Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

408 replies

crackerscandycanes · 20/11/2022 17:35

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.

OP posts:
orchid220 · 23/11/2022 10:40

MangyInseam · 22/11/2022 23:01

I'm not sure these are the same kind of thing.

Losing people, fear of becoming ill - I would broadly put those under "fear of death" and the repercussions of death. In some sense the most horrible reality of human life, but also completely ubiquitous and inevitable for us all. We will all experience the trauma of having loved ones die, of becoming ill and dying ourselves, of not being able to control disease and sickness and the degradation of our bodies, and we must all somehow come to terms with it. The pandemic really did nothing to change that.

Having laws or regulations passed completely artificially, supposedly for the good of ourselves and others, that remove us from the human community - that is abnormal, and destructive of the integrity of the human community. That is not nature playing out as it does, that is people doing something to us.

Show quote history

i'm sure that there have been plenty of laws throughout history that have meant humans are apart from their community for a time. The fact that something is "artificial" doesn't mean it would have a greater impact on mental health than losing a loved one or being scared for your own life. I think that the threat of death for yourself or family would be far more scary for most people. That's how the human race survives.

TheKeatingFive · 23/11/2022 10:43

i'm sure that there have been plenty of laws throughout history that have meant humans are apart from their community for a time

Have there? Preventing an entire population having contact with others outside their immediate household for a significant period of time? Can you give some examples?

I think that the threat of death for yourself or family

The problem with this statement is that the threat of death was actually very low for a majority of the population

MangyInseam · 23/11/2022 11:09

And also, which was part of my point - there is always a threat of death, and at some point, it is acute. We all face death at one time or another - that is an existential truth.

I do think that our culture is very good at hiding that fact from it's members, rather than helping people learn to live with it in a healthy way. And I think that tendency was actually hugely significant in the western pandemic response.

SirMingeALot · 23/11/2022 11:36

I think that the threat of death for yourself or family would be far more scary for most people.

People make their own value judgements that are dependent on their own circumstances. For the majority, covid represented a very low threat of death, and indeed the state knew this and tried to elevate people's perception of their own risk in order to make them more inclined to observe restrictions. Still, lots of people would still have had an accurate idea of their own risk and how they assessed this against the other risks and benefits they considered relevant. There are plenty of us who knew full well at the time that restrictions were liable to be more detrimental to us than covid itself.

Buzzinwithbez · 23/11/2022 12:34

I think that the threat of death for yourself or family would be far more scary for most people. That's how the human race survives.

I was never scared. I know death can come out of the blue as we had a young family member die. For me, one of my concerns was the time together that was lost and the lives half lived in lockdown and fear, should this occur.
How many people regret not seeing and making the most of their time with the friends and relatives that didn't make it to the end of the pandemic.

MoneyWasJustRestingInMyAccount · 23/11/2022 17:07

orchid220
The fact that something is "artificial" doesn't mean it would have a greater impact on mental health than losing a loved one or being scared for your own life. I think that the threat of death for yourself or family would be far more scary for most people. That's how the human race survives.

Actually, something being "artificial" aka created by humans, does actually mean people are more likely to be traumatised by it. It's a significant risk factor when working out the likelihood of PTSD. It's thought to be due to sort of losing faith and trust in humanity, as oppose to a freak natural disaster (paraphrasing a bit).

I sometimes feel it's a relatively privileged position to hold, that death is the worst thing that could happen. For yourself, at least. I can understand a bit more the fear of a loved one's death.

Crucially, when faced with the potential loss of a loved one, you want to spend as much time with them as possible. Faced with this threat, that many would die, the everyday things didn't seem to matter much any more, and the desire to just be together whilst we still could came sharply into focus. At exactly this moment, we were all separated. Not knowing if you would see each other again.
So actually, the more you feared the death of loved ones, the more awful the separation was likely to be. And some lived out the horrific reality whereby this fear came true and they never got to say goodbye.

Teatimes2 · 02/12/2022 20:56

MoneyWasJustRestingInMyAccount · 22/11/2022 14:19

I can never forgive anyone who thought it acceptable to force people into solitary confinement for almost three months. Even a couple of weeks would have been too much.

I've noticed people who live alone understand this, there's a look in the eye when it's come up in conversation. Those who were not alone just don't get it.

The worst offender was a horrible bitch who told me I must be a horrible person who wanted people like her to die, just because I was clearly breaking down from the isolation and thought people who live alone should be allowed to buddy up with someone, as they did in New Zealand. She lived with her husband, happy newlyweds. And no one told her to STFU (this was on Facebook), which pains me even more.

I sometimes have flashbacks to the horror of the isolation and feel so worthless that it was considered ok to do that to people like me.

Incredibly they didn't bring in bubbles for single people for eleven weeks. And brought them in at the same time as childcare bubbles, as if basic contact with another human is somehow on the same level as childcare.

It's a crime against humanity, imo. We know the damage solitary confinement can do, there was no excuse. (For those who like to claim it wasn't solitary confinement, the definition of this is 23 or more hours a day alone, and doesn't include contact via screen etc.)

Yes, I live alone, always have and enjoy my own company, but for the first 9 weeks of 2020 lockdown I didn't see anyone and nor was I working so it was just me and the four walls, and I got very down in myself. I had a boyfriend of almost 4 years but he lived in a different city so we didn't see each other. The following year, 2021, in lockdown he dumped me over the phone, but I was able to bubble at that stage and did so with my sister and family. I found it hard to cope with this breakup though and it took me a long time to get over as I couldn't meet with friends.

Like you, I still often suffer flashbacks and still don't feel like my old self really.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page