Is anyone else just totally fucking fed up with it all now...

[Bettyboo12]

I'm probably going through some hormonal changes which isn't helping my mood 😔 but the last few years has been been proper shit and now the foreseeable future looks shit too. I just feel demotivated and overworked, underpaid and stretched as are my colleagues. Food and fuel prices are rediculous and I actually feel sick everytime I go to the supermarket. I can't get a doctors appointment, my dentist has gone private without telling me. Public transport where I live is diabolical buses aren't turning up yet I'm paying £60 a month for my schools bus pass, taxis are charging the earth if you can get one and then refusing to do long distances. The council think it's a good idea to do road works all at once causing more chaos and stress in the mornings so everyday feels like I'm playing road blocks. Im now anxious and stressed about rising interest rates and pissed off that I probably won't afford a holiday again for the 4th year because I'm just trying to survive and make it through the day/month or fucking year!

Everything does feel a bit broken at the moment, but I think it's important to maintain hope that it won't be like this for ever. Throughout history, there have been peaks and troughs. I try to keep a sense of perspective and take a long-term view that it will improve in future. That's my coping strategy. And not watching too much of the news. I think endless news feeds about how awful it is aren't helpful. They just keep it at the forefront of your mind

It's shit OP but you need to get through it somehow. Work out what is within your control and what is outside of your control.

We know what is good for us: spending time with friends and family, learning new things, spending time in nature, exercise, good food. Try to access these as far as you can.

• Fit in phone chats or games nights etc with family
• Do an online course in something
• Get to the library and read more books
• Take up a hobby (a free one!)
• Go for a walk regularly or get on a bike
• Plan your meals to save money, batch cook etc
• Go vegetarian and eat more veg, less convenience food
• Grow plants, go to your local park
• Limit doomscrolling on the internet, continualling checking messages and reading the news - once a day will tell you what you need to know

I know it all sounds trite but it's all you can do. Re holidays, do you have a friend you could do a house swap with?

The last few years have been so endless, it feels like we're at the mercy of external forces but there is a lot you can do to feel happier without spending a lot of money or needing something external to change.

@bluetongue I think shortage of lorry drivers and farm / factory workers due to Brexit (Eastern Europeans going home) have caused shortages, but it seems to be regional (and perhaps a bit of hyperbole). Where I live, the shelve are still full

Yes, I feel exhausted by it all - mentally worn out and physically rundown. I was just thinking today “Surely there’s a country in the world that’s not like this?” Not that I could move, but I was trying to cheer myself up a bit by finding a bit of hope in it not being totally global.

I find food shopping depressing. I can’t afford much protein and so I try to plan out meals without it, write my list - and then they don’t have half the items I need anyway. Everything seems to be going up and everything has supply issues. I’m scared to put my heating on and limit my hot water. It’s hard some days.

West Midlands here and food shops have empty shelves. Not apocalypse empty but 4 packets of chicken and few packets of mince type empty.
Some shelves in Sainsburys had the sorry we have sold out stickers and were totally bare. Like others have said it's not that I can't find food to buy its just that depressing reminder as you walk round.
Had a holiday to Spain this year first time flying for DD's all saved for etc. The food shops were a joy and made me sad, cheap for a lot of the basics and lots of choice.
I can't leave the UK but I would probably look at Spain or France if I had the option/money.

I just feel demotivated and overworked, underpaid and stretched as are my colleagues

DH is changing jobs - his employer was bringing him down with petty shit which then got ranted about at home - he's moving soon and it's like a weights been lifted.

Train/bus still are still a huge often expensive problem to us - I'm worried about price increases and how little our cash is now buying .

The GP been going downhill since we move here - but it's only just reach depths of pervious one - we couldn't get an NHS dentist for us and worried kids may be kick into private any day- now wider family are also seeing this.

Personally our circumstances have been much worse and at time many were doing very well - we are doing less and watching money so much more.

Price rises are very worrying and heating very much a concern, near constant attack on women's rights is eye opening and depressing, political direction seems wrong and deeply concerning - there is a background of woe and crap but I'd try looking closer to home and see if there's stuff to be changed that could make your life a bit easier.

Where I live, the shelve are still full

They are full here though there has in some shops been a reduction in ranges when you look for specific things - but there still choice - and there have been massive price increases.

Thanks. We’ve had issues with farm workers here as well (along with floods and storms ruining some crops).

I feel like I'm at breaking point.

I worked on a covid ward during the pandemic and I feel like I've never really recovered from the stress of watching people die.
Totally distrust the tories after their despicable lies about partygate.
To top it all, my fully vaccinated mum died of covid last week (along with over 500 other people). Her death certificate says death due to frailty caused by old age. OK she was an OAP but she wasn't frail, she was out and about living life before she caught covid.
Did Borises vaccines even work?

Got a letter last week to say my NHS pension contributions are going up by £16 a month but if I earned over £70k they'd be reduced by £80 a month.
HCPC fees being upped by 20%.
Parking fees at my Trust have doubled to almost £40 a month.

The patients I see are so despondent with the underfunded service we can offer. I spend my life apologising for our crap service even though we are dreadfully understaffed and its not my fault.

Yes, it's a shit show.

Been following the latest developments/disasters today and actually went cold and felt physically sick. I have paid off my mortgage and own my little house but it needs a few repairs which I now cannot afford. Keep telling myself that I am luckier than a lot of people as at least I do not have the stress of wondering how to keep a roof over my head. One of my nieces bought a little flat last year and I feel so anxious on her behalf. As for me, I am too scared to put the heating on, the cost of food horrifies me and have days when I wonder what the point of it all is. I retired last year and now am having to use my savings just to survive. I was a single mum under Thatcher and it was hellish, my life improved so much after the 1997 Labour victory . Now I face the last years of my life in this hellscape. My heart aches for all the young people just starting out, I have never ever known it this bad. Currently watching a Bowie concert on YouTube to try and cheer myself up!

All these Tory haters going on about the 45% rate which doesn't affect them personally, but forgetting to mention their tax rate is reducing - as have NI contributions too

I work full time and get UC, I'm a "tory hater" and I don't want my 1% tax cut or NI contributions back thanks, I want public services funded

It feels just like it did in 1994/1995. The end of a long period of Conservative Govt. People had had enough.

Well we're living in unprecedented times. Coming up to 3 years of a devastating pandemic, the Ukraine invasion and consequences on fuel and food supplies, effects on harvests of global warming and I'm sure others that have been eclipsed.

There is no easy, painless or quick fix to all this. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. Not wanting to be a Doom merchant, just realistic.

All you can do is take each say as it comes, try to focus on something positive for your MH and keep going.

Yes - I do remember that and you are right it does.

Not sure Labour are as well placed as they were then.

I hear you Opener. I could scream with frustration over present Tory policies and where this country is heading. I am channeling my anger by writing to my Tory MP on a regular basis telling him how angry I am and I am now looking into protest marches to join (Enough is Enough is one but open to others if anyone is aware of any) . I refuse to just let this happen. People need to vote with their feet , Get angry start protesting otherwise nothing will change

Yes it's all shit.

Australia.
But you need something good to offer for them to let you in. Youth+education+skills+work experience

No, because I've been through much worse and am living a nice life right now. Where I live it's so cheap but still nice. Guess I have low standards, our food budget is low but we only really eat fruit and veg and beans and pulses and we only spend about £200 a month for the three of us. I walk a lot which keeps me healthier, and since WFH became mainstream I've got infinite work opportunities. I feel like the past few years benefitted me greatly just via circumstance.

I find it seriously worrying that even food items which are produced IN THIS COUNTRY aren't on the shelves in any quantity - and that prices are rocketing for the little there is.

No prejudice here, I consider myself solid working class and I love my parents very much, my Mum especially.
My Dad was an alcoholic during my childhood, we were homeless for a while, my Mum did her best, but there were times that weren't great. I have nothing against them buying their council house, just pointing out that they paid very little for it, only had a tiny mortgage and have no comprehension of how much it costs us to live now. They've never had to pay for childcare for instance. They rant about Labour and the 3 day working week, refusing to believe that it happened under a Conservative government. And yes, they are both racist, which was their prime reason for voting Brexit. Neither are unintelligent, but the only thing they read is The Mail and take it all as gospel. They are rabidly anti union and my Mum is horrified by things such as maternity pay, yet it would have benefitted her so much, but because she didn't get it, then others shouldn't.
I really don't understand them.

What is the point of cutting taxes. All it means is investment in our country get cut. I don't want tax cuts. I want corporations and the well off to pay their taxes. I want to pay taxes because I want to live in a country where the infrastructure is invested in, and where there's a good quality of living.

The thing is, 1% of very little, is um...very little.

I live in Central Europe. Things are absolutely not all rosy here either. We also have a government, similar to the UK Tories, who have completely fucked up the economy. Pissed billions up the wall for covid testing and vaccines (as in they ordered 8 doses of vaccine for every single person in the population which then went out of date because obviously even if every person was vaccinated 3 times there would still be far too many). Constant talk about being the covid testing world champions - fine, and some testing was needed, but not to the extent of bankrupting the bloody country.

We also have problems with food supplies, due to the Ukraine war. The prices are skyrocketing - just looked at butter today, 3 times the price of last year. Can't afford butter anymore...
From the 1st October there is a new tax on CO2 - so this means the cost of a litre of petrol will go up by around 8 - 9 cents, that's on top of the astronomical rises we have already seen. And this has a knock on effect on the costs of food due to transport costs.

The health service is still good. That's one positive thing. Except dentistry. Very difficult to get a dentist. I go to Eastern Europe for treatment - 4 hour drive.

Recent policies to supposedly help people cope with the increasing costs of electricity and fuel have simply meant that high earners benefit the most.
My electricity costs have doubled despite the fact I am in a area where 100% of the energy is hydroelectric. This is thanks to the price of all electricity being coupled to the price of gas.

I really don't know how I am going to afford to live and I'm awake half the night worrying about it. I work in a field offering a service which people will definitely ditch as soon as things start getting too tight. I've already seen a reduction in numbers of clients.

Only slight hope I have I that as I'm in Scotland we will eventually get independence, otherwise we will be tied to the Tories for ever.

@tentinginmarch
That's some arrogant, patronising twaddle you put there. Suggesting the people commenting aren't likely to be affected by the 45p tax bracket is really speaking volumes.