... for those who are devastated about Brexit, how are you dealing with the fear and depression and anxiety?

[testytesting]

Has anyone got any strategies? I am genuinely not one for melodrama, but I am devastated, angry, terrified, depressed, and I feel so utterly helpless. Nothing in my lifetime has made me feel like this, and I just can't imagine feeling like this for the next two years and beyond. I can hardly bear to listen to the news, but I feel compelled to anyway. How are other remainers dealing with this, what are your coping strategies? And what, if anything, can we DO?

I feel sad about it. I live in the EU with my non British husband and two children. I am having to look at naturalization as I don't want to risk being asked to return to the UK-especially as with the new rule changes there would be no way I could afford to bring my husband or children with me. I honestly feel resentful at being essentially exiled.

I will get on with it though. It just makes me sad that we are reduced to this.

startrek09: "I live in the EU with my non British husband and two children. I am having to look at naturalization as I don't want to risk being asked to return to the UK-especially as with the new rule changes there would be no way I could afford to bring my husband or children with me. "

Luckily, you've got people like brick to tell you to Get A Fucking Grip. Worrying about having to leave your husband and children? Pah! At least you haven't got bombs dropping on your head.

I thought I felt OK but I had a terrible nightmare about a kind of Handmaiden's Tale type societal collapse last night, so it's obviously getting to me a bit in the back of my brain.

Currently I have increased my increase of tea, sometimes 'well-sugared' like in Call the Midwife, increased my intake of Green and Black's chocolate (useful for dementors so why not for political malaise?) and signed up to be a non-exec director on an important national body so I can (hopefully) contribute to the rehabilitation of our broken society. I also started going to Church again. Seeing how I get on with that lot.

I think just because obviously things were dreadful during two WW doesn't mean people can't be depressed and worried now. They don't cancel each other out and it just diminishes how worried many people are. Just because things have been a lot worse doesn't mean everything is perfect now does it?

How many of you lived through either of the wars? Citing your granny isn't quite the same is it as your own experience of fear and worry is it.

Brick the 'EU army' has been cited many times on here as a reason to leave. Some people even seemed to think there already was one!

at best self indulgent and at worse attention seeking and daft

very harsh if you know that your quality of life is going to be diminished or you don't know what is going to happen to you or you are worried about losing your job. Losing your job is massively stressful. Losing your home is even more stressful. Although I think EU citizens in the UK are better off than British citizens, as they at least have an option if they decide they don't like life here. We're just stuck here if some form of freedom of movement is not preserved.

And then there are the further ramifications such as possible independence for Scotland which is stressful for both sides - either way it must be stressful worrying if the other side will win.

And without wanting to get silly - but even stupid things like not knowing if your favourite products will be continued because of supply chains is stressful. Even if they are made by British companies in the UK they might depend on raw materials from the EU. I did think about stocking up on my favourite products but the problem is the use-by dates. I might buy a few just before Brexit Day though.

itsmine my DH has lost his job due directly to Brexit. I am not going into detail just to satisfy you but I have every reason to suffer from a fair degree of 'angst' even though I am not living through a war

How many of you lived through either of the wars? Citing your granny isn't quite the same is it as your own experience of fear and worry is it.

No it isn't but I can assure you my families accounts of living in a death camp is harrowing.

I started the war example as a way of saying this country had weathered worse things and our ancestors had been through more trying times but I wasn't expecting it to be dragged through 14 pages!

I have been feeling anxious this week as my DP has been working abroad and I've been nervous about all the flying. Anxiety is horrendous, particularly if it's daily and I'm really sorry that people on this thread are going through such a difficult and worrying time ☹️

This is just turning into a stupid competition over who can feel the most anxious, unbelievable.

I've buried my head in the sand. Not read a paper, not seen any news and not listened to any radio. (Normally an LBC listener, so imagine I've missed a lot). I'll resurface when the deed is completed!

There are four options:

1. It all goes tits-up and falls apart, and is abandoned as a bad job. Brexit never happens. Everyone quietly forgets about the whole embarrassing malarkey.

1. It happens, and goes wrong. The economy tanks horribly, and everyone realises Remainers were right all along.

1. It happens, and is a reasonable success, and Leavers crow even more loudly.

1. (The most likely.) It happens, is a patchy disaster with one or two "positive" things which are seized upon and spun as it being a success.

Number 1 please Dad!

As I stated upthread, the wars were not self-inflicted. Nobody is dismissing the horror of living through a war. Brexit may cost some people their livelihoods, but it is unlikely to cost anyone their life. That doesn't stop the issue of Brexit being depressing. Not least because of the divisiveness it has caused. I suppose one of the things that may have helped people deal with the awfulness of WW1 and 2 was the sense of unity against a common enemy.

And to those sneering at people packing up and leaving the country, what's your problem with that? Loads of people are leaving, you saw the link up thread about loads of nurses from the EU leaving, and you sneering at them? Why don't you form an angry mob and you can throw stones at them while they're on there way out. Besides, reducing immigration was the top priority so surely people leaving is good news. Nobody is being forced out (yet) and population is being reduced, this is what you wanted, you should be celebrating.

If I could I would be off like a shot!
No hesitation, I loved this country once but not anymore.

I have a full grip, and am fairly anxious about this. Joining a political party and doing a (pretty small) bit of campaigning for them has made me feel like there are ways to prevent some of the worst catastrophes I fear are ahead.

As much as anything because you get time with people who have made effective political change and sometimes quite public fuckups . And for better or worse, I think politics can solve this eventually.

Lib Dems FWIW. You can also get to achieve a childhood dream deliver leaflets through people's letterboxes, which is tremendous fun. "ooh, I think this one will be a bugger to get open" or "oh yes, easy mechanism at 40a, naice to deliver through". I have renewed respect for our postie's fitness levels, mind you.

Anyway, if Brexit is only less anxiety-inducing than being bombed by enemy forces or dealing with terminal illness, it can still be fairly bloody anxiety-inducing.

You sound utterly ridiculous, you do not have depression or a diagnosis I assume? Not melodramatic at all... and quite insulting to those who actually suffer mental health issues.

Something happened that you didn't like politically, unless you are willing to dismantle our democracy you will not get your way, and to do that would be far more worrying than leaving the EU. You just have to get on with your life, if Brexit has really caused you issues then you need to tackle those issues to make your life the way you would like it to be again. It isn't actually going to have any impact on most people's everyday lives. But reversing democracy by forcing more voter until your side wins would, and it would have much more impact.

The constant stream of 'Leave voters are racist' etc etc is what caused the problem, you have assumed that your viewpoint is the only correct one and have silenced the vast majority who actually don't agree with you and when they had a chance to vote anonymously they took it, and their view proved to be the majority. People are tricked into a false sense of security on social media as the algorithms mean you are in a bubble/echo chamber. And it is really, really boring, I left social media as I could not deal with everyone's sudden political interest now that all it takes is posting a link to a guardian article to seem well informed.

Also for what it's worth, I know many many people from ethnic minorities who voted leave, are they racist? No they aren't and their vote was motivated by factors other than 'I don't like foreign people' and this will be true of many white people too. My DP and I would have voted leave, (we didn't vote for a number of reasons) and he isn't white and wasn't born here. And we have got the most racist abuse for being in an interracial relationship in other European countries than here in the U.K.

Whine-y remainers are just irritating. Help some refugees yourself if you care so much, I doubt any of you do bar an occasional small donation to a charity. You want to make a difference to people's lives? Then do it, moaning about brexit isn't going to help anyone.

unless you are willing to dismantle our democracy you will not get your way, and to do that would be far more worrying than leaving

Actually almost all changes of the magnitude require a much higher bar to get over than the simple majority that this referendum required. I don't think that it a threat to democracy, just common good sense. I used to be Chair of my children's pre-school and we wanted to close it down for varied reasons. Because closing down the pre-school was seen as such a serious and unchangeable step, we had a higher voting bar to get over to close it the the Gov put in place to take the UK out of the EU. Fucking madness to base a decision like this on a snapshot of ill informed public opinion.

I was speaking to a mathematician a while ago who said that because of the age profile of leave/remain voters, if nobody changed their vote and the new 18 and 19 year olds vote the same was that age group voted in the referendum by the time we are actually out of the EU most of the electorate will be remainers.

I've lived in Europe and am eligible to apply for an eu passport - so if things go to ratsshit I'm off - and leave the brexiteers to return England to the dull, non-cosmopolitan 1950's.

gosh.

Yup, I'll say it again: feeling depressed and anxious and angry about political events is a perfectly valid emotional response. No diagnosis required to feel as bad as you like.

Channelling that into something practical will help for sure - whether that is party membership, charity volunteering, writing to your mp, gardening, watching videos of Nick Clegg, whatever.

In fact here is a video of our ex-dPM, expressing emotion:

I am not Nick Clegg btw, just find him pretty on point these days.

Oh, and here is gentle Alain De Botton on why it is all going to be ok (although given his tweeting recently, I think he is feeling pretty appalled atm)

xposted with Goat and fakename, obvs

I was already a Lib Dem, and campaigned relentlessly against the referendum (and my area voted very remain). After an 18 hour day on Jun 23rd I had about 8 hours of despair, drank lots of whisky, and then I checked my membership system and found that new members had started coming and decided to fight back. Since then I've posted thousands of leaflet (a wooden spatula really helps Anlaf), helped us win in Richmond, got loads of our new members actively involved and am about to (hopefully) have big gains in the local election campaign I'm helping to run.

And I do help refugees - I'm trustee and treasurer of a charity which has raised over £50k for them in the last year and sent lots of volunteers and donations to Calais, and supported refugees that have been housed in my town.

So I think I maybe have slightly more legitimacy in moaning than someone who couldn't even be bothered to take part in our democracy silkypyjamas. I'm more than happy if people like you don't bother voting, but I won't tell you what to do. Don;t be so rude as to tell me what I should be doing either.