I feel I'm away to actually meltdown

[Salene]

Guys I'm am actually petrified, to the point my family say I'm away to have a breakdown. I never slept a wink last night. I'm alone as my husband is in Egypt working and due home next week. I'm paranoid he isn't going to get home. I've a 3 and 5 year old, I'm too scared to leave the house and not wanting to send my child to school next week, school have given me home work for him and we're fine when I told them. I live in a small village in NE Scotland so it's a little
country school. I think the government are lying and it's infecting healthy adults and kids and we are at risk from dying

Honest I'm so anxious and so scared

I'm thinking of just staying at home with me and the kids and not leaving

What you're feeling is perfectly normal for many people right now . They had a piece on TV about this the other morning and especially for those living alone ( without another adult) people are stressed when they don't have someone else to bounce off . The doc suggested speaking to your doc and getting some meds to help with it if really bad. I agree you should limit the amount of social media you read on all of this but I also realise it is difficult not to as you feel it is "protection" . You are in a quiet part of the country so there's plenty scope for little trips out of the house.

I blame the government and media for hyping all of this up. Its scaring people and stressful for many. Not to mention causing selfish people to stockpile, leaving elderly people without fully stocked local shops. I'm not worried about the virus one bit. It's a flu type virus. No one seems worried about our yearly changing flu virus, which kills many. People are only concerned over this new virus that's originated from China. Only elderly, newborns and those with comprised health conditions (breathing and autoimmune) will be very poorly if infected. All the healthy people will just experience flu like symptoms. Please stop panicking.

Do stay home with your little ones.

Look on it as a huge positive step and be confident about it.

I know I'm being OTT my friends have just rang me telling me to calm down

I'm meant to be going to a small running race on a beach today , and my kids going to a friends house. They said I need to go , it will make me feel better

I'm thinking about it , I need to do something

Stay off social media and the internet. I would include Mumsnet in that unless you stay away from the Coronavirus threads (other than the 'positive' thread if you can find it).

Go out in the fresh air, take the kids to the park, enjoy the Spring air. Watch nice movies. Get out into the world.

I was making myself ill with anxiety after reading Mumsnet threads. Getting into the world helped.

Take care x

Sounds like social media is infecting you with anxiety. Just check the news once or twice a day, keep yourself to yourself a bit to be cautious. Death is so unlikely and mild symptoms are miles more common. Just see it as 'there's a nasty bug going round', and try to avoid catching it. You're well placed, living in a remote village. No tubes or people cramming into busses and lifts. Plenty of open space and fresh air.

OP, every day we are alive, we are at risk of dying.

I am no stranger to anxiety, having had PND which convinced me that my DC were going to come to harm. It is absolutely horrible, and I sympathise.

As it happens, I'm not in the slightest bit bothered about Corona. However, I might be if I delved into social media. From the discussions I have seen on here and elsewhere, it is like reading a particularly scaremongering copy of the The Sun, only worse.

I think self-isolating from social media is your best course of action. Come off it completely, and enjoy some unexpected time at home with your DC. Go back to the things we used to do with small children - gentle home-based stuff (no internet/tablets etc). You could turn it into a positive for them.

Get off social media and go to the gp for some propranolol.

Your anxiety is at a clinical level.

I’m pretty sure I’ve got it, and my asthmatic husband had it a couple of weeks ago. We’re both fine and it’s been very mild for us.
I know it’s only my experience but it might be reassuring to some.
(I am of course very concerned about more vulnerable people and the healthcare system and workers.)
Proactively, vitamin D is excellent for immunity, also zinc, echinacea (pref tincture not tabs), and raw onions and garlic are good antivirals. I have a recipe for onion or garlic syrup if anyone is interested.

Ok so I've come out the FB group and I'm not logging onto Facebook today , it was taking over me and I was ignoring my kids , my 5 year old told me yesterday get off you phone mum , I haven't put it down literally in 48 hours

I'm going to take my kids to another village to a friend who is going to look after them for the morning

I'm going to the running race , but I am not going to stand near anyone , and it's on a beach so I can totally run well away

On the way home I am going to go to the shop and buy enough food till last to the weekend

I'm keep my son off school and my husband is due home Friday so hopefully with him here I won't feel scared

I'm going to not stay home next week but I will stay away from other people and just the kids to woods and out on bikes etc where I live I don't really see anyone anyway unless I go to the town 15 minutes away

And I'm going to breath , and try and calm down or I think I will end up ill

I can't believe how much this has terrified me, I've never felt like this in my life , it's horrible

Thanks for making me also calm down, my friends and you guys are saying the same , I'm not going to die , I'm not at risk I need to remember that x

Go for the run, you’ll probably feel much better. The positive mental health Coronavirus thread is brilliant as well. You can’t change this but you can change how you react to it . If you’re really struggling go to the doctor, there is help out there

Op well done. I don’t think you should get a hard time. It’s when it spirals it’s right to post on here as you did to help calm it.

I'm nearly 60, asthmatic and I work in a shop. I can't self isolate or work from home. I flew back from Australia a couple of weeks ago. When I landed in the UK I was horrified by the level of panic! I was desperately anxious for a couple of days.

Now i stay away from Facebook (which is full of people who like to proclaim that we're all going to die) and the news (which seems designed to ensure that everyone is too terrified to go out). Just be sensible and hope that herd immunity kicks in sooner rather than later. Pity all those poor women whose husbands are convinced, on the back of a sneeze, that they have it and will shuffle round at home for a fortnight in the Dressing Gown of Doom!

HOnestly, OP, chances are you and the children and your DH will be fine. Try distracting yourself with books, (I run audio books at night to stop me worrying).

salene Scotland (and the north of Scotland) is doing really well and has very few cases/none so far so you're probably in one one the best places in the UK.

Sounds like you've a great day lined up - being out in the fresh air again is probably the best for both germs and being active.

Enjoy and hang in there til your DH comes home!

You are in a great place to ride out this crisis - I wish I was where you are!
Get outside, lots of fresh air and its harder to get a critical "viral load". It is confined inside places where it is most likely to spread. And you live somewhere it is easier to get away from people.
Most people get it mildly.

But do keep in contact with people, have regular phone ins with friends, so they know how you are. Maybe offer to check in on elderly neighbours. It might help you gain perspective.

And if you still struggle contact your GP and get help.

You love in a very unpopulated place. You are only 40, the chance of you dying even if you do get it is literally minuscule. Based on data so far as nobody under 9 had died from it then the chances of your children dying is literally zero. Please get help for your anxiety and delete your Facebook account completely.

For the sake of your mental health step away from social media. Honestly.

This ^ in spades.

There is so much misinformation, and people are whipping each other up to a state of sheer hysteria. It's not helpful.

I don't know how honest the government is being, but I do know that panicking isn't going to help - if anything , it will make things much worse.

The best that any of us can do at present is to take sensible precautions , self-isolate if we feel it is appropriate and keep lives as normal as possible for our children within those parameters.

It sounds as though it is highly unlikely that you or your family are at risk at present - I think there would need to be a much greater spread before the virus could reach somewhere like you describe.

Do you talk to you neighbours, or are you keeping away from people? I think you need to speak to someone just for reassurance. Of course it is worrying - this is an unknown situation, and you have dependent children - not to be scared to some degree would be foolish - but cut away from the scare-mongers.

Just remember that on the internet are lots of idiots who think it is hilarious to whip people up into a frenzy by making up and spreading downright lies. It is the way they get their kicks. Corona is manna from heaven to them. Don't by into it.

I have a recipe for onion or garlic syrup if anyone is interested.

I'll have that recipe Literally - it sounds bloody delicious! I love garlic - and onions.

(If someone could invent a garlic and onion gin, I would be in heaven )

It's very annoying how relentless the news is with cv19. OMFG.
I wonder what is going on that we don't know about.
More atrocities in Myanmar?

I might start following African news, since they are nicely unaffected last laugh after Ebola

Not anymore Llijk

I'm 71 and my husband is 75. He has cancer and a heart condition. I'm not doing anything different to the things I've always done. I've always washed my hands frequently, especially before touching food, and since a trip to Egypt in 2004, where my friend and I used hand gel frequently and were the only people on the trip not to be ill with d&v, I've used that as well. Naturally I'm worried in case my husband gets it, as he would be in danger, but if we were younger, fitter, I wouldn't be worried at all, as long as I was doing everything I could to be sensible. I think the Internet in this case, has been both a blessing and a curse. Take a couple of days away from it, get out some books and games, and play with your children. I hope you feel better and less anxious soon.

Those are great positive steps you have taken OP.

I have a disabled DS, an asthmatic DH and I have a compromised immune system, so we really are the holy trinity for this virus, therefore I totally get where you are coming from.

I had a moment like you are having yesterday and I am usually one of the most devil may care attitude people you could wish to meet.

I found "doing" rather than "thinking" a huge help as for me the worst part is the uncertainty. I am not afraid of catching it, it is this awful sense of uncertainty about what happens next that is agony for me.

I Think we all have to acknowledge that the entire planet is in unchartered waters at this point and that alone is a massive stressor to the generations who have never been so better off.

Historically, there has never been a better time to be alive.

I imagine how many of us are feeling is exactly how our Mother's, Grandmother's and Aunties were when faced with two world wars.

A certain level of fear and anxiety is good, remember that. It enables us to focus on a solution and preparing for the worst yet always hoping for the best.

I also take comfort in the words my lovely late DM said to me once and that was that you never knew the real meaning of worry until you become a Mother.

Focus on what you can make happen here and now (as you are doing re the social media, I don't have it either) not what "might" happen.

I suspect we are all much stronger than we give ourselves credit for.

Good Luck.

You and your kids are going to be absolutely fine. Get off your phone and have a lovely healthy day out. Just keep telling yourself you're all going to be fine. Smile and breathe and try to think about other things.
You are going to be ok.( did I mention that?)

Leelumpkin

Funny you say that

My father is just off the phone saying do you know your grandmother lived through the 1916 flea thing that killed millions I remember asking her about it he said, she said oh that, it was just silly nonsense my grandmother must of been like a ox

My father is military and as calm as they get though, nothing ever bothers him , he is confirming what u guys say , I live in the middle of bleeding no where , calm down

I do think social Media has been what's done this to me, I never realised how really I'm not as strong as I thought. I know compared to lots I'm luckily in the fact healthy and not old etc, I just need to keep be rational about it

Crying awake all night isn't going to change anyway and just make my immune system worse

Thanks everyone , I do appreciate everyone's advice and also glad to hear I'm not the only one that's been worrying

Flu not flea