To think that after this is over a lot of people will suffer an increase in mental health issues?

[Helpmechangemymindsetplease]

Just to speak for myself, I am putting one foot in front of the other. My dc will now be off school of course, the two eldest missing their A Levels and GSCEs, the youngest is in Year 9, their school using Google classroom to teach them every day. I am single so no one else lives with us.

I am temping as a receptionist so I am going to work until that contract ends and am looking for permanent work, the only other place I go is the supermarket (to wonder around like all the other lost souls looking at the empty shelves).

I know other people whose anxiety has been massively triggered and increased, like my sister. Luckily she already worked freelance and from home, but she has become extremely fearful.

Other people have now become potential carriers and people who could make us ill, and the same is true of us of course, there is the constant fear that we could unknowingly be infecting someone else who could be vulnerable. The hospitals here are now really feeling it but we don’t know how awful it could get. The figures and images coming out of Italy are like nothing else (627 dead in one day yesterday). There is a sickening dread that the same will happen here. We have a government that seems unwilling to take all the steps it could take to protect us. An underfunded health system in which medical staff do not have enough personal protective equipment. And as things at as they are not tested for the illness of they develop symptoms.

The virus is silent, indiscriminate and invisible and we are to an extent powerless. We always were but in this part of the world maybe this is the first time a lot of us have come face to face with the powerlessness.

The economy is falling down around our ears, the speed at which people have lost their livelihoods and businesses have folded shocking, there may be a world recession.

What if food never goes back on the shelves. How have parents of small babies coped with no formula and no nappies ?

We are worried for our elderly and vulnerable relatives and for ourselves. I find myself thinking if I am still alive when thinking about life after the pandemic. The one saving grace is that it seems very rare for the 0 - 20 group to be seriously ill or die.

This has shockingly become our new normal. Strangers telling each other to stay safe. It’s fucking frightening.

So I am wondering what it will be like when it is over - whether the stress of all of this will really then engulf us, when we are no longer having to deal with it.

• [Note from MNHQ: Thread title has been edited at OP's request]

[Helpmechangemymindsetplease]

As things stand they are not tested for the illness if they develop symptoms.

[Helspopje]

Agree
Last week was hellish
I have been having bizarre feelings about wanting to get it just so I don’t have to go back in which is clearly stupid

[AnyOldSpartabix]

Been wondering the same. I don’t think there’s any doubt that medics will be utterly traumatised. But I am aware that many of us even outside that are currently living on adrenaline and dealing with the fact that things might never be the same again. But there’s nothing much we can do except carry on the best we can and hope that after the emergency is past, we can help one another to heal.

[Doggyperson]

I was in Spain when the lockdown happend out there. The police stopped us sometimes if we were walking and asked us where we were going. Cars driving round with loud speakers telling us to "go home"

I went for a run yesterday in the UK and I felt so guilty, then a car the same colour of the Spanish police cars passed me and just for a split second I was scared. Not saying I have PTSD but it does have an effect on you.
It was pretty scary in Spain.

It's horrible what's happening and I really feel for those who suffer with anxiety.

The lack of information too! Some telling me I can work, others saying you should be isolating. I don't know what to do.

[WorriedNHSer]

I hope that when this is all over we will come out the other side more willing to pull together and care for each other. With more gratitude for those who keep the world going from bin men to hospital cleaners to supermarket workers to anaesthetists.

I hope we will have more anger for those who have accumulated wealth off the hard work of workers and who then were able to protect themselves and leave the rest of us to it.

[scaevola]

Even though I agree that there could be a massive increase in MH issues, I disagree that it's likely to show a particular increase in PTSD (which is a specific diagnosis, not a catch-all for any new/increased symptoms after difficult times/events)

[sneeuw]

I think there will be more people who have problems with anxiety, yes.

That they'll be having panic attacks and nightmares and flashbacks after it's all died down? Not necessarily.

Will there be people suffering from grief? Definitely.

Will there be a generation of children ami far whom there are mental health problems because of what they experienced at home? Yes.

Will there be more people needing help from proper, qualified, mental health professionals.

Will they get it? Doubtful.

What parents who have anxiety need to do is try whatever (healthy) thing they can to reduce its impact on kids. I fall into this category for certain things, so I'm not pretending it's easy. But it's essential. If it means more screen time, go for it. If it means not getting school work done, so be it. You can catch up school work more easily than you can undo the impact of massive fear. That's not to heap blame on parents, because people with anxiety don't tend to be the lazy fuckers in this world!! It's more to say that sometimes we can't manage to do everything so need to prioritise. Mental health of children comes above maths - because if their mental health is good, they'll pick up the maths (or whatever) much faster later on anyway.

[heartsonacake]

I think YABU and have serious anxiety issues that you should be addressing rather than feeding.

There are generations of people who went through world wars and rationing; anyone who can’t cope with this is, to put it bluntly, a snowflake that needs toughening up to live in the real world.

[GalleyHead]

Why would prioritising their MH mean missing out on maths, @sneeuw? I disagree also about people with anxiety being less likely to be lazy — I don’t think there’s any correlation.

[Helpmechangemymindsetplease]

I apologise, I shouldn’t have used the term PTSD, but talked about an increase in mental health issues instead.

I also hope that afterwards we are able to create a kinder and better life.

[Ohtherewearethen]

I think to compare this to the horrors and after-effects of war is rather insulting. PTSD does not occur because one had to self-isolate in a warm, well stocked home with internet and running water for a month.

[Helpmechangemymindsetplease]

I have already said that I used the term wrongly and certainly didn’t mean to be insulting.

[Helpmechangemymindsetplease]

Anyway it is clear what the post is about - the fear of contamination and how powerless we are in the face of it. Also the fear of things falling apart around us. Should have worded the title differently.

[isabellerossignol]

I don't see it leading to a kinder better life at all sadly. All I have seen on mumsnet since this crisis emerged is finger pointing, blaming everyone else and accusing people of deliberately trying to kill others. It's the modern day equivalent of witchhunts.

[Number3or4]

I don’t think people would get ptsd but a different type of mental illness.

[Bezalelle]

Hopefully it will mean that people never vote for a Tory government again.

[DuchessofPemberley]

PTSD can occur after any trauma, not just war.

Not saying it’s used in the right context here, but OP wasn’t being insulting.

[Noooblerooble]

There is something about suffering trauma as an entire society that is very different to individual trauma. I think it is protective that you see acts of solidarity and kindness and people pulling together.

I am not doubting it will have an impact and in particular some hcp's are going to need a lot of support and care because they are on the front line, so to speak, but I am trying to focus on how incredibly resilient society is. I think you'll find when this comes to an end (which it will, however bad it gets now) people will move on surprisingly quickly. It will be a new normal and people will be changed but we will be ok.

I'm sure we can all remember the complere horror of 9/11. Yes it changed the world and was a terrible tragedy but people were out living their lives not long after.

[SubordinateThatClause]

I think our doctors and nhs staff will be impacted for life.

[drumandthebass]

@Bezalelle. Why are the Tories to blame for this?

[Antipodeancousin]

That’s a very interesting point @Noooblerooble, I have wondered if the shared experience and sense of solidarity could be protective.
My nana and grandad both grew up in London during the blitz when bombs were actually killing people they knew and obliterating familiar landmarks around them. They both denied being traumatised by it and lived healthy lives. I realise some people were effected long term but I’ve always felt it demonstrated that some people are quite resilient. (This is not a brag, I am a quivering cucumber of anxiety in comparison.)

[bellinisurge]

I lived through a genuinely scary martial law situation in another country and suffered flashbacks etc from some of the events that took place. Eventually they subsided.

Many many many years later, I suffered a very difficult and traumatic birth experience in this country which resulted in prolonged and more intrusive (and subsequently diagnosed) PTSD symptoms.

So, yes, it is possible for a medical matter to cause these problems.

I'm the tough guy in our house, being as cheerful yet practical as I can be, calming troubled waters etc etc. I am taking what opportunities I can to relax by myself.

[Pippitypong]

I think there will be a massive impact on MH. One of the things that has always been promoted to benefit MH is spending time with friends, being kind to yourself, fresh air and exercise, community. All that is going to change. Isolation was seen as a problem last year, with many older people living alone. Think of all the initiatives to get people out (inviting an older person for sunday dinner, pg tips time to talk, the big lunch etc) now isolation is the answer not the cause of the current problem but I definitely think it will have an effect.

[Pippitypong]

And I think anyone working in the nhs is likely to be completely burnt-out.

[DickAmbush]

I'm glad you've backtracked on PTSD, OP. I have a diagnosis of complex PTSD myself, and personally can't see how the average person on the street could develop PTSD solely from this.

Depression and anxiety on the other hand, abso-bloody-lutely.