How the hell

[Ellsbells12]

Can this end (sorry been asked before) I mean city's all locking down, how much longer can this go on for ? People can't take much more , jobs losses , suicides (friend of a friend killed himself weds) I am sure everyone feels the same

My family are doing ok - surviving it all and now the kids are back at school, it's a bit better. It must be very hard for others not as lucky as me and I really empathise with those alone, single parents, young in their 20's or who have lost their jobs. It's incredibly stressful for everyone. I feel people are struggling more now as time goes on and into the winter with no prospect of restrictions ending any time soon, especially in the North.

DH WFH for almost 7 moths now. He started commuting to London 2 days a week in Sept and then last week - nope! All back to 5 days a week in the lounge once Boris said wfh. The company closed the office again. We have a small house so are really crammed in like sardines with 3 loud teenagers. My biggest gripe though is the lack of NHS care I'm seeing with thousands being denied screening, cancer treatment and operations. I am absolutely livid about it. I don't see how the NHS can justify allowing people to suffer and put Covid before cancer. It's a disgrace. Had I known this I would never have clapped on those Thursdays.

I don't mind wearing a mask, hunkering down and coping with all the crap but not getting life-saving treatment? We are a developed nation FFS! I think the NHS are shocking in lack of access to GP's. I read on here today about one lady who has been bleeding for weeks and weeks and can't get any treatment or a scan. Just awful for her and she has kids to care for. I had private physio for a severely trapped nerve causing me excruciating nerve pain in June from an amazing specialist. We both masked up, used hand santiser and got on with it. He cured me with 3 months of treatment that I desperately needed- even my GP said my case was urgent but no one in the NHS would see me ! I am so indebted to this therapist for helping me. What if I could not have afforded treatment? I didn't want to go to A and E. Honestly, I am at my wits end hearing about the physical and psychological suffering people are enduring not being treated. It has got to get better- we cannot go on like this a nation.

I know it's not easy to remember but one day this will be something that children learn about as history. I find the idea that there are adults born in 20something hard to get my head round but time keeps moving on.

Still, I feel I am lucky, at least so far we are healthy and we still have a job. So trying to smile on the face of it.

My mental health is totally fragile because of this and the constant fear of losing our income, jobs, house. I have a constant dread inside me, everything is uncertain and I have no trust in our government. My mum and friends feel the same. My elderly mother said ‘if I am banned from seeing my family, I might as well dig my own grave now’. She’s 86.

As much as I sympathise with how awful this is for everyone and some more than others, that is not rational. We do need to find ways of enjoying what is available and learning to cope with things as they are. An unchecked covid pandemic would be devastating for your health and pocket.

I am so sorry Ellsbells to read of your friend's loss.

An acquaintance of my daughter's ( she is 13) threw themselves onto the train track in Kent yesterday on the Isle of Sheppey. He was 14 or 15. Suicides are getting more frequent and mental health care- like physical care has just closed down. My local counselling offices are padlocked with telephone calls only.

I'm in the south and not yet in a lockdown, but I'm mentally struggling enough as it is. I've said it before but if there is another national lockdown or local lockdown here, I will not mentally or emotionally survive.

Shame the government aren't providing any mental health support.

Personally I have nothing to look forward to. No holidays, no breaks at all, no friends, family over 3 hours away. My DH and I are both unemployed, which makes it worse.

My cats are the only reason I'm still here and might make it through the coming months.

Forgot to add, railway suicides have increased here and are continuing to do so

@ Mushmonster
You are spot on with the Plague of the 17th century. There's a book that I think is still in print by Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe's author) about the Plague year (yes it lasted a year), and the parishes in London stopped recording the deaths, there were so many. No modern medicine, and the medicine which was available was not affordable for the poor. At least we have the internet, transport etc.
I have lost my job due to the Pandemic, one of many in the same situation, but to date i have not become ill, and I am grateful for modern medical knowledge.

Think back to your grandmothers and great grandmothers, they didn’t have it easy for years at a time. We need to adapt. We can do this.

@FrolickingFannyBoots I 100% agree with you on the healthcare issues. It is almost impossible to get a phone appointment with the GP here and waiting forever for hospital appointments.
Yet, the nursing department is doing ok here. I have seen them face to face, normal appointment time and all. And I just got a letter for a regular check up with them! Why cannot the GP of the same surgery be something similar

@Newjez

To be perfectly honest, things really aren't that different to what they were before covid. What great burdens have been placed upon your shoulders? I'm WFH, that's fine. I can go down the pub. I can go shopping. I can exercise. I just need to be careful and wear a mask occasionally. If people up north had been a bit more responsible, then you wouldn't have local lockdowns. Life is good down south England.

Get lost. I've followed every rule and so have the vast majority of people I know here.

There is a pandemic and it's shit for everyone in the whole world. But letting covid loose would make it worse. We have to try to keep it contained as much as possible to save the economy, schools and health care. The less covis tgeee us, the more we can do.

@carreterra I hope you find a job soon!
We have to clutch to the positives indeed!

@AgentCooper I agree with you. My second dd is only 11 weeks old and in my crazy moments I have considered going back to work because I can’t stand being on my own anymore

My mother is 85 and feels the same as others mentioned. She doesnt want to live her last days/months/years lonely and isolated and a house prisoner.
She has clearly, and lucidly said she woukd rather be dead than just exist alone.

I don't see it's sustainable.

I'm clinically vulnerable but wasn't shielded, so back to work as before pretty much. I teach so I'm with almost 300 young children every week with no SDing, nothing. Apparently Covid doesn't come to school so I guess it's a case of hoping that it's true And work feels rubbish - I'm not in a staff year bubble (I'm not linked to one year as I work in) so I sit and eat alone every day but at the same time I teach every child in school.

Due to them being in local lockdown - and no, they weren't breaking rules! - I can't see my parents, my sister or my nephew. Dd has left for university and is technically not my household now, though we are monitoring that and taking each week as it comes for now. We've been threatened with them not being allowed home for Christmas, the worry of her catching it, the worry of her being stuck in a room on her own for days in end, and everything else that's going on that's rubbish for students right now

I saw one set of friends for the first time since March this week. I've seen another set on and off throughout since everything was eased. But none of its quite normal is it - distancing, lots of anti bac, all a bit 'not quite right.'

I've been to a wedding recently - severely reduced numbers in a 'households in one table and no mixing between parts of the day' going on.

I normally have several holidays abroad booked. None now and the ones I had are cancelled.

Yeah it's better now than it was in March. But it's still just rules and rules, constantly hanged and constantly feeling like the government are using threats to control us.

There's no knowing when it'll end and that's depressing. There's that constant on edge feeling and never feeling actually happy - just always feeling a bit rubbish, a bit sad about it all, not knowing whether I should be worried about catching it or not and how bad it would be (as vulnerable) etc.

And it's the whole apparently being perfectly safe to be teaching 100s of kids daily in close contact but it not being safe to see my family and friends properly.

None of it feels great right now.

The thought of it going in 2 years is horrific.

My mother is 85 and feels the same as others mentioned. She doesnt want to live her last days/months/years lonely and isolated and a house prisoner.

My nana was the same, in her early 90s.
Infact she did eventually break the rules to join a family day as she was so insistent that she couldn't bear being home alone much longer. She died that day - the first day she'd been out and about and finally got to see her family. She didn't die of Covid and would have died regardless - at least she didn't die alone.

@Spinakker

Agree with above poster. If this is going on for even 2 more years it's not long in the grand scheme of things. There's still alot we CAN do. We need to find ways of coping and enjoying simple pleasures.

Almost everything I enjoy has been stopped. Singing. Theatre. I’m in a lockdown area in Wakes and my daughter lives in a different one so I can’t see her. Same for all my family and most of my friends. I’m a teacher and I’m freezing in classrooms with windows open because the genius who said that would work for ventilation didn’t foresee winter coming. There’s a Positive case in school, so now my health is at risk. There is nothing. NOTHING. Worth living about my life right now. I’m hanging on but I can see why other people can’t. 2 years? I hope I can hang on that long.

I set up a mental health thread also people who don't usually suffer are suffering

I mean what is the end game and will it end ?! We just can't keep locking down to be honest I don't think people will keep complying

@FrolickingFannyBoots I totally agree , cancer treatments etc and my 6 year old was crying in pain with his ears and I had to wait 4 fucking hours for phone call appointment and they would not see him.. he is 6 I don't care about me it is my kids

I’m in a local lockdown area. I’ve been signed off work and am on antidepressants, both for the first time in my life. And it’s illegal for me to go to see my mum I don’t know where it ends either.

I agree.

And people who say "enjoy the simple things", "it's not that bad in the grand scheme" can fuck off, quite frankly. I'm sick of people being so patronising when they have no idea what others are going through. Depression, anxiety, losing their jobs, losing their homes, becoming isolated. Oh, but it's OK because nothing else matters but Covid.

Fuck. Off.

If people up north had been a bit more responsible, then you wouldn't have local
lockdowns.

Yeah I'll add to the get lost as well. And whilst you are doing so have a little think about the factors at play that may contribute to higher cases in certain areas.

@Waxonwaxoff0

I agree.

And people who say "enjoy the simple things", "it's not that bad in the grand scheme" can fuck off, quite frankly. I'm sick of people being so patronising when they have no idea what others are going through. Depression, anxiety, losing their jobs, losing their homes, becoming isolated. Oh, but it's OK because nothing else matters but Covid.

Fuck. Off.

@Waxonwaxoff0 thank you

I find it odd that the people who are so insistent that they care about people and want to save lives can only find it in themselves to apply this to Covid.

@Newjez

To be perfectly honest, things really aren't that different to what they were before covid. What great burdens have been placed upon your shoulders? I'm WFH, that's fine. I can go down the pub. I can go shopping. I can exercise. I just need to be careful and wear a mask occasionally. If people up north had been a bit more responsible, then you wouldn't have local lockdowns. Life is good down south England.

Well bully for you.

Up and down the country, including the south of England, people are losing their jobs, losing their lives to non-Covid conditions that could have been treated if the NHS wasn't closed - not from being overwhelmed by Covid cases, but by decree. People are having mental health problems exacerbated by isolation, domestic violence is on the increase, as is child abuse, with the systems to protect victims suspended, or partially so. People's medical treatment has been cancelled, postponed or suspended. For some people and I am one, every activity that used to make their lives fulfilling and joyful has been stopped.

Some of us get no pleasure from going to the pub, shopping and exercise and can't work from home.

Some young people's lives have been lost to try to prevent loss of the life of another octogenarian. The ones who loved them weren't even asked if they were happy to do that trade.

A bit of empathy wouldn't go amiss.

I'm down south and I say fuck off too.

People here are also doing things to risk the R number.

There are no theatres. Sport etc

Jobs are going day by day.

I'm in a ok position myself but I have friends that have lost jobs. Loss Family members. Money gone for holidays etc. Hospital treatment for other issues delayed. Gp appts non existent. It's shit