This is horrible to read. You don’t need to, but if I were in your shoes and with this level of anxiety, I’d be going to a private doctor to get a letter stating the issue (ideally in generalised terms), which you could carry a copy of around with you along with (obviously) a lanyard.
Coronavirus - Strange times
The problem is I've had hostility from people even after describing the issues. As I said in an earlier post, I actually lost a "friend" over the issue even though he knew about my anxiety. A lanyard doesn't matter to many, you're still trying it on, overreacting or similar.
And even then it's hard to describe how upsetting it is having to wear a lanyard advertising to everyone you've got a problem, or running the risk of having to explain or defend yourself to potentially aggressive people every time you go somewhere. If you've not been in that position, it's incredibly hard to understand. I have worn one in the past (but even then I was too scared to go in places alone, and I was constantly on edge every second I was in somewhere that required masks), but it's so mentally upsetting I just can't do it any more. Disability advocacy groups have written a fair bit about it over the last 18 or so months, but it's got little mainstream attention. All this talk of "plan B" today has actually made me ill, I can't deal with being thrown back to how things were before July. The last couple of years have just been a living hell, and once it was feeling like it was close to being over, Omicron hysteria has bought it back with a vengeance.
And even then it's hard to describe how upsetting it is having to wear a lanyard advertising to everyone you've got a problem, or running the risk of having to explain or defend yourself to potentially aggressive people every time you go somewhere. If you've not been in that position, it's incredibly hard to understand. I have worn one in the past (but even then I was too scared to go in places alone, and I was constantly on edge every second I was in somewhere that required masks), but it's so mentally upsetting I just can't do it any more. Disability advocacy groups have written a fair bit about it over the last 18 or so months, but it's got little mainstream attention. All this talk of "plan B" today has actually made me ill, I can't deal with being thrown back to how things were before July. The last couple of years have just been a living hell, and once it was feeling like it was close to being over, Omicron hysteria has bought it back with a vengeance.
I don’t doubt your anxiety or experiences, but I think you’ve been unlucky. The number of people who would say something to a stranger wearing a lanyard is very low. Not zero, but I’ve been out a lot and never seen it happen, and there are at least a few unmasked (and usually +unlanyarded) people on every tube/train journey or supermarket visit. Not only that, if it did happen, I would say something, and I’m sure many others would too.
Most videos on social media are from people who chose to escalate the situation rather than de-escalating it. Posts on social media are not representative of most people, nor of how people act in real life. I suspect the “friend” did you a favour by revealing their prejudice, and you might consider whether your circle of friends is representative of most people. And wearing a mask is no guarantee anyway, as you could easily be accosted by someone aggressively against masks.
I’ll butt out as I suspect I may not be helping, and as (I’m sure you’d acknowledge) anxiety is often irrational. But I hope you find a way to cope.
Most videos on social media are from people who chose to escalate the situation rather than de-escalating it. Posts on social media are not representative of most people, nor of how people act in real life. I suspect the “friend” did you a favour by revealing their prejudice, and you might consider whether your circle of friends is representative of most people. And wearing a mask is no guarantee anyway, as you could easily be accosted by someone aggressively against masks.
I’ll butt out as I suspect I may not be helping, and as (I’m sure you’d acknowledge) anxiety is often irrational. But I hope you find a way to cope.
I know anxiety can be irrational, but it's so crippling it can leave you virtually impossible to be able to function.
Oh, and I notice SPI-m are saying we could have 1-2,000 hosptalisations a day by the end of the year if we don't bring in further restrictions... seeing as these are the same people who said "freedom day" in July would cause more hospitalisations than we had at the January peak, yet they never even reached a quarter of that number, and even their modelled best case scenarios have been pretty consistently above the actual hospitalisation numbers, it just feels like more crying wolf at times. Maybe if these predictions were more realistic rather than constantly jumping to worst case scenarios as if they're the most likely outcome and calling for knee-jerk re-implementation of restrictions on the back of it, we wouldn't have a public so sceptical.
Doesn't seem to be any sign of the rumoured 5PM press briefing that was supposedly going to announce plan b, hopefully with any luck they've realised implementing it would probably be one of the worst things they could do to inflame the current situation. It's going to be a uphill battle to keep compliance with current regulations now, let alone introducing tighter ones. Especially as there seems to be claims of another party emerging every few hours- there's a rumoured Department of Education one now on top of the others.
Oh, and I notice SPI-m are saying we could have 1-2,000 hosptalisations a day by the end of the year if we don't bring in further restrictions... seeing as these are the same people who said "freedom day" in July would cause more hospitalisations than we had at the January peak, yet they never even reached a quarter of that number, and even their modelled best case scenarios have been pretty consistently above the actual hospitalisation numbers, it just feels like more crying wolf at times. Maybe if these predictions were more realistic rather than constantly jumping to worst case scenarios as if they're the most likely outcome and calling for knee-jerk re-implementation of restrictions on the back of it, we wouldn't have a public so sceptical.
Doesn't seem to be any sign of the rumoured 5PM press briefing that was supposedly going to announce plan b, hopefully with any luck they've realised implementing it would probably be one of the worst things they could do to inflame the current situation. It's going to be a uphill battle to keep compliance with current regulations now, let alone introducing tighter ones. Especially as there seems to be claims of another party emerging every few hours- there's a rumoured Department of Education one now on top of the others.
Apparently still going ahead with Johnson, Whitty and Valance. The idea that today is a good day to do plan B is truly one of the most truly bizarre things they could have done. Unless they are banking on trying to impress the Covid obsessives by using this as 'evidence' of how seriously this is being taken.james2001 wrote: ↑Wed 08 Dec, 2021 16.42 Doesn't seem to be any sign of the rumoured 5PM press briefing that was supposedly going to announce plan b, hopefully with any luck they've realised implementing it would probably be one of the worst things they could do to inflame the current situation. It's going to be a uphill battle to keep compliance with current regulations now, let alone introducing tighter ones. Especially as there seems to be claims of another party emerging every few hours- there's a rumoured Department of Education one now on top of the others.
Even if you want plan B, Johnson's moral authority to implement it has never been lower
And now my anxiety has shot right up again, I genuinely feel physically sick.
If it wasn't for the omicron hysteria, I doubt we'd have ever seen masks or other restrictions ever coming back, now we've being plunged right into them in the deep end and it's a second ruined Christmas on a combination of a knee jerk reaction to a variant that sounds less worrying as every day goes by and at attempt to distract from the partygate headlines. A year after the start of the vaccination campaign they told us would get us out of this, but we still have the threat of lockdown over our heads.
If it wasn't for the omicron hysteria, I doubt we'd have ever seen masks or other restrictions ever coming back, now we've being plunged right into them in the deep end and it's a second ruined Christmas on a combination of a knee jerk reaction to a variant that sounds less worrying as every day goes by and at attempt to distract from the partygate headlines. A year after the start of the vaccination campaign they told us would get us out of this, but we still have the threat of lockdown over our heads.
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tillyoshea
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I think it probably is, though it's very hard to avoid right now.
The exclusion of leisure and hospitality from the mask mandates has been a significant relief to me though at least (echoing really what I said a couple of days ago about the previous rules in those sectors being pretty much pointless apart from as a placebo). And most of what's coming out of South Africa in in relation to the vaccines seems to be promising when you dig through the sensationalism as well. Problem is it's hard to get just the facts without getting the doom and sensationalism with them.
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DavidWhitfield
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Sorry to hear this, James, but this is good advice from Jonwo.
Can only speak from my own personal experience but I find that watching the news and browsing Twitter only exacerbates any anxiety I'm already feeling. I've been trying to avoid it wherever possible and spend time out, listening to music, watching old TV/films, reading, etc. You need time out from it all, otherwise it can be overwhelming and seem like the world is coming to an end. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is struggling.
I know I said to myself I wouldn't contribute to this thread again to try and calm my anxiety, but today a response to me explaining my anxieties- "well, people have been shouted at for wearing masks too"... so whataboutery by citing the opposite extreme, as if that's helpful. As well as someone telling me I "better keep my distance away from them" and "I don't want people like you breathing all over me". And my cousin told me this morning she'd been aggressively confronted by a shop assisant (she's also exempt, with much worse problems than mine). For every piece of reasurrance I get, I get comments like this thrown at me. I don't think it's worth even trying to explain myself any more, as people clearly aren't prepared to even try and understand, and the responses just make my anxiety even worse.
And finding out a couple of places I thought were exempt from mask mandates actually aren't has also been a setback for me. Not to mention there's rumblings of enacting "plan C" now, when at the start of the week plan B wasn't even on the radar, it's escalated ridiculously rapidly when there doesn't seem to really be much justification for it.
Yes, people here are right that I need to get off the internet for a while and calm down.
And finding out a couple of places I thought were exempt from mask mandates actually aren't has also been a setback for me. Not to mention there's rumblings of enacting "plan C" now, when at the start of the week plan B wasn't even on the radar, it's escalated ridiculously rapidly when there doesn't seem to really be much justification for it.
Yes, people here are right that I need to get off the internet for a while and calm down.