Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 01:47:19 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Covid anxiety again

Started by Barry Admin, August 11, 2021, 05:48:10 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Barry Admin

What do you do about this shit? I just feel like the vid is closing in, and slowly surrounding me.

NI is the only part of the UK where it's getting worse. Neighbours and such are starting to tell me about all the people they know with it.

My cousin lives right round the corner, and his two wee girls got it. Then a few days later, I get told that he's in the hospital with Covid pneumonia - thankfully seems to be coming round tho.

I'm trying to force myself to get out now; last night I went on a late night walk to play the new (shite) Witcher AR game. I dunno what to do, but I do think I need to do that, and to continue being careful even though I'm double jabbed now.

How are the rest of you bearing up?

Fr.Bigley

Push for the second jab, stay away from riff-raff for a fortnight, leave rejuvenated, have a wee break, pretend the last 2 years never happened.

I'm lucky, I've just spent a month in norther Finland where people are pragmatic and sensible but on return to Manchester airport the fear hit me. I'm in quarantine till Sunday and have the jab immediately after. Try remember most folk are trying to avoid and save other folk from this awful disease. Not everyone is a cunt.

Keep that pecker up and buy  yourself a beer. Much love. X

All Surrogate

My feelings have been pretty variable. At the moment, I'm feeling OK, having had my second jab a couple of weeks ago. But I do still worry about my mom and step-dad.

Fambo Number Mive

Even though I'm double jabbed, I still worry about getting it. I double mask when I go into any indoors place (double layered cloth mask over disposable mask). Sometimes I even triple mask (not joking, a double layered cloth mask over a different type of material mask over a disposable mask) if I have to get a train. Double masking makes me feel a bit better about travelling, especially since mask wearing on trains has gone down a lot, even in London. I don't know how much it helps, it was recommended by the CDC I think.

Still social distancing when out for a walk but clearly no-one else round here is. Oxford was a hotspot for COVID last month but that seems to have lessened now. I'm having my shopping delivered now you no longer have to wear masks in shops, I just don't feel comfortable going into to them, even the ones that keep the doors open (which the bank did earlier this week, which was good).

It's really frustrating how many people here act as if COVID is no longer an issue. Cases were really high in one part of Oxford (Barton) recently but lower than they have been in the rest of the city. I have to remind myself when I see an unmasked person in a shop or on a bus they could be medically exempt.

I agree it's important to get out for a walk, it's help your mental health and exercise is obviously good for your immune system. I try to get out for a walk 6 days a week even though I've walked the local area so many times. I try to concentrate on looking at birds flying/hopping around and other parts of nature e.g. I saw two big fat slugs hanging out a few days ago which was interesting.

I think it's very difficult at the moment, the 19th July changes have made me a lot more anxious even though I am double jabbed. I look at the growth in percentages of people vaccinated each day which helps.

I worry about my family although they are very careful. I do worry over every little change in how I am feeling and do lots of research to see if it is a COVID symptom. I have this habit of swallowing a lot when there is nothing in my mouth and then I wonder if I have a sore throat when I've made my mouth sore by repeated swallowing when there is no need (sometimes I do it a few dozen times a day). Sounds silly I know.

bgmnts

According to the NHS just wash your hands and wank into oblivion.

bakabaka

Like Neil, I feel that I'm giving in to the fear so am trying to push myself outside. I decided to take long daily walks, starting tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow. Managing to leave the house only about 3 times a week despite my best daily intentions.

Fully masked despite being double jabbed and increasingly angry that because I'm on the endangered list everyone else should be masked but hardly anyone is any more. It does feel like that period at the end of the first lockdown when suddenly loads more people were out and about and not wearing masks so lockdown became much tighter for us. And as soon as the students return there will be another spike. I can't wait to get out of here.

Sebastian Cobb

I'm still doing what I was doing before, wearing masks in shops, not going indoors other than neccesary shopping/groceries and then the odd walk.

Not going to pubs/gigs/cinema at the minute. Cancelled my mubi go cinema tickets as I remembered they'd started charging for that again.

One bad side effect of the relaxing of the rules is I am slowly feeling pressure to do things I don't really want to or feel comfortable with. A friend wanted me to visit, 4 hours on a train? No chance. Work want me to go in one day a week, I don't think it's mega dangerous but I don't see the point given I'll be putting my headphones on and trying to ignore everyone like I always do when I'm in the office, basically just making me use my own time to come in and work in manifestly worse conditions (some might consider this expectation a very subtle form of murder)... there's also a night out for someone celebrating something and a new start... whilst it's true I don't want to go, it's also true I'm not risking the pub anyway so I don't like not being able to use covid as an excuse for it. As it happens it's likely going to be the day before my aging parents visit, so I'll be using them to lay the safety issue on thick I think. Especially since there's a gig that I week I actually want to go to, but will be swerving.

What doesn't help is certain other people have been going on long journey's so there's the "x went way further than that, why can't you". Yeah, well I think x is a fucking idiot, how about that?

Kankurette

I went out last weekend and did a COVID test yesterday because I'm due to visit my parents. Tested negative. I still wear masks in shops and on public transport and use hand sanitiser if it's there.

Chedney Honks

To be honest, I am now quite pragmatic about it. I know ten people personally who've died from this, from mates' parents in China at the very start to mates' parents round the corner a few months ago. My great uncle also died with it/from it/inconclusive. My mum got long Covid last April and had to quit work for about a year and now can only work from home. More personally/selfishly, it ruined my life plans which I'd saved for and planned for a couple of years. I've pretty much conceded that I won't be moving back to China as planned, probably ever again, so I need to figure out what I want to do for the next twenty years. We're thinking Australia, if we can. I also went pretty fucking mad last year getting too close to it and thinking about it far too much, which resulted in mutually cutting off from a couple of mates and a few family members. The Trump stuff and BLM and race riots also really did my fucking head in. In the background, I was waiting nearly two years to remove a chunk of skin cancer which may have resulted in the loss of my eye. Thank fuck it didn't but that was on my mind every time I looked in the mirror. I do apologise to anyone who was bothered by my relentlessness, for what it's worth.

But as I say, at this point I am prepared to carry on with precautions. I feel like I have to play the percentages and get on with it sensibly. I work from home as much as I can. I wear a mask in any indoor setting, unless I'm eating. I socialise in small groups and try to keep it to the open air. But I do stuff. My wife and I have been double jabbed for a good while now. We still spend most of our time together but we try to break the routine and see people, even if just for a coffee or a beer outside. Mentally, I've been basically all right since I got my first jab and the data started to show the vaccine break in hospitalisation and deaths. I'm really not sure what will happen next, I have lost some optimism because the vaccine doesn't seem to reduce the spread very much but on the other hand, it's very effective in reducing the severity. I've done all I can, I put a shift and a half in, I'll remain cautious and sensible and respect others' vulnerability, and I'll also go about my business and enjoy some entertainment and bars and restaurants. I'm very happy at home and very happy in my own company, but it's been very good for me to get out and about and mix it up. I'd recommend that.

I hope everyone here is coping OK and stays safe and well.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Got to try and find an equilibrium, weighing up risk is difficult, there have been periods of people doing far too little to help stop the spread and also being over-cautious given their overall circumstances.

If you're double jabbed get outside and find some open space at the very least. Try to keep to bigger shops and or quieter times for smaller ones.

If it's anxiety about the wider situation too then try to take solace in the effectiveness of the vaccines so far and focus not on headline infections but hospitalisations and deaths.

Not easy of course but important to try and keep level and rational, proactively seek opportunities to get the space and time you need to get out and do stuff.

flotemysost

I feel like I'm also in the "happy to start doing things again, with precautions" camp here. Being vaccinated is obviously a game changer, but I also feel like so much of the guilt and anxiety I was carrying around last year/earlier this year has been somewhat assuaged and I just feel a bit more like myself again.

It helps hugely that I'm now living with like-minded people (who happen to be healthcare workers, so are most definitely taking things seriously, but are also very much in the same boat in terms of missing lots of the things which were off the cards until recently) - it's definitely validating to be around people who don't make me feel like an evil COVID-denying arsehole for tentatively starting to scratch certain itches. Being able to see my family, go to the cinema/theatre/gigs or even go on dates were things I honestly thought I might never do again, and thanks to the vaccine (as well as increased availability of both PCR and rapid tests) it kind of feels like a bizarre new utopia that I can start doing this stuff (with caution) and not be petrified about butchering millions in the process.

I realise this thing is still out there, and I know there's still a risk. I have a couple of friends who've caught COVID recently, even though they'd been double jabbed for a while; both of them happen to be high risk (one has Lupus, the other has really bad asthma - both had a bit of a miserable week or so, but are OK now), and in both cases their mindset seemed to be along the lines of "Well thank fuck for the vaccine of course, but ultimately I was willing to take that risk on some level". Obviously I still wear masks in public indoor spaces, on transport etc. - not an issue for me at all, I'll do it forever if it helps keep this thing from the door - and I'm starting to go into the office now and then, but I walk there and back, and do a test every time (and I do also realise lots of the stuff I'm saying is afforded to me by the massive privilege of being able to work from home at all), but generally I'm sort of feeling OK about stuff.

This might all sound disgustingly selfish, but as this thread is about anxiety, it just feels like a staggering contrast to how I was in the winter lockdown, when there were countless nights I'd bound out of bed at 3AM in a sweat to pointlessly slosh Dettol on the door handle or kettle - despite the fact that no other cunt lived there, and I'd always scour my hands the instant I got in - for what?! I developed loads of fruitless routines and anxieties like this, which were about as helpful in eliminating COVID as 100 chocolate sculptures of Captain Tom, and ultimately did fuck all other than give me something else to worry about. I don't even tend to suffer from anxiety usually - I'm very much of the "ignore it and hope it goes away" school most of the time - so it was quite bewildering and unnerving to be in this constant state of panic. (I still wipe down my phone when I get in and before I go to bed, and I'm generally sensible about regular hand-washing, not putting down stuff that's been outside on all the surfaces at home etc. but I've scaled back the obsessive scrubbing a lot.)

However...

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on August 11, 2021, 08:24:12 PM
What doesn't help is certain other people have been going on long journey's so there's the "x went way further than that, why can't you". Yeah, well I think x is a fucking idiot, how about that?

...fuck anyone who's guilt-tripping you (or anyone) for not being comfortable with stepping outside certain boundaries - whether that's getting on pubic transport, going back to the office, or anything at all, no matter how trivial or paranoid it might seem. It's been a colossally shitty time and loads of people are still struggling in all sorts of ways - or on the contrary, some of you might actually be more content than before and thriving on a new routine and rhythm, and aren't willing to veer out of it just to please others - that's also OK!

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on August 11, 2021, 06:22:42 PM
I try to concentrate on looking at birds flying/hopping around and other parts of nature e.g. I saw two big fat slugs hanging out a few days ago which was interesting.

This is one of the most charming things I've read all day - none of your post sounds silly at all, fwiw.

Sebastian Cobb

Cheers Flotes, that's nice of you to say!

Barry Admin

Well I've definitely caught something, I've totally lost my voice and my throat is wrecked. Waiting for a test to arrive.

This is the fault of the dumbass cashiers in the local shop who insist on not wearing masks, utter fuckwits.

Fambo Number Mive

Hope you test negative, and that you feel better soon.

Barry Admin


bgmnts

Hopefully it's just a severe throat infection and not covid!

Get well soon.

non capisco

Hope you feel better soon Bazza.

Fr.Bigley

Loads of my friends are coming down with he actual flu now paid on from a year and a half of sanitary isolation. It could very well be that.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: Fr.Bigley on August 20, 2021, 06:59:52 PM
Loads of my friends are coming down with he actual flu now paid on from a year and a half of sanitary isolation. It could very well be that.

Yup, we're due a massive flu spike in the coming months.

olliebean

Quote from: jamiefairlie on August 20, 2021, 07:16:18 PM
Yup, we're due a massive flu spike in the coming months.

Not a great time for energy bills to have risen so damn much. Just did my usual end-of-contract price comparison, and my cheapest option (for which I don't need to switch, unusually) is about 30% higher than last year. I can afford it, but I reckon more people than usual will be heating their homes somewhat less than adequately this winter.

Glebe


I was super cautious for 18 months, and the first time I took a risk (situation where it looked like the overall situation was getting better (not in the UK), but during the event I thought this is shady, why are we here), I was hit by it (along with many others). I instantly just knew, due to social distancing / remote work meaning I had never even had a sniffle for so long. I'm in my late 30s, generally healthy, single-jabbed, but it hit me hard and fast. Worst illness I ever had (though never even close to being hospitalised), but the worst thing is the lingering symptoms that flare up now and then many weeks later.

Coming round to the subject of the thread, the strangest thing is maybe the sense of relief I now feel that I am supposedly immune for the next half a year (still getting my second jab in a couple of months), and I can finally relax when out and about. Still mask up, more for social conventions though.

Mister Six

Probably just actual flu - as has been said, it's going around. But get well soon, Barry!

Zetetic

More likely to just be a cold. (Don't even think that the new "flu season", for the purposes of monitoring will start for another couple of months. In Wales we're seeing almost no flu in respiratory infections.)

Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse

Get well soon, Barry. Please Almighty Atheismo it's not the 'Vid and it's just a sinus infection.

I have this in the other direction. There's a chunk of people I know who go on about "shure dat vaccine does nottin'"/"the delta variant is after mutating in people who are vaccinated I reckon"/"they're saying now we're all gonna need boosters"/"why can't we just get sick"/"why should I give this vaccine to my child"/"how can they have vaccine when it takes ten years to make a vaccine" and it's just. I want to refute what they're saying, but they're so certain of what they're saying, citing a mysterious "THEY" as their source of information. It makes me feel like maybe I'm wrong (double vaxxed btw, I'm prone to respiratory infections and I'm too fat, I'm not risking long covid), so then I have to go and research everything they've claimed. Which led me to last night when I was reading up about the Delta variant (identified in India in December 2020 prior to the vaccine rollout in January 2021) with the Plague Inc. theme running through my head.

But at least now I know that
a) being vaccinated reduces your risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 95% (Pfizer)
b) being vaccinated reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death
c) if you're vaccinated and contract COVID-19 anyway, you're about 50% less infectious

IE VACCINES ARE GOOD which I knew anyway but it's nice to be able to point to people like the Centre for Disease Control, the Health Service Executive and the World Health Organisation as a source.

JesusAndYourBush

I've been to a couple of gigs this month, small venues (pubs) with small audiences.  If was a novelty to be among actual people with not a mask in sight!  The day after the first one I felt like I'd caught a cold but it was gone by the next day, the same as what used to happen pre-covid.  If might just as well have been the after-effects of the five pints of Guinness I'd had.

Consignia

Dunno whether to feel anxious or not, but I was at the Bury Arcade Club yesterday and I think it's probably the highest chance yet of me being exposed to Covid. Negligible mask wearing, poor ventilation, packed with kids and family members not even bothering to minimally distance, loads of arcade games which involved physical exertion. I'd probably be more worried if I hadn't recently been double Pfizered. It was perhaps the nearest I'd felt to normality in a long time though, whether good or ill.

SpiderChrist

Been invited to the pub on Tuesday for a mate's birthday. Said yes, but am feeling a bit twitchy about it to say the least.