Gitte Klitgaard experienced déjà vu recently while taking bacon and eggs from her freezer to thaw for breakfast the next day.
“Wait, I just did that?” she asked herself, thinking she had done exactly the same thing earlier in the day. Or maybe it was the week before. It was hard to tell because her days were becoming indistinguishable from each other.
As Klitgaard thought about it, she realized she was having more of these surreal moments ever since shelter-in-place rules went into effect in her country, Sweden, in March. Working from home day in and day out because of the coronavirus pandemic was taking a mental toll on Klitgaard, a software development consultant and regular speaker at tech conferences.
Her days were becoming more repetitive, blurring into a loop, akin to what Bill Murray’s character in the 1990s movie Groundhog Day experienced, minus the jokes. “I was shocked when I started counting and realized I had been home for eight weeks,” Klitgaard says. “I would have guessed four or five. Days are blending together.”
Klitgaard’s feeling of monotony is becoming increasingly common for workers who are still under shelter-in-place orders, according to several mental health experts. Additionally, people are …