To think that those people who seem genuinely concerned about the apocalypse need to get a grip?

[wannaBe]

Seriously. No-one really believes this, do they? Not really? it's up there with Santa and the tooth fairy - it's not real. And yet I've seen posts from people on here saying they are genuinely worried!

Even if it were real, you won't know about it because... ... ... you'll be dead!

Now you see I suffer from quite severe anxiety and yet I'm not bothered by this whole thing! Yes I get an occasional niggle, but that's it!
I guess it's because my anxiety is triggered by things I feel should be in my controll whereas I know this isn't. Plus there is no evidence, and even if it happens well..... Can't do aught about it and everyone is in the same boat. At least I won't have to fave the dreaded dentist in the new year

But if it is gonna happen it had better wait until AFTER the final assembly at school cos it's going to be a brilliant one this year!!

(It won't happen though, I mean we've had so many 'end of world' predictions in my lifetime......)

I have only read the OP. Not the subsequent pages.

I am one of the people who posted on the thread you are referring to. I am one of the people who according to you should "get a grip".

I am an intelligent reasonably well educated sane person with friends and family and a relatively decent job and many interests. I have general anxiety disorder. Today it affected me to the point that I couldn't get on the escalator and go down to the next floor in the shopping centre. The security guard had to take me down the emergency exit stairs. I was crippled with shame and embarassment at my own stupid disorder. How ridiculous of me not to have just "gotten a grip".

If you had any understanding of how anxiety disorders work then you would not have posted. Logically of course nobody is actually sitting in their home preparing for a solar flare or the collision of a rogue planet. Nobody is hoarding baked beans and spam. Anxiety is not logical. Anxiety makes you believe that all the things you fear, in the darkest parts of the night, are going to happen to you and your family and nothing, NOTHING, you can do will prevent them. That thought that turns over in your head until your almost sick with the anixety. I could go on. I won't.

Really ill thought out OP.

And all the helpful advice that is preceded with "I have MH issues too but...."

If you suffer from GAD then it is all the time. It can be triggered by anything. Minor or major. You don't just turn up to the GP every time something triggers an episode. What a horrible thread. Let's all have a good laugh at those freaks with mental health issues, aren't they just soooo stupid.

Really ill thought out OP.

hang on a mo,

Seriously you expect people not to take the micky out of apocalypse that is a made up idea, misinterpreted from a long dead race?

If people want to be deluded that is entirely up to them, and I would happily defend their right to do that, think what you like, but you can not reasonably expect people to pander to it, nor not joke about it, every comedy program will be and is having laugh about it.

no doubt the sad thing will be at minimum quite a few deaths, as a few unfortunate people over react, hopefully there won't be any mass panicking set off by a thunderstorm.

There are plenty of real things in the world to worry about, focus on them and you are helping create a solution.

If such a thing is worrying you, that is sad, but it's not a rational worry, so anyone who is rational can't really indulge you, because it would be unreasonable, and a dangerous.

this is a public message forum, so anyone can discuss anything.

if you do need help with irrational worries there is plenty out there, but you can't expect everyone to hold the same view as you, or keep their thoughts to themselves until you feel more robust, because there will always be someone feeling sensitive.

this message board unlike many, does have a hide facility, if a thread upsets you hide it, but don't demand that people stop having conversation because you don't like it, that is controlling behaviour.

There's a bit of a difference between taking the piss out of yet another apocalypse and taking the piss out of people who are scared of it. Especially when in reference to posts on here where people have explained they are scared because they suffer with anxiety problems? That's just laughing at mental illness. No one needs to indulge anyone else, just not call them "loons" and tell them to "get a grip".

Personally I think the apocalypse rubbish is hysterically funny (though the rapture(s) were funnier). I just don't see how laughing at those who are struggling to cope with the idea of apocalypse is necessary?

William Hill are taking bets on it. You're allowed to choose your own odds. So far they've taken £119.

The OP was not directed at how ridiculous the theory of ancient calendars ending/solar flares disrupting life on earth/rogue planets popping out from hiding places behind the sun/any other alternative end of world doomsday scenario you care to mention are.

The OP and the subsequent posts were directed at all those people who posted on the initial thread. With lots of smug faces. Because of course, mental health issues are still a bit funny aren't they. When understanding it makes you go...errrr. come again? Then of course the only response would be either or laughing at the sheer stupidity.

Wait, wait, wait - so the world's not going to end soon?
Crap, I need to do some Christmas shopping then.

No it's not.

Next thing to worry about is the possible path that the near earth asteroid Apohpis may take in 2029 which could lead to a possible strike in 2036. Then again, I need to "get a grip" so my facts could be incorrect due to my unstable mental health.

I'm not saying mental health issues are funny,

it's kinder to say anyone who is finding an imaginary impending apocalypse a stress trigger, needs to be getting the correct support,

it is actually quite frightening that there are so many people that give this a moments thought, let alone stress about it, our mental health support clearly isn't up to scratch or being accessed enough.

there is an element of people who use these type of things as an excuse to have a stress to focus on, maybe because having something imaginary to obsess about, they can avoid reality.

There is also a level of stupidity with some, stupidity is hard to live alongside that is probably why people express frustration.

there was a post on one thread early, where a parent had a child come home worried, that is totally unacceptable, the only reason that has happened is because irrational adults have allowed this stupidity to be indulged.

I do think that anyone indulging any worries about impending apocalypse has to be very clearly ridiculed and condemned because it is such a dangerous thing to do anything else, if you indulge someone in anyway about imaginary impending doom you are corroborating with their imagination.

just because someone might or might not have mental health issues doesn't mean that you can't condemn their opinion, they might have that view because of health reasons, it doesn't make it right, they are just as capable of casing panic.

if someone on here is being directly insulting report the post, MNHQ are very quick to remove anything offensive. I always think it should be left to be read, so everyone can see something if it is offensive, so they know who wrote it, but if you ask, they will take it down if it is seen to be offensive.

there is a tendency on MN sometimes, for those prone to righteous indignation to demand an end to any form of free speech , any form of non approved conversation, and demands for threads to be hidden,then an attack on the OP, an inability to stand reading a different view, it's the internet, millions of different view points.

quoteunquote, you wrote "if anyone wants to be deluded".

Do you think people with anxiety want to have it?

You also said "I do think anyone indulging any worries"
Do you think people with anxiety are indulging themselves with it?

Now also noticed you said "there is an element of people who use these types of things as an excuse to have a stress to focus on"

Next thing to worry about is the possible path that the near earth asteroid Apohpis may take in 2029 which could lead to a possible strike in 2036. Then again, I need to "get a grip" so my facts could be incorrect due to my unstable mental health

Absolutely no comparison between this and the Mayan Prophecy stuff. Can you not see the difference?

I do not have anxiety btw, never have had.
But I watch and listen and learn, and help out people with MH issues where I can.
I read somewhere about all the things you have done, and groups you have set up.
I also believe you run a radio station.
I suggest you spend some of your spare time volunteering with people with MH issues to learn some more about this aspect of life that affects so many of the people around you. Or at least, have indepth conversations with some of them.

My husband has actually thought about getting more bottled water and canned food in the house, although I think it's more to do with him watching Contaigen and not the apocalypse.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2249502/Mayan-Doomsday-Bomb-proof-50-000-bunkers-leather-sofas-plasma-TVs.html

Look at this, people actually believe this is going to happen and are trying to protect their familys. when friday comes and we have no protection and he does whos going to be laughing? not us because we were warned and everyone thought it was a hoax.

Rocking It's not going to happen, for crying out loud. And warned by who? If it was scientists (people who, you know, actually know stuff) I'd be impressed - but a bunch of woo believing internet bods?

There's anxiety and there's idiocy.

Oh - and if the world is going to end, I don't think sitting in a tin can underground is going to protect anyone

Ron Hubbard. Of course. Oh he's laughing alright, all the way to the bank. Because his cult have been brainwashing idiots for decades into handing over their lives, and their cash.

yep, idiocy is right. It's, not, real.

"Oh - and if the world is going to end, I don't think sitting in a tin can underground is going to protect anyone." could someone bury it underground though so we can rid the world of this twat and his ilk for ever though? I mean - if he's buried under ground can they just cut off his escape route and tell him it's because of the apocalypse?

You know it makes sense!

As a 'doomsday prepper wannabe' myself but too broke and too cramped to actually do it , I just wanted to answer these questions (from my personal reasons anyway):

^What I don't get is why you would stockpile canned goods and bottled water because:
a) what do you do when they've run out?
b) do you really want to live in a world where your next door neighbour would happily kill you for said canned goods?
c) If the world really were to end then surely that would mean we would all be dead and wouldn't be able to make use of the canned goods anyway?
^

As far as I know, most 'preppers', including myself if I ever actually manage to become one, are preparing for a major disaster/financial collapse/societal collapse, rather than an actual 'end of the world'. Therefore:

a) The hope is that you can stockpile enough to see you through until some semblance of order is restored (rather than lasting forever). Personally, I'd aim for about two year's worth.

b) I wouldn't like living in a world like that, but I'd prefer it to being dead. I also feel strongly about the survival of the human race (I'm a humanist at heart), and for that to happen, someone would have to brave a post-disaster world and start anew. I'd be willing to struggle for that.

c) Most people I know don't really think of the world ending entirely and completely, just "the world as we know it" ending. Personally, I envision at least some people surviving almost no matter what happens, and even if I wasn't one of them, I'd like to think any survivors would be able to forage for food that others had stockpiled.

Sorry for the long reply, but this is something I actually feel pretty obsessive interested about.

Although in my case, I don't believe my fear is exactly rational. I have pretty bad anxiety from a chronically violent childhood, and can't help but see the world as inherently dangerous. Anything that makes me feel 'safer' helps to alleviate that.
One of my favourite nighttime fantasies (before falling asleep) is designing and building a massive underground hidden bunker, with lots of hidden locked rooms. I'd never actually do it, but it gives me pleasure and a feeling of safety to imagine it, and I'm aware of just how weird that sounds to most people (except maybe those with anxiety).

when friday comes and we have no protection and he does whos going to be laughing?

Still us. Seriously, think about it, if the world collapses even in an economic way, how are you going to survive without agriculture or medicine or trade or reliable electricity or the ability to make even basic technology (I mean basic like a pencil - do you know how to make a pencil?) Tinned food and a bunker is going to buy you a miserable six-month descent into lawless mayhem.

Well I'm starting on some very dry martinis on Thursday evening.

Any of you who are thinking 'Any excuse to get at the gin' can just Hush!

(As far as the family are concerned, it's just that time of year so a neat coincidence.)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events

This makes interesting reading- and it is not even a complete list of all the predictions. I understand the anxiety though- somehow the more people who believe something, the more plausible it somehow feels. But as wise person said 'The truth is the truth even if no one believes it. A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it' . Or summat.

I feel so sorry for those here who have been made to fear an event which will never happen to them. I mean that with all seasonable goodwill, and without a trace of patronage - EVERYONE has irrational fears.

The societal apocalypse some of you dread is just as unlikely as the Mayan one. Not impossible, but very very unlikely, and it's pointless to spend time and money prepping for the very unlikely. Maybe better to manage anxiety by living each hour as it comes? People are not in the end controlled by external forces, but by internal habits.

Also unlikely is the tyrannical government takeover many US gun-owners fear. Governments control less and less, in fact. Even wars are now more-or-less commercial.

If you want to worry over something, worry over the extent to which our lives are controlled by unelected globalised corporations and futures marketers and hedge-funds.

As the partner of an OCD sufferer I would totally agree with those saying it is irresponsible to pander to anxiety. Any sort of a facilitation is a no-no.

The facts are that the world will not in any sense end on Friday. A radio program I heard last night indicated that the Mayan calender does not in fact reset then at all and anyone who suggests it does has misunderstood the finer workings of it.

However I would also like to point out that opposing the anxiety or even outlining truth does very little to help either.

In fact the main thing I have learnt as the partner of an anxiety sufferer is that there nothing whatsoever that you can do that is actually constructive.

My partner would never in a million years make others aware of his worries though. As he realises this is the most irresponsible thing he could do. The mayan apocalypse publicists could do worse than follow he excellent example and stop spreading anxiety like the disease it is!