To think the mood of the country is low level depression?

[AllThePogs]

I know individuals may feel optimistic at the moment or severely depressed, but I think the atmosphere in the country is of low-level depression.
I think countries often have an overall "feel" to them. I have lived through times that have felt optimistic that things are going to improve, and times that have felt happy and prosperous.
But at the moment the atmosphere just seems like low-level depression.
AIBU?

Most people i know are okay. Yes we've had to tighten our belts financially, but everyone has a job, which they didn't before covid. My children are still getting an education and aren't having to contact isolate every 10 seconds. We are vaccinated, so when we get covid (for most of us) its very mild. People who aren't circulating seem more down than those who have had to get on with it, and I think working from home has probably adversely impacted people. We are ready for a government change but I don't like labour and their anti women policies, so we certainly need a leadership change. We went through much worse as a country 80 years ago.

@ANameChangeAgain I am wfh, but did before the pandemic. I am getting out and socialising. For me it is what is happening in the country combined with dark dreary weather. It would be easier if we had warm sunny evenings after work.

Does my bloody head in people using a clinical diagnostic disorder in a completely unrelated manner. How does one diagnose a whole nation eh op?
Just to clarify there is no such medical term as mild depression. You and many others might want to check ICD 10 diagnostic criteria before stupidity branding medical terms about.
Right as you were, Carry on with your Daily Mail journo

Daily Mail journo?
I don't know how else to describe it.

Don't really notice this tbh. Seems pretty busy around my city and the construction sites I go to daily aren't full of mopers. I think office workers are maybe faring worse with being isolated wfh.

to be fair it's the middle of january and a pandemic.

[quote AllThePogs]@ANameChangeAgain I am wfh, but did before the pandemic. I am getting out and socialising. For me it is what is happening in the country combined with dark dreary weather. It would be easier if we had warm sunny evenings after work.[/quote]
I prefer winter. Bracing walk without getting too hot and sweaty, hot chocolate, warming hearty soups and stews, snuggling on the sofa in cosy pyjamas with (fake) furry blankets, pretty tealights (I guess my name's a hint ).

We're all difference, I guess.

@Tealightsandd I like bracing walks at the weekend. Do you work though? Because I do, so five days a week I don't finish work until it is dark, That is depressing.

Yeah, even with hearing fireworks on NYE there weren't the usual whoop whoops or cheering. Springs around the corner though and lighter evenings so I'm hanging onto that. Covid is starting to dip, albeit slightly, so hopefully things will slowly improve.

It’s always like this to some extent in January - post Xmas, weather dull or bad and the realisation that it’s still quite a long time to Spring.

I always think Xmas comes too early - a late February festival would be cheering timing. ( Ignoring all historical/ cultural/ change of calendar timings for Xmas )

No I think it is much more than normal.

[quote AllThePogs]@Tealightsandd I like bracing walks at the weekend. Do you work though? Because I do, so five days a week I don't finish work until it is dark, That is depressing.[/quote]
I started to WFH part-time long before the pandemic.

I got into the habit of going out for a lunchtime walk.

@Tealightsandd I wfh. I get half an hour and have to make much and eat. A quick 15 minutes around the streets doesn't interest me.

@giggly

Does my bloody head in people using a clinical diagnostic disorder in a completely unrelated manner. How does one diagnose a whole nation eh op? Just to clarify there is no such medical term as mild depression. You and many others might want to check ICD 10 diagnostic criteria before stupidity branding medical terms about. Right as you were, Carry on with your Daily Mail journo

Jeez, get over yourself!

The op was just using that term to make a point. She wasn't intentionally trying to misdiagnose the nation!

I'm sorry - that's shit @AllThePogs

I noticed pre pandemic the move towards shorter lunch breaks adopted by some companies.

It's not healthy.

Employees need the traditional hour's break. Return to the afternoon fully refreshed.

That's something worth campaigning for actually. Protect the hour's lunch break.

@Tealightsandd I am sure I could get longer if I asked, but I would finish later. Everywhere I have worked for years only has half an hour break.

@twominutesmore

Inflation, fuel and energy prices, tax rises, interest rate rises, a pay freeze for many in the public sector, two years of covid, a corrupt government and nothing to bloody look forward to for the foreseeable. I'm fed up of even pretending to be optimistic snd cheerful.

This!

Which country?

I haven't had a Christmas for two years, other than a tree in the corner of the room and a roast dinner. No family, no socials, no school events. Church is too grim to go to without any faces. There hasn't been anything meaningfully Christmasy to liven up the mid-winter.

It's too volatile at the moment to risk booking a holiday. We did leave the UK to see DH's family last year but it was like June 2020 there right down to the taped up playground at the zoo with huge signs about social distancing. I don't want to risk going somewhere more unpleasant than the UK again. Plus we booked, then it became unviable and only became viable again with 10 days to go. It was shit and not worth the aggro other than dutifully seeing family in cold gardens and soggy parks because they were too terrified to let our (by default) disease-ridden children indoors (despite semi-isolating for 10 days to minimise the trip being cancelled and being the lowest-exposed people present )

People don't want to make commitments because the chances of cancelling are too high. We've lost the habit of socialising. So many people are knackered with no recharging opportunities.

I do believe that 2022 will be a better year, but we're not in a position to feel psychologically safe to trust it yet.

We need all restrictions to go. The vile faceless mask mandates. The Covid risk assessments. The isolations. The policies. Testing in the community. Doing things remotely instead of in person. They might not be all be direct from government, but they layer up and are having a grinding, cumulative effect on society and our collective wellbeing and stop us from healing and moving on.

Re lunch breaks, companies gradually stopped paying them after minimum wage was introduced. Prior to that you wouldn't always get an hour paid but you would get half an hour paid. So a ft job was 37.5 hours' pay at least, sometimes 40. Now it's 35 hours, and any time you take is unpaid so any time you take just means a later finish, for no extra money.

The Man. He always fucks you, one way or another.

Doing things remotely instead of in person.

The pandemic won't magic itself away by wishing it would. Just as we have seat belts and child seats, pandemic mitigations - including masks and good ventilation (HEPA filters or corsi-rosenthal boxes) - are the way back to doing things in person.

On the same topic (magic wishing away). Long Covid disability is a serious issue. Whilst still downplayed in some places, other countries like Finland have recognised this.

Mitigations reduce the need for restrictions. They are, for the time being, our way back to as much normal as possible. There's no pretence of normality without them.

Anyway agree with others that there's not exactly anything happening that inspires joy. We know we're all going to be worse off money wise starting this year and continuing it seems indefinitely. If you put something in the diary it's only luck that it goes ahead. Our kids are all partially educated feral shut ins and nobody wants to work or even it seems answer the phone.

Having said that, due to hybrid working I've been saving up the money I've not spent on fares to work, also from not going out etc, and there's now a fair wee chunk. Fucked if I'm going to hand it over to fucking Putin, so even though I really should be keeping it for when the financial shit really bites I have booked a holiday. Abroad! It's making me feel a bit better but tbh I kind of think I'm jinxing it if I look forward to it so I can only think of it sideways.

our collective wellbeing

A mass social housing build would do wonders for society's collective wellbeing (boost the construction industry too). Also a big help for, often mentioned during lockdowns, children's education, life chances, and mental good health.

Yeah not going to happen. We have a landlord class now and no one is going to shift them.

I definitely feel down about life in a way that I didn’t pre-Covid. I’d just started a new job two years ago and have managed to meet my colleagues twice in that time.My whole role changed overnight to something I never would have expected.
My dad got seriously ill with Covid. I can no longer easily pop on the train to visit family in London and have hardly seen them. I’ve socialised less, barely been to a yoga class at the local studio, shopped less, received bad news in hospital alone, been admitted to hospital and not allowed visitors. Special plans have been cancelled, and we have not been on many proper holidays. My kids have both currently got Covid, having to isolate and I’m exhausted and probably about to get ill myself. Even my modest plans to see friends this weekend and take DD for her first swimming lesson are cancelled.

All these things might sound minor, and first world problems. I am grateful for what I do have, etc etc but for me each of these things are moments of connection, fun, joy, interest that have been stripped out of my life leaving it less fun, more lonely and harder work than it was before. It’s the same for many people I know.