Is anyone else still living in strict lockdown?

[laura081008]

Just that really.

Since March I’ve lived in lockdown.

My baby was born in lockdown and we haven’t seen anyone.

Even now the restrictions are relaxing, I don’t want to leave the house.

I’ve had friends asking me to go for a socially distanced walk, I don’t want to go.
Our parents have asked if they can come to our garden, or we go to theirs. I’ve said no.

I suffer terribly with anxiety and ocd and I just cannot face the world again after living in fear :(

It’s just too hard for me.

I can’t imagine going out to a clothes shop / supermarket and feeling comfortable.

My OCD means I doubt myself a lot and I know I would worry that I’d touched something, or forgotten to wash my hands.
It’s just not worth my mental health and the worries it would cause me by getting back into the “real” world, especially since it’s so far away from what I will remember before DS was born.

I feel like my life now will be confined to my living room and garden.

I’m being supported with my mental health but I really don’t think it will ever truly help, as my worries are the virus and until that goes away I will never want to leave my house.

I’m absolutely petrified of catching it and leaving my baby 😔

When will it ever go away.

How does everyone else feel?

@AnyFucker I couldn't agree more.

Mild Asthma does not make you high risk. It's only if you've had oral steroids or a hospital admission for it that is classed as high risk.

Mild asthma puts you in the clinically vulnerabke (moderate risk) group and it is entirely appropriate to take a more precautionary approach than those who have the good luck to have no known health issues.

And I agree with pinkpip - these continue to be risky times for the shielded; and it's not plain sailing for the moderate risk group either. It is entirely appropriate to take stick to the approach of going out only when it is important to do so. And it's your call, when vulnerable, to risk assess the benefit of the trip out against the risks of the journey and the activity.

laura you can go out for exercise/leisure, as all groups can. But you do not have to. I was wondering if you were posting for a bit of a hand hold as you thought through your own risk assessments. What do you think you might like to do in the next few days?

I completely understand how you feel. I’ve made myself go out for walks & to the supermarket a few times. It is a scary time and if you’re already suffering with anxiety then having a baby, it must be doubly so. If you’re managing to stay secure at the moment as you are, then I would suggest you carry on for a little while longer until cases of Covid drop further. In the mean time I would ask for help from your gp & see what they can do to help. All the best. You really are not alone.

For a small minority of people, it is worth the cost-benefit of people to continue shielding and isolating themselves. Even within that group there are some who feel that a lonely existence is not worthwhile.

For a young woman with mild asthma, objectively, the risks are very low.
OCD does not do objective.

Take babysteps to go out. A 5 minute walk. The nearest convenience store. Build it up and let some rational normality get a foothold.

The concessions that have eased up have had little effect on my situation other than now driving further for exercise. I don't have many convenient, avaliable people handy to meet up with so my social life is still little better than a dodo's.

For perspective, dip into the anti-dementor threads in chat, that tend to attract links into optomistic research and data. It's a good way to beat an irrational fear and sense of doom.

I think I'm in the 'flu jab' group? I have multiple sclerosis. This is what ive been doing throughout - Been WFH since 16th March, going food shopping a few times per werk and out for a walk every day. Maintained social distance. Haven't seen family as they live far away. I'm continuing to do the same til it's safe to visit family and stay over.

I think if you already have anxiety then this pandemic has made it a hundred times worse. I couldn't believe it when talking to my friends the other day (both mid 30's, no health issues) that they've still hardly left the flat! Maybe just a few times since lockdown began. They're still spraying and washing all post that arrives. I was shocked that healthy, young people who are most likely to have a very milk form of the virus (if they catch it in the first place!) could be so terrified that they'd lock themselves inside for weeks on end.
You must start thinking rationally about it. You're statistically much more likely to die from many other illnesses, car accidents, falls, trips etc! Than coronavirus. Do you worry every time you get into a car?
Please seek some help to try and look at this pandemic logically. Like others have said, take baby steps back into society. You will be amazed how many people are out there going about their normal business. Being careful, yes, but their lives have continued.

I think some (prob naturally anxious) people are overestimating the risks of coronavirus, simply as it’s a new risk they haven’t come to terms with, or got used to. For example the risk of driving a car at 70mph is a risk most people have grown up with - sometimes to the extent that we don’t even think of it as a risk day to day.

Also as there are some unknowns with a new disease like coronavirus we are still not 100% sure how to best prevent contagion. I’m old enough to remember the mid 1980s AIDS panic when it wasn’t fully understood how it was spread, and panic/rumours such as people avoiding public toilets as they thought they could catch it from a toilet seat. While I fully understand that coronavirus is a different type of disease I do wonder if in 20 years time we’ll look back at some people not leaving their houses for 3 months, panicking because they’ve touched a leaflet that came through the door etc, in a similar light.

Cross posted with @LolaLollypop and covered a lot of similar points!

For a small minority of people, it is worth the cost-benefit of people to continue shielding and isolating themselves

For population at large, it's really important that the shielded stay shielding. Over 2million people likely to get it badly wouid mean that if a second peak happened, the NHS would definitely be overwhelmed. Selfishly, it's in the wider population's interest to keep the exceptionally vulnerable, and probably lots of the vulnerable, out of circulation.

That said, if there are places where you can be reasonably sure that people (of all ages, including children) will not crowd and jostle you, then a trip out is OK for both moderate and high risk groups, and might do you a power of good

@nether we're always going to have a second peak, that's the nature of disease. In fact we may have already had it.

Mild asthma is not listed as high risk or needing shielding which is what you've been doing.

Talk to your MH nurse. Maybe you need some antidepressants short term?

@PowerslidePanda
A hearing impediment is an underlying condition. So is eczema. So is PCOS.

I might be misunderstanding this ONS information, but from what I understand 'underlying conditions' are only recorded on the death certificate if they form part of the causal chain. So hearing impediments, eczema and PCOS would not be classed as underlying conditions in a COVID-19 death.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/methodologies/measuringpreexistinghealthconditionsindeathcertificationdeathsinvolvingcovid19march2020

I really do worry the impact this will have on people’s mental health.
We as Humans are social animals we are meant to interact in person with others. There has been lots of research on the effects of not doing so. Especially young children who need new and varied experiences to grow.
You know you Have anxiety and OCD, are you getting any help for this. I would think about contacting your health visitor or GP. It is always your choice how far you push yourself. However, how long are you willing to live like this.
We have risk everyday, living is a risk but it’s also the most enjoyable gift. Don’t deprive yourself and your child of the outdoors.

Lara you can go out for exercise/leisure, as all groups can. But you do not have to. I was wondering if you were posting for a bit of a hand hold as you thought through your own risk assessments. What do you think you might like to do in the next few days?

I do think this post was probably looking for some Insight as to how others are living their lives.
Amongst my friends and family, I’m the only one living like this, but then none of them have asthma.

I am one of those who washes my shopping and post, but I assumed everyone was doing that now.

I do have weekly FaceTiming sessions with a therapist so I am getting support.
I’m just finding things really difficult.

I’m not ready to go out into this “new normal”.
I have friends who have been into a clothes shop this week. I just can’t ever see myself going out into a shop and feeling like it’s something I enjoy like I used to, not when I’ve got to be super paranoid about maintaining 2m, not touching my face and always always washing my hands.
I’ve always been a big hand washer. But having OCD I tend to question things I’ve done and I just know if I went out I would constantly question if I did accidentally touch my face, did I touch a contaminated surface, did I get too close to someone, did i forget to wash my hands.
Then there’s the two week period of worrying I might develop symptoms.

It’s just all so stressful it feels easier staying indoors.

I’m actually in a bit of a strange mind about it. In one way I’m pretty calm - I work in a nursery and not overly worried by being sneezed on, cuddled, doing nappies etc and yet I’ve not been to a supermarket since before panic buying in Feb and only been into town twice since lockdown.

I think I find the changes in society harder to deal with than the risk of the virus now.

I’m in the shielding group so very high risk. I had a double transplant in March. My team have been really good and actually told me to go out.

At this point I think people are focusing so much on covid that they’re ignoring other risks. The risk of poor mental health staying inside. The risk of physical decline staying indoors. The impact of this on children.

Yes covid is serious, but these other risks are far worse in my eyes, and I’m very vulnerable!

I understand you see a therapist op but I’d also speak to my doctor, you seem to be developing agoraphobia too.

You’re not high risk, in fact you’re not considered at any more risk than any other healthy adult below the age of sixty five. The odds are overwhelming if you got it, which is unlikely, only one in a thousand have it, then you’d have mild to no symptoms. You’re at higher risk of being run over by a car.

I think educating yourself and keeping abreast with scientific knowledge is possibly going to help. As it seems you’re deeply misinformed, which simply cannot be helping you. If you at least understood the risks it may help you. Because they are beyond tiny for you.

We have family friends (a couple and their primary school aged child, all non-vulnerable) who have been in strict lockdown since early March. They haven't even left the house for walks. I'm worried about their wellbeing but it's difficult to know what to say without seeming judgemental.

Amongst my friends and family, I’m the only one living like this, but then none of them have asthma

Your asthma is irrelevant, it puts you at no more of a risk than your family and friends. It’s like saying but then none of them are blonde.

I had a baby at the beginning of lockdown too. I also have a toddler. I don’t have any health conditions but my husband has mild well-controlled asthma. He has been working from home and will be back at work physically next week - I don’t have any concerns. I’m not keen to go to shops etc because the whole experience is so stressful and unpleasant, I’m not actually worried about the virus. But there is no way I could take a baby and toddler anyway without people losing the plot about me risking everyone’s health and the whole social distancing stuff being incredibly stressful. I am however desperate to see family and friends.

Foe me I know my risk from the virus is low, as a female under 45, however I find all the rules, distancing, following arrows, people hissing at me and worry about not getting it right, puts me off going out. I had a very serious emergency surgery a few years ago and I guess some of the medical stuff including masks reminds me of that.

I'm fine with going outside for walks etc but people in general and their reactions cause me worry at the moment.

I’m asthmatic, OP, and I’m significantly older than you.

I am definitely still socially distancing, visiting the supermarket as infrequently as possible while wearing mask & gloves and at the quietest times possible, washing / quarantining my shopping, not using public transport, not seeing friends & family at all. I go out to walk or cycle alone once a day, this is easy as I live on the edge of a village. I am doing everything I reasonably can to dodge this bullet, and I have no intention of changing my behaviour for the foreseeable.

Nothing's changed for us. I can't express how bored i am.