Severe Brexit anxiety

[YoursTunbridgeWells]

Is anyone else losing sleep over Brexit? My standard response to anxiety is control the things I can and try not to worry about the rest.
Yes I have some food, but not the 6 months to years worth I would like. It costs a lot to fill your freezer and cupboards to that extent and frozen foods do not last indefinitely. Some bought now would be useless come the end of November. I know some meat lasts longer and frozen shouldn't poison you. There is a balance.
And yes I have the tins, loo roll, toiletries, cleaning products etc etc. But not enough. I have started on Christmas shopping but will not finish in the next month. I don't have endless money to absolutely everything we might need for a year in one go.
I worry about medication - I have tried to reduce my doses and save extra as well as early prescriptions. I am really concerned that there will be extremely limited availability for many months. I am thankful that I could live without mine but I worry about how many people could die due to medicine shortages. Flu outbreak - thousands die. Without basic things like paracetamol and no health service and no antibiotics (not relevant for flu) but what happens when you're ill?
Likewise, I worry about how many vulnerable people will starve. Today's society could never have any recreation of "Blitz spiritr" - we're too selfish. Some people can't afford to stockpile, some won't. I remember snow related panic buying and the petrol crisis. Shelves stripped bare within hours, pumps drained.
Quickly people will panic buy anything and everything. What happens after a week of empty shelves - civil unrest?
I can't help but think anyone who might have anything is a target. Robberies for food and supplies. If people think their families will genuinely starve who knows how far they will go.
There won't be enough police and armed forces to deal with this on a country wide basis. And it scares me (clearly!). We may have to defend our homes and families.
What about powercuts, lack of fuel, gas, oil and water?
The list goes on and on.
What happens to people who can't get the fuel to get to work? After a few days will they be made redundant. Companies have no staff, people have no wages, there is no economic output.
After a few days all the schools will shut because they have no food and there will be no transport. After that health centres and hospitals.
I can't see an end to how this would end up.
OK perhaps it won't end in a mass revolution, maybe lorries will be let through with no checks until it settles, food will be rationed etc.
I'm not a troll but genuinely terrified. (You may have guessed my greatest skill in life is disaster extrapolation.) But I really don't know how to cope and prepare for this. I hope I'm wrong and I'm being ridiculous.

Sunflowers your contributions are so useful

Oooooooo @Sunflowers211 avoiding the question and using a childish insult. That'll teach me.

Once again, any successful countries trading outside a bloc on WTO terms?

Seriously?? You know mn is the only place I See this kind of hysteria.. I dont see it In real life

@Sunflowers211

Of course you're not incorrect. But the countries who are not in the EU probably do okay by not destroying their trade deals overnight.

Or do they?

We are all going to get up on the 1st of November, take a dump, make a cup of coffee and go to work.

Remoaner here, proud of it etc but we're not going to combust at midnight on the 1st. Life will go on.

I worry that the home we've made for our family is lost, that my childrens education is impeded and their futures damaged. It's a high cost for a bunch of angry, easily lead fools who voted out of malice.

I haven't stockpiled anything, and nobody I know has either.

Starts to write shopping list...

People on here who glibly say read a book, get a life, chill out ... etc .. clearly don't understand anxiety.

No one knows what will happen after 31st October. I too am extremely worried about medication, as I need three different medications daily, two not to keep me alive as such, but my quality of life would be much lower without them, and there are already medication shortages. I'm also worried about food prices rising - and they are already - as I have no money to spare, so it'll mean I will have less fresh fruit and have to eat cheap meals. I have quite severe intolerances and may not be able to afford gluten free and lactose free food.

We can't just leave the EU and then if we don't like it just opt back in, aside from all the trade agreements that will be gone, all the companies that are leaving the UK, leaving people out of work ... all that cannot be reversed. Brexit has already cost a lot of money that the country won't get back - money that could have been spent on the NHS or education ... but then maybe many of you are too rich to worry about using state education and the NHS ...

You're right to worry. Unfortunately, most UK citizens are apathetic and have a naive trust in the government.

Please don't stockpile petrol. Keep your tank never less than half full. As pp has said, control what you can control- buffer of food in the house to keep away from supermarkets.
We are all experiencing this shit, do what you can to have a laugh. Watch Bake Off. Whatever.

@Adollop , we know all about anxiety in our house. At least one person in the house has to have the job of shifting the mood even for moments. It's usually me.

Totally agree with @pamperramper about apathy and naive trust in the government. I'm very anxious too, but I do feel the best advice is to try and avoid these threads and the news completely, OP - the sad fact is that unless you are so inclined to join a mass revolution (which at times I am starting to find tempting), there is literally nothing we can do. So best to keep prepping to give yourself that tiny bit of control you can, and other than that avoid hearing about it. You'll know the outcomes when they start happening.

I don't believe there will be no food and people will starve. But I do believe prices will go up quite a lot and there will be far less choice than before. How life changing that is depends on your personal finances and tolerance for limited choice...which one person has no real ability to preach to another about. I think fuel could be a real problem. And if you work for a company who don't allow home working, it's a perfectly legitimate fear re: How you will get to work, or get the kids to school. I do think that will be fairly temporary though until deals are struck- but again, fuel costs may be permanently higher. And just look at France for what high fuel costs can do for civil unrest. As for medicines - I work in that sector and can't say I'm overly optimistic about long term supply if the issues couldn't be sorted out quite quickly. But that's the point....we don't yet know if they will or won't be. So until it becomes clearer, fretting about it is not crazy or irrational. But is a waste of energy.

I haven't stockpiled anything, and nobody I know has either.

First rule of stockpiling is that you don't tell anyone Sarcelle so you really don't know...

I truly do understand anxiety, depression, ptsd sadly. I really do have to switch off, centre myself, breathe, meditate, and rationalise to deal with it. Switching everything off and reading and/or writing are very helpful to me though it has taken me a very long time to train and educate myself and reach this point. Meditation and yoga have proven to be saviours for my personal experience of living with anxiety. I reached the point where I just couldn't go on. I wanted to enjoy my life and live in peace with myself. Once I had made that absolute decision I didn't want to live like it anymore in the moments of rationality I decided to work out how I could help myself. These things do help me.

I also voted remain. But whether or not you are frantically paying attention, these things are still going to happen. Sometimes you have to let it go and let it happen. What is the alternative? Humans have survived much, much worse and that is the truth!

We have survived worse but we're choosing to do this that's what I cannot fathom.

The fact that the EU are declaring this a disaster to free up budget for the effected EU countries is telling. It's a shame that we don't have a huge trading block who can provide financial support at times of crisis... oh wait we did!

What 😂 No, this doesn't happen

Not met many gig economy workers then recently?

I have read the responses with interest and am not in the least surprised or offended some people think my thoughts are ridiculous and some can see where I am coming from.
I am already on medication but have to reduce it as guess what! It's in very short supply. My GP advised they are reducing all the doses of this medication so that everyone can get some. Fine if you are on a lower dose like me - over 6 months I could wean off potentially, however some people have been on it for years and you can't just cold turkey it.
Taking a step back, I could cope with inflation causing food and petrol etc to increase. If prices of food , fuel etc double - that's going to hurt. Double your monthly outgoings is a tough one .
What worries me is straightforward lack of nutrition and fuel.
No I wouldn't be happy eating tinned food only for 6 months but it's doable if boring and frustrating. However, if you simply can't buy food for a couple of weeks, some people will be in real trouble.
Fuel - we live in the middle of nowhere - well not quite - 8 miles from the nearest town, 8 miles from school and 15 from work.

I also have a child who is a talented athlete and as a result I drive approx 200 miles a week to and from sessions which are 12 miles away. He's at a critical point. Missing a week of training would be tough - more than one and the year's likely a write off especially if supply remains patchy. Not life threatening, not important perhaps, but potentially life altering for him.
We are lucky that to date we have lived in a country with ready supplies of food, fuel, clean water, power etc. It seems bonkers that we are about to regress into a state where all the freedoms we have come to love will be taken away from us.

I get it OP. I work in the third sector, OH in the tourist industry so I worry about what will happen if people's spare cash for these things drops off. We have a mortgage to pay and little ones to look after.and I'm on meds I can't suddenly stop.
I have family who lived through the rise of Hitler and I can definitely see history starting to repeat itself, I don't want to believe it will get that bad but who knows!
The way I'm coping is to read the sensible advice of people on here, @bellinisurge for one, and if they aren't panicking too much then I don't see that I need to. I have food and non-food put away (mainly cause I like a bargain!) but it's only a few weeks of things to hopefully stop us having to join the supermarket scrum for the last tin of garden peas. I'd like more but it's not possible so I have to rationalise it that it's the best I can do, and that's ok. Other than that you just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best...

If you are anxious about Brexit please don't spend too much time on the MN Brexit boards. There are people on here who compare leaving the EU to the rise of the Third Reich. Not sure what their logic is! Why.not listen to a moderate Brexit advocate like Iain Dale to get a different perspective?

Why, thank you @MeDownSouth

YoursTunbridgeWells - I'm surprised your GP has said that. I don't know what type of medication you're taking but I know that HRT is in short supply due to a manufacturing supply in China.

I am on quite a lot of medication but have been able to get mine, neither my consultant or GP have mentioned a shortage.

Anxiety is not the solution to any problem.