Worrying article in the Guardian

[SpongeCake23]

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/16/uk-lockdown-causing-serious-mental-illness-in-first-time-patients?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1589620149

People with no history of mental illness are developing serious psychological problems for the first time as a result of the lockdown, amid growing stresses over isolation, job insecurity, relationship breakdown and bereavement, the Royal College of Psychiatrists has disclosed.

Adults and children are having psychotic episodes, mania and depression, with some taken to hospital because of the heavy toll on their mental wellbeing.

Eight weeks into lockdown measures, the Royal College of Psychiatrists is warning that services could be overwhelmed by “a tsunami of mental illness”

Psychiatrists are also concerned about stress linked to the fear of contracting Covid-19. Being cut off from family and friends, and disruption to normal NHS services, are also exacerbating existing mental health problems. Some now refer to the emergence of “lockdown anxiety”

A specialist in the psychiatric care of children and young people said they had seen more under-18s with autism having to be admitted for inpatient care because they were “not coping with changes re Covid” and others “with deteriorating mental health state and increase in significant self-harm and increase in completed suicides”.

Something needs to be done and quickly, in my opinion.

This is going to have a longer lasting impact and more devastating after effects than the virus itself.
We’ve already had a family member commit suicide during the lockdown, because of being in the shielding catogery, but also a struggling alcoholic. I luckily don’t know anyone who has died of Covid, but I know people who have had it and are now fine.

This is a virus with a very high survival rate, I’m terrified for the future, especially for my son.

"Experiencing a few weeks of boredom and change of routine is not going to break them"

Being totally alone all the time might though.
Most people can't leave like hermits in the way single people are being made to do now.

Thanks OP, very important thread.

For me, anxiety about the virus is one thing, the stress of lockdown another. But the worst is our totally incompetent bordering and criminally negligent government's response. They all lie every day. We have the 2nd highest deaths in the world and Still not testing and tracing. Its scary.

Being totally alone all the time might though.
Most people can't leave like hermits in the way single people are being made to do now.
The silver lining from this might be a new awareness, empathy, and public will for increased support for the many people who had live like that pre pandemic. The housebound - whether physical disability or MH related.

Toffee - yes, I think that might be true. We also don't know what the long term effects for CV survivors will be so we may well end up with more people with physical disabilities.

"But the worst is our totally incompetent bordering and criminally negligent government's response. They all lie every day. We have the 2nd highest deaths in the world and Still not testing and tracing. Its scary."

Lockdown has been eased in England seemingly with no planning at all. No planning of how public transport and work can be done safely with social distancing and masks, and as you say not testing and tracing. I think quarantine for foreign visitors is coming, but not sure from when. It's just a mess.

It's the first time it's been so widely talked about and experienced. I really hope something good comes out of all this horror.

It beggars belief how incompetent and negligent our government have been. They should've used lockdown to sort out the PPE and other issues. Even now they could still start doing something. They want schools back in June. So why not prepare for it so it's possible to reopen safely? I hope they spend the next couple of weeks getting on with testing, getting drugs, masks, and PPE, and setting up border restrictions. It's a way of safety easing out of lockdown. We still have a chance.

I don’t know whether this has been shared but New York Governor, Andre Cuomo talks briefly in the video in this twitter link about the approx 100 cases of Kawasaki disease in children in NY State. 90% of the cases either tested positive for CoVid 19 or had antibodies to it.

I know the numbers overall in the world for coronavirus linked Kawasaki disease is low but it is of potential concern

twitter.com/adamhamdy/status/1261338457105928195?s=21

Apologies I wrote the above on a wrong thread.

I agree, my NDN is a Psysaitrist (not sure of spelling), she deals mainly young people.

Even she was aghast at the amount of young people sneaking out to mingle. But what had me was the amount of teens trying to kill themselves.

Would people in the past really have coped better with this? People were more community minded than today where many are very insular and do little outside of their nuclear families which makes me wonder.

Also how transferable is resilience? I mean you could survive a war and build resilience in the process but would that resilience work for other traumatic situations?

I have a family now but went through a very lonely period in my 20s when I first moved to London. I can't imagine how difficult this period is for people living on their own with such limited social contact, even being discouraged from going to the shops or speaking to neighbours.

I am surprised at how many people are struggling. I’m not talking about those, who have lost their livelihoods. I’m another person, who has suffered a lot of adversity. My life looks a lot like lockdown a lot of the time due to having to rest a lot and being largely bedridden.

This lockdown is, however, terribly hard on my health as I have a massive support structure to keep my life functioning well and me mobile. Physio and Bowen therapy every week. This has all stopped.

I also desperately need surgery. I am depressed and crying every day. But I know this will pass. Like everything in life does.

I have no time to myself. My time at home to rest and recuperate has been replaced by my yr7 dd, who needs a lot of help with school work. We work lots from bed.

I’ve had a lot thrown at me in life. My belief system really is : this is tough but it will sort itself out in the end. Some have criticised the comments that resilience won’t get us through this. When I think of resilience, I do not think of the superficial, I think of steely tenacity, which lasts a lifetime.

Hugs @Godzillasonice xxx

My d has been in anorexia recovery for 2-3 years now, she’s at home when she should be in the last term of her third year of med school, she’s very much battling to keep it under control. She tells me that everyone on her social media who has ed issues are struggling - the actively ill aren’t being seen and are regressing, the recently recovered are relapsing, the 2-3 years down the line people are being drawn back in. She’s fighting hard but the family is on tenterhooks because her illness was traumatic for everyone.

Anorexia generally isn’t about ‘strength’ and it generally doesn’t even start off about weight, despite how the media would portray it. Anorexics are generally highly intelligent, driven, competitive, perfectionist people with what tends to be called ‘over controlled’ personalities - OCD and anxiety are commonly involved as well. It’s not surprising that a world completely out of their control is causing them issues. Super selective schools and top unis, particularly highly academic courses like medicine have high proportions of young people with EDs - the qualities/personality types they target are pretty much the same.

As a parent you feel like a failure - your most basic thing is to feed your kid and suddenly you can’t feed them because they can’t eat. They’re suddenly displaying behaviours alien to the person you love. And the external judgement makes it worse - people (family members, even my mum) saying ‘do you think she’s just attention seeking and needs a reality check/slap) - even when her BMI was under 13 - (so she was 5’6” and not far above 5 stone), completely yellow and ambivalent with her body growing hair to keep itself warm, yeah, it’s because she’s spoilt and wants to look like a model 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Get her on the CAMHS waiting list for assessment. Look up BEAT. Join the UK eating disorder parents group on FB. If you’re close enough phone the team at the Maudsley for assessment (they’re not just for London people, you can self refer and they’re the best). If she faints or goes 24 hours without food or water take her to A&E - both to get her physically checked out and possibly fast tracked to mental health services as GP referrals take a long time. If she’s omnivore, don’t entertain talk of becoming veggie/vegan just now, keep an eye on her dairy consumption and encourage it. Nuts are great.

@HostessTrolley thank you for your reply. She is definitely a high achiever and expects a lot from herself. Being in year 10 she’s very focused on her GCSEs and puts everything into it. She’s the polar opposite of me in every way. Before this started she was becoming interested in veganism and other lifestyles and got very angry that I can’t afford to buy separate food for her than the rest of us. At the moment she will make a slice of toast and pick at a corner of it for about half an hour. Or she will eat a slice of Apple cut up into tiny cubes. She gets so angry if I say anything and any food I make her just gets pushed around and ignored. She still drinks milk in tea and lattes so I switched from our usual skimmed to semi skimmed so she is at least getting done calories in. As far as she knows the semi skimmed is all Tesco have at the moment. The Drs have refered her but they aren’t taking in new people at the moment but they have managed to get her some online counselling.

My post should have said first year med school - not third. My d was in year 11 when she developed it, high academic and sporting achiever. She became veggie before we knew what we were dealing with a later pushed to be vegan - I’m not saying that all veggies/vegans are anorexic but it’s often something that happens in the early days of an ED because it’s an ‘ethical’ way to restrict. She ended up taking a year out after GCSEs and before A levels and was in hospital for 5 months a long way from home. It can be useful to try to encourage nutritious food with a rational reason rather than ‘snack’ stuff - so nuts because protein is good for the brain (which will help with study), yogurt because it’s good for digestion (they’ll often say they can’t eat because they feel sick/tummy pain). Animal fats are important so don’t buy 0%/low fat. Keep an eye on her periods.

It really helped me to mentally seperate ‘it’ from ‘her’ - my d described anorexia as like having an abusive partner living in your head. Over time you can recognise when you’re talking to her, and when ‘it’ is in control :(

Sorry to divert the thread all x

mummy

crackofdoom Please talk to your health visitor. That's quite concerning if you feel unable to cope with having your children full-time. They'd understand it's not your fault and you need support but it would definitely make them vulnerable enough to qualify for school despite lockdown

Apparently not. I got my health visitor friend to advocate for me with the school head. Absolute flat refusal to take DS1. Unless I somehow acquire a family support worker. Which will take a minimum of 6 weeks, apparently. By which time the schools will be pretty much breaking up for summer......

I'm waiting for a couple of people from the council to call me back- don't really know what to do otherwise.

I'm sorry to hear that.
I'd have expected you to qualify. It's a shame you're having to fight for it. I hope you can get somewhere with the council. Be very clear about just how much you're struggling. Emphasise your health issues and how much you and the children would benefit from the support.

Dog A: Lives in a beautifully appointed flat---alone. Has its own designer feed bowl and water bowl (that fill automatically with the finest food), soft couches and cushions scattered with beautiful, perfectly designed toys. Hat huge screens showing footage of parks and rabbits and other dogs to watch. And is left alone all day and all night, every day, every night, to bark mournfully at the wall. No one to play with her, no one to stroke or cuddle her.

Dog B: Lives in a rough and ready farmhouse, with basic but OK food in battered looking bowls. Plays with sticks and stones. Runs around with the farmer all day long, playing and working, having jobs to do, being patted and talked to and loved.

Which dog is happy? Which dog is miserable? We all know the answer to this.

Human beings are animals too and we have many of the same needs.

I'm fed up with hearing that people in past situations "had it so much worse"it's not as simple as that. People, in my experience, are capable of being remarkably resilient when faced with basic living conditions and rationed food and lack of luxuries, as long as they have jobs to do and people around them to cheer them up-they'll even laugh and joke with their friends about all the hardships and turn it into a source of camaraderie.

But people crumple very quickly when they are locked up alone all day without face to face chat or physical contact, and where the prospect of long-term unemployment and hopelessness beckons.

Both of us had the virus and survived. Most people do. Time to try to get back to normality or the economy will collapse and there will be no money for the NHS or anything else.

Hi everyone,

Sorry, I know this thread isn't active any more but there seems to be lots of personal and learned experience of MH issues here and specifically related to CV.

My brother is in another EU country, I am desperately worried about him but don't want to start a specific thread as I know he is all over the Internet looking at things and it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he'd find something I wrote about him.

He is living abroad in another EU country, as I said, he is living alone. Has friends etc there and works, but all that had gone pretty much given the current circumstances. Two months ago he was completely up a height about the virus, giving us all strict instructions, frantically worried. That developed over time and now he doesn't believe in the virus but is equally paranoid and obsessive about various conspiracy theories e.g. 5g, NWO, being spied on, 'irradiated' which he says has caused physical health problems. He is self-aware in that he accepts we probably aren't going to believe him but he still has to warn us. I believe people can have whatever thoughts and theories they want, but this is affecting his life to the point he's going to have to ditch it and come home. He doesn't believe things will ever improve. It's hard to express his manner and beliefs without maybe saying too much and leading him to this through keyword search (hence not naming the country or any specifics). He now wants to come back to the UK as he feels the life he signed up for abroad will never be that life again, and we are all doomed so he may as well be here. I know loneliness and anxiety figure in this, but he obviously is having a serious MH crisis. Not sure if this is psychosis or what it would be identified as, but he is in a bad way and I am so worried about him and so are my elderly parents.

I want him to come back and have said this for weeks, even just to have company and he able to keep an eye on him. He now seems amenable to this and has booked a flight. He'll come back and obviously gave to isolate. What happens then? GP I assume. I am so scared the longer this goes on, the less likely he is to come back from this. Any advice or insight appreciated, truly.