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]

I think some people will suffer afterwards and others will realise what inner strength they have when their back is really against the wall

Yes I do thank you. My husband has been one of those evil people and stocked up a little. We have enough for two weeks. We have three children too (older ones so larger appetites!) after that I have no idea. If there is help available it needs to be quick.

I think there will be increases in mental health problems initially and throughout isolation period.
Longer term, I think people seeing they can cope in adversity and putting everyday stresses into perspective may improve some people’s mental health. Coping builds resilience.

If there is help available it needs to be quick

Yes - I know some MPs are talking about it. I am also going to write to mine.

Exactly what you said Cherry. Many people will need to go through a temporary but still necessary fear/grief stage. I think if we can cut ourselves some slack and manage those fears we'll be ok and actually, if managed well, it can be a good example for our kids = It's ok to be scared and worried. Try not to dwell for too long.

One of my diagnosis is PTSD brought on by the death of my daughter, it also triggered bi polar. I went from a functioning useful member of society working in education and a trustee of a food charity that I helped set up to not being able to leave the house. I still have huge problems. I did and do receive amazing care via the NHS. There are some things that cannot be got over. I had a very abusive childhood and those issues were underlying so this enormous trauma triggered all that as well. That’s the real risk to people’s MH. Some people will have loved ones die and be really devastated and it will be awful heart wrenching grief but they won’t lose their minds.

I agree, we will ultimately become more resilient. I hope also more altruistic, community-minded, and caring.

@OlaEliza, you clearly know more than the experts at WHO and the NHS. I suggest you contact the latter and point out we have got our Business continuity plans and trauma risk management plans all wrong, because your experience in Spain is right and we’re wrong.
FYI, reports are already coming out about the psychological impact of Covid-19 and increased rates of mental distress in medical staff and the general population in many countries across Europe. Including Spain.

@thatbloodysheepagain Very true. I treat PTSD and there is a huge incidence from hospital settings particularly ICU admissions, also watching loved ones die, seriously Ill. The main thing we are seeing currently is very high levels of worry and distress but we will begin seeing more ptsd cases before long too x

I think it will have the opposite effect as people discover the resilience they actually have. Also many people find daily life/ work / work colleagues/ stressful, they are on their own so no one else to blame so I think they will be better not worse.

I think two things will happen.

People like my son who has serious mental illness will be left to receive medication and possibly telephone therapy. His specialised treatment is already on hold as the waiting list he was progressing up is impacted by this. So there will be children and adults whose existing mental illness will be worse.
Families isolated with this situation will have increased stress levels.

Then there will be anxiety depression and stress caused by social isolation, fears about exams, stress and guilt at not being able to home educate, financial stuff etc etc.

Noone gets to decide what gives someone PTSD .

People are truly dense to state that some things do and some dont dependent on a stupid phrase like staying in.

I'm not going to get PTSD because I'm in a warm home with a loving partner and two DC that whilst unwell are not at unusual risk. I have enough money to stay in and none of us four have underlying conditions. Great fine I'm sorted

However I am not so dense to realise this would be remarkably different if my relationship was on the rocks , I had no money, DC with underlying conditions , my historic depression is controlled through manageable control factors but many peoples isn't , if I was at home with an abusive partner. My ds1 is SEN but not so severely we cant cope , alot of people are not so lucky.

Many people who are stick indoors in an abusive relationship, with DC who may end up on a ventilator , having lost their job and have no idea what's going to happen next, that's a very different experience and who in hell can claim that they may not develop PTSD or mental health issues.

I dont care about experiences in Spain not being "nannying" , that's absolute rubbish anyway I work with someone in Spain and to suggest nooone is struggling with their mental health is at best an idiotic statement and at worse an outright lie.

How about everyone accepts that shockingly their opinion about others lives is invalid. Unless you are in their shoes , you do not know.

The people who keep judging and making stupid sweeping statements that other people ar not suffering may well find themselves on the back foot when this settles, people have long memories.

I bet the people pooh-poohing mental illness live in huge houses with gardens and family, and computer-based desk jobs where they can work from home without much difference in their day to day lives.

There are people who live alone in bedsits being told they aren't allowed to step outside their front door for 12 weeks.

Imagine spending three full months inside a single room, with zero access to outdoors, maybe even without a window that opens, and without speaking to a single person face to face. For three full months.

There have been plenty of psychological studies done into the effect of solitary isolation, it found that people incarcerated alone in a small space develop SEVERE mental illness (severe as in hallucinations and episodes of psychosis, not just 'feeling a bit stressed') in a much shorter time frame than three months.

@OlaEliza go away you petty woman ppl are tryin to support one another which is what we should all do in times of need i really hope your bubble doesnt burst anytime soon

Yes and those with current issues are already more vulnerable and have less support.

I have had bad postnatal depression for a while and recently sought help, GP referred me to specialist perinatal mental health team.

This week I was discharged by team without ever been seen due to coronavirus. I got a 5 minute phone call to say they were only seeing most urgent cases and check if I was actively suicidal, then told because I wasn't I would be supported by my GP...

All the mother and baby groups I go to, to fend off isolation have closed.

On the plus side, I'm not really scared of getting coronavirus because I'm ambivalent about living.

@TotorosFurryBehind feel free to pm me anytime you feel low im pregnant with asthma and self isolating so i understand how difficult all of this take care

I have already had to speak to my gp and have been prescribed medication so I can do my job.
They've not started working yet.
Today I had a panic attack on the way into work and the same driving home thinking I was taking the virus with me.

I am usually a pretty rational person but this has totally knocked me sideways.
I think (and hope) that the chest tightness I feel is anxiety. I'm certain it is as it isn't like it all the time.
If I clear my throat I panic and think of what I have seen so far at work.

It is utterly horrendous and I am tired already.
Yet this is the calm before the storm.

Am sorry for everyone struggling. I'm a mental health professional and am really struggling with bad anxiety myself. There are some great resources becoming available to help with coping. Feel free to PM me if you want any links. It's a horribly stressful time and so normal to be struggling but also feels really really hard to cope

Things will be very tough yeah. Even before this mental health care in many areas was horrific, often impossible to get appointments. I was waiting on therapy starting, and it's just been cancelled - exactly why they were careful not to tell me, so that's less than ideal. It's already very difficult, it'll just continue to be so I think

I think it’ll be swings and roundabouts tbh. Some will be terrible affected, those who’ve lost loved ones for example, though they may well have struggled immensely from losing them to something else anyway. And those who lose their livelihoods and homes.

But for others who aren’t as acutely hit it might be a positive. I know I’m very much counting my blessings every single day for what I do have. I already tended to feel a lot of gratitude for everyday things but even more so now. We are realising how immensely fortunate we’ve all been to have the luxury of toilet roll when over two billion people on our planet don’t have actual toilets. How fortunate we are that we’ve been able to ease a headache with cheap readily available paracetamol. To never have had the experience of wanting a specific food, pasta for example, and not being able to get it.

I think once this eventually passes a fair proportion of people will be a lot more thankful and appreciative of what a charmed life we live in this part of the world.

I have a diagnosis of ptsd. Unfortunately because of what happened to cause said diagnosis, being trapped at home is absolutely one of my worst nightmares. We're on day 9 of self isolation due to symptoms and I'm crawling up the walls.

I'm not worried about dying, I'm worried about living. As soon as I can shift this cough, I'm going to volunteer at our local community food bank so we can keep it open as late as possible and so I feel that I'm actually doing something useful.

I have another theory.. I think that facing real adversity can often make people more grateful for the things that are good. It may go the other way. We may get a new perspective on life and be happier. Seemed to work for those who came through the war. They are / were far more resilient than us today.

Yes. There will be an increase in depression. I am seeing OCD tendencies in people and think this will rise. Medical staff and nurses may have a ride in PTSD.

Not to mention the actual patients. Again PTSD, plus survivors guilt.

Post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder are different.

Post-traumatic stress is a natural reaction to trauma that will heal and resolve on its own with time. It's part of the process of the body and brain recovering from a traumatic experience.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a diagnosis made when that natural healing process doesn't occur and people's symptoms get stuck or get worse.

I've always been told a PTSD diagnosis can't and won't be made within the first six months of a trauma (although that's not to say people can't ask for or access support for post-traumatic stress earlier than that to help cope and take care of themselves, just that nobody can know at that early stage whether it will resolve or become PTSD). That's also what the resources I was given on managing recent traumatic stress and PTSD say.

I expect there will be many people who will experience post-traumatic stress reactions for a while for a variety of reasons - it would be surprising if that didn't happen because it's a natural reaction to trauma, same as people can feel rotten for a while after a physical illness - but that's not to say all those people will end up with PTSD diagnoses or long term difficulties.

I am very concerned that we don't have the resources or knowledge base on trauma to support so many people - even just to make sure people who need it have been given basic info booklets explaining how trauma works, why they're experiencing what they are, reassuring them most people don't develop PTSD, and offering coping strategies to get through. It's already really difficult to access good trauma care (or just receive care/support from professionals who genuinely understand trauma).