AIBU to think things feel a bit apocalyptic?

[SundayGirlB]

Covid-19, unprecedented flooding, raging bushfires, Syria, state cyber warfare, rise of populism, stock market crashes...not looking good is it? Genuinely felt anxious last night after watching the news.

YABU = get a grip
YANBU = start prepping

[HelgaHere1]

Fortunately we live in the countryside so could shoot a pheasant or slaughter a sheep if things get desperate

[MissPoldark]

The youngest of us in my generation (gen X) haven’t lived through true hardship. In many ways we really have “never had it so good”. Previous generations were more familiar with difficult times.

[The80sweregreat]

I'm dreading the heat of summer. Then they will talk about droughts and hosepipe bans.
Those poor people flooded out though. It is dreadful. I guess this new virus is the least of their worries! Been a horrible start to the year all round.

[Howmanysleepsnow]

Yes, it does feel like that... but it’s the 8th time I can remember it feeling like that in my lifetime and I’m only (?) early 40s.

[TSSDNCOP]

Hand sanitizer is running out because people are lazy fucks and can’t be arsed to get out the bloody soap. The same people that are freaking over the planet are the same people buying multiple plastic bottles if sanitizer. There is no shortage of soap.

[SisterAgatha]

I also think the vibe feels very 80’s, I’ve been saying it since the coalition government. Everything has felt unstable for a while with Brexit, Syria, etc. Parallels can be drawn with the IRA, AIDS, Cold War, riots, margaret thatcher being ousted by her cabinet.

[janemaster]

@The80sweregreat I know there was scaremongering about AIDS in the 80's, but the science always showed that it was anal sex and IV drug use that were the really risky things. If you were a gay man, you tended to know lots of people who died of AIDS.

[Echobelly]

YANBU to feel that way, though I think on the whole I'm not feeling it's going to be 'worst case scenario' with Corvid19... I think the anxiety is just not knowing what it's going to be like. I'm certain there's going to be a lot of disruption, but that's the worst bit for me.

But then DH and I both have jobs that can be done from home and I will get sick pay if it comes to it(and as a contractor, he's paid enough that it makes up for not having sick pay), we and our kids don't have any immune/respiratory problems. Makes it much better for us than anyone with sick kids, jobs that won't allow or pay for time off and so on.

Taking sensible precautions - got a bit of extra shopping stowed away, nothing suggesting people will need masses, washing hands a lot and trying not to touch face etc. Just maybe if a lot of people are sensible we can keep it not too bad until the weather turns and slows it down

[isabellerossignol]

I stopped in Asda on the way home from work and they were almost sold out of soap!

[bellinisurge]

"We lived rurally in the 70’s and didn’t do any of those things. We had candles and Tilly lamps for the power cuts and that was it."
Presumably, like me you were a child in the seventies. I also presume food didn't magically appear on your table . Your parents probably got extra bits in where they could.
Why is it so dreadful to do it now? Why is it some kind of sign of weakness? Very odd.

[janemaster]

In the 70s shops kept good stocks of food so took longer to run out. Although I do remember them running out of bread.

[Makinganewthinghappen]

OP - I think it depends on how apocalyptic we are talking!

I do feel like a “change” is coming and I don’t mean that to sound dramatic but I’m thinking money troubles/ economic troubles or social troubles rather than end of the world scale.

I think I just feel like that because of my history obsession I studied history at uni and have spent all my life loving history books both fiction and non fiction - it’s given me a habit of seeing comparisons in situations even if there are none!

[bellinisurge]

And didn't have a range of stuff. And perishable is still perishable.

[jasjas1973]

Instant news makes things seem worse than they really are, we aren't facing off a Soviet style nuclear war, though having said that, we've never had a complete clown in No10, imay not have been a fan of Thatcher but she knew what she was doing.

But what a time for global britain to surge forward into a brave new world recession whilst at the same time telling its nearest allies and trading and security partners to piss off.

[bellinisurge]

We didn't have supermarkets in the 70s. Not really. We didn't have bar codes. We didn't have sophisticated just in time food distribution. We do now. If anything happens which disrupts that, it's harder to adjust if you have never had much of a pantry at home.

[MoonlightMistletoe]

Well it is the End Times after all!

[jasjas1973]

People cooked a lot more at home but of course though it wasn't called a supermarket, we had a high street that sold pretty much all you needed.... Morrisons call it Market Street!!!

[TSSDNCOP]

I just rang DM to ask her about getting in extra food.

She didn’t. Milk got through even in 1963. It was delivered to a central point.

She did recall having a chest freezer “full of god knows what” and we could have eaten crumbles worst came to worst.

[Wehttam]

It all feels so real and raw, it’s like being tied to the tracks and the freight train is coming towards you at 5mph but it’s 100 miles away. Summer feels like an eternity away....😐

[kenandbarbie]

I think this is nothing to how it must have felt from 1914-1945 WW1, Spanish flu, facism, Russian revolution, economic depression, ww2, concentration camps, blitz etc. Then the Cold War.

[RhubarbTea]

Don't forget the locusts and sandstorms.

OP I feel much the same. It is a bit...unsettling (to put it mildly). It feels like a rather heavy time to be a person living in the west at the moment. I get it. And yes, start prepping because it is weirdly soothing even if you just stock up on a few extra things.

[bellinisurge]

"Milk got through even in 1963"
But that's the point. If anyone is forced into self isolation, milk won't "get through ". There will be no "get through ". It will just be what is in your cupboards. For two weeks.

[Surfer25]

London in the Blitz

That's apocalyptic.

Get a fucking grip

[DameHannahRelf]

I'm feeling anxious now, but only because my mother is feeling anxious. She's prepping!

The woman who grew up during the troubles, in Belfast, in a notorious interface area, notable for torture and not just general chaos and violence, who lived through the workers strike (when the docks were shut, power stations put out of order etc). She's seen some shit, and is usually afraid of nothing. But this has her scared we have elderly and immunocompromised relatives, and I think she's terrified for them. First case reported here yesterday, when many scoffed it would pass us by completely, a week ago.

[mindproject]

If it all goes to shit I'm heading for Denver Airport.