Strange problem in relation to lockdown ending

[Bookridden]

Like many people, I'm feeling a bit low and angry. However, my feelings are caused by worry about the risk of Covid, but a sense of frustration about how risk averse society has become, and how many services are still not operating fully because of the risk. I think about the fact it's so difficult to see a GP face to face, the fact schools aren't back to normal (DD misses 2.5 hours a week due to a reduced school day), not many libraries open for browsing, people flattening themselves against walls when you go past them etc etc. I thought the successful rollout of vaccines was supposed to bring us back to normality, and yet now the threat of the Indian variant is the latest problem to delay opening up. The risk for even partially vaccinated people coming to serious harm is tiny, so any are we living like this? Vulnerable people will be (thankfully) fully vaccinated. I'm left feeling so fucking angry and tearful about this, and find I feel massively resentful towards people who are still talking about the covid risks. I realise this is my issue, and a reflection of my mental health. I'm posting as I'm looking for some supportive advice on how to deal with my resentment about all of this. Grateful for any support or morale boosting really. Thanks in advance.

I'm left feeling so fucking angry and tearful about this, and find I feel massively resentful towards people who are still talking about the covid risks. I realise this is my issue, and a reflection of my mental health. I'm posting as I'm looking for some supportive advice on how to deal with my resentment about all of this.

Bookridden, it has been a difficult time for everyone, and it might help you to simply recognise this instead of turning into a source of resentment. Each person deals with traumatic events differently: you are becoming angry, others may be retreating into solitude or fear. You are entitled to your feelings - and so are they. Individual people are not affecting you personally, so don't their actions personally.

@Greentrees2021
I feel exactly the same as you, I'm a real worrier about everything and as you say I'm more worried about my kids travelling to a school trip in case of an accident or them getting lost than I am about covid. I've had covid and it was no worse than a cold, I just feel this whole thing will never end people seem desperate to lockdown again at the mere mention of another variant.

I agree with you OP. Drives me mad.

Sorry to be useless but where do I find these AD threads? What section are they in?

There are lots of accounts on Twitter in the same vein OP - I take great comfort from following these sensible voices of sanity.

I agree OP we have to move on now. I’m not vaccinated yet and happy to wait for my first dose so that someone more vulnerable can get their second dose quicker.

SAGE don’t want to let this go. The vaccines are working, there’s nothing else left to do other than get on with life and let those who aren’t prepared to take the risk to stay at home.

The media are whipping it all up into a hysteria again. They do this and the government seem to crumble, let us not forget that cases are still incredibly low.

Well we dont know how the indian varient will play out, so a degree of caution is IMO worthwhile. Numbers are rising again, it takes roughly a week from postive to hospitalisation and the 2 weeks (often more ) to die. So it will likely be mid june or later before we will know the extent of impact indian varient will have.
If hospital admissions and deaths do t follow the previous cures then the vaccination programme has worked for this variation too. If we have the same graphs as with previous surgers then a lot more people will die. Yes people do die every year but if hospitals get over whelmed then more will die and rountine appt, non covid emergencies wont get the level of care required.

Saying that i am hopeful that the vaccination will give significant cover to this varient that hospital admissions and deaths remain low this time. But i dont think i can confidently lick a petri dish
So i am proceeding with some caution.

Aside from this i believe that some changes will remain after covid. GP for example I think will continue with phone consultations and only seeing if neccesary. I do think that in some ways this is more effective than rammed waiting rooms.
With school day, there is every chance that some research will come out which shows that a shorter day gives a more effective learning window and that the shorter day will remain or that the schools will remove an break to keep the day shorter. Only time will tell.
On a personal note online food shop I will be keeping. So much more effective for us

Today Johnson said “we will do whatever it takes to keep the public safe”.

This line stuck out to me too

Because it felt off and also it’s not considering harms in doing this

I’m not looking at risks others take individually but all this is very wearing

Feels like we’re back to being hammered

Just going to try to keep calm and see what happens. I can only hope this new variant is same as others we were made to worry about and we move on still

I feel completely the same.

Yesterday I dropped DD off at school then walked into town to spend the day browsing (need the exercise ). On my walk there someone walked into the road to avoid me. I've given up saying thank you, if you want to throw yourself into oncoming traffic to reduce an already minute risk then that's on you, I'm not bloody grateful. Then once I got to town there were the arrows, queues, masks, being asked to sanitise my hands, DS and I having to sit in the cold to eat our lunch, signs about social distancing to keep us "safe" (see also tannoy announcements), government propaganda posters etc etc. I can't even begin to describe how fed up of it all I am!

And the thing that angers me most is that it's all just for show. It's window dressing, to get the hypochondriacs to come and spend their money and to stop them from kicking off. None of it actually makes a substantial difference but yet we all have to play along with the ridiculousness to placate the hypochondriacs. I work in hospitality, the shit we have to do to make the hypochondriacs feel "safe" is ridiculous. Not one of us that work there give a shit and when the customers can't see us the masks come off and social distancing goes out the window because we crave normality so much.

I am angry with those that demand masks, distancing etc because they are the ones that keep this farce going. But I try to remind myself that the government scaremongering campaign has been strong and effective. Its the government's fault not Joe public. But I can't stop myself resenting people for shouting for these restrictions however hard I try. I'm so fed up!

I think a huge number of people are concerned about this risk adverse sentiment , I agree that much of it is for show . What irritates is that when you voice this in real life you are accused of being callous and of wanting to cause death and illness

@TempsPerdu yes this is it - council run or free provision is made as unpleasant as possible. In the summer our leisure centres were actually still closed so I had to travel to the next council area.. theirs were open but obviously bookable in advance and not everyone can manage picking a time a week in advance with young kids and a baby who might want to ruin your plans. You had to enter and exit via fire escapes and it was all made into a bit of a hurdle. My new private leisure centre is open as normal, other than masks in the foyer, and it’s joyous. I turn up and busy or not, I’m let in. I am aware every time I take my DC swimming how lucky they are.

My school aged child has literally forgotten what a library is (ours never opened and again, I travelled to the next borough to find that though fully staffed they were effectively closed to anything normal) and refers to Waterstones as “the library” because he knows the word library but doesn’t know anything with books in that isn’t a shop.

@EssentialHummus yes feel the same re: it’s the new mums who will be missing out. I know what Happity is. I am on the mailing list of our local drop in (not anymore) singing groups and was able to snap up a space. A new mum won’t be. All they will initially know, as I did, is the stuff run from the Sure Start centres which are, naturally, closed. I felt out of the loop and on my own when my first was born, pre- Covid, because I hadn’t heard of baby sensory and monkey music and didn’t know where to go. My first was born over the school holidays when free breastfeeding support paused which was difficult enough then (finally found private help) so I can’t imagine now.

The current situation seems to be that you can have a pleasant enough life now, you just need to pay for it. Covid rules seem to be completely different depending on how much money you are paying for a service. It’s bonkers and so depressing and again, it’s the young that are paying the price.

Swimming pools seem to be where the council/private provision divide is greatest.

DH takes DD to the pool at his private gym, no booking required, changing rooms fully functional, cafe open etc. I take her to lessons at the local authority pool, we have to come in the fire exit with bathers under clothes to get changed on poolside. Allowed to use the changing rooms briefly afterwards but not use shampoo in the showers, and the hairdryers are banned. It’s all a bit ludicrous.

We’ve been able to throw money at the problem but I really feel for those who were reliant on e.g. Story Time at the library or the drop in services.

@JeanClaudeVanDammit our local leisure pool hasn’t reopened at all, and may now close permanently. It’s in what I expect is the most deprived bit of an already very mixed borough (Lewisham).

It’s awful. As a family can throw money at the problem and if I’m being totally honest DD has probably come out ahead over the past year - two parents, everyone very flexible on work, no money issues; she’s now much more fluent in DH’s native language because of how much more time they’ve spent together. But still - when she was a baby my favourite thing with her was rhyme time at the local library. It was so casual, two retired primary teachers leading a sing-song, which genuinely attracted everyone from the posh mums from up the hill as well as those living on the adjoining estates, dads, childminders etc, and no one cared if you walked in late/your kid screamed or whatever else. I’m vaguely involved in that library now through a charity I work with, and I suspect it’s gone forever. I run a food bank and I wonder about opening it up one morning a week for rhyme time too, led by me with whatever volunteers fancy having a go. It just seems like such a huge loss, not having something like that.

Some companies are really taking the piss with it now, banks especially!! I spent an hour on hold to Halifax after doing as much as possible online to open a new account. I was told I had to go into a branch to convert my account to a joint account. I had to wait until they could be bothered to re open on Saturdays - then went into the branch and was told they were not dealing with customers face to face and to go home and make a telephone appointment. Absolutely ridiculous. I told them to stick it, walked into another bank across the street, spoke to a human and opened the account in 10 minutes, then emptied my Halifax savings account. Arseholes.

Ive been feeling angry too, but more at UK government. Ive probably posted more angry posts than anything else here in recent days. Your better venting on here and at least others understand. Take it easy and don't be too hard on yourself. Im now away to sit on my big fat a** and read for the rest of the day. The other thing that isn't helping is this autumnal weather. I cannot remember a May like this in a long time.

On my walk there someone walked into the road to avoid me. I've given up saying thank you, if you want to throw yourself into oncoming traffic to reduce an already minute risk then that's on you, I'm not bloody grateful.

That's somewhat unkind of you, Shelovesamystery. People are (apparently) giving you room and you don't like it? Would you prefer they bumped into you awkwardly or breathed into your personal space? That would give you happiness?

I rather find the singling out of the actions of people here, rather than the actions of Government, to be a bit perverse. To suggest that other people can make you angry in this way is unhealthy and odd. They are not to blame for Covid or Covid restrictions.

This is hardly a strange problem, every other thread at the moment is about the same thing.