How do you honestly THINK this will end?

[tollyfeeder]

Just that really....

I’m a very anxious person. I can’t see a light at the end of this very dark tunnel.

My version of the end is that the virus continues to spread. It mutates to be even more dangerous, with a 100% mortality.
It can’t be contained.
Civilisation will be destroyed.

Those that manage to avoid it will have to find ways to survive until eventually they catch it too......

Please don’t lay into me for my “end”
Right now this is honestly how I’m thinking and it’s a really scary place to be in.

Seriously how does everyone else think this will end?

Barbarara
I've been on MN since the beginning.
Yours is the only post I have ever screenshotted.
Beautiful words.

I think the world after CV will be a gentler one. We will realise that the most basic of jobs actually have the greatest worth and will have more respect for workers in minimum wage roles.

We might question the sanity of pushing teenagers through the stress of summer exams.

We will hopefully travel less but have a renewed appreciation of the beauty on our doorstep.

We will waste less food and resources (we will have to, we are going to be poorer for sure!).

Shaking hands will die out for good.

As for the lady who thinks she'll never hug again because three months confined to barracks changed her from a hot prospect to an aged crone, mate you'll be fighting them off when we're allowed back out. Your currency will go up, not down!

That made me really laugh @MorrisZapp . Just to be clear, I don’t think I am a hot prospect now - just a bit less of a not hot prospect !! It sounds weird I know but it is linked to my weird relationship history of only one (and boy was that dysfunctional for years!) and to being incredibly shy and now time is running out (or so it feels)!

It will end with an economic slump, more wfh, more babies being born, higher taxes.

Life will then adjust can carry on as normal as it always does.

I think fewer people than anticipated will die and things will return to some kind of normality next year.

I think it'll just peter out and after a few months it'll generally be forgotten. Nothing radical will change.

@Helpmechangemymindsetplease - that's fine, I've lived vicariously through others new relationships before ...

We watched a movie together on saturday (started at the same time) but actually chatted most of the way through it and got very drunk and shared embarrassing secrets. We talked for over an hour on the phone last night.

Having spent the first couple of weeks not really admitting that the messaging was more than friendly he refereed to Saturday as a 'date' and we seem to get on really well.

There was a real connection when we met and we did have an elicit hug before we left.

I'm finding myself scarily invested in this - I've had a couple of relationships since I split up with my exH and this feels pretty positive.

OP presumably you are on maternity leave?
If so, then you can socially distance/islolate yourself. This really reduces your chances of becoming infected to very low, assuming the shops you use are following the rules, and anyone else in the household is following the rules as much as they can.
You really must get this into perspective. The people most at risk at present are the key workers especially frontline NHS staff. People who stay indoors as per instructions have very little risk.
As for enjoying your maternity leave and early months with your baby, well thousands of people don't, for a variety of reasons, but they come through it in the end. There's plenty of evidence for that on mumsnet.

It'll fizzle out just like the Spanish flu and bubonic plague.

Viruses don’t ‘fizzle out’. We manage them.

OP, I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling so anxious. Having a new baby can make us feel raw and vulnerable and far more susceptible to focusing on the things that we worry could threaten the things and people we love the most. There are good reasons for this but sometimes that sense of our vulnerability can spiral out of control.

Try to remember that thoughts are not facts. The scenario that your brain has come up with doesn't reflect the reality of the situation. It's made up. What you are imagining will not - cannot - happen.

Things will change, undoubtedly, and hopefully for the better in the long run! But civilisation is no more likely to collapse and be destroyed as a result of COVID-19 than I am to sprout wings.

I agree with the PP who said that there is actually some room for cautious optimism, although I know that's probably quite a big ask for you at the moment. I hope you start to feel better soon.

Realistically - about 250,000 dead and business as usual otherwise come the autumn.

I agree with a PP you need to see a doctor about your anxiety OP

Thank you everyone for your reassuring responses.

I just wish I could manage this awful feeling.

I have awful intrusive thoughts about living in an apocalyptic world or becoming severely ill.
I have intrusive images, I can see myself being taken to the excel centre, struggling to breathe. separated from my baby and husband, Drs saying I’m not worth saving.
Dying a horrific lonely death 😞

It’s so overwhelming.

I hate not being In control. I hate that there is no certain outcome for this.
The only outcome I can imagine right now is the one I’ve mentioned.
It’s dark 😞😞

I have seen a Dr about my anxiety.
I have weekly CBT via a telephone call.
I don’t feel as if it’s helping. The feeling of my anxiety and the certainty that my thoughts are real and going to happen are too strong 😞

@tollyfeeder Have you family with you? Switch off the news and social media for a bit. play some music, read a book, do some cooking. Have a bath or clean the house. Have you a garden? try and get outside, feel the wind, see the trees, listen to the birds. Focus on just accepting you can't change this situation but you can deal with it and get through. The Samaritans will listen and give comfort if you need it.

@ninja it sounds very positive and exciting. With the over investment it is difficult not to do that I think and also difficult for a relationship to flourish a little without doing that (I got quite into my date at the beginning of the year and then grieved for a month after our 7 dates went nowhere but I am ok now ). Lockdown kind of changes things - less opportunity to jump ship and find someone else but in any case it sounds like you are both really into each other .

OP you aren’t well the intrusive thoughts could very well be a sign of Post partem psychosis

Please urgently get some help face to face you can’t manage this by yourself

@mrshoho i live with my husband and baby.

I do have a garden and I’ve spent some time out there. But the thing I struggle with is switching off. I just cannot turn off my thoughts.

My husband and I have been taking the baby in the pram round our quiet street so that she gets some fresh air. But we haven’t done this every day as I’ve felt too afraid 😞

I have lots of friends who I speak to daily.
But the problem is, believe it or not, none of them know how much I’m suffering.

They all know I’ve always been a bit paranoid of germs and bugs and it’s always been a bit of a running joke amongst us. But I know none of them would even for a second think I’d be feeling so bad.
I guess I just hide it well.

I think my husband has started to lose patience with me now so I don’t even bother telling him how I feel.
We’ve been together 14 years and he really is supportive, but I guess being constantly in the house together and him having to listen to me constantly worry and stress, it’s probably all too much for him. 😕

Please start telling people if this is the start of PPP its imperative that you start receiving help with this

116 123 The Samaritans number. On any phone you can call them. They will listen. You may feel better just getting your thoughts out. It must be hard for your husband also and talking with someone outside of your group could work. best wishes

I dont think @MySonIsAlsoCalledBort is so far off. I agree this is just a precursor to soften everyone up for what is coming next. Whether that be a world war, or the rapid rise of workforce AI. Either way....if the hypothetical question is about the ending and OP is looking for purely personal opinions. Mine is that it ends - not in the short term, but the longer - with the subjugation and eventual cull of a huge section of humanity.

Arthritis isn't relevant and the asthma sounds well managed. You need a severe heart condition to be in the true danger zone, OP. A bit of obesity & diabetes would put you nicely at high risk. You're just not in that league.
And on that #uncheerful note...

Ooooor.....we could get a vaccine. There could be no evil motives behind said vaccine. Covid could become the next small pox, we will all be cured and future generations will wonder what we ever made such a fuss about. That's the cheerier possibility!

Schaden You speak the most sense on this thread IMO.

Blimey! Never thought `I'd see those words, ppeat

I may embroider them on to a sampler and place it above the mantelpiece.

Serin

Lovely post.

I think we’ll gradually adjust to higher death rates for the next couple of years. Lockdown will be used to build surge healthcare capacity and then too many people will be protesting to keep lockdown in place, it will be lifted and the death rates will rise. We’ll maybe go into shorter lockdown periods when the death rates get too high. A vaccine will be developed and distributed widely enough in about two years. There will have been a lot of deaths and also economic damage. But basically things will gradually return to normal, potentially with lowered life expectancy depending on how effective the immunity is.