@28birthdays
It’s not meant to be used to appease the ‘omg we’re all going to diiiiieee’ wet lettuce brigade.
What an ignorant thing to say. I don't know whether you have any personal experience of mental health problems but I know enough people that do, myself included.
I haven't posted anything like "omg we're all going to die" but there were two days over the past week where I was secretly deliberating on whether or not I should take my own life because I couldn't cope with the degree of anxiety and panic I was feeling. I couldn't function / eat / sleep. I genuinely felt as though I had just been handed a death sentence, as irrational as that might sound to you, it felt very real to me.
Those feelings were compounded by a handful of idiots, some on mumsnet, telling me that I should be thankful I live in London as I'd be killed immediately when a nuclear bomb strikes and I'd be better off heading towards the epicentre.
Nuclear this, nuclear that. It was too much for my mind to handle.
So there I was, a 4 month postpartum 28 year old mother of three with a lengthy history of complex trauma, considering necking the whole lot of my prescription medication (despite never suffering from suicidal ideation in the past)
I'm sorry if you think that makes me a wet lettuce, perhaps I am, but wet lettuces should be free to read mumsnet for some light hearted relief from the stresses of the current world without being met by, as you said, "aaaaargh we're all gonna die" splashed all over the Trending bar on the home page.
Thankfully I'm starting to pull myself out of that frame of mind but the next person might not be so lucky.
Do not diminish vulnerable people as being wet lettuces.
I can’t offer any advice as I don’t have children so I have no experience of how tough it can be.
I definitely agree re some of the language (ie wet lettuce) used. It’s a sweeping, useless type of way of dismissing some valid feelings.
I don’t think that ANYONE on this thread has been wanting to sweep things under the carpet. Pretty much everyone knows that this is a huge, relevant, current issue. Hence why, in my mind, a topic of its own makes sense. All threads, all under one roof. If you want to see them - easy to find. If you don’t want to go there right now - easy to avoid.
Sorry, but those saying along the lines of “just avoid AIBU/Chat” are being a bit unfair. For me, those two boards are where I go for a bit of everyday MIL/parking/CF/cat shitting/bridezilla shit. Along with many other random topics that can sometimes throw up gems of useful info within them.
Thankfully, over the last day, the number of “batshit” thread titles seems to have dropped off a bit. I hope it stays that way, but given this situation may continue for a while then I hope that @MNHQ keep an open mind.
Anyone coming here to post, who is feeling more anxious/alarmed by some of the thread titles. For the time being, try to ignore them. There is one, long-running, thread called “Invasion” - think it’s on thread 6 now. Yes, the title sounds alarming, but it’s probably the least alarmist set of threads on this topic. There are a few skirmishes on there between posters, but it wouldn’t be MN without that! There is pretty much no doom scenarios on those threads.
Finally, and I hope you take this the right way - I’m almost double your age. In my mind, I probably think of myself as the same age as you - I have to remind myself how old I am. I have to remind myself that someone your age has grown up with SM at their fingertips from an earlier age compared to my life timeline. So, it’s ok to step away from SM/online news for a while - maybe limit it to a set hour per day. Am not trying to be patronising, am just trying to picture how different my life would have been at your age with everything constantly available online - bloody exhausting!