To think there's a whole mental health aftermath to the pandemic which isn't really being addressed

[crackerscandycanes]

Just looking at people I know, people seem to be really struggling at the minute, and of course the cost of living is a big part and all the bad news etc, but I also think that some of it is the aftermath of the pandemic and everything we had to go through being locked indoors for all that time. It seems as if we're not supposed to mention it now or reflect, but I think there's a lot of mental health issues on the back of it.

Care workers were treated appallingly Now when the media wring their hands over the shortage of people working in the social care sector the 40"000 who left due to vaccine mandates is never mentioned.

They knew that early on, but still chose to bring in laws that were destructive and nonsensical in autumn 2020.

In September 2020, it would have been legal to go to the pub with 5 friends from different households, but it was illegal for 2 families with more than one child to go for a walk together.

My children went multiple months without access to play with a child other than their sibling because I didn't know anyone willing to break the law with me.

In a twist of irony, DS1 broke the law on the day he reached the age of criminal responsibility because we invited one friend around to our house in December 2020... they'd legally sat next to each other in school the previous day. Because of the tier restrictions, in the entirity of being 7, DS2 was able to play with children casually out of school barely a handful of times. In summer 2020 he was depressed, and understimulated and forgot how to play because there was no age appropriate social input for 5.5 months. He needed the chance to play with another NT child. We've gradually got his social confidence and education back on track. His dyslexia has been overlooked because of the Covid effect on his education and he's been diagnosed 18m later than his sibling. He's lucky that he's mostly back to where he should have been. Far too many children are not that lucky and don't have the support and resources behind them.

Many forget about the tiers phase, that Leicester never really left lockdown, Manchester only got a few weeks gap, and large swathes of the north and midlands got little respite in 2020.

Ah yes the tiers. tier 4 was lockdown in all but name.

And I know it's very easy to cherry-pick. Yes, you were and are an advocate for welfare recipients and those with disability. However, you were also against any Covid policies for some reason - very anti-Govt.

Some of those Covid policies were incredibly detrimental to some disabled people. Those who couldnt wear masks because of conditions like trigeminal neuralgia. Were you for every single Covid policy then. Would that include the Scotch egg one?

Anti Govt. We have the Tories in at the moment Is not agreeing with everything they do right wing? Is it your usual discourse to call anyone who you see as anti Govt right wing. You do realise its not a left wing Gov we have right?

So whats wrong with paying people to self isolate?

Why are you saying i was against ANY Covid policies I wasnt against ppl being paid to self isolate.

My children went multiple months without access to play with a child other than their sibling because I didn't know anyone willing to break the law with me.

Yeah, this was pretty unforgivable really. Especially when others were in school. By lockdown two I wasn't playing ball and thankfully others in our circle felt the same. I'm sorry you didn't have that.

It's so extraordinary looking back. Imagine the government dictating to you who you could have in your own home? How many times/for what purpose you could leave your house? In some countries lockdowns weren't actually constitutional and I am leaning towards that position.

Agreed op.
Personally I feel much less resilient and more tearful. Covid 19, lockdowns, loss and not seeing my parents when we were previously close has absolutely shaken me. I want the old me back.

Health anxiety means my parents barely see me, DH or DC still, after nearly 3 years. We are seen as the germ harbourers. It breaks my heart.

No one I know in real life is still cut off from their families.

That isn't what I mean by 'right-wing'. Tories are Conservative. They are in the spectrum of the right, but generally the more extreme views held by some people in the Covid pandemic sit a little further in the right.

Health anxiety means my parents barely see me, DH or DC still, after nearly 3 years. We are seen as the germ harbourers. It breaks my heart

That's really sad, I'm so sorry. I know quite a few people like that, I'm not sure if it's any consolation.

My parents mental and physical decline has been very marked, but they've not taken thus tack. I'd say the lockdown measures have aged them ten years.

My mums physical decline culminated in a broken hip back in September. After two weeks in hospital and several weeks recovering at home she went into town on 11th November and had her purse keys and loyalty cards stolen. She got to the till with the Christmas cards she was going to buy and realised her stuff had been stolen. She was very distressed. When she got home (which she had to walk back to with her stroller) my dad called the locksmith and got the locks changed. A very kind couple in the shop told the shop assistant not to put the cards back and kindly paid for them for her. Ive since found out another woman got her purse stolen the same day. Pickpockets must have blitzed the place. DMs physical decline in the past three years has been swift.

I tend to agree. I'm not sure it would be even all that necessary to DO anything about it if it was at least acknowledged by those who were pushing the different pandemic measures.

I was at an event recently with a woman who had been so pandemic cautious. It was her first time at an event, and I know she forced herself to do it. And she was shaking. I generally find it difficult to sympathize with her, she was so pushy about pandemic safety, but I felt terrible for her. She was so afraid.

If the problem of mental repercussions was at least introduced I think it would help people start to heal. Where I live they are doing the opposite, still trying to work up fear.

I agree OP. The government and media no longer seem interested. I suspect it's because they don't want any focus or investigation into whether any of their mad dictatorial policies actually worked. Much of the public also seem to want to forget about the whole thing.

@FrauleinEngelhart i hope your getting mental health support if you need it? I’ve recently accessed CBT not sure if it’s helping yet.
the pandemic was a terrible time in the NHS and left lots of us in a state.
Thankyou for what you did for your patients 💐

I’ve heard this already on various Times Radio programmes so you pretty spot on. They also had a Republican talk about the extra harm to women in Democratic states which was firmly buried here.

I’m sure any politician would like to be thought of as calm and not overreacting with DeSantis like votes. But not many fit the bill. Look at Wales and Scotland etc, England dragged towards it.

People got too carried away with fear tactics, and demand was so high politicians didn’t act within best system either. Sunak has said this I’m glad he at least realises.

Although overall people talking about benefit of hindsight is annoying as it was easy to see.

That is essentially just you saying you either weren't aware of or didn't value the criticism of restrictions being made from a leftist perspective, though. You're emphasising objections from a particular right wing position either because you want to or through lack of knowledge of others. Your value judgement and/or unawareness doesn't mean you get to decide someone else's position is right wing.

Now if it's not knowing, that's somewhat understandable because, as I said upthread, our political class didn't provide criticism or even proper scrutiny of a restriction based approach from a centrist or left wing perspective until pretty late in the day. The closest the mainstream left got is arguing that financial support needed to be a consequence of restrictions, eg Burnham in the October 2020 stand off with Boris. That was good, but still didn't critically examine the underlying assumption. You had to be looking for those voices.

And it's a problem that the left and centre didn't do this, because some of the detriment that restrictions were clearly going to have is things right wingers don't like to acknowledge. For obvious reasons, they're not inclined to think much about the inevitability that the state will disproportionately exercise power against those who have less power themselves. People who want public services slashed have a strong motive not to talk about the impact on women when unpaid care expectations increase. Discussion of how the stay at home message and failure to set out provisions for people who needed it to rest during exercise discriminated against people in deprived and badly provisioned areas is not an attractive one to right wingers, because then they might be expected to do something about those deprived areas.

These are things we knew full well in March 2020, but they weren't being articulated outside quite a small group. Which was to all of our detriment.

The COVID-19 public inquiry - A chance to say how you were impacted.

covid19.public-inquiry.uk/share-your-experience/

I can see a DeSantis campaign along the lines of the Democrats over reacted to Covid with all their restrictions which is causing us the harm and debt and social impact we are having to put up with.

I'm sceptical of this. The midterms showed that swing voters have a low tolerance for Republican bullshit (abortion, calling every election they don't win a sham) and I suspect going on about covid restrictions would fall under the same umbrella. Despite the high number of deaths the US actually weathered the economic storm better than most.

@GreatBigBeautifulTommorow thank you for taking the time to write that.
Hope you are feeling better too.
I had counselling also whilst on long term sick. It helped in that it gave me the chance to vent. We have a psychologist available as well which is helping people to work through their anxieties. Appreciate that we are very lucky and it's a shame others don't have access to that.

I don't understand how any government could finance the full support of MH issues. MH problems tend to be very open-ended, by their very nature. If say 6 sessions with a therapist were paid for on the NHS, how often would the patient say 'Thanks - that's me sorted!' Hardly ever. You can see that even where it's largely wealthy people (esp in the USA) going to see their pyschiatrist, it goes on for decades because it's in the nature of the problem that very few people will say - 'I'm cured and no longer need help'.

We don't live in an ideal world. So much more is expected of the NHS now than was ever intended when it was set up in 1947, when it was mainly there to provide dentures, glasses and routine surgery. I just don't think any government could afford to do all the things which we now expect from the NHS without a huge reform/rethink which the electorate would probably not support.

I speak as someone whose daughter has suffered from MH over the last few years (very severely) and probably always will. I'm just a realist.

Culture I agree with you somewhat. Which is why I’d preferred to avoid as much damage to mh to start with as the trying to fix it is very open ended and difficult.

Thank you for that link.

Interestingly, Trumpian candidates are the Republicans who did worst. I don't think the eventual presidential election is going to be fought on covid restrictions, particularly as the states who most overdid it are safe Democrat ones anyway, but I do reckon it might be an issue in the Republican primaries. There are already De Santis supporters saying he's preferable to Trump because he allowed fewer restrictions. De Santis himself was staking out that territory as far back as January.

edition.cnn.com/2022/01/14/politics/desantis-trump-covid-response/index.html

He evidently thinks it's a potentially successful line of attack.

MarshaBradyo · Today 09:39
Culture I agree with you somewhat. Which is why I’d preferred to avoid as much damage to mh to start with as the trying to fix it is very open ended and difficult.

Yes, I think you're right - prevention (as in so many areas of life!) is really the only answer. I know from personal experience that HM problems are rarely 'cured' - it's a matter of learning to manage them by one means or another.

I'm not a heartless brute - I just wish people would think through their expectations. We are in a right old mess (not just the UK - Western Europe really) and public spending is going to be under pressure in many countries, whatever govt is elected. Any planning for MH needs to be focused carefully.

But I would add, probably unpopularly, that I think there needs to be a general change in attitudes in the population as a whole. I know that MH issues are real and can be very serious - don't get me wrong. But we need to foster resilience too, and stop the expectation that if you meet with any problems in life or feel at all uncomfortable that you 'have mental health issues'. Most of us feel anxious, stressed, out of our comfort zone, miserable sometimes - this is normal and not a MH problem.

Just an example of what I mean: at one school I worked in staff were asked to give up breaks/free lessons to 'go and support' Y10 girls who were having injections. I was puzzled and asked what the problem was. Apparently most of the girls in the queue were in floods of tears - some hysterical. I think I was the only member of staff who questioned this. It was an injection - and I know they don't hurt anywhere near as much as they used to when I was 15-16. We would have been embarrassed to cry about in injection at that age, and so should most of the girls in that queue. I only mention this as an example of the way we sometimes enable a non-resiliient attitude and normalise making a massive fuss and drama about things most people (I acknowledge there will be genuine exceptions occasionally) just need to take in their stride.