... 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 think that people have different perspectives regardless of their age, I know as many people in their 60's that have voted remain as out. There are overall trends but plenty of individual variation.

My concerns are not for our individual financial set up, they won't be particularly impacted. But I don't think it's good for the UK finances and I don't think it's good for our kids futures. But for me it is not just about money, it is also about wider outlook.

Well, it might not be patriotic intentions. Some people voted leave or remain based on the impact they think it will have on other countries and concern for those countries.

And while people may not respect others opinions, I'd settle for people not gleefully hoping that bad things happen to the Cornish/Welsh/old people/working class people or the Germans/Polish/Irish and so on. Or at least not expressing such tribalism and mean spiritedness across the media. And dialling down the anger.

cheese what do ghettos in Britain have to do with the EU?

I'm a British EU migrant. I've been prescribed anti-anxiety meds, sleeping meds and been referred for counselling in order to cope with the effect brexit is having on me. I also have a little cry pretty much every day since the referendum result.

cowgirls branding it as people not getting their way makes it sound like half the country are petulant toddlers. Yes, we're sad with the result. But this is a complex issue and these are legitimate concerns ffs! This is why people get so cross.

Lots of people who voted remain, myself included, are not reacting in this hysterical, petulant manner. Nobody knows what the future will hold so it's pointless.to be so gloomy and important to approach it with a positive attitude.

Hear Hear CHEESE

I think what this thread is really, doing is exposing some goady fuckers people as being really very uneducated indeed and not worth engaging with.

And I am genuinely sorry Jelly for that. I really am. I would not want anyone to feel like that.

But there are also individuals who have had their lives adversely affected in ways leading to anxiety, depression and lack of sleep due to lost jobs, lost prospects and general overcrowding (in some areas - and I do think this impacts on people's mental health in ways we don't always recognise.)

It's all very 'ooh, bad Leave voters, look what you have done to my DHs business / my son who wants to study Spanish / my dreams of retiring to France.' It's all me, me, me and that's fine and natural. But sympathy wasn't given or expected when the flip side of the EU emerged in Greece and Spain and when it impacted negatively on OUR most vulnerable.

Why aren't they worthy of our sympathy? Why is Jemima being unable to gain work experience in Florence worthy of our head shaking but Jayden being unable to get a job due to intense competition not?

It's because whether we admit it or not Jemima could be our daughter. Jayden - well, he's not one of us is he? And anyway he should've worked harder at school. And those polish lads are going to work harder than him so what does Jayden expect?

It's there. It might be easier to claim prejudice comes from Leave and yes in some ways it does but it comes from the other side too. Just differently.

armpitz a very long post... you mention social class and completely unrelated issues in other countries but you are actually talking about immigration in the UK, aren't you?

Norland I'll ignore the rest of your rant against the EU if I may but on the point of the trade imbalance ... what happens if sterling loses another 20% and we can't afford to buy all the EU goods we used to?

The issues aren't unrelated.

cheese what do ghettos in Britain have to do with the EU?

It doesn't have anything to do with the EU! That's my point. My point is that those people that lots are dismissing as "thick, racist, uneducated" if they think outside of the "right way" to think are going to vote in a way that they might actually get their voices heard.
It was worth a try, no? As nobody was actually listening to any concerns. Now we're stuck with the Tories and a "let's leave the EU too".
Hurrah. Well done. Not.

I'm talking about immigration in the U.K. and issues in other countries that I don't feel are unrelated :) as both those other countries are in the E.U! The point is the E.U is not a benign institution. It has, I know, improved some lives: it has also made other lives worse. My point is that while it seems acceptable to say 'the EU did XYZ for me/my family and so I am angry and sad we are leaving!' it does not appear acceptable to say 'the EU meant these negative consequences of XYZ happened to me/my family and so I am delighted we're leaving.'

Oh and it wasn't that long a post. I've wittered on for far longer in the past

Bombarding my MP - present one is a Tory wanker, MP where I'm moving next month is old Labour stalwart with cabinet experience. I've applied for my Italian passport, I have citizenship through my father. If the UK does the sensible thing and applies for and gets membership of the EEA (Norway is opposed) I'll be able to take my disability benefits and state pension, including future increases, to live anywhere in the EEA as long as I keep a residential address in UK. There are ways of arranging that that pass HMRC inspection. All EU countries are automatically members of the EEA.

There's an article in the Guardian today quoting TM's speech to Parliament, pointing out that we already have what she thinks is most important, and UK is throwing that away. Membership of the EEA will at least guarantee us access to the single market, at a price significantly higher than we pay now.

For me, it looks like it could be goodbye Britain, how could you be so stupid and believe all those lies on both sides? The honest facts of the EU do allow a strong argument for leaving, but I believed Segolene Royale when she spoke on BBC's Hard Talk, that the UK should stay and lead the fight for change. Political systems are always a work in progress.

By choice it's Berlin for me, I went to Uni there and love it, many of my longtime friends live there. It's cultural heaven; three major orchestras, three great opera companies, the new Museum Forum that tempted Neil MacGregor from London; all the other museums and libraries. And it's a fun place with a young vibe, a great place for families. I can cope with the winters for all that. I don't have a young family but it's good to be in a mixed community.

Otherwise, angrily, desperately sad that this country persists in electing dishonest, uneducated, stupid, insular, classridden, self-aggrandising, leadership-free losers for its politicians.

armpitz the point is that the poor in this country are going to be worse off after Brexit! Yes, little Tarquin's erasmus place is less secure but jobs in manufacturing are also - more so - in jeopardy. We remainers are not all in ivory towers you know. Some of us actually care about other people worse off than ourselves, just like you do, which is why we voted remain.

Well, I don't think we can know that Eyepatch.

I certainly don't think thousands upon thousands of people moving onto one of the most densely populated countries on the planet was improving life for many people, apart from the very well to do who could buy places and spaces.

If they are poorer they might just have a fighting chance of being needed for work more than they need to work, which is always the point the poor get more powerful. But that does not suit everybody.

I am voting yes in Scotland, anything to get away from the right wing government who lead us into this mess

And who desperately wanted to remain!

Otherwise, angrily, desperately sad that this country persists in electing dishonest, uneducated, stupid, insular, classridden, self-aggrandising, leadership-free losers for its politicians

hear hear

I agree with the problem, armpitz, just not the solution. I wholeheartedly hope that leaving the EU brings the solution to overcrowding and stretched public services, but I'm almost sure it won't. Immigration won't fall significantly, and even if it does overall there will still be pockets of pressure like there are now. The thing that would really help is funding our public services properly so there are enough doctors, teachers and everything else to go round. But you'll never get that from a tory government. Brexit will put the public finances into such a parlous state that deprivation and resentment will only get worse for years and years.

roanoke

where are you going? hope not USA or Australia or NZ given their policies. If Europe, then well done you.

Some very disingenuous responses here. Comparisons to being bombed in the war - ok, our homes are not being reduced to rubble, but the government is inflicting potential economic suicide voluntarily, with full knowledge of what the worst-case outcomes could be. When bombs were being dropped during WW2, this wasn't under our government's control.

Also, the line that is regularly trotted out about how we all managed just fine before we were part of the EU. Well, firstly that's not true, we were desperate to be part of the single market as our economy was in the doldrums and we were well known as "the sick man of Europe". Secondly, the world is a completely different place now. Like it or not, globalisation has happened. You can't just switch back the clock 40 years and expect things to be exactly as they were. If we leave the single market, we will be one of barely a handful of nations in the world that isn't part of a regional trading bloc.

And yes, for most of us it is the fear of change and the unknown that is causing some anxiety. But there are people for whom Brexit has already had consequences. As PP has mentioned, there are several industries where redundancies have already been made due to the fall of sterling, not to mention the academic community where projects have dried up at the prospect of not being part of EU-wide funding. I also wouldn't be feeling too confident if I were a Welsh hill-farmer.

Finally, there are many EU citizens who have lived here for years whose status remains unknown. There have already been many stories of people, especially if they were SAHMs, who do not fulfill the necessary criteria for permanent residency (who knew you needed private medical insurance as an EU citizen?) and who could theoretically be asked to leave.

GraceGrape you have written so many inaccuacies and are clearly so poorly educated/informed, I cannot be bothered to post links refuting all your incorrect claims.

"the sick man of Europe" good grief! That was said by Margaret Thatcher a DECADE after we were conned into joining the Common Market.

But we had years of a Labour government Eyepatch and while we might have had enough teachers and doctors we didn't ultimately have enough money, which was a slight problem!

I agree with the pockets of pressure and I agree immigration isn't the sole problem or solution (my heart sinks when I see 'we have two healthy DC, AIBU to have a third!') but it's really been a twenty first century problem, in this country at least.

Deprivation wise, while it isn't always the case that deprived people are either unemployed or working in insecure low paid jobs, it usually is. That's a response to supply and demand. I am hoping that in subsequent years the demand for workers is higher and thus better paid - and more significantly - secure positions will be offered. We can hope, right? :)