To ask when is it going to be normal again?!

[AnxietyLevelMax]

When? Just when? I am so so tired and fed up! Already!

First we had Covid. (Still exists-I know) - being sick, then having sick baby, queuing at asda early morning to be able to get what we needed while pregnant, not seeing family for ages, was due on Xmass, family's plane cancelled last minute before Xmass, then two more times. Took ages for the family to meet our baby. Being furlough and not knowing if company will make it, being redundant, I can go on and on…
Then war, prices are going crazy, mortgage, gas and electricity, fuel, we wont be able to afford food soon and three years ago had a proper financial cusion! (Literally we will be eating beans on toast daily now)
I know everyone is affected, some are in far worse position although it doesnt really make me feel better. I know everyone has own story, experience and own battles to win to survive now…. But when is it going to be normal?!

i do not want to worry about tomorrow and if we will be able to make it from paycheck to paycheck next month…

have also other personal problems which play a huge factor but not related to whats happening in the world now. We all have some other problems.

i just want to feel that peace again….

Very unlikely in the near future imo.

I just try to concentrate on the small things in life that are good and lovely. For me it is hiking, enjoying the sunshine, podcasts and going to Church.
We can’t control these bigger things. Finding ways to enjoy small things I find helps.

@Lavendersummer thank you Lavender for sharing how you cope with everything.

would appreciate if others can share their ways of coping too

I find things much easier if I have a regular good nights sleep.

To answer the question, probably several years.

I avoid the news. Selfish but I cannot deal with it.
I spend a lot of time outdoors. Walking, gardening and encouraging the children to do the same.
Taking little pleasures in life. My first cuppa in the morning. Getting love from the dog.
Trying hard to live in the moment amd just deal with what I can, when I can.
Possibly a bit naive but 🤷‍♀️

It’s tough. Wish I knew

It is just so relentless isn't it.

I look at the sky, hear the birds singing and see the way light plays in the leaves on the trees. And remind myself that just to see those things, and wake up to those every morning, is a privilege and that it is worth everything else if only to see that.

I saw a thing today that said that accepting a situation is a positive experience and striving for better is a negative experience. I've not explained that very well but basically it's better to accept how things are than to hope for better. That's not to say you can't have ambition of course you can but you should also enjoy the moments now.

I try and do things I like such as reading, being near the sea, reminding myself that the kids grow up quickly and I don't want to waste my time with them looking backwards etc.

In 5 years time we won't remember this distinctly. But then in another 5 years something equivalent will be happening. Then things will settle down...for a while...and repeat.

The older you get the less you will panic but also you will stop thinking it all won't come around again.

This is the new normal. Don't expect things to go back to how they were.

Apart from the pandemic these things have always happened.

Connect with other people even (especially) when you don’t feel like it. I’ve been making an effort to reach out to other mums and just be together (free stuff like museum or park or just sitting in each other’s houses drinking tea) - it has helped a lot. Also with neighbours, just looking out for each other and swapping plants from the garden or favours or baking.

But yeah, it’s hard and shit and I’m struggling too. And also, we’re alive and one day we’ll be dead, so we should try and enjoy being here while we’re here.

I feel exactly the same. And it's making me very depressed and ill. Being at quite a low end of the working class spectrum, every time shit with our economy happens, we really really feel it. Through a lot of hard work we finally got ourselves to a relatively comfortable position with room to have some ambitions and little luxuries. Debts cleared, finally on the housing ladder, a car that wasn't so old.it was constantly in the garage for repairs, able to afford for DS to go to a couple of clubs.

Then covid struck, and everything else that followed it, and its all gone to shit for us again. And only likely to get worse.

Like you say, I know there are always others worse off and I should still feel lucky. But I can't help but grieve that very brief period of time we had in our household where things finally felt secure and safe.

Now we're just working all the hours under the sun, and ourselves into the ground, just to be able to pay the bills and wondering how quick we'll fall into debt again when we can't keep up.

I'm sad for my DS growing up in a time where real poverty is becoming a reality again for many, and we might very well fall into that bracket soon.

I honestly don’t think it will be better for a good while.

I am(was) a positive person that didn’t let things bother me but now I am getting gloomy fat more than I ever have. Feel stressed much more.

I try to not watch news at all now. I eat so cheaply in the week (beans on toast x 2, jacket with tuna & batch cooked chilli) so I can treat myself on a sat, that cheers me up. I look forward to prosecco & pizza Saturdays.

I also try to be grateful that I can get up each day & go about my day - try to think of all those that are being given terrible health news or bedbound etc…this helps me. I also realise how lucky I am to have a roof over my head. I can eat & live v cheaply.

I also try to have stuff planned, even just going for a walk & picnic.

also, for me, having my dog is a massive help, forces me to walk him twice per day so getting fresh air & talking to others regularly helps.

I am sorry not much help, but I feel similar to you. Hope things improve for you.

Think about these things- were they all as dire as first made out? I don’t think most were. Here are my examples…

Covid- most of us were going to die, bodies were being laid out in the streets in Italy.

Anyone on furlough- enjoy it while you can. You will be definitely sacked soon.

We were all definitely going to be attacked by a nuclear bomb in February.

Petrol and diesel are coming down after all that fuss a few months ago.

Gas prices etc- good luck on them charging what is predicted. Most won’t afford it so it won’t get paid. There’s something quite comforting in not being the only one skint.

My point is- the news just loves to create drama. Switch it off and enjoy your life- out and about things feel as normal as ever.

A few years if we’re honest.

It will be normal again when we normalise these new and difficult circumstances.
I've lived through a few recessions, times of high unemployment, low income, going without, then things tend to improve, before the cycle starts again. Whether we're in the good times or the hard times, eventually we adjust, and get used to how we need to live. You take your happiness where you can, probably in a different way from the way you did before; so a day at the beach rather than a holiday abroad. But you still laugh, you still have fun, you can still find joy in life.
Its a horrible worrying time, and I'm not minimising that or trying to be a Pollyanna, but if you have the basics of health, family and friends, you get by. Like everything in life, good and bad, it's a phase and will pass.

I never thought that covid would end (I know it hasn’t ended as such, but day to day life is generally back to how it was in 2019 for most of us in terms of going out & about, holidays, full events, no restrictions etc) - so I keep thinking this will be the same and it will end eventually. People said on here in particular that life would never be the same after covid, but I went on a foreign holiday last week and it was just like 2019- I felt like sticking my fingers up at all the nay-sayers on here!!
hang in there OP - life is full of ups and downs, you’ll get through it. I love Lavender’s advice.

This is the new normal now

I have no doubt that when we are allowed too we will bounce back!
We were starting to bounce back untill poo tin .

I do wonder whether it wasn't simply worth sending a peace keeping force to the border of Ukraine when Putin started to mass?.like for like?.

How did we allow it..

Would he have tried to invade with tanks and un peace soldiers there???

Well...this is life though.

I mean prices rise, there are wars around the world, etc. Apart from the pandemic this just feels like part of the cycle.

In the early 80s my parents had 5 jobs between them because the interest rate on the mortgage was something like 15%. Shit happens, and it doesn't really help me to catastrophise and think this is the worst things have ever been, because it isn't.

This is so true. And the first time you experience the drop is the hardest. I feel for younger people who have only known the upward trajectory. It must feel like the end of the world rather than just a turn of the wheel.

Do young people think like that in genera though? Mostly when I was young I felt like nothing could touch me, and a general sense of optimism.

Then again the 90s were fairly optimistic times so maybe it's that more than my youthful resilience!

I was young in the 80s and we seemed to live under a cloud of doom, particularly those of us from low income backgrounds in communities affected by job losses in major industries like mining. Very low aspirations and much pessimism about future prospects.
Added to that the certainly that if we didn't die of AIDS the world would end in a nuclear war, and it wasn't the brightest of outlooks. Yet somehow I look back with nostalgia at some very happy times.

We’re living in interesting times. But whenever I feel that we have it bad, I think of my grandfather.

Born in Germany in 1904. When he was 10 WW1 started.

When he was 15 they had the Spanish Flu.

Then the Great Depression a few years later. Hyperinflation. Not 18% per year. More like 18% a day.

When he was 35 WW2 started. He lost everything. My grandparents started again from scratch.

I’m not saying that the situation we’re finding ourselves in is not challenging. But thinking of my grandfather puts it in perspective.

This too shall pass.