may find this helpful. I have taken a break working from law firms (although lesser PQE than you), and I didn’t join anywhere after leaving my law firm.

What I’ve realised is - the 1st Month immediately after leaving was mentally very disturbing. My brain had got used to the work and the pressure and the constant calls that the sudden void was causing withdrawal syndromes. The sudden hollowness craved some direction/ instruction from outside. Btw, no matter how much I write, I can never explain the mental zone that I was in while working (even when there may not have been lot of work). I’m mentioning this because when I spoke to my friends in other industries (not law) they didn’t seem to be facing this. It took me some time to get out of the feeling that I was “wasting time” or I had to “be productive”.

The other thing is - I felt like my work sucked out my personality and I was only a shadow of the past me. Just sitting at home after leaving thinking something nice will happen doesn’t work. I had to actively take interest and go out and try out different activities so I feel like my former self.

I feel - when we are working, our entire time is spent at work / thinking about work, so we also end up hanging with work colleagues, but at the end of the day, you can’t really share everything and treat them as your friends. So the that bottling up some emotions causes undue stress.

Not sure, how much this will help, but I hope it gets better.