Anxiety in the time of Covid

[Kuraimoar]

Does anyone else feel like their anxiety has been through the roof since all this started? I've always had some anxiety but the last few months have been worse than I've ever experienced. I work in retail pharmacy which I'm sure doesn't help either.

[Gary A]

Does anyone else feel like their anxiety has been through the roof since all this started? I've always had some anxiety but the last few months have been worse than I've ever experienced. I work in retail pharmacy which I'm sure doesn't help either.

People who don’t generally suffer with anxiety issues are suffering with anxiety symptoms right now, it’s not at all unexpected that someone who lives with anxiety will be feeling heightened symptoms themselves.

It’s a slog, I must admit. I’ve grown incredibly weary of it now myself. I find now that I’m just repressing it, I’m not reading about it, I’m not keeping up to date with daily cases etc. I’m following the rules and just trying to live as normally as possible. Nothing else for it, really.

[Lencoboy]

I am the same re your last paragraph, Gary, but generally much less anxious about Covid now than I felt back in March, no doubt due to greater awareness and knowledge of the situation now than back then.

For some strange reason I now actually look forward to it going dark in the evenings, as it gives me the chance to shut out the real world and sink into my own alternative world, sticking my headphones on and listening to my favourite CDs, vinyl records and also ASMR videos on YouTube. Or reading some of my favourite books or browsing some of my favourite (non-news-related) websites.

[NoraB]

and also ASMR videos on YouTube.

There's an excellent one called 'Cleaning up the Mic (You) where there are all pointy sharp objects stuck into a microphone and a woman removes them one by one. This really works for me.

[Lencoboy]

I really hope that this pandemic doesn't compel the sad cases of this world to turn to even greater irrational tendencies and to even further extremist, hard-right politics.

It does seem that the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-11 was the real catalyst for this trend, which seemed to exacerbate many of society's existing anxieties and divisions, especially hatred of young people and 'chav' culture, which seemed to come to a head during the August 2011 riots, which was when Cameron's 'Broken Britain' mantra also came to a head, but said mantra had mostly gone the way of the dodo by 2012.

Similarly, the activities of the EDL, Britain First, etc, also seemed to reach their peak around 2013-15, but the activities of the former group in particular appear to have faded into relative obscurity over more recent years, their last major demo being in Birmingham city centre in April 2017 IIRC.