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

110 replies

Helpmechangemymindsetplease · 21/03/2020 06:21

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 Sad?

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]
OP posts:
user1353245678533567 · 21/03/2020 18:52

Oh, and similarly mental wellbeing and mental illness are different things.

It seems likely that lots of people's mental wellbeing will take a bit of a battering and need some attention, but that doesn't mean those people will have developed mental illness or be affected longer term.

If this made us as a society appreciate how important mental health services are and start to properly run and resource them then at least we would have created something positive from this that would reduce suffering and improve lives.

ColleysMill · 21/03/2020 19:02

Perosnally ive found last night and today tough.

At work at least i feel like i am being useful and helpful. At home ive got too much time to think and mull things over.

All my usual coping mechanisms to keep my own mental well being stable have gone - the gym which is my biggest saviour and the pub Grin I will find ways round it but i hadnt realised how much i rely on exercise for keeping well.

I resorted to watching some banal telly today just to try and switch off for half an hour only to find an advert with Chris Witty about CV pop up. I just feel i cant escape it

Pippitypong · 22/03/2020 18:01

I'm really struggling today. A tone got any positive news???🙏🙏🙏

Pippitypong · 22/03/2020 18:01

Anyone

Helpmechangemymindsetplease · 22/03/2020 18:21

My positive news is that I went to ASDA and the shelves were full and they were very organised - a maximum of three of the same items per person, and we were let in in stages. Managed to get the very last small pack of toilet paper (they had none but had had some earlier). So that felt a lot calmer and more positive.

Why are you struggling today @Pippitypong?

And how are you feeling today @Totorosfurrybehind?

OP posts:
NellyGrace · 22/03/2020 18:23

I agree. After a 9 days of isolating I feel like rioting. Have never felt this pent up and angry ever before.

YoursTunbridgeWells · 22/03/2020 18:28

I tthink anyone who makes it through this will be scarred - like anyone who has lived through a war.
There have been posts on here from people thinking of taking their own lives during this - I think the sucide rate could well increase during this. Mental health services can't cope at the best of times so won't be able to support those at risk.

Pippitypong · 22/03/2020 20:24

Sorry that question was meant for a different thread specifically about positive thinking!! 🙈🙈

alloutoffucks · 22/03/2020 20:29

I have known plenty of people who lived through the war who were not at all scarred. Yes some were and some will be by this. But some of you are talking as if that is inevitable. Most people will come through fine. Most people are feeling grief for the big change to their lives for who knows how long.

bluetongue · 22/03/2020 20:37

Even though I suffer from depression and anxiety issues and I’m on anti depressants I’m actually surprised how well I’m doing in the current situation. The major factor for me is I have a public sector job and (for now) my job and income are safe. It also helps that I’m an introvert and homebody anyway Grin

I think there will be big mental health issues with people losing their jobs and businesses. Even if they get income support in the short term the long term still looks very uncertain for so many people out there.

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