Just can't take any more of this new normal

[JuneMoonstone]

I'm feeling incredibly low and depressed. I am just so, so utterly fed up of Covid. I can't be bothered to go anywhere, do anything, make plans. I've been waiting months for my 5 year old to start swimming lessons and they kept getting put off due to covid. I found out that she can start lessons next month but once she turns 6 she'll no longer be eligible so she'll only get a couple of lessons, so there's no point in her starting. Before anyone has a go at me, I completely understand there are many people far worse off than me and I am very grateful that I have not suffered from covid or lost anyone due to covid. I just feel so so despondent and depressed about the future. Everything is a chore now, there is zero fun to be had. The variants will keep coming, the threat of future lockdowns continue to loom for God knows how long, maybe forever. We're told that Covid will never go away and the old normal will never return. If I didn't have a child I think I would end it. Life has just become very small, dull, joyless, wearisome.

I'm with you PerveenMistry - I've never known such a bunch of whiners.

I get it. I’m sick of risk assessing in detail every bloody thing. I’m sick of the government flip flopping - this is now allowed but probably maybe don’t do it.

I’m heading away for the night soon and flip between looking forward to it and finding it a hassle (I know I’m very lucky to be able to go, but nothing is the same as it was)

It sort of feels like pretending at real life a bit which sounds melodramatic but it’s that kind of feeling

@Mandalay246 yes it’s really outrageous to whine when you have children who have been affected in their development, friends who have tried to commit suicide, a mother who has been so severely affected by the fear that even though she can see you, won’t because she’s terrified of giving something to her grandson or catching something herself before her second vaccination.

But yes you’re right, stiff upper lip and all 😐 it’s such a toxic attitude to tell people who are having a tough time that they need to stop whining and get on with it.
Don’t like it? Don’t read it?

I have picked up work through this last lockdown after everyone in our household losing all our work during the first

But even with shops and pubs opening things are not normal.
Everything we do is tinged with a lot of second guessing and mask wearing like will something be open, do I need to book. There is no more just going out. And even if you do just go out (and haven’t forgotten your mask) a lot of the shops/restaurants/cafes we used just aren’t there anymore. How busy local mall has more empty shops than shops.

Nothing is spontaneous anymore. Everything takes at least a moments thought

We used to go out every weekend to gigs or the theatre or to a restaurant. I don’t know when we will be getting back to that normal. It feels a lot further off than a couple of years given a lot of the venues have closed for good
I am seriously thinking about whether I want to carry on.
A bit like JuneMoonstone and the swimming lessons. By the time things get back to the normal I once knew, businesses have been re started, if they ever do and track and trace and mask wearing are things of the past and being able to afford the lifestyle we had is going to take so long that when all that is in place I will be dead or too old to do anything. It has left me with a what’s the point question niggling in my head.
I did all the right things and my life has turned out crap all because of lockdowns.

I have lost more people to suicide because of lockdowns around the world than I have who died from Covid

As for people saying people live in war zones

If theses people really wanted to they could leave.
The whole world is a Covid war zone. There is no where to go

lol People living in war zones can just leave?? Are you serious?

I agree with OP and I'm struggling as well. I think this is all so depressing.

But I do want to make clear, people can't usually just leave war zones.That's not a thing.

lol People living in war zones can just leave?? Are you serious

My family did.

It is perfectly possible to leave. It might not be easy and will involve leaving everything behind but it isn’t impossible otherwise you wouldn’t have refugees

Disappointing to see people doing the "you're not allowed to be sad or depressed because there's someone else in the world who has it worse than you" thing. If you go by that logic only the person in the worst situation in the world is allowed to ever have even a little moan!

Just let people vent it's harmless enough, yes we all know there are people in war zones (and no they can't just leave them) and are not trying to diminish them. We all have problems on all levels. Covid has taken a big toll on everyone's mental health but the best thing we can do is be kind to each other, rather than chewing heads off.

We're getting there now. Back to the pub, albeit 4 to a table but you can just talk to more friends on the next table, and our local at least hasn't been busy enough to require booking (it is shutting early though until the final easing). Similar story with restaurants, finally meeting friends for a meal out who I haven't seen for over a year due to living with vulnerable people who are now thankfully twice-jabbed. The only thing that makes me despair is the talk of this "Indian variant" - it is quite... 'emotionally challenging'?... to feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel only to discover that it's actually an oncoming freight train. Let's hope it actually is light. Apparently we'll know either way in the next week or two.

I agree that in many ways it'd have been better to have the honesty that this is something that's going to affect us for 3+ years (yes 3+, I know events in September that are cancelled due to uncertainty. It's going to take a year of stability before events even start planning to run and many of them take a year to organise plus will need enough people feeling safe. Best case scenario is the stability clock starts ticking on 21st June). The virus itself will hopefully stop affecting us soon but daily life will take a bit longer. Obviously this is not getting into any longer term issues like missed cancer treatments, mental health issues, employment issues, economic impact etc. It's awful that the government has used all sorts of manipulative techniques like dangling carrots and control-through-fear. However the other side is that if you'd told people in ~Feb 2020 "this is going to affect daily life for at least a year and a half, events for at least 3 years and uncertain long term impacts" they'd have gone through all six stages of grief and caused more conspiracy theories and disruptions than we already had, so I get why they did it. Fact of the matter is the enemy is the virus, not the government and not each other.

@PerveenMistry you've consistently labelled those with their mental health in the toilet, those who have lost their livelihoods, those who cannot wear masks etc 'whiners' through all of this. You've also said that DV is self inflicted and those living in such conditions should not leave during lockdown because individual family's 'wants' must take a back seat.

Perhaps a little compassion wouldn't go amiss?

The irony is her constant whining about "whiners"

I believe that poster has 'form'. Best to ignore her.

It just seems that when you think the end is in sight, something else happens. Think back to March 2020. Supposed to lockdown for three weeks to save the NHS.
And here we are 15 months on.
We social distanced,went into lockdown, followed the rules and had both vaccines. And it still seems that this isn’t good enough, for fucks sake.
And if covid mutates and will always be around, what’s the point in living with this shitty situation, we may as well fully go back to normal.
I understand people have sadly died from covid, but with all the recorded deaths with a positive test, they didn’t all die of actual covid -19. They just happened to have a positive result after their death.
I don’t see why the whole population should suffer and have their lives seriously curtailed for a virus that will most likely not harm them.
Going to a pub and scanning a QR code and being shouted at for standing up doesn’t seem much fun to me, but I totally understand the pubs do what they have to do to survive.

In February 2020 I pretty had a guaranteed job for life. Now no one knows the future...
I get Boris has had a difficult situation to deal with and I do have some sympathy but it’s been a complete shit show from our government, not least with the travel situation.

I’m very tired of tinpot dictators in shops guarding doors, telling you what to do.

What will they do once it’s over? 18 months of barking orders at people, their ego must really have inflated.

DH is an ITU consultant. He’s also allergic to an ingredient commonly found in hand sanitiser. He will use hand sanitiser but he starts to get a reaction after a few squirts.

We were in a shop in the Cotswolds over the last week, lady on the door started ordering DH to use hand sanitiser. He had already used it in two previous shops so it was getting a bit much (and he hadn’t touched anything!).

He tried to explain but she literally frog marched him out of the shop.

Interesting isn’t it. That this shop woman could shout orders at DH, frog March him out of a shop. Yet if she had contracted covid and wound up in ITU, her life would have been in his hands.

I

Malteser71, a really interesting point.
Yes it’s bloody overkill. Some shop workers obsessed with people sanitising. If anything it can be passed through the air anyway.
I witnessed recently a bus passenger get assaulted from another passenger for not wearing a face mask.

Stuff of nightmares.

You can just leave a war zone? What crap. Well, if you can just leave a war zone, I'm sure you can just emigrate to Australia, where life is essentially back to normal.

Something that helps is taking up a new hobby that is not affected by Covid. The fun of learning something new, without any Covid issues.

I went to collect a prescription from my doctors surgery and it was like Fort Knox! You have to ring a number to ask for your prescription and then they ask you to come in and collect, as soon as I went in the door a young guy approached looking worried to death and said 'you can't come in please wait there!' I explained I had been asked to come in and collect my prescription, he went off and checked and said 'sorry you need to wait outside'. A man innocently approached the doors after me and was barked at to wait outside ! Finally I was called over to get my prescription but because the guy had a mask on and it was through glass no one could understand what he was saying which caused confusion between me and the other man waiting. Total overkill !!

@catlady2021

In February 2020 I pretty had a guaranteed job for life. Now no one knows the future... I get Boris has had a difficult situation to deal with and I do have some sympathy but it’s been a complete shit show from our government, not least with the travel situation.

There's never any such thing as a job for life. Shit happens, things change.

Even working down a mining pit was a job for life. Until it wasn't.

I'm with youPerveenMistry- I've never known such a bunch of whiners.

Has advice changed? I thought it was "OK not be OK "

OP. I get it. I'm starting to see people on SM who are really struggling. I just hope they are Ok. Ignore the "you must be happy whatever shit happens to you" types. This year has been tough. Anyone who can't see that is an idiot

to pp with DH who was given 6 months to live.

@DuesToTheDirt

I'm going to see my mum this week for the first time since Feb 2020 and bloody hell it's like a military operation. She's in a care home 300 miles away, so I've booked transport and accommodation. But instead of hanging out together for the weekend we get 30 minutes in an outdoor pod. Then we can take her out, hopefully for lunch - but not indoors (care home regs). Limited choices locally for outdoor eating, so probably a picnic in the park, despite the forecast being 10C and heavy rain all day (never mind covid, the weather will probably kill her). And I'm fully expecting not being allowed inside the home to use the loo!

I hope you bring her inside the restaurant to eat. The nerve of that care home to try to dictate her personal time choices.

@Rno3gfr

I feel the same. All the restrictions kind of usurp the joy of any activity you try. I know the masks are not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but I have always suffered with mild anxiety, often triggered by sensory things like busy crowds and small spaces, etc. It’s now at a moderate level if I’m inside and wearing a mask. I tried to have a look around the shops but I had to leave and stand in the rain because I started having a panic attack (somewhat caused by the heat around my face and not being able to see properly). I’m not even sure if anxiety would make you exempt, even if it did I wouldn’t feel comfortable having to explain this to every security guard, shop assistant and Covid Marshall that spots me without a mask.

I am exempt from the same reason. You don't have to explain it to anyone, just wear a flower lanyard around your neck and they will know. I only had an issue once, got made to wear a mask on the plane, had a huge anxiety attack, had the cabin crew calming me down...

@theleavesaregreen

You can just leave a war zone? What crap. Well, if you can just leave a war zone, I'm sure you can just emigrate to Australia, where life is essentially back to normal.

The irony of me seeing this comment right after seeing another (on a different forum) poster contemplating suicide due to the current lockdown in Melbourne...

Yep I just want to hug someone. Thought it was the law but everyone else has interpreted it differently. Mass hugs I was looking forward too 😂 didn’t happen 😕