How are people so calm about Covid?

[BumbleWumble]

I have written several posts now and been told my reaction is not normal and that I need help for my mental health as I am suffering from health anxiety.

But how do you come to terms with coexisting with this disease, possibly forever if no vaccine is found? A highly contagious disease that you run the risk of catching everywhere you go and might kill you. Even if it doesn't you might be left with severe incapacitating organ damage. Or you might get the long haul version that goes on for months at least. Since the disease is so new no one actually knows if people with this form actually ever get better.

This doesn't seem an equivalent risk to say driving a car. It seems that eventually most people will contract it. True, many people would have a mild version then recover, although even the mild version is supposed to be a nasty experience. But a vast number of people would either die, be left with terrible lasting damage or be ill for months, possibly permanently. Also it's not known whether lasting immunity is conferred, so you might initially get a mild version then get a more severe version at a later date. And as well as this, there is the constant fear of loved ones getting it and that you might pass it on to them. Or that you might unknowingly infect any one.

In addition to this, our quality of life will be awful. As well as the threat of the actual virus constantly hanging over us, social distancing will remain necessary and we will never be able to freely interact with other people ever again. People will not be able to be close with family and friends. There will be no proper socialising, no events where people gather. There will be fear every time an indoor space has to be shared with others. Indoor workplaces especially will be a major risk forever more. As will public transport.

We will just lead a terribly bleak existence knowing that at some point we will likely catch the disease regardless with a relatively high chance of a terrible outcome. Or if not us then a loved one.

I don't understand how people aren't more concerned about this and put it on a par with other daily risks such as driving a car. It is so terrible the whole world has come to a halt over it, and if no vaccine is found quickly, is going to have a catastrophic impact on humanity as a whole as far as I can see.

I realise there will be no choice but to get on with life, but I do not know how to do this without an ever present sense of anxiety and dread. I can think of little else and if this is to be the future then I fear the rest of my life consisting of terrible fear waiting for it to get me and loved ones.

I feel utter despair and terror. It's like a nightmare with no end.

The virus will go. Life as we knew it before where we were in our own little bubble probably won't be the exact same but close to it. There are contagious diseases in day to day life that we didn't really bat an eyelid about because it's been around for years.
You can't live your life being that anxious you'll turn into a nervous wreck. I'd say I'm an anxious person but I do try to rationalise my thoughts by breaking stuff down. Don't know if this would help you. I look at figures, new reports etc.
For example in my actual area there has only been 1 confirmed case since 11th June.
In the city my town falls under there has been 3 in the last two weeks. When you look at it as a whole picture that's such a tiny amount. The city has 200,000+ plus with mixed cultures too.

@IDontDrinkTea

I work for the nhs. Since we’ve begun testing basically everyone, we’ve had lots of positive results for people with no symptoms, or people who’s symptoms are so mild they’ve put it down to hay fever and not even considered they have Covid. I think if you’re young and healthy, the risk is so minimal that I am not at all worried about getting back to normal. It is the at risk categories that perhaps should be slightly more cautious

Whilst Im not living in fear at all I am a bit concerned that NHS workers with symptoms of any kind don't think they might have the virus?

That's pretty alarming, how are they so unaware? Is that why hospital spread is high?

I was worried back in Feb and March - but now the spread is at a level under control, we know much more about how to treat the illness and I think the long term damage of lockdown is far outweighing the risks the virus currently poses to us.

I was worried for the kids - but now the body of evidence showing children are of minimal danger from it is very large. Fairly sure I’ve had it, and probably at least DD1 too and it was just a crappy respiratory thing for a week - like it is with most people.

There’s a multitude of things out there that COULD kill you in a small number of cases, but for the majority just cause a minor illness - this is no different.

We locked down to, in MN speak, “get our ducks in a row” and we’ve done that.

You can never eliminate risk- but my kids are back at school and are at more danger crossing the road outside their school (no lollipop lady these days) then being in their group in class.

You need to get some support - phone based CBT I found beneficial for challenging my anxiety.

OP, I think what you have perhaps lost sight of is that all the measures governments have put in place for Covid aren’t because it is so contagious (measles for example is much more contagious, and pre-vaccine society didn’t shut down for measles) or so terrible (plenty of things with a much higher death rate - even those at the highest risk are likely to survive Covid) because it is so new.

It won’t always be new. If the emerging evidence around. T-cell immunity turn out to be correct we

The point of the lockdown was to slow the spread of a disease that can be serious and fatal for some, to ensure that everyone who needed it could get support and treatment, and to protect those who are at higher risk.

Countries with better health systems that took people into hospital earlier tended to have better survival rates; thankfully after a shit start the NHS seems to have caught up with the idea that not waiting until someone is blue to treat them is useful.

We have at least two drug treatments now as well as better oxygen treatments.

And we have a lower prevalence. 1 in 2200 are likely to be infected right now. It’s also likely that most of them won’t spread it or won’t spread it much - it’s probably only 20% of people with the virus who are responsible for around 80% of the spread.

No matter what your health history, if you catch it, you’ll probably be fine. In fact if you catch it, you probably won’t even know it. You may have already had it.

We’re doing all of this because it’s new, and hitting all of us at once. Not because it’s uniquely terrible.

I’m not saying go to a crowded pub. But just hold onto the idea that no matter what, you’ll almost certainly be fine.

Oh and in answer to your key question OP, people are so calm about Covid because unlike you, they don't have clinical anxiety.

Please see your GP for medication, CBT or a combination of both.

In addition to this, our quality of life will be awful. As well as the threat of the actual virus constantly hanging over us, social distancing will remain necessary and we will never be able to freely interact with other people ever again. People will not be able to be close with family and friends. There will be no proper socialising, no events where people gather. There will be fear every time an indoor space has to be shared with others. Indoor workplaces especially will be a major risk forever more. As will public transport.

I am in another country which has been out of total lockdown since May and restrictions have been gradually relaxed. You now wouldn't know that there had ever been a lockdown at all. People are socializing with friends again. They are meeting family. They are visiting people in care homes. Events of up to 100 people are now permitted where everyone has an allocated seat. Events of up to 250 permitted from August. Tourists are everywhere enjoying their holidays as if nothing had ever happened.
We are getting some clusters popping up - but tracking and tracing and quarantining of all contacts is happening very quickly. The typical places that are affected are factories such as meat-packing, vegetable picking accommodation, refugee accommodation - places where people are in contact with one another indoors for extended periods of time.
If you look at the worldometer statistics for the whole world you can see that the number of cases are still going up but the number of deaths per day is stabilizing. I read (and I'm sorry I can't quote it as I can't remember where it was), that some medical experts are saying that the disease is becoming less deadly with time. The Italians are saying that they are not seeing the severity of symptoms in infected people that they were at the beginning.

I don't think this will help you this much as you do seem to have severe anxiety about this and I would suggest you contact your GP to talk this through because you seem to have gone past the point of normal concern about Covid.

Alot of people, including me, had a high level of fear in the beginning. At this point though, you should be able to look at the data and be reassured. The 1% mortality rate is heavily skewed by the over 80s. For under 65s it is well, well below 1%. You need to remember you can have a severe reaction to any virus. When I was 26 and 9 weeks pregnant I ended up in hospital for a weekwith influenza A, four days of which I spent violently shaking due to an uncontrollable temperature. I had psychosis and genuingly thought the nurses were torturing me for taking my blankets away as I was so cold, and kept escaping my room to find radiators to cuddle. It was vile but I do not live on fear of the flu. I dont even get the vaccine. Please look at the Covid data and try to rationalise your fears and contact your gp

I am panicking inside, but I am calm outside. My dc has chronic illness and weak immune system, so I am debating myself everyday if I should send him back to school when the school is open in Sept.
I keep calm because I don't want to scare my dc.

I have to make rational choice, if I decided to keep my dc at home, I have to make sure that he gets proper home schooling by me. Can I do that? I don't know. There is no time to just panic and being irrationally scared, there's so much things to think about.

The BBC have been horrendous. There is no rational presentation of risk, it’s unbearable to watch. Loaded with emotive language and hysteria I agree. The amount of presenters and reporters they have prancing about the country. They have their salaries paid for by us.

OP I think you recognise in your post that your anxiety level is debilitating, and it's unlikely anything any of us say about how we rationalise it is going to help, except to know that we hear you and sympathise. You need to tell your GP about this and get what help there is available. But please know it is not logical or rational to feel the level of dread that you describe.

I am by no means denying the seriousness of Covid. However, I have a huge circle of friends and family ranging from a baby great niece born in lockdown to a elderly (albeit sprightly) MIL in her 80s. I have gone to work from day 1. I have been to supermarkets (infrequently), the butchers, petrol station and the chemist.
I live in a town in the SE.
I know of not one person who has had Covid 19.
This is not going to kill us all, we are not all doomed.

You have terrible anxiety op and I think you really should try to get some help.

I do blame society in a way or the ‘authorities ‘. People have been so infantilised, warnings on peanut packets that they contain nuts, signs up in some coastal places etc. that there is an uneven path, notes in hotel bathrooms that wet surfaces may become slippery etc, etc.

I think a lot of this is driven by the compensation culture but it means the assessment of risks has been taken away from individuals, people expect life to be ‘safe’.

Honestly op, the virus isn’t that scary compared to other illnesses. (Won’t mention those!) Live your life! We only get one go.

Ah yes i was going to say my family are in southern Italy and they’ve pretty much gone back to normal with some obvious exceptions to “normal” like masks in supermarkets and no loud crazy music in bars etc.
They still have daily deaths and cases but at controllable levels.
I really think the U.K. will get there eventually, but we’re a certain amount of weeks behind them and we didn’t have a full lock down like they did so may take longer

I do kind of get where you’re coming from. At the start we didn’t much know what we were in for, the stories coming out of China were horrendous with Italy not faring much better.

I am of similar age and health to you - so filed myself under automatic death sentence.

I’ve since had 3 friends older than us with more severe health complications (one is on the transplant list) who have had it. All three spent a miserable 2 weeks in bed wondering if “tomorrow” would be the day the needed an ambulance- but tomorrow didn’t come and they have all successfully recovered.

I CAN cope being ill in bed for 2
Weeks. I’ve got enough food in for the kids to fend for themselves and I have boxes of tissues and painkillers under the bed ready to go.

But because my friends have been ill and pulled through it’s given me huge hope that I’ll be fine. Miserable for a week or two, but fine.

I do generally have health anxiety myself and this week I’ve got yet another MRI on my brain. Life is unpredictable , of all the health problems I saw coming my way, this wasn’t one.

TerrapinStation I suppose if you usually suffer from hayfever, have hayfever symptoms, as opposed to Covid symptoms, when the pollen count is high, you wouldn't automatically assume or suspect it was anything other than hayfever ?
If you are asymptomatic I am not sure what you are supposed to do ?

By the way, I know 5 people that have had it now. 3 only knew because they were being routinely tested, no symptoms, and the other 2 said it was a bit like having flu but not as bad.

I am more worried about elderly relatives getting it and dying than me. I am also convinced we've had it as a family and it was mostly like a very bad flu for a month or so with lung pain - like which I've never had before. You could be knocked over by a car tomorrow - risk kids part of life. And tbh my elderly relatives would prefer to be out and about and take the risks rather than life hidden away.
Life is risk!

Honestly OP? There's just no choice. We have to deal with it. Yes it's shit and scary. But it's also something we can't control or avoid. So I think eventually there's some "calmness" that comes with acceptance.

I also think that being on mirtazapine has helped me deal with it better than I would have done, so it might be worth thinking about medication if you're scared all the time.

OP I agree with you. I haven't been shopping, to the beach, to the local beauty spots since lockdown began as as far as I'm concerned I'd receive an automatic death sentence (obese but I'm in my early 20s).
I hate how everyone is so blasé about it, it really annoys me.

I had it in march. I had a temp for 24/36 hours. Felt very tired for a week. Lost my sense of taste and smell for about a month.

Definitely NOT the illest ive ever been. Am completely fine now and was after a month.

Most people who have died have been very old or had pre existing conditions that threatened their lives already.
Tou need to see a dr about your anxiety.

I had it. I've recovered.

What do you want us to tell you?.You say you've made several posts. Do you get any medication or counselling for you HA.

We just have to deal with it, it will probably be around for a long time.

BumbleWumble - the only people I know who got confirmed covid 19 all got better within a week, and one only knows they got it due to positive antibody test results. This disease is not ebola or the plague, it is only particularly dangerous to whole populations because of the effect on modern healthcare systems of lots of vulnerable people falling ill at once, due to rapid spread. It won’t spread rapidly and uncontrollably forever - ways of limiting its impact will be and are already being found, and huge numbers of people are not particularly vulnerable to severe disease as a result of it, anyway.

I was scared initially because I was imagining the worst case scenarios. So I started to research it and keep up with the latest medical news.
I make a point of ignoring the over reactions about things like eating crisps on benches, sitting on beaches, celebrating VE day, all supposedly causing 'huge spikes'.
The fact is, the UK is actually in a good position at the moment and handling this stage well. This was confirmed by the WHO last week. We are now dipping into negative excess deaths, which means that we're actually safer than we were last year.
Personally I'm very confident we will have an effective vaccination programme over the next few months, and until that time we should all be careful. That means taking sensible precautions, not wrapping yourself up in cotton wool. My advice, for what it's worth, is to protect your immune system as much as possible. That basically means living a healthy lifestyle with particular attention on keeping vit D levels up. Zinc seems to be important as well, in fact some Doctors are using it as part of the early intervention combo.