At my breaking point now. Don't see light at the end of the tunnel

[Valleydad99]

This is probably not going to sit well with people but I'm honestly at the point where I'm questioning what the fucking point of these virus measures are. All the masks/social distancing/lockdowns haven't worked in eliminating the virus & now apparently as cases rise it's back to lockdown again?

Am I the only one thinking maybe we need a plan B? Rather than being flamed for apparently trying to kill people for questioning it?

My 1 year old has been locked down for half her life. I can't take the kids to see sport or play inside for basically no reason.

My kids are no longer welcome at church because of SD & in case they wander around like kids do so now we have no spiritual guidance & anyone I express concerns to just say it's for the greater good & fuck you. "Suffer the little children" said Jesus except when they need god most I suppose.

We've been following all the fucking rules but now it's well if more people followed the rules this would all be over. But that's just not true is it. There's no magic bullet & a vaccine doesn't cause it all to go away so I guess we'll just stay in our bunkers shouting wear a mask at people until we're all dead.

I'm not sure what the point of this post is, guess I just want to shout into the void but I'm mentally at my breaking point & don't see a future for my children & me.

Ah OP, I know exactly how you are feeling. I had a horrendous weekend, feeling so, so down and couldn't stop crying. But the sun was out yesterday and today, that always makes me feel better.

I hate the autumn and the nights and mornings getting progressively darker, and absolutely rejoice on the day of the Winter Solstice (21st December) when we turn the corner to lighter days. To put that into perspective, it is 10 weeks and 5 days until then. I have a kind of tick off chart in my head with a countdown. Look how quickly the time has gone since March! Things are always more hopeful in the spring, and hopefully we will see a vaccine starting to be rolled out then.

@WhatWouldYouDoWhatWouldJesusDo

Agreed.

So many job losses it's heartbreaking. This stupid 10pm rule has all but destroyed what was left of the hospitality industry. Where are all these people going to find jobs ? Who's going to pay for it all when millions end up on the tidal wave of benefit claimants that's about to land........don't even get me started on the way cancer patients have been treated (( or not as the case is ))

I rely don't think it's worth it. Those at high risk should have isolated with looser restrictions for those who want to chance it.

You do realise that 'those at high risk' constitute tens of millions, and even those who are ECV still millions. How is it possible to 'isolate' all of us - society would collapse if everyone vulnerable suddenly went into shielding, plus the fact that most of us simply couldn't afford to. It's not as easy as that.

Cancer treatments slowed down because of the pandemic. It's a pandemic, it doesn't have feeling, it doesn't consider rights or human emotions. Many still accessed treatments, like my friend who was diagnosed and had a course of treatment through lockdown, and many trusts found it heartbreakingly difficult to find the balance between treating their patients and exposing them to Covid when they were at an incredibly vulnerable stage. It's just not that cut and dried.

And also it's not just going to be awful for a few months. It's going to be awful for fucking years to come. Even if there is a vaccine, the economic fallout hasn't even started yet. Job losses aren't at the level yet which they will be.

My family work in the theatre. That industry has been decimated overnight. There is no help for them. People blithely saying "just retrain/go work in Aldi" have no clue and they fucking infuriate me. For a start, you need money to retrain. For another thing, have you any fucking idea how difficult it is to get a job right now? For one job in Aldi you've got hundreds and hundreds of applications. Who do you think they'll want, someone with retail experience or someone who has spent their entire working life as a musician?

Valleydad99 have you tried the Christian Coffee thread on here. Very supportive people.
I do feel for you. My nephew has not taken his three children to church because he doesn't think it is fair to make them sit still with nothing aimed at them, no Sunday School or crèche and no people to talk to.
Our church meets in a school and we aren't even back yet.

I think we need to be honest that Test and Trace was supposed to be our way of managing COVID-19, but it isn't working. (For various reasons - privatisation, poor leadership, Excel spreadsheets, no financial help for thos self-isolating, a lame duck app +++)

The government seem unlikely to impose a full national lockdown again which is the only thing now that would bring cases down. Local lockdowns have only worked in one or two areas.

Since vaccinations will only ever be given to the over-50s we are just managing the level of infections so that the NHS doesn't get overwhelmed. I wish our leaders would come clean about this.

I'm sorry OP. It is really really tough. I am missing church a lot as well - we can join the livestream Mass but it's not the same :/

There will be an end to this. Every pandemic before now has ended, and now we have much more advanced science for vaccines and treatments we can get there faster. It's just really soul-crushing and grinding when we don't yet know when that end will be, but there still will BE one.

@Porcupineinwaiting

Ah, another " let other people die/be locked up at home so I can live" thread. Nice.

Particularly loving the "we locked down but no cure was found". Did you check under your pillow, that's how vaccine developments are usually made.

You're right of course. My physical or mental health doesn't matter - my children's development or health doesn't matter - it's only other people who matter.

That's great, thank you. I'll crawl back under my rock now and wait for the scary virus to get me. Cheers.

Tbh little children shouldn’t really be running around during a church service anyway, even without coronavirus. I’m not unsympathetic to the rest but I can’t understand the church thing at all.

As an example, the organisation I work for is currently advertising for a part time office manager type role. We put the advert up on Thursday. I've had four hundred applications and it doesn't close until the end of the month.

@byvirtue

I agree. what I’ve come to realise is this magical vaccine is the only way the coronaphobes will allow the rest of us to get back to our normal lives.

Yes I agree. I'm not even bothered about getting the vaccine, I just want the people who are insisting our children live their lives in this fucked up way to shut up and leave everyone alone.

Disclaimer- I am following all guidelines but am heartily sick of it. You aren't alone OP.

Ah, another " let other people die/be locked up at home so I can live" thread. Nice.

Oh please just go away, no one has fucking said that.

Our Church has family services where children running around is expected and welcomed.

Or USED TO i should have said.

That must be relaxing for other worshippers!

Am I the only one thinking maybe we need a plan B?
No I think we needed to do Plan A better.
Those at high risk should have isolated with looser restrictions for those who want to chance it.
The trouble with this 'herd immunity idea...

• who is most at risk? (Over 70? Over 50? BAME? Underlying health conditions?)
• Ignoring the long term health implications of contracting Covid, even in young people
• how do you shield those most at risk (considering people at risk work, medically vulnerable children are at risk, multi generational living, the effect of 'locking up' the elderly
• we have no evidence of how effective it would be!

-without being able to ascertain who is most at risk there will be an awful lot of deaths and people living with the long term health implications of Covid

• there will still be an enormous impact on the economy and society

Etc There are ways we can live with the virus, suppressing it as much as possible...we need decent test and trace, social distancing, masks and reasonable restrictions in the areas of life where spread is most likely....we just seem to be doing these things too late and really badly

@Madhairday I'm high risk and so I'm taking far more precautions than most. I'm happy to do that to protect myself. People like the elderly gent I regularly see waiting at the bus stop with an oxygen tank strapped to his back should be doing the same

As for society collapsing I think you'll find that's already happening. Again, what are all these people going to do ? And who's going to pay for it ? Don't even get me started on the fact I know more people who have killed themselves because of the impact of restrictions (( job losses, business collapsing, usual stuff )) than I know that have died as a result of coronavirus.

It's lovely actually limona.

It really isn’t jane. Perhaps for the people the children belong to. It’s also unsafe. But that is by the by.

Virtually the entire western world (+ S.America) has handled the whole thing appallingly. Thank God the virus is only as infectious/lethal as it is. This is the price we pay for electing screw-loose populist idiots like Trump, Bolsonaro, Cummings & Orville. When this is all sorted we need to send teams to China to see how they got things running again in June 2020 while we'll be lucky to be back to normal by June 2021.

I think a lot of us are at this very tough point where it feels like (a) it's gone on forever and (b) it's going to go on forever. It hasn't, and it won't. But it definitely feels like it.

This may not be practical for you if you're on your own with the kids, but I have found volunteering extremely helpful to feel like everything isn't a bag of crap. I was doing IT support for our local old people's charity until my ds went back to school, at which point I feel it's too risky to do it (you literally cannot explain to a 90 year old how to set up an iPad over the phone). There are loads of other ways to help, though - shopping or fetching prescriptions, or being a phone buddy. In hindsight I can't imagine what it was like for some of these old people during the real lockdown, mostly widowed and alone. Connecting them to their families and each other via iPads or other devices is making a huge difference to them.

Limona, you're not helping, although I'm sure many of us would love to hear what magic formula your church has found to pack the pews with families while making toddlers sit still and quiet for an hour and have children happily sit through services with no Sunday school at all.

I hit breaking point a few weeks back and have been signed off work and am on anti depressants for the first time in my life. I don’t have any advice, just you’re not alone.

It feels particularly hard for people with small children, I think because you notice the passing of time so much more keenly. For all the people who keep saying we should “just” lock down for another 6 months, well that would mean DD had spent 1/3 of her life in total (including the first one) without interaction with her peers and the important social development that brings, and without being able to see family and friends who she loves and who love her.

We’re constantly told on threads about staying at home vs working outside the home how “they’re not little for long” and “you don’t get this time back” from the very same posters who call for longer and tougher lockdowns all the time.

@Limona

Tbh little children shouldn’t really be running around during a church service anyway, even without coronavirus. I’m not unsympathetic to the rest but I can’t understand the church thing at all.

I'm not saying that. I'm saying the opposite - that we used to be able to corral them in the children's corner to learn about Jesus or send them off to Sunday school to learn about Jesus. Now we can't do that it's impossible to take them due to social distancing and the lack of these things - meaning the doors of the church are closed to all but a few right now - which to me is the opposite of Jesus' teaching.

@Janevaljane

It's lovely actually limona.

I agree, our church is like this too and people love it. Missing it! But there's no way through at the moment :(