'We've not been out since all this started'

[TheVampiresWife]

I heard this yesterday from someone DH works with (they're all wfh). A couple in their late 40s, no health issues with no vulnerabilities, fully vaccinated but 'you can't be too careful'.

They've not left the house apart from their vaccine appointments since the start of the first lockdown.

I understand how worrying it's all been for some people, particularly if you're vulnerable or have health anxiety. But it's so sad that people are this terrified. I wonder how they'll cope when restrictions end. The MH fallout from all this is going to be massive, isn't it?

Yes, the MH fall out is massive, and it applies to many people who are CEV or who have a CEV person in their household.

Remember you can be CEV at any age

I agree unwuthering. I'm amazed at how many people seem to know every medical detail of other people whom, by their own admission, they've never even met!! and feel as though they have the right to question their life choices. I bet they'd be upset if people they'd never met began taking to forums to tell the world where they were going wrong 😂

I should perhaps add that I have no skin in the game as it were since I've worked throughout but I have the nous to realise that other people are not all the same as me and no amount of complaining on forums will make them conform to the standards I wish on them!

@VariantL1130

I actually think that healthy people with healthy children who are refusing to let their kids out the house other than for school need social services to get involved. It's child abuse.

Agreed with this, it's tantamount to holding a child captive, stunting their physical and social development.

But mostly, reading some of these stories just makes me incredibly sad. And angry... they go to show how terrifyingly effective a govt campaign of fear and mass hysteria can be.

I should also add, we stayed in for a long time because of me being CEV, and now we’re finding that people are excluding us because they’re still angry that we wouldn’t come out before. There was a meet up last week and we weren’t even told it was happening never mind invited.

@TheVampiresWife

I remember being absolutely terrified for the first few weeks of the first lockdown. I didn't want to leave the house (but had to for shopping). I'm CV and was 100% certain I would die if I caught it and if I went out I definitely would catch it. It was absolutely knackering being so terrified constantly and was a really, really dark time. Living like that for a year and a half must be utterly unbearable.

MH provision was under such strain before the pandemic, I can't imagine how it's going to cope with the fallout from this.

This is like my CEV adult DS1. He hasn't been given the go-ahead by the hospital to leave his house or have visitors yet, even though he's been double jabbed. He hasn't left the house in 18 months, just like your DH's colleague, but this is on the advice of his hospital. Covid would certainly go on his chest, and if it did it would kill him.

But according to the lore of Mumsnet, Social Services are needed for every second family because they are not living like the poster in question, any poster, not just on this thread. How many SS workers are there at present? When I was at training college there weren't enough to go round. Have things changed so much in the last 18 months?

@Handsoffstrikesagain

And yes SS should step in where parents are suffering anxiety that is detrimental to their children. It is unfair to the children to expect them to live like this.

As I said above, we'll need to train up a hell of a lot of social workers in a short space of time if every parent who's experiencing, has experienced, or will experience anxiety at some point is to get help.

I know a couple who only leave the house for walks. They won't interact with anyone unless it's digitally.

They are in their 30s with no health issues.

Has the hospital really advised this? To not even go for a walk? I was advised to be very cautious (for anything, not just covid) but not to stay inside .

@Handsoffstrikesagain

But that isn’t what you said pretty. You insinuated that SS shouldn’t be intervening where parents are suffering with anxiety. I agree SS are over stretched, but we weren’t discussing that.

Have you any idea how many people suffer from anxiety? Basically, everyone would have to train as a social worker for there to be enough to go round!!

@PrettyVacancy we are being kind. We’re concerned about people’s mental health. 🤔

@Sparklfairy

Some people may be anxious, some people may be embracing their inner introvert and like the excuse, some people may use this to sit on their soap box and say condescendingly that they've followed ALL the rules...

Or like me, some people have got lazy and get more things delivered within the hour and socialise less with people they realise they don't actually like much

Busted.

My mate was like this but since having the vaccine (first dose, in their 30's) have started going out again in the last few weeks.

Vaccines aside, this was the first week I have left the house since Feb 2020. Work from home, supermarket deliveries, lucky enough to have a big garden to exercise and socialise in. My husband is CEV.

[quote Whatalottachocca]@PrettyVacancy we are being kind. We’re concerned about people’s mental health. 🤔[/quote]
That's good to hear. What are you doing about it other than talking on a forum?

I love home as much as the next person but fucking hell.

There's some serious health anxiety going on there - it's not normal.

What a waste of two years of their lives.

We moved at the end of the first quarantine and our old neighbour used to scream at her children they would get sick and die if they left their garden. It was thoroughly unpleasant.

DH has hardly been out, although he has started in the last month since his second jab. He is ECV and his work are keeping him at home to protect him so he thinks it’s his duty to be as careful as possible.

I have a friend who says she never goes anywhere blah blah. She does, in fact she’s been on holiday three times since last summer.

I wonder how many people are saying this, but not counting various things as "going out"? There was a video somewhere of a woman being interviewed (for the news, maybe?) and she was standing in her local high street claiming she never went out...

@Handsoffstrikesagain

There is a big difference in suffering from mild anxiety where you’re cautious and careful (I’ve had depression and anxiety for context) and anxiety where you become agoraphobic and prevent your children accessing health care, education, dentistry and normal everyday interactions. I’d say that was fairly obvious. It is the extreme cases where the children are being affected that need SS support. T

I hope those children would be receiving help but, over the years I have seen levels of diagnosed anxiety (and depression) skyrocket and, honestly, there are not enough social workers to go round. Its great to identify problems but perhaps it's time to work on solutions now?

I know a family like this. Parents in their early 70s live in a small terrace house with son and daughter both in their 40s. None of them have left the house since March 2020 apart from vaccine appointments. No exercise, all supermarket food delivered. All double vaccinated.