Wearing masks everywhere indoors is so depressing

[Sossen]

AIBU to feel frustrated and, at times, a bit upset that I can’t really do anything indoors now, either on my own or with my kids, without wearing a god damn face mask? I’ve just about been able to tolerate wearing them whilst food shopping but that’s because I now take a lot of time to write out a list and meal plan beforehand and I get in and get out, as opposed to before, when I took the time to browse, picked out what I fancied, and maybe tried on some clothes whilst there. I can cope with this ok but what is depressing me is that my ds is desperate to go to a few indoor places like the trampoline park (our local one has strict guidelines in hygiene social distancing and staggering sessions) and I’ll take him but the thought of sitting there for an hour and a half opposite my dh trying to talk to him with a mask on or watching my ds play and he can’t hear me because of the mask, well it fills me with dread. I had a cinema pass which i’ve has for years but I’ve already cancelled It as there is no way I can sit for up to 3 hours with a mask on, it would be unbearable. Every day out we go on that is predominantly outdoors but have some indoor areas I’ll have to remember to take masks with me. If I nip to post a letter, pick up my medication, go into a public car park to get my car after work I have to wear a mask. I expect to be told I’m moaning but I can’t help it. I fully resent the fact that I am being told to cover my face and I have no choice in the matter. Please tell me I’m not the only one.

@TempestHayes

I genuinely have hardly noticed the mask. I put it on and I do everything I would do without it. My kids wear them without a fuss. I don't find breathing any different.

It's only an issue if you make it an issue

With the greatest of respect, that’s bollocks.

I’m pleased you find wearing a mask fine, but who are you to decide it’s only an issue if you make it one?

This happens all the time on smear test threads. For some people they’re fine. For others they’re really not.

I hate it too but we all just have to get on with it. It is not a choice, and my dc really hate it. I have to set a good example by wearing one.

You'd find covid19 more depressing.

Saint Boris said in March "we can turn this around in twelve weeks". How many weeks of this madness has it been now?

Far too many people didn't adhere to the guidance/rules.

@TempestHayes

I genuinely have hardly noticed the mask. I put it on and I do everything I would do without it. My kids wear them without a fuss. I don't find breathing any different.

It's only an issue if you make it an issue

Good for you. Personally my lips start to tingle and I can't breathe properly with something over my face.

Where are you all where the shops have suddenly stopped with any precautions since make wearing cane in?

It's not the case here at all.

Today I've been in 4 different shops - two smaller supermarkets(the express style ones), a sandwich takeaway one and the garden centre.

No one at the supermarkets were queuing but that's because they weren't busy inside but there were the queue barriers etc still in place if needed. There was a queue outside the sandwich shop. Both supermarket shops still had someone stood at the door checking I'm there was room to just walk in. There were still anti bac gel and cleaning stations for baskets at the door. Both still had one way systems and 2m markings for the tills. The garden centre still had a one way system. At none of the shops was it overcrowded or anyone getting too close or in your face. Mask wearing was high in all.

That's been my experience throughout. Nothing seems to have changed at any of the shops, supermarkets or venues since masks were made compulsory.

^*
Where the hell do you go where all the people in your vicinity are all coughing in your face?^

Come September - school.

You'd find covid19 more depressing.

Compared with what? Having to wear a face mask for a year? Personally, it’s unlikely that I would. I know that’s not true for everybody but for me, it’s likely to be a very mild illness. I’d much rather have that than wear a mask.

Sorry I thought you were confused, which SE Asian country routinely wear masks? Having lived in Singapore this is probably the only place that you might be able to say is mask wearing. To my knowledge Thailand and Malaysia don’t routinely wear masks.

Far too many people didn't adhere to the guidance/rules.

Except that’s not true, is it? There was over 90% compliance with lockdown when the modelling measures were based on there only being 75%.

@user1497207191

Saint Boris said in March "we can turn this around in twelve weeks". How many weeks of this madness has it been now?

Far too many people didn't adhere to the guidance/rules.

That’s nonsense. It’s been widely reported that the British public have been far more compliant with the measures than anyone expected,

@TheWoodsAreDark

Sorry I thought you were confused, which SE Asian country routinely wear masks? Having lived in Singapore this is probably the only place that you might be able to say is mask wearing. To my knowledge Thailand and Malaysia don’t routinely wear masks.

China doesn't as a matter of course either. It is more commonly done than in the UK due to the significant air pollution in built up areas, but it is still very much a minority of people that wear masks out and about in normal times.

^*
Hopefully government will reconsider when they realise the impact on the economy.*^

It's unlikely as people seem to be out and about more, as a whole, since wearing masks. Certainly my experience.

I know more people who are happy to go out and about now that most people are wearing a mask and using anti bac everywhere than before.

Whilst it might prevent some people it seems to be that this is out balanced by those now willing to be out more.

In France on holiday most venues and attractions were well attended despite the masks.

In London the only people getting up close and in your face last weekend were those on the anti mask protest parade (which was actually very small if you consider the size of London let alone the size of England) - they were the ones thrusting paper into people's hands and shouting directly into their face and getting within 2m of people. Everyone else were being sensible indoor and out.

In Japan last summer mask wearing was very much the norm amongst young and old alike. They seemed very easily available to purchase too. Had no issue hearing and understanding any of the many people we came in contact with over there either.

If only we'd known what was to come we could have stocked up last August!

@TheClaws

*So even if you believe in the efficacy of masks - they are pretty much a waste of time. * IAintentdead* So, experiment - if you are in a crowded room and allow 100 people to cough directly into your face, would you prefer to be wearing a mask or not?

What????????????????????????????

Mind you - if you were told to do it and not complain - you probably would.

I'm not criticising anyone for thinking they are useful or for wearing them.

I'm saying If none of those 100 people had Covid, I still couldn't catch Covid. Believing in masks being useful, not useful or the moon being made of green cheese. You can't catch what isn't there.

I'm finding the whole mask culture very depressing. I had been going out in line with what was avaliable until a couple of weeks ago. Anything non-essential or prolonged is now suspended indefinitely which rules out things that I was able to do within guidelines in much of July.

I lip read a lot. I'm finding myself saying "I'm sorry I can't hear you" a hell of a lot more than usual. I'm struggling to look at people's faces because of the way they are obscured as 2/3s of the non-verbal cues are gone. It's head down, concentrate on breathing and strip off as much clothing as I can so I don't have a panic attack. (I have form)

I'm trying and that is enough.
I am not obliged to do it with glee or admiration for NHS staff.

It's not enough that I have to endure it when I go out, it's the media assault, trying to gaslight us into accepting that this is normal. Even on children where it is neither required nor advised.

Unless I turn into a recluse and shut off any contemporary visual media, there is no fucking escape.

Ultimately my mental and physical discomfort at being denied fresh air is only protective to society if I had the bloody virus in the first place, and the local odds of that, with my level of social interractions means that I may as well start buying lottery tickets.

Masks may reduce viral load so that if you DO catch it, you're less sick: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-020-06067-8

A tv doctor said practise wearing them at home. Such an obvious sensible idea. Maybe combined with relaxation breathing. It won’t be hot forever. I think being motivated to be caring to other people will probably overcome most difficulties with wearing masks. That and empathy and gratitude to NHS workers!

Willow Lots of people coughing around you can occur: at school; on public transport; at mass gatherings like music concerts; demonstrations; in malls; in hospital waiting areas ... Anywhere, in fact, where humans gather in numbers. Imagine this scenario: you are shopping and a chemical smell spreads throughout the area. Everyone in the vicinity, by reflex, begins to cough uncontrollably. In the current COVID environment, it would be far better for these people to be masked - or anyone COVID-positive would spread their virus particles far and wide, infecting many of the others.

Don wear a mask if it’s too uncomfortable.

@KatharinaRosalie

But if the wearer doesn't have the virus, there's no point in the mask

So you are getting tested each time you leave the house? There have been plenty of studies showing most virus carriers are totally asymptomatic - a recent one for example found that 80% of people with antibodies had not had any symptoms.

So 80% of people who have Covid are totally symptomless

And yet MASKS

Maybe they need to start showing this again. "Coughs and sneezes spread diseases"

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1945to1951/filmpage_cas.htm

Masks aren't fun, no one enjoys wearing one.
Where I live we have been wearing masks since March.
Kids going back to school will wear them.
It becomes more normal with time.
The UK should have been wearing masks for much longer than it has been but it hasn't been particularly well led through Covid. ( Sunak seems to have done an ok job economically to be fair)

@Lockheart

The hell kind of material are your masks made from that you can't hear each other talk?

When my mum and I go shopping we chat all the way round the supermarket, mask and all.

I have a thin cotton mask. It’s incredibly difficult to communicate.

Imagine this scenario: you are shopping and a chemical smell spreads throughout the area. Everyone in the vicinity, by reflex, begins to cough uncontrollably.

How likely is that?!