... 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?

My family and I are preparing to leave the UK.

OK TaTa don't let the door hit your arse on the way out!

spring how wonderfully empathetic of you!

Why respond so aggressively to someone who is clearly considering that their future is not best suited here

I wonder why that would be? The answer is in your post btw. Just to add I luckily can get additional passports. I am. If blind faith in the TM government will keep you safe and warm good for you

I prefer clear analytical thought and reasoning. Others prefer jingoistic rhetoric nonsense. Your choice but it's OUR country too

As if we don't have enough problems, Brexit is ensuring that the UK is now such a divided country. Very sad and it didn't have to be like this.

IMV the referendum should have asked if people wanted to leave the EU but join the EEA instead. Problem solved.

But of course that would mean free movement would have to be retained, and look what happened there. NO free movement.

Very very sad times. But we must go on. For many unnecessary reasons really apart from the pesky immigrants it would seem.

Very shameful at its most basic level.

spring how wonderfully empathetic of you!

Imjustapoorboy

Reduced population is exactly what many (most?) Leave voters wanted though. People leaving the UK will be music to their ears. I'm not surprised posters are cheering the news people want to leave.

Havana agreed. However I really do think those who voted to leave should start holding the TM government to account. What ever it is they hoped to achieve they should be measuring this against May's performance.

THAT is democratic. That is everyone's responsibility

should start holding the TM government to account.

How exactly do we do that?

fake yes all us immigrant types can bugger off with our qualifications experience and money.

The irony is that those who are thinking of leaving or who have left are the most mobile in terms of career and money. The people you need to keep in a nation to enable it to function efficiently

S'OK all those pensioners repatriated from Spain will fill in the roles in the hospitals, education, science, building, finance....the list is endless

By voting. By protesting. By writing. By joining. By helping others. By not allowing racist jingoism becoming the norm and shutting down those who do

Don't get me wrong I do not accept the removal of my rights as an EU citizen. But sitting back won't help us. Politicians need to be hit where it hurts. At the ballot box and polls.

If you believe leaving is the right thing to do surely you would speak out if actions are not in your name. In fact it's important you do. Otherwise you are in agreement.

There are so many ways that taxpayer money could be spent wisely for the good of everyone.

But no... thousands of civil servants will be re drafting legislation, countless meetings with EU, re designing passports, heck I could go on but I am sure you get the drift.

So on it goes. The UK obviously has loads of dosh to spend on this exit policy, but not much for NHS, or help for those in need, and so on.

It's all a bit mad really. And I don't believe a word out of their mouths about austerity policies being required with all the money being spent on Brexit. Mad.

Exactly what rights as an EU citizen are being taken away from you?

FOM
The rights to access the protection of EU law regarding employment law equality and privacy
The rights of my EU friends to remain in the UK and be treated as an equal citizen

Can't see anything from May to say any of the above will be kept. Cant see how they could unless we stay. Can you?

Ginghambox

If you are an EU citizen you have the right to travel, work and live anywhere in the European Union (rights which may be reduced or be very much modified post Brexit).

If you have completed a University course lasting three years or more, your qualification will be recognised in all EU countries.

You can work in the health, education and other public services (except for police and armed forces) in any country in the EU.

Before travelling in the EU, you can obtain from your own country, a European health insurance card.

In addition to your rights as a worker or a consumer, you also have political rights ie regardless of nationality, you have the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in local elections in your country of residence and in elections of the European Parliament. You also have the right to petition the European Commission to put forward a legislative proposal, if you have sufficient numbers of supporters from members of other EU countries.

As a citizen of the EU your fundamental rights (civil, political, economic and social rights) are also protected under 54 articles which fall under the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which cover human dignity , freedom of expression and other fundamental social and economic rights ie

-the right to strike,

• the right of workers to be informed and consulted,

-the right to reconcile family life and professional life

• the right to healthcare, social security and social assistance throughout the EU.

The Charter, among other things also promotes
-equality between men and women

• introduces rights such as data protection,
• a ban on eugenic practices, and the reproductive cloning of human beings,

-the right to environmental protection -the right to have good administration -the rights of children and the elderly.

The EU also runs programmes for young citizens to promote educational exchanges so students can study or train abroad and learn new languages and participate in schools or colleges in other EU countries ie Comenius (school education) , Erasmus (higher education), Leonardo da Vinci (vocational training) and Grundtvig (adult education) and Jean Monnet (university level teaching and research).

As an EU citizen, you also have the right to to bring a complaint against the EU institutions and bodies via the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

More than two thirds of EU citizens manage their financial affairs and savings in Euros. Pricing goods and services in the Euro means that consumers can compare prices directly from one country to another.

Finally, every adult EU citizen has the right to vote in European Parliament elections.

Fingalswave

As much as I value all of those rights for myself, I value them so much more for my children, this was their birth right, I will NEVER get behind striping them of these rights.

Me too Fakename

Great summary Fingal.

Thanks Gracegrape I think the best we can hope for is some sort of "associate citizenship" but it still won't be as good as the real thing sadly.

To all those who feel "embarrassed" by the UK, or that the UK is just a racist hellhole, where are you going?

In the Netherlands, the PVV (Wilder's party), which makes UKIP look like those liberals sipping flat whites in Shoreditch, got more votes than UKIP. The Dutch are currently polling to leave the EU.

Need I mention France? Italy? Switzerland? Switzerland in fact voted to axe free movement only to have the EU crush another democratic result. Denmark?

The reason that only Britain is leaving is because only Britain has let the people vote on it. The problem isn't Britain - it's the EU.

There is no such thing as a birthright.

How have your children Fungal, earned their so called birth right?

chilli the PVV just did less well than expected in the Dutch elections and would have little influence anyway as no other party would form a coalition with them. Le Pen is losing ground in the polls on France. No poll has yet put her ahead in the second round of voting. Switzerland held a referendum on reducing immigration but when told (as is factually correct) by the EU that they could not remain as part of EFTA they voted again as the Swiss realised that membership of the free trade association is more beneficial to them than reducing immigration from EU member states. The Italian referendum was totally misreported by the UK press and was on a domestic governance issue unrelated to the EU. Many Italian-based posters on MN have said there is no appetite in Italy for leaving the EU. All the evidence from polling suggests that Brexit has renewed support for the EU in other member states.

The UK is a laughing stock. There was a very embarrassing report on the Washington Post this week about Britain's nostalgic view of the past.

Seriously, if Brexit is giving you fear, depression and anxiety then I'd say the best course of action for the sake of your mental health would be to leave the U.K. permanently.

Here, here French lavender!

Chilipepper First, Switzerland isn't a full member of the EU.

Secondly, I agree with you that there are difficulties across many EU member States and the current trend towards right wing politics does very much exist. The pity is that the UK will no longer play a role in counter-acting these forces within the EU. No one is saying that the EU is perfect, but in reality we have turned our back on an organisation which operates on broadly Christian social-democratic principles and was established post 2nd world war to counteract such extremism.

Sostenueto is your question directed to me?

My answer is that everyone's birthright depends on their nationality (for example, there are plenty of British overseas passport holders who have no rights to reside in the UK). Your birthright is what you are entitled to as a result of your nationality but the UK government is now removing additional rights which we have had since 1 Jan 1973 since becoming EU citizens. Post Brexit, no one knows whether those rights will be replicated, amended or removed either now or in the future.

Btw, seeing as you mention my children (nothing to do with the subject of birthright though), they speak three languages fluently and can generally spell names correctly, how about yours?

This is exactly why we need to get our own identity back. So America is laughing at us? What with Trump as president and they are laughing at us? If you have to fear anything in this world you all need to fear the fact Trump has his finger on the button. Now that is something to really worry about.

Hey fingal no one is stopping your children going to Europe, they may have to get a pesky visa but hey that won't stop them. My children are doing very nicely thank you along with my grandchildren who do not have private tutors, grammar or private school education but still manages to be in the top 3% of the country in ability. Oh and they also speak other languages (yawn).