To be totally terrified ***edited by MNHQ to make clear this relates to the invasion of Ukraine***

[Petrolblues]

I can’t sleep, I can’t eat.
I keep looking at my 3 year old and crying.

I’m terrified of a nuclear attack.

It’s always been a fear of mine, even more so now that I have a child.
I feel sick. I just read an article which basically says Putin may well press the button as he’s never backed down on threats before and now I’m shaking.

Please help calm me down. I have ASD and ADHD. I had a full scale panic attack yesterday. I hate the not knowing and I feel like I can’t protect my son
I can’t quite believe we’ve had a global pandemic and now this.
I feel like I may be locked up soon, I’m losing it.

I’m actually getting really pissed off with all the ‘oh don’t be silly nothing will happen’ people.

Look how he’s escalated. People were like, oh don’t worry he’s not going to actually invade. Oh. Oh well he’s not going to threaten nukes. Oh.

I feel surprisingly calm about the whole thing but I do think this is really happening. Short range nukes into Ukraine at the very least.

@GaiusHelenMohiam Thanks for that. That’s helped us all no end with our anxiety.

I can remember talk of / the threat of nuclear war from as young as eight years old. I'm now 50.
As pps have said, launching nuclear missiles is not a one man operation, it's a collective operation, and the people of Russia and those high up in Putin's circle know fine well that if they were to try and launch them NATO would take them out in seconds.
Putin is a sick man, he is flexing his muscles. He's getting a kick out of everyone being frightened.
Hopefully this will all come to a head soon, preferably with his removal and imprisonment or demise.
Carry on with your day to day life, OP, for your son, try to distract yourself from the news if at all possible, I know, as an anxious person myself, that this is easier said than done but you can do it. We can do it.

I just think it’s more helpful to be realistic. There’s nothing we can do about it.

I just find the hand waving ‘it’ll never happen’ quite annoying/insulting.

It’s all show. NATO dwarfs Russia.

I'd actually rather read posts like "it'll never happen" than those links people put up warning us how "chilling" or terrifying" they are to read.

For someone who is very anxious I'm sure it doesn't help. I often come on these threads purely for reassurance that it "will never happen" even though I realise no one really knows.

You need to stop spending too much time following the news /social media and try not to read some of the frankly increasingly bonkers threads that have appeared here...

There is nothing you can do about it. This is something outside all our control.

Do I think he will push the button? I don't. I think he knows his campaign in Ukraine is going badly and he is posturing. His rich oligarch pals certainly don't want a nuclear war and his own people/army will start to turn against him.

Try to live and enjoy your life and continue your regular activities.

.Oh ffs get a grip. Your daily life is unaffected at the moment and highly highly unlikely to be. Why on earth would we be nuked we've not even gone to fight in Ukraine. Honestly everyone loves something to be "anxious" over these days. The people in Ukraine are scared they've had to leave their homes and husbands, fathers behind. You probably woke up in your cosy 3 bed semi and are sitting with a coffee. Perspective.

What a lovely way to speak to someone who at worst is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and at best is suffering with severe anxiety-which ain’t no picnic even if you do happen to be suffering with it in a 3 bed semi
OP apart from the odd cunty post like the one above, I do hope that you are feeling calmer after reading the replies on here. I know I do.

Calm down. Your anxiety would be understandable if you lived in Ukraine or were Ukrainian and had just fled but you’re not in this situation. He isn’t going to nuke anyone.

Some people are such dicks on here. Ignore the posters trying to stick the boot in OP. You’re not alone

I don't understand people telling the OP to calm down! U wouldn't tell a depressed person to be happy or a person with a broken leg , just walk! So rude and unnecessary!

I'm sorry you're feeling so anxious OP. I am worried too, but all I can say to comfort you is that I think, ultimately, the human instinct to survive will win out. Even if Putin personally is willing to go out with a bang, I highly doubt that the people around him will allow it to come to that. They will want to live, and for their children to live. Russia sending nukes to any NATO country would ensure their country's destruction.

Putin knows that a nuclear bomb is the most frightening thing he could possibly threaten. That's why he threatens- to make us afraid and start doubting that standing up against his bullying is the right thing to do. It makes me feel better to see getting on with life and keeping fear at bay as an act of defiance.

@Petrolblues
Switch off the TV.
Put your phone down.

Take your son and go outside for a walk.
The sun is shining the sky is blue go for lunch in a cafe. Have fun.

I can guarantee Putin will be nuking nobody. It's all bravado and right now his war is going to shit for him. He has made empty threats before but this is his last as after all this is over, pretty confident Russia will do the decent and sensible thing and replace him.

Enjoy today there will be many more to come.

It's not going to happen.
Nobody wins a nuclear war. Nothing would be gained.

@PinkSyCo

.Oh ffs get a grip. Your daily life is unaffected at the moment and highly highly unlikely to be. Why on earth would we be nuked we've not even gone to fight in Ukraine. Honestly everyone loves something to be "anxious" over these days. The people in Ukraine are scared they've had to leave their homes and husbands, fathers behind. You probably woke up in your cosy 3 bed semi and are sitting with a coffee. Perspective.

What a lovely way to speak to someone who at worst is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and at best is suffering with severe anxiety-which ain’t no picnic even if you do happen to be suffering with it in a 3 bed semi
OP apart from the odd cunty post like the one above, I do hope that you are feeling calmer after reading the replies on here. I know I do.

You're right, but at the same time I've found perspective to be quite helpful when suffering with severe anxiety, and trust me, I've been there. Just perhaps not worded in the sharp way above.

BBC news just reported that the Kremlin has confirmed Putin raising his nuclear threat level was a direct response to Liz Truss' comments - he's taken it as a sign of possible aggression from a NATO country after it was understood none would get involved in physical combat.

@GaiusHelenMohiam

I’m actually getting really pissed off with all the ‘oh don’t be silly nothing will happen’ people.

Look how he’s escalated. People were like, oh don’t worry he’s not going to actually invade. Oh. Oh well he’s not going to threaten nukes. Oh.

I feel surprisingly calm about the whole thing but I do think this is really happening. Short range nukes into Ukraine at the very least.

This is a thread started by someone who specifically requested reassuring messages to calm her down. Its probably not the best place to be if you are irritated by people who believe there is less to worry about that you do. And probably not particularly helpful to offer the exact opposite to what the OP requested. Proclaiming the worst case scenario and wanting other people to join in brings no benefit to anyone and a lot of damage to others.

So not him randomly deciding he's going to use them, he just seems to be making it known he can more than defend his country should we decide to attack him. I see at least one politician has now publicly distanced himself from Truss too, so I doubt Boris or anyone else will be backing her comments up.

Switch off your technology and try and relax, find your coping mechanism, distract yourself, read a book etc…

You may want to seek medical help if your find your anxiety is overtaking your routine activities.

Please speak to your GP. Don’t let this get worse and worse and totally out of control. I did let that happen to me and it’s so much harder to pull back when you’ve totally lost your mind and have no grip on reality. Don’t let anxiety win.

i'm with you OP, i'm very frightened by it all. Ever since we were made to watch Threads at school I've been convinced that is how I'll die

You're right, but at the same time I've found perspective to be quite helpful when suffering with severe anxiety, and trust me, I've been there.
Just perhaps not worded in the sharp way above.

No ‘perhaps’ about it. Poor OP sounds absolutely crippled with anxiety. You wouldn’t tell a depressed person ‘ffs get a grip, there are people so much worse off than you in your 3 bed semi!’ would you? It’s fucking nasty.

Go to your GP. It isn't fair of you to not get help and put your anxiety on your partner and your child.

It's unlikely that there will be a nuclear war. I'm a lot less confident than I was just a couple of days ago, however. But still, I think the chance of a nuclear attack in the coming months is under 10%, i.e. we've got a better than 90% chance of there not being one.

I read a BBC article earlier that made the point that Putin has repeatedly shown that the phrase "he'd never do that" doesn't apply to him. That is a concern because it throws the nuclear deterrent argument out the window. Traditionally nuclear stockpiling has been based on the MAD (mutually-assured destruction) principle - I can't attack you because you will destroy me.

Putin has stated that if there is a world without Russia, there is no need for the world to exist at all. On the face of it this complies with the traditional MAD idea - someone tries to wipe Russia out, they'll retaliate. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that perhaps Putin already thinks Russia is being wiped out. His vision of Russia is a USSR-style one, not a democratic capitalist society.

No rational person would believe that NATO or the EU are a genuine threat to Russia. We're not going to invade them, if they leave us alone we'll leave them alone. The trouble is, Putin sees the former USSR territories like Ukraine, Slovakia, Estonia etc. as being part of Russia's legitimate sphere of influence. He doesn't accept that they have the right to have a genuine democracy, he doesn't accept that they have the right to join NATO or the EU. In his eyes, his vision of Russia is already under an existential threat.

In Putin, the world isn't dealing with a Trump or a Johnson - people who will lie and deceive to gain influence, people who are out to line their own pockets, but ultimately know that war costs money and lives, which doesn't help them in their aims. Putin is only interested in being remembered as a "great" leader in the same way Lenin, Stalin or Hitler are. ("Great" as in successful at making their mark on the world - not as in nice.)

If he's not remembered as a successful conqueror, there's a fear that he will see the destruction of the planet as a better alternative than being remembered as a failure.

A nuclear war is still unlikely though.

Maybe 80/20 against.

@Fuzzy303

i'm with you OP, i'm very frightened by it all. Ever since we were made to watch Threads at school I've been convinced that is how I'll die

Me too. We were shown it in Year 9. It has affected me my entire life - whenever there is tension between nuclear powers I become a basket case. I wish my Geography teacher had handed out some worksheets on rock formations that day, instead of thinking we needed to know about a full on raging nuclear Armageddon.