Scared of the future

[TraumatizedFlower]

Is anyone struggling with the current situation? I'm not coping with it anymore. Every news headline gives me palpitations, it's never ending. Our lives are in such a mess. I really can't cope anymore. I'm glad we are no longer in lockdown but the future seems so uncertain.

Try to let the future take care of itself.
Today is what counts.
The sun is shining.

Same here, I'm at my lowest point of the pandemic so far. Worried about the next wave of infections and whether the NHS will be able to cope without locking down again. I'm also scared about getting Covid (I've had both jabs and probably won't die) but I really don't want to get long Covid and have to deal with that on top of everything else. Just keep thinking whether this is it for life now, will things ever get better?

Sorry I can't offer any advice OP, except hope you start to feel better soon and you are not alone in feeling like this.

Me too.

Don’t see an end. Constant international travel, mutations, waning vaccines, where will it end?

My anxiety is pretty bad.

@santanddec

Same here, I'm at my lowest point of the pandemic so far. Worried about the next wave of infections and whether the NHS will be able to cope without locking down again. I'm also scared about getting Covid (I've had both jabs and probably won't die) but I really don't want to get long Covid and have to deal with that on top of everything else. Just keep thinking whether this is it for life now, will things ever get better?

Sorry I can't offer any advice OP, except hope you start to feel better soon and you are not alone in feeling like this.

Thank you. I've had to start on Sertraline as my anxiety has gone through the roof. It's easy for people to say enjoy the sun etc but my mental health is just rock bottom, it's not a simple thing to dismiss

Don't worry about it. Worrying does nothing other than make things much worse for you. It'll pass and by that I mean the hysteria will pass. We will have to live with coronavirus as the choice is live with it or lock ourselves away for years and years. We get one life.

I understand. It’s because it’s the unknown, we’ve not been through this before and there is no end in sight. I’m more worried for my children. What is the world going to be like for them from now on? Education constantly disrupted, no travel, university is not how it was. I find it difficult, but I’ve had my fun, I grew up in a fairly normal, routine world. The world we once knew has changed and I know people say you are being dramatic when we say things like that, but I can’t honestly ever see a back to normal reality.

Take it one day at a time op. It’s all we can do.

But anxiety makes you worry! Reading your post raises mine. I’d rather lock myself away than learn to live with it.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

But anxiety makes you worry! Reading your post raises mine. I’d rather lock myself away than learn to live with it.

The endless testing, reporting of deaths, variant scares,...surely that can't go on forever

I think we have to accept that much in life has changed permanently. It will become endemic but will be with us for many years to come. It will hopefully feel less anxiety inducing for people as time goes on.

Traumatisedflower my post was to Direstraitsmate.

I can’t stop worrying. I feel we hung on for the vaccines, but it’s still spreading like wildfire.

I’m sorry for everyone struggling

There’s no doubt to me I struggle more with lockdown than cases

But that doesn’t mean each of us don’t have our own version of anxiety related to this

One thing I don’t do is let media ramp up my emotional reactions anymore

No, it won't go on forever. All things pass, they change us a little or a lot, but they pass. Try to enjoy the small pleasures in life and allow the bad news to fade into background noise.

Same here, OP. It is not so much Covid for me, but the thought of more lockdowns, vaccine passports etc. It feels like we are heading into a dystopian nightmare, and I know I wont be able to take much more.

I stopped watching the news, the media have everyone feeling anxious. Try to take one day at a time. Do something nice for yourself at least once a day. A favourite juice, a few chapters of a book, some music. Re your children's future, your children will cope like we have all had to cope. I firmly believe in the resilience of the human race. We will fight this, but I do agree it's not easy and we all have bad days. The future is a worry, but we cannot do anything about it. We can do something about the present. Take care everyone.

@Gothichouse40

I stopped watching the news, the media have everyone feeling anxious. Try to take one day at a time. Do something nice for yourself at least once a day. A favourite juice, a few chapters of a book, some music. Re your children's future, your children will cope like we have all had to cope. I firmly believe in the resilience of the human race. We will fight this, but I do agree it's not easy and we all have bad days. The future is a worry, but we cannot do anything about it. We can do something about the present. Take care everyone.

Thank you. Yes I must stop reading or watching the news. And reading certain threads on here...

Due to go on holiday next week, but my teenager will have to do a PCR test on arrival which is stressing me out.

@Direstraitsmates

Don't worry about it. Worrying does nothing other than make things much worse for you. It'll pass and by that I mean the hysteria will pass. We will have to live with coronavirus as the choice is live with it or lock ourselves away for years and years. We get one life.

Saying Don't worry about it is the same as telling an angry person to calm down or a depressed person to cheer up , useless, smug and likely to make things worse.

OP I think the uncertainty is often harder to deal with. I have family members who are really struggling with the same thing.

It sounds like you have accessed medication to support which is great. The only advice I can give as I did to my family members is to try if you can to take a break from the news reports and social media. It won't stop everything but it will limit the bombarding of your brain with constant new triggers.

Sometimes it isn't trying to stop the anxiety, because stopping it makes it feel stronger. Think of it like walking up a hill. If you look up and panic about how high it is it will seem harder and higher. If you look at your feet and concentrate on the next footstep , you realise how far up you have already gone without noticing. You will get nowhere trying to make the hill smaller but focusing on small actions that seem pointless will get you there faster.

Keeping yourself looked after and riding the wave until medication and self care kicks in can be more useful. Sometimes , when it's something so overwhelming all we can do is to attempt to sit with it and the feeling will pass. It may take a while but it absolutely will pass. The feeling because its that that is the problem rather than what triggered it.

Just don’t follow the news. It’s in the media’s interest to keep us stressed. Unfollow everything on your phone and you’ll feel loads better. Btw I had COVID last year. I’m obese and was 49 then and it was minimal. I just felt hot for a couple of days. Even if you did get COVID on top of being jabbed, the odds are overwhelmingly in your favour that you’d be fine.

@Nietzschethehiker thanks so much. Great advice. Yes small steps and take each day as it comes.

The media in the UK is particularly Covid focused and anxiety-inducing. Friends in other parts of the world don't seem half as bothered/worried and the news there is not constantly dominated by Covid (believe it or not).

If you have a tendency for anxiety it's probably very difficult to see a way through this, but the best advice as given above is, stop reading the news (I always recommend a broadsheet paper version - it automatically provides a much more rounded view of what's going on in the world - if you have to) and social media, especially MN!

I'm a numbers person and like data and analysing and, from what I'm seeing, it's not as bad as perhaps things would seem, but that's my take on it. DH had Covid recently after being double-jabbed, mild so please don't worry about that. Long Covid does exist but it is also true that if we think we will suffer side effects then, opposite to the placebo effect, about 20% of people will experience these symptoms (it's called 'nocebo'). Long Covid is more common in women in midlife which I can imagine is compounded by the effects of peri- and menopause (e.g. head aches, fatigue, etc etc).

Take each day as it comes, focus on the fact that probably most of the people you know are and will be absolutely fine and almost certainly will be if double jabbed. At some point we need to get out of the habit of looking at infection numbers and logging cases - and stop testing!

For most vaccinated people, and children, Covid will be mild. Excess deaths in the UK are currently BELOW normal according to Euro Momo.

Numbers lower today🤞🏻

Also someone recommended Mac n Chise on Twitter. They helped calm me down. As does Tim Spector from Imp college.

So I felt a bit like this recently but I've likened it to having had cancer. You start off being willing to fight, positive thoughts, you take the tough treatment . You finish the treatment and you feel lost, scared about the future, you think you'll never get through it There isn't one day when it's all over, but as time passes, things become better, the risk lessens, until you barely think about it. It changes you forever but so does any experience .

Sorry if that sounds ridiculous but it helped me.

I think what has been difficult is that we thought one day it would be over completely. It will wane, rather than one day we wake up and it's normal. Then one day we will realise we rarely think about it and life is normal again.

I feel your pain! I had to start on my sertraline but once it kicked in and I stopped reading and watching the news I tapered off it fairly easily. I will comment on some things here (regular name changer) but that's about it. All you can do is the best you can.

@olivethegreat I have said, more than once, I'd rather go back to the cancer year than to do this again. How awful is that!

Have to take it one day at a time.

I'm the opposite, it is the complete absence of sense in lifting all restrictions that makes we worry, but the basics of life still hold true - what matters is family, friends, community, charity, love etc.