Hit by a tidal wave of emotion today about the situation we are in - is it because there might be some light at the end of the tunnel and does anyone else feel the same way?

[Sosadandempty]

I don’t know if it is because the number of hospital deaths are down for the second day running and because maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel (?), but I feel hit by a tidal wave of emotion that maybe I had repressed?

Everything that has happened over the past few weeks has been and is so hard and frightening, and I feel terrible .

As if I have relaxed a bit and so the emotion is not so repressed?

I was wondering if anyone else feels the same way?

I'm feeling positive that numbers seem to be coming down, but anxious about the way out of this. Anxious about what life will realistically be like for the next 9 months or 12 months. I mean, we cant really go back to normal can we? With this virus always hanging over our head? I desperately want my kids back to school, and I want to get back to the office and back to easier food shopping etc.

And yes, I realise that for most of us it'll just be a mild virus but surely that idea we could be that 20% will always be that black cloud?

I so want to see light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm scared to consider it in case it all gets ripped away again.

Also, I havent slept well in weeks. So this probably isn't helping my anxiety.

We’re reaching the false horizon. People need to be careful not to rush back too quickly.

The reason hospitals are so quiet is they have been emptied for coronavirus treatment. We aren’t all out and about so there are far fewer accidents.

And, the worst, no one over 65 or with a pre-existing condition is being hospitalised for anything.

SIL is a paramedic. She says her job is so bleak now because they are having to leave people at home to die because the hospital won’t admit them.

Non of this goes toward the official figures. Because those people didn’t die in hospital. Pretty awful.

I feel very anxious. DC needs an operation (thankfully not urgent). It will probably be delayed.

If it coincides with birth of DC2 I've no idea what we'll do. I am primary career for DC1 and priority is to be with them in hospital but what will I do about DC2? I'd like to breastfeed again and DH will be so busy with work then hopefully (after a lot of time out due to virus)

Only one parent (must be same every day) and no siblings permitted in hospital at the moment so I wouldn't see newborn for an unknown period. We wouldn't be able to get help from family

Non of this goes toward the official figures. Because those people didn’t die in hospital. Pretty awful.

Yes I know @BelleSausage and it is awful. People being left to die at home whether of covid (terrible stories of people only taken to hospital when it is far too late or not at all) or something else is a scandal which the media hasn’t yet shone a light on. While Downing Street tell us that the NHS is not overwhelmed .

OP, I understand what you mean. I think that the initial panic and worry is being replaced by the implications of all this.

Yes @SophieB100 it’s that, and also the fact that the panic and worry have really taken their toll.

@20April2020 - I am sorry, it sounds really stressful. I was going to ask if your parents could help but then I remembered we are all socially distanced so maybe they can’t?

Thanks for the tea @avocadoze

(And have just read about family not being able to help - sorry should have seen that @20April2020)

Thank you OP 😊 it's possible someone might... DH or someone will have to, but either way I'd be separated from one of them for a long period (and it would have to be newborn as more important DC going through op has me there as the priority)

No idea how breastfeeding etc would work and it's quite important to me if the baby can as have fed DC1 for a long time

Sorry to hijack thread but sympathised with your title!

It was so odd today. First time I'd been to a large supermarket since the lockdown. Was disciplined outside but no one was social distancing inside. It felt like such a big deal and I wondered just how long we'd have to operate like this.

I don't see any light as we have no exit plan.

It's definitely affecting my mental health.

@BelleSausage, I don't think it's nationwide is it? (Your comment about no one over 65 being admitted with a pre-existing condition). That certainly isn't the case as the 3 hospitals in our region.

I think there are two different things here:

Lockdown probably is working - I know that weekend figures are usually lower but I'm feeling optimistic that we will gradually plateau and start to drop - on the basis that we have pretty much followed Italy's trajectory and all countries have benefitted from lockdown and seen the effects. So that's good.

It doesn't change the fact that we don't have an exit strategy. It's all very well seeing the numbers dropping but given that lockdown isn't sustainable, I won't feel really optimistic until I understand how on earth we are going to manage to avoid surges every time lockdown is relaxed. I don't believe for one minute that an App telling me I've been near someone with suspected Covid, is going to be the Gold Standard for moving forward.

I remember feeling devastated when we hit 32 deaths in a day, now I feel almost ‘bored’ of it- I think I’m just numbed. I don’t feel like I’ll know how to ‘be’ when it’s over, this has all become so normal.

Maybe. It’s really normal to hold it together during a crisis and then fall apart when you can. I do know what you mean.

I feel horribly numb about the deaths. Like app, I was horrified when it was Italy but it just seems like it’s always been this way now somehow?
I really badly want my life back. I want to see my class. I want my own kids back at work.
I think this is the danger point for lots of us- we are all fed up and this is when people will start to break free too early.
I feel like this is something that we might have to live with and to find a way of doing that whilst actually “living”. Can’t get my head round it.

When I saw the figures were down again today I shed a few tears, I felt that we were finally controlling this bloody awful disease. I just cannot think further than today, the economy etc. is a worry but not for me just now.

I don't see any light as we have no exit plan.

That’s true - and why isn’t the government talking more about contact tracing (might be repeating myself here but I forget what have said where)?

I too remember being utterly shocked by the Italian figures, and now that we have the same ones, feel numb .

There aren't enough tests for contact tracing, and they abandoned that when cases grew and contact tracing couldn't keep up with it.
They said yesterday that less than 20,000 were tested yesterday, that's just hospitals/care homes/front line staff. We need to get to a point when we test five times more than that a day. And it won't be the end of April, will it...regardless of Matt Hancock saying it would be.
They haven't got enough tests, enough PPE...it's awful.
That's why I think lockdown is going to go on for a long time.
It's horrible, many of us feel exactly how you feel OP.

@Sosadandempty contact tracing is a strategy that I believe only works if you have a very low number of cases, in the hundreds really or very low thousands at most.

Do you have the kings college London university COVID app on your phone? This is their website - they have great articles and webinars too about how we can come out of lockdown, how contact tracing could work and other stuff too.

covid.joinzoe.com/data

If you download the app you can take part in the project too. I recommend!! There are now more than 2.5M participants in the UK and the more people who join in the sooner we will get good answers and information on Covid 19.

I managed the first 3 weeks of lockdown ok but since then have definitely had problems with my mental health - some days feeling anxious, some feeling angry about nothing specific, once bursting into tears when Chasing Pavements was played - I have tried to spend some time writing about my feelings each day and being sure to go for a nature walk everyday too.

Hang in there OP!

Thank you. Will download the app @Snog.

With the contact tracing - I thought the Health select committee had been recommending it as a means of avoiding a second wave? And ironically Jeremy Hunt has made much more sense over all of this than the government IMO - despite presiding over years of underfunding and ignoring the 2016 Cygnus exercise.

Well according to someone the over 50`s should isolate, hello who is going to look after them and their parents, their kids, some only just in secondary school.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8243401/Coronavirus-total-isolation-shielding-extended-60s-experts-warn.html