The 'Positive Mental Health' Corona virus thread

[RapidRainbow]

There are a lot of posts of people worrying. I thought it could be helpful to share positive and assuring information in one thread.

For me, the most reassuring thing so far is the fact that of approx. 1500 people in the UK suspected to have and tested for CV have come back as negative.

I can't get the link to work?

www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/28/i-have-coronavirus-so-far-it-isnt-that-bad/

I can’t get the link to work either, but it’s good enough for me.

As suspected the media don’t sell papers from saying “everything is ok” but hype it all up. Had a look on the preppers thread and they claim you can’t buy hand gel anywhere. All I know is I saw a full shelf today in a shop.

Really trying to remain calm.

Thanks @PineappleDanish for the article, will try to read it through searching on google

@DoubleTweenQueen wow I think you’re amazing to be so level headed about this despite your anxiety and it must be hard for your daughter too. I guess your profession helps because you know more of the finer details so know what to be rational about.

Dobby it’s a very weird combination of having the media over hype this and the government under hype it. No wonder our minds are fucked! We’re left somewhere in the middle trying to understand the actual truth.

The Washington Post article summarised - the guy has been medicating with paracetamol and lots of sugary fizzy juice. It's not as bad as chest infections he's had in the past, if he didn't know it was coronavirus he would be in work. His wife doesn't have it.

All the medical staff are using the hazmat suits and stretchers when he feels fine and would have walked off the plane.

I also think that the media is incredibly irresponsible with what they're putting out, lots of "worst case scenario" stuff presented as "this is what's going to happen". Daily Mail scaremongering about 500,000 people hospitalised. It's just feeding people's anxiety and it's so wrong. I'm not a fan of censorship but there should be someone in authority at those papers saying "hang on, let's be sensible about this".

Anyway. The BorisBaby has now stolen the headlines.

I saw the telegraph headlines today in a shop. It was a terrifying headline. It’s feeding people’s anxiety.

The “super speader” chap who was in Singapore, he was out of hospital fairly soon and wasn’t too unwell either was he?

500,000 people didn't even have it in Wuhan so why would we here?

Thanks for the article details @PineappleDanish That is incredibly reassuring.
@namechangerblob because Wuhan took extreme measures - we won’t get that level of protection here, that’s what scares me. I feel like they want it here some days.

Even accounting for that, we haven't even had 100,000 worldwide YET have we? So we'd be going some to get more than 500,000 here?

I was just going to start my own thread but thought I’d post on here instead - has anyone had to deal with their children getting scared about this? My 6 year old has been frightened by what other children have been saying in the playground. We’ve tried our best to reassure him but I’m finding it difficult, because he’s all about the ‘what ifs’ - what if it comes here, what if it goes everywhere, what if I get sick, will the school close? He just told me he had a nightmare about it last night.
So far I’ve told him:

• scientists are working to make a vaccine
• if he did get it he’d be fine as he’s healthy and strong, so he’d just feel a bit poorly for a while

Anyone else in the same situation? Any ideas?

@KizzyWayfarer I have a 7 year old so totally understand. I follow an account on Instagram called the conscious kid (it's about racism and resources to help children understand differences in people). They have a cartoon on about covid 19 with emphasis on hand washing and not listening to scary rumours. It's American (and obviously their response in a little ??!! In general) but might be useful?

Thank you. Yes, I think that’s useful.

Today I have visited three Chinese supermarkets (I was looking for Linghams Ginger Garlic Chilli Sauce, which I highly recommend) and the only people in any of them wearing face masks were two people behind tills in one of them. All three were crowded.

A total of 35 people in this country have now tested positive for corvid-19, and all but the most recent have later tested negative and been sent home. I shan't start to panic just yet.

Why the r in covid up there I am unsure, except that I like birds...

(I don't suppose it would help to tell your child he is at a rather higher risk of being hit by a car than of getting covid-19 at the moment?)

I'm really grateful for this thread, I've been feeling increasingly bombarded (like most people I'm sure) with the constant news notifications and threads panicking on here and while I've been mainly keeping it in perspective, a positive and factual thread like this is extremely refreshing.

Still pleased that this thread is helping we can see now that for the UK luckily it is a slow burner so we can assess it and as a country act accordingly. 35 cases in the UK is still such a tiny number and we are still doing well to trace and contain anyone affected. It's inevitable that the cases are going to rise for a while but as long as the tracing and containment is happening, as detailed above, we do not have an "outbreak". I think this will be a distant memory at some point in the next few years, a close call perhaps but we can be reassured that should a worse virus come, we had this chance to practice containment and for the rest of the world to hopefully encourage China to get to grips with the problems that are allowing these viruses to get a grip on people. I don't know if I'm desensitised now or have just turned my mindset around but I only check the news once a day again now and I expect the number of cases to rise. I really do think that if we have a proper outbreak there will be an even more robust response for containment and quarantine. I also think China and Italy are able to teach us a lot so we are in a better position than them.

I can’t remember the swine flu epidemic. I wasn’t online to the same extent as now, I remember thinking it was scaremongering and I was in a vulnerable group as a pregnant woman. As swine flu was rather nasty if you were pregnant.

Anyone remember swine flu and can say if it was similar in panic? I know two people who had it. One I worked with.

I’d be interested in knowing more about the swine flu feelings at the time
I don’t remember it but my colleagues are telling me that this is all crazy as swine flu was worse and we didn’t react this much

I was wondering the same thing - awareness of swine flu seems to have largely passed me by at the time. As did bird flu. I certainly don't remember there being this national sense of impending doom.

Ah, interesting. I’m assuming internet is the main cause of this. I think it was 2010. I certainly wasn’t online as much pre iPhone. My midwife told me it was very serious and the intensive care unit was full of pregnant women. We said oh, it’s scaremongering and she was quite firm with us that it wasn’t.

I suppose I only heard about it on the news. I remember there was a swine flu topic on here. My colleague was off work with it, but I don’t remember being fearful.

I can remember both and was concerned but not as much as I am now. I think the difference is that the internet wasn't as 'big' and 24/7 back then as it is now.

In the supermarket today, there were no visible shortages, no trolleys full of water, tins and packets, no sense of worry. The busiest section was the bakeware section(!). It felt like "....Corona virus you say? Mmm I'll need to make more cake then....". Amen to that.

I saw this posted on twitter earlier today by @CT_Bergstrom. He’s talking about America but the advice is still useful. Having constant news updates definitely doesn’t do me any favours, I’m going to limit myself for my own sanity. He says..

1. The novel #coronavirus #COVID19 is here in the US and circulating in the community. It can feel scary, and the pace of breaking news can feel overwhelming.

For your own mental wellbeing, if you are not tracking the disease in a professional capacity, consider the following.

1. Fast as news may be breaking, the #COVID19 epidemic is not like a natural disaster, act of war, or terrorist incident. Nothing major changes over any 12 or even 24 hour period. Today's news was unsurprising to professionals monitoring the situation.

1. No matter how many press conferences may be taking place, there is nothing that you are going to learn this afternoon will make you safer than you would be if you learned it tomorrow morning.

To control #COVID19 anxiety, try to avoid being pulled into the rapid news cycle.

1. Pick a time to get your updates. I'd suggest once a day, maybe before work or maybe after dinner. For the rest of the day, don't get drawn in. You don't need to. Block the #COVID19-related hashtags if you have to. Otherwise it can easily become an obsession.

1. This also improves the quality of information that you are receiving. Day-old information from trusted fact-based news sources is far more valuable than the latest rumor on social media. Case and point, the false claim that the WA fatality was a 19-year-old.

1. This all can feel very scary. But it's something that we can manage as a community. It's not going to go away quickly, so think now about how you can stay happy as well as healthy over the coming months. That means carefully managing your own interactions with the news.

@TwoLeftUggs thank you for posting that. It has helped me. 👍

I was worried about Swine flu as my dds were very small. I had pretty much stopped worrying by the time we caught it !