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.

I think the MH service was underfunded for years, prior to covid. Tories made it very clear that health, MH, and support, was not a concern for them. Years of chronic underfunding into MH referrals and camhs waiting times, was bad prior to covid. Changing the DLA application process was a crime that they cleverly slipped in. Mums with dc with chronic conditions like CP being told respite care was no longer available. The whole thing is sickening.

PoshUns, it's interesting that you say what got people through Covid was the promise of better times to come. I actually never thought that and I don't remember anyone ever implying to me that better times were to come.

People wanting state control has put me off Labour / left more than the last election. It was unbelievable to me that anyone would demand it.

Plus people not listening to downsides. The other issue imo is the idea that we had endless funds then and now. We don’t. Furlough was originally meant to be 8 weeks and extended to over a year, each time it was extended it was stress-making.

We had got into a corner where costs could only spiral and no change of path could be discussed. Hence interviews after it ended lamenting it all. But it was so easy to see.

SirMinge remind me, what did the Government promise? What did they say they were going to do to help young people?

Exactly! I remember talking with similar aged posters about how glad we were that we were old enough to classify most of our adult lives as having been fun as there wasn't much more coming.

re young people and EDs, there's nothing mental services could do. Food was the only thing they could control, so of course they developed EDs.

I have been on meds for decades but I think on MN there are very unrealistic expectations of what MH workers can do, which surely increases the strain on those workers, if the general populace shares that view.

when I was a teen, it was a norm to for GPs to do home visits, so at least you knew if you were ill, someone would come to see you. We have lost a lot of basic humanity over decades, and tech makes it worse.

I suffered with anxiety and depression hugely during lockdown and still feeling the after effects now. Nothing really bad happened to me, but as someone who has always suffered with stress and anxiety but been able to 'pull my socks up', I found the lack of structure, routine, face to face contact with colleagues, socialising and having to work in my home made the stress completely debilitating.

I am not 'better' but I have improved, though a mix of changing jobs, putting routine in place, therapy, meditation and lots of self help books and podcasts. I think previous posters are right that everyone has some grief about what happened and what we lost, even if that was just normality, it was traumatic in many ways and things aren't back to normal really.

Burnout and overwhelm seem the best ways to describe it but I'm not sure that's quite it, I agree with other posters who mention apathy. I think it will take time for us all to heal, and I really feel for kids, I suspect they will feel the impact for a long time.

One of the worst aspects of the COVID situation is how the Tories are now using it as an excuse to cut services further. Other European countries are saying they need to invest post-COVID, the UK government is saying again we need to cut.

Obviously MH funding has been too low for too long, but also the situation around emergency healthcare, GPs, dentistry, policing, schooling, social care, social work... there is nothing there anymore, everything is so stretched - and this is depressing.

It definitely takes more work to stay chirpy than it used to, and added to that in my sector burnout is very real, workloads went up during COVID and have not come back down.

It's the children I feel sorry for. I think a lot of parents make little attempt to shield their children from their own personal woes.

And now the Scottish nhs have been talking about a Two tier system 😡

It’s not just covid though is it. The reason our collective mental health is on
the floor is we've realised how powerless we are. We have been lied too repeatedly by politicians and there is next to no consequences for them.

watching the country tear itself apart over Brexit was appalling for our mental health. Then along comes covid, and all of the things already outlined. We just get out of that & then Russia invades Ukraine adding further instability and then if all that wasn’t enough, cost of living crisis hits too.

im amazed any of us are functional at all to be honest!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I think people’s MH is terrible right now. Pandemic lockdowns and everything that has come since.

It’s worse in this county than some because we came straight out into the aftermath of Brexit - our massive national self harm.

I think the Covid restrictions were particularly tough on older people, especialy those living alone. Those with family nearby weren't able to see them any more - instead of daily or weekly visits, they'd shopping at the door instead of going in. All clubs and activities stopped, along with most home visits. People with existing mobility issues got worse because they were staying in and not moving about, and people at the beginning stages of cognitive impairment or dementia went downhill fast because of the lack of stimulus from social contact and companionship.

I got annoyed when I see posts that dismiss people's concerns about the lockdown restrictions - we weren't all lucky enough to have family around us and the resources to make the most of the situation.

Tbh Brexit has very little impact on my life or mood. I can see it’s become a big topic on here though for some.

In terms of impact media hammering over Covid and cost of living is greater. And the war isn’t talked about as much but that is causing a lot of economic harm.

If things change re Brexit fine but I don’t worry about it

I don't think the fact that over the past few years, we've been going through a sequence of overlapping disasters. Between Covid, Ukraine, Cost of living etc, we haven't had time to stop and catch our breath.

Anyone wondering where the people who shouted ‘selfish’ on many threads are, they are still here. Just now singing tunes like this.

I think it’s a combination of things.

People were emotionally exhausted from the pandemic, and then there was no break before the cost of living crisis.

I think a lot of people accidentally developed a drinking habit during lockdown which is proving hard to kick. Alcohol definitely affects mood and outlook.

Our societal immersion in the 24 hour news cycle has us all swimming, mentally speaking, in a constant state of crisis. This isn’t helped by the fact that there are actual genuine crises being reported in the news, not just a few smaller things being blown out of proportion. The Ukraine war, the cost of living crisis, and the climate emergency are genuinely huge issues, and the fact we can’t (or perhaps don’t) really mentally get away from the reporting means that we are more on edge.

Thanks to social media, even non-emergency issues are being blasted into our brains at high volume. We are constantly being told or shown how we are not enough… not woke enough, not chilled enough, not wealthy enough, not reading the room enough, not parenting enough, not looking after our bodies enough, not financially disciplined enough, not socially aware enough… it is endless. This wears on people and makes them feel both hopeless and angry. Adding insult to injury is the fact that our culture is so polarized that it is harder and harder to process anything of importance with people in a way that doesn’t raise at least one person’s hackles.

Dealing with of the above is exhausting, and when everyone is exhausted all at the same time, people are less able to offer support to one another. This means a lot of the population is swimming in this soup of emotions alone.

I went to work throughout the pandemic, no avoiding it as a London Underground worker. I had the virus in March 2020, it was a bugger, but I was fully recovered within a few weeks. One colleague in my team ended up on life-support, luckily they survived but it took them a year to come back to work fully. No-one in my family died, so I didn't have any losses, thankfully. But it still affects you.

One of my team was extremely anxious and took personal safety measures against the virus to such an extreme that I don't think they were entirely well at the time. Our colleague being in hospital certainly didn't help.

The control room in the station was the cleanest place. It was properly cleaned once per day, and each supervisor cleaned the work station and surrounding hard surfaces when they booked on. We were told to stay in the control room at the window and not to come out unless to do a security check or help someone on the ticket machines. As I worked alone, mostly, and numbers were down to about 10 customers an hour, I got very lonely. I would listen to the radio just to hear another human voice! I also read a lot of books. Because nothing was open, I was just going to work, and coming home again. The monotony was crushing. I have had previous mental health difficulties, nothing serious, but omg, that tested me.

As for mental health support well, where I live, the local CMHT and Talking Therapies put so many obstacles in the way to getting proper counselling and psychotherapy that it only adds to the stress of trying to help yourself. It's huge to admit you might need support, but you need strength to achieve in getting it. Recently I got someone from the platform to safety after other passengers became concerned for their welfare, and whilst I am glad to help, it triggered a lot of bad memories from when I was depressed. So now my employer is going to pay someone to do counselling with me...but even they have a waiting list. I've been down the NHS route and it was overwhelming. I am thankful for the support at work but we lost some colleagues plus we deal with suicides, so TfL pay for us to access help...but if there's a waiting list then that means the effect if the Pandemic on us isn't over.

I found there was a surge as soon as the vaccine was introduced. Wasn't tested for a long enough period of time and the government forced it on people. You either had the vaccine and enjoyed your life or you didn't, and you therefore had to be shut indoors away from others. It causes a huge segregation and human rights went straight out the window. People had to make choices they should never had made personally. I found this has affected a lot of people I know

You either had the vaccine and enjoyed your life or you didn't, and you therefore had to be shut indoors away from others

That wasn't true at all. You either got vaccinated or had to test before going to events. You didn't have to shut yourself away if you weren't vaccinated.

I agree. I was just saying to my partner that I couldn’t believe the last few years have actually happened and we’re still walking around pretending everything is normal when it’s clearly not. What happened has changed many of us fundamentally and we don’t know how yet. Yes, we absolutely need to ‘get on with things’ but we also need to reflect on that period and think about it meant for us, because our lives did not go back to normal. We work differently, have different views on a number of issues, there has been a fundamental breakdown of trust in our government, our children have suffered massive upheaval that worked well for some, but has had a catastrophic impact on others - children who have lost almost two years of education because of lack of access to IT, supervision, company, etc. Yes, far more mental health support is needed, but where will it come from? CAHMS has never been fit for purpose. Even before the pandemic it was woefully underfunded and only saw the most serious cases, but willing volunteers cannot be trained appropriately or quickly enough - they need significant professional training and development.

It’s not going to get better with the whole mental health is like a broken leg rhetoric.

People expect to be “fixed”. The reality is a MH recovery involves a lot of personal responsibility and work from within and many people just don’t want to do this.

A surge of what? Which country were you in?

re pp comments on social media, I ignore news as much as I can but it doesn't make recovering from lockdown any more possible. That said, I think a lot of people need to ignore the news. At one point, there was an upset 20something and 70something in my meeting, arriving practically in tears, armed with details about a very specific incident in the Ukraine.

the previous night, the girlfriend of the 20 something had to deal with a very unpleasant customer who physically grabbed her. I told him, very gently, that after a rough night, looking at the news wasn't necessary.

as a child of the 80s, I could have said "if the mushroom cloud is coming, you won't need the news to tell you" but he might have had a panic attack if I'd said that.

I know a lot of people can't afford it but if you can private therapy isn't out of the reach of many people. If you can afford to have nights out, get takeaways, go on weekends away, have your nails done (not everyone can, obviously) you can afford private therapy. It's going to be better than the NHS because you get to choose your therapist. You can choose someone who specialises in the area you're concerned about. You can choose when you see them. You can choose someone you feel you can trust and have faith in. You can choose the type of therapy that works best for you (the NHS tends to offer CBT or nothing). You can choose the age and gender of your therapist.

I don't understand why people wouldn't do this as it can be life changing and that seems such a worthwhile investment, where a weekend away is great but the benefit only lasts for a short time.

Apologies for those who really can't afford even low cost services (many private therapists have a few low cost spots or there are low cost counselling services often staffed by supervised trainees).

I don't need to "reflect on lockdown" as I said right at the start that it was a bone-headed policy and would store up far more problems than it would solve. I am still angry now that the government chose to go down this route, when the problems were so obvious. I try not to think about how angry I am about this as it would end up consuming me.

DarkKarmaIlama

Rubbush, you don’t speak for everybody struggling. Trauma needs specialised care ditto EDS and many other illnesses and conditions. At the end of the day yes you do need to work hard but you need guidance, support and treatment by professionals. Many people are working hard just to get out of bed.