Life will never be the same, will it?

[Hiidee]

I’m having a wobble...

Life is so different now, and I just don’t see how it’s ever, ever going to be the same again.

I’m genuinely so frightened for what our futures will look like and I can’t help but feel our freedoms will no longer exist.

I feel we are heading to living in a society where we will have “us & them” in relation to vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Unvaccinated won’t be able to eat / drink at certain places, use supermarkets with everyone else, or use public transport.

I am fully vaccinated so it’s not my personal freedoms I worry about, but I don’t want to live in a world that could look like this.

I see restrictions always being a part of our lives now. It’s just utterly miserable.

When I look back at life pre pandemic it just feels like it was a dream.
I mean what did we really have to worry about?
No restrictions/ rules. Just life and living.

Should we just accept that our lives as we knew it are gone?

I have an ex who lives for travelling. It is his only pastime. He is now on anti- depressants for the first time in his life. His elderly dad lives in another country so he has not been able to see him either.

My feeling about that is that he has been using travelling as a displacement activity to compensate for something, and that counselling would be more beneficial than anti-depressants.

The issue with not seeing his father is separate and of course that’s hard.

My feeling about that is that he has been using travelling as a displacement activity to compensate for something
Wow. Just wow. That’s the most offensive armchair diagnosis I’ve read here.

I actually think it’s offensive to attribute this man’s depression to the fact he can’t ‘travel’, as if depression was so easy to fix.

@HeddaGarbled

I have an ex who lives for travelling. It is his only pastime. He is now on anti- depressants for the first time in his life. His elderly dad lives in another country so he has not been able to see him either.

My feeling about that is that he has been using travelling as a displacement activity to compensate for something, and that counselling would be more beneficial than anti-depressants.

The issue with not seeing his father is separate and of course that’s hard.

So people are not allowed their coping mechanisms now?

Many in the population struggled when human contact was banned.

Many would struggle immensely if alcohol and cigarettes were banned.

In some countries music and dancing is illegal. For some people that would be torture, others would not care.

If for somebody travel is what makes their mental health ok, then who are you to judge this and tell them they are wrong?

Some people play sports. Some people go driving. Some people play computer games. If any one of these things is banned randomly do you think that you should be able to tell the people for whom it is important that this is irrelevant and does not matter?

I mean, I am autistic and we're often told we have no empathy (total myth). Then I see something like this and wonder what planet you just rocked up from. All people need an escape, a way to relax, and when their usual way of doing that is taken away suddenly it can have significant consequences for mental health.

That can't be so difficult to comprehend?

There are coping mechanisms that are sensible and realistic and there are some that aren’t. I genuinely believe that someone whose coping mechanism is ‘travel’ and for whom that is ‘his only pastime’ needs to be seeking help to find more day-to-day alternatives.

@HeddaGarbled

There are coping mechanisms that are sensible and realistic and there are some that aren’t. I genuinely believe that someone whose coping mechanism is ‘travel’ and for whom that is ‘his only pastime’ needs to be seeking help to find more day-to-day alternatives.

Why? What's your problem with travelling being someone's interest/ hobby?

If you are a celeb or a footballer, you still have all your freedoms. Im really quite bitter about them as I know friends who could not visit or comfort dying family members or attend their funerals, but hey, what's that compared to football which seems to be the only thing that matters anywhere. The hypocrisy makes me sick. One rule for the rich and another for mugs like us, and I have followed all health advice and stuck to the rules. More bloody fool me eh?