Help me get some perspective, this morning's news has upset me so much

[Spotthedoggies]

Please help

I should add, despite how I’m feeling and the impact it will have on us as a family, I still feel protecting lives has to come first.

count your blessings op

Supremely unhelpful.

Many people have lost everything. Many have lost loved ones. Many have had their mental health completely obliterated.

Many people don't feel particularly blessed at the moment and have few blessings to count.

@CaveMum

I don’t think it’s helpful to tell people that there are other people worse off in the world. People’s feelings are valid, unhappiness is not a competition.

This. The whole 'cheer up, someone else is worse off than you' argument is ridiculous, unhelpful and a bit offensive actually.

but you have to look on the bright side!

@Enoughnowstop

What possible difference will another lockdown make

It means people who need health services for car accidents, drilling through their hands whilst doing DIY, heart attacks, burst appendix, emergency admissions due to the onset of things like type 1 diabetes will still get the help they require. The help none of us think we will ever need until we need it.

If people can’t get any help, panic will set in. If panic sets in, we run the risk of civil disobedience and worse. Boris has mentioned putting the army on the streets at least once recently.

There is huge empathy for people who’s working lives have been destroyed because of this. I don’t know why you would think otherwise. On the other hand, there is little empathy for those who are stepping into the unknown every time they go to work - health professionals and teachers in particular.

I agree with this completely.

Of course it's tough OP, but you asked for perspective and I think PP have given you plenty of examples of how things could be worse.

are you healthy op?

I'm never sure how to respond to these news related threads because sometimes they must be started by politicians to gauge reactions. After all, nothing has been officially announced yet.

I'm assuming you're not one of those OP so here's what helps me when I'm feeling like that. I sort of do a status check of my whole self right now. Am I physically ok at this moment? If not, can I do anything to make it better? Am I emotionally ok at this moment? Then the same - would doing anything like going for a walk, calling someone etc make it better? Our opinion of what the government is doing is really beside the point on an individual level. Not saying you can't care about that but you have to put your item lifejacket on first. How can YOU feel OK RIGHT NOW?

op
What is the worse that could happen?

I am upset too. It's been months and months under tightest restrictions for us. That was before tiers introduced now officially tier 3. Been through gruelling redundancy consultation, thankfully job safe for now. WFH since March, hate it. There's no exit plan to this , feels like it's never going to end. The economy is screwed, people are losing homes, jobs, businesses.

I still don't understand the overwhelmed hospitals thing when the nightingales were built for that purpose , is it because they don't have staff to work there ?

I saw a post yesterday which made me feel a little bit more like I could cope with everything.
It said:
"Every day I try telling myself, Keep working, because when this is all over, you’ll be glad for the work you’ve done. It’s like the long winters of the past, when the granaries would slowly empty and people started to fear spring would never come again: during the dark days, you do things. You repair your tools. You enjoy each other’s company. You sing old songs and write new ones. You make ropes and nets and weave blankets and do anything you don’t have time for in the summer. And it’s hard to do it and hard to stay hopeful, but that way, when spring comes - and spring does come, spring will come - you can start working in the fields with a brand-new plow and good boots and a head full of songs."

@CaveMum

I don’t think it’s helpful to tell people that there are other people worse off in the world. People’s feelings are valid, unhappiness is not a competition.

I generally agree with you. But to be honest, counting my blessings has helped to get me through things so far.

It's possible to validate my own feelings while also being aware of the areas in which I'm fortunate. Even without thinking of refugees etc, I have friends in a far worse situation from mine, and reminding myself of that is actually proving helpful.

Well way to post a goady thread.

OP posts about nothing and people jump on it and play the guessing game while OP doesn’t come back. .

Yes, I think the news of people killed in the Turkish earthquake is awful. Really, really sad.

And as someone else also pointed out upthread, the family who drowned. Horrible. Being so desperate that you’re prepared to take those kinds of risks is mercifully something which most of us can never even contemplate.

Or, there’s a storm brewing. Hopefully there won’t be flooding...

I still don't understand the overwhelmed hospitals thing when the nightingales were built for that purpose , is it because they don't have staff to work there?

I'm wondering this! Surely people have been training for the past 6 months, so even if we had a shortage of ICU staff in March we wouldn't now?

Hopefully somewhere more knowledgeable can explain !

Someone lol

If you oppose a new full lockdown here is a petition to sign.

twitter.com/hashtag/Lockdown2?src=hashtag_click

@CaveMum

I don’t think it’s helpful to tell people that there are other people worse off in the world. People’s feelings are valid, unhappiness is not a competition.

I agree with that. It doesn't help at all.

I've looked at this morning's news online and can't see much different to yesterday.

@lilacmoon78 thanks for that quote, it is lively and it has cheered me up
We are all quite nervous about the news.
I am in Wales, one week into the breaker lockdown, and I really do not want extensions to that. So waiting for the proper announvement.
They should fire whoever has decided that leaking measures to the press is the way to do it! Really

@FurrySlipperBoots

I still don't understand the overwhelmed hospitals thing when the nightingales were built for that purpose , is it because they don't have staff to work there?

I'm wondering this! Surely people have been training for the past 6 months, so even if we had a shortage of ICU staff in March we wouldn't now?

I imagine it takes a long time to train to be an ICU nurse, dealing with patients who may be intubated, ventilated and requiring long-term, intensive care. And of course you need doctors, too. And if you start pulling doctors and nurses away from their usual specialisms to focus on ICU, then everything else grinds to a halt - particularly if some staff are sick / isolating / exhausted. AND it’s not just ICU - you need COVID wards so the very-sick-but-not-critical COVID patients can be cared for without infecting other people. And it is winter, so the hospitals are busy anyway, and they are trying desperately NOT to stop providing other types of critical or routine care like they did in the spring. It all adds up to a nightmare scenario for the NHS.

You can’t use Nightingale hospitals for ITU cases. And anyone transferred to one needs the required staff to go too. Given there already aren’t enough staff in the NHS, we can’t afford to send them to nightingales on a 1:1 ration when it’s 1:8 or 1:12 in hospital.

@CurlsandCurves I went for an interview a couple of days before the first lockdown, I started on 23 March, first job I've had not wfh for years, I'm still there, great job, fingers crossed for you on Tuesday