I find one of the best ways to cope during this outbreak is to find some time to go outside and get some fresh air and sun. It's honestly so much more helpful than it seems! Go for a walk, a run, or just read a book outside.

Theres something really therapeutic about it that just helps with your mental health!

If you haven't already, give it a go!

You'd love my place then. Been here 5yrs, lived in a lot of places , never have l felt one as magical as this place the second you step out into the yards and daylight. lt's not flash or expensive,pretty old actually.What's left of the old fencing is falling down and flapping in the wind, roof iron bangs all night long in the wind , l probably paid for the whole place what most people put down as their deposit these days. But outside, there's just something about it, everyone that comes here comments .

No matter what sort of a mess your in , outside here is literally medicine to the soul.

rx

this victorian lockdown has been the hardest for me so far. school has been going fine, and holidays just started now for me.

im having issues with my family, firstly my parents are currently in a spat and don't want to talk to each other. i would be able to cope if there wasn't a lockdown as school would keep me occupied, but now that school is out, i'm stuck at home living in a toxic environment and with no way out. plus, i'm getting worried with the covid situation and one of my parents are wanting me to wait a month before getting the vaccine. take into account that they're quite the conservative asian subcontinent family, and i can't openly talk about my mental health. if i am to do so, it might start an argument between my parents that '(the other parent) is upsetting my child', even though it is both of them at this point.

i know my situation isn't as bad as some others, but with 2 weeks of holidays with nothing to occupy me, i don't see it going up from here.

i'm also a bit jealous of my friends who have families that they're doing movie nights, game nights etc and its hard to not think 'why don't i have a family like that?' if anyone could give me any tips, it would be much appreciated.

Tbh , listening today, for as long as l could stomach it anyway, 10 mins, our so called road map out. Nothing new same as NS really , l mean what else can they do l suppose.

But this whole thing , what it's done and still here , still doing, it's just mind boggling. Yaknow , as if last yr wasn't a twilight zone enough, but to be still on going. Tbh l expected the whole thing to just fizzle out this yr , the Spanish flu did and most of the others have. lt just doesn't seem possible this high tech world at ransom like this in this day and age. l was almost fine last yr , it didn't effect us much where l am , although mind blowing nonetheless and it did get scary at times too in Vic for sure. But at this stage after all this time and what people businesses school kids lives are still going through, no words.

Maybe next yr it fizzles , surely it can't be the only one in history that l know of anyway , to just not go away.

rx

Hi anonymouszebra

Welcome to the forums and good on you for having the courage to post.....you are strong!

I had the same family dynamic when I was young and yes it can be awful to experience..ugh

Can I ask why you were told to wait a month before getting vaccinated? ...I dont understand why

Thankyou for being a part of the Beyond Blue family anonymouszebra

Paul

Hey rx

I feel the same

I don't get the curfew , there's nothing open and nowhere to go anyway, so it's annoying

Hi rx,

You summed it up very well. We just can't go on like this. Apparently on November 5th people can return to work if fully vaxed. Interesting, as I know the receptionists at my office don't want it but have said they'd get it if they had no choice. I know a few where I work that really don't want it.,including my colleague. She has whinged all year about wanting to WFH as she lives an hour away. She feels they should accommodate her choice to live there. I prefer when she's not in the office. She comes across all sugary sweet but She can be not very nice. I wonder if she'll use this to er advantage stay at home and how will the company feel about this? We knew it would come to this. I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

Cmf x

I don't understand the problem with the curfew. If you need to work eg police ambos etc you still work. If you have to leave due to an emergency you can leave. Otherwise why do you need to go out at night since you can't visit people or go to entertainment venues etc. The curfew just makes it easier to stop people breaking the restrictions as they can make excuses-I'm going to the shop or for exercise when they are actually meeting up with friends.

I am struggling with the knowledge that these increasing numbers mean more people in hospital so people like my husband with other medical conditions may not be ale to get the care they need. Doctors & nurses are human so they can't work effectively if they are really overstretched. I am assuming my hsb's planned surgery will be delayed maybe until next year. I just hope he doesn't get sick in the meantime because it won't be safe for him to go to hospital. I try o reassure myself that I've done all I can to keep safe. We are both fully vaccinated but that doesn't address all the other issues.

Lockdowns have been such a journey for us all - it feels like I've lost 2 years of my life in a snap of a finger.

For me, the hardest parts are when I don't know what's ahead. I'm in Melb, so know lockdowns all too well now. Before we were given the recent roadmap out of lockdown, my anxiety was building up so much I could have exploded. It's also frustrating that it feels like every conversation is centred around it, all over social media and online, the news never stops, we can't escape.

I'm really grateful for the small freedoms we've been granted this week and am hopeful for the coming months, but it's been a really taxing experience for us all.

Ouch! Just my feelings...I have ptsd, so shop at night, and get scared alone at home being unable to leave

I just want to go for a walk or to buy milk. I collapsed today after 3 days of no sleep, and slept in deep sleep fro, 5 to 9 15. I woke up and couldn't leave the house to buy food. I have no food in the house and can't go get it, unless I pay for delivery, which I can't afford as I live pay to pay. If we listen to each other we might hear different experiences

I'm so over it all. I'm so tired and drained. Had an anxiety attack Sunday arvo and felt anxious yesterday. I feel coming out of lockdown will cause anxiety to. Back into school routine, back to the office, organising care for my daughter over summer holidays. Between us in my family we've had to have 8 covid tests in 4 weeks.

So over it.

CMF

I am sorry you are feeling exhausted and drained. You have a lot on your plate and it hads been a long times.

My thoughts are with you and others experience anxiety.

I have no idea when i will see my new grand daughter she is already nearly 3 months and realsiticaslly I may be lucky to see before end of year.

Fedupwithcovid welcome to the forum and this thread. Hope you feel better soon.

quirky, congratulations on the birth of a new baby grand daughter! How beautiful. Prayers that you get to hold her soon. xx

Banksy, feeling for you. I can understand the feelings of near explosion but it was for other reasons many years ago and I said "like a balloon needing to burst" so kinda different. Is there any way you can forge a separate segment of your life? like beginning a thread on other things? xx

Fedup, sure. In one way or another we're all fed up with elements of Govt restrictions and covid or both. "Not knowing" is a biggie, in a way we never know nuttin' before or after covid but this one being a shared worldwide human experience has created a synchronised anxiety state that few could avoid.
Basically as my Counsellor explained, previous to covid we had ppl in our lives we could reach out to in times of needs to "co-regulate" us, help us. Now everyone's struggling so there isn't the co-regulation support network anywhere. xx

It's up to us. Each individual has to do whatever it takes to calm ourselves, whatever it takes to be "okay". We need to be able to get through this time with our wits at the end.

Tbh I don't see "an end" to covid. It's a matter of adapting and learning to live with it. xx

CMF, I'm hearing you. My kid's workplace is popular! We've had 4 "get tested and stay at home" orders in 3 weeks. Others before then.
Since then I bought stacks of pasta, noodles and tinned tomatoes for our go to. The first order caught me off guard. xx

Sleepy, sorry you had no food, it's a horrible situation. I know I've harped on this but do any Churches deliver Food packs? Even if you don't usually like or eat this food, it's good to have a store in cases like that. xx

Overall the only place that covid is really spoken about in my life is here on the forums.
I avoid all news etc. My friends and I seldom speak of it, only what we're doing now to comply.

Love to you all and hope you can find ways to manage better through this time.
EMxxxx

Pretty amazed yesterday , and relieved. We've been needing to pick up my daughters car from Melbourne. Well not understanding how the lock downs are working this time round, but we couldn't afford to waste the money getting a truck. Called my brother down there asked what's going on what do you think, he says ahhh, just drive straight down pick it up and leave again, should be right.

lt's a 3hr drive one way and then and it turned out to be right in the city. Anyway not the usual traffic but still pretty busy , mostly commercial buttttt, we got in and out hassle free. Felt so weird though. We ended up in this huge under building car park with roller doors to get in and out , all locked in, where he kept the car. He let us in it had a card system thing. lt all felt so strange though we had to wait outside the building on the street for awhile, thought we'll be picked up for sure sitting here but no one bothered us , no cops. Then he came down showed us into the place they took the car out for a test spin round town , like any other day really we were really surprised. Much quieter though.

Then we just did the paperwork and drove straight out of there and back up to the coast , not a boo from anyone. Strange day though and you could really feel the atmosphere too. My gf and l have had to drive straight through their harshest lock downs 3 times now to the airport and stuff , one trip was 3am, and now the car thing.

lt really is the strangest 2 yrs of our lives though that is for sure isn't it. Heart goes out to everyone down there though , it's a different city, different world , must be very very hard for everyone.

rx

Hi all, thanks EM I was able to get to a food bank today...some staples in my possession ow. Another place I'd like to go after 9 is the laundromat....I just wanna do stuff but I do keep the rules strictly just venting how at times it hits hard

Hi everyone,

I’ve been reading along & agreeing with a lot of you. The pandemic sucks & so does lockdown. But I feel wary of the plan for after lockdown too. “Everyone” seems to be saying cases of COVID will skyrocket & it can still be fatal to fully vaccinated people. I don’t much worry for myself but my husband has those “serious pre-existing conditions” - diabetes & stage 4 kidney failure.

He has made plans to go to a major sporting event in the capital city early in the new year. Just this week our GP has said he thinks he shouldn’t go. Too dangerous. But he still seems intent on going.

I’m feeling fed up & hopeless. If COVID makes me a widow at least I’m old enough not to have to live a lot longer anyway.

Fantastic you managed to get your food sleep .

Yeah topsy , the map out of lockdowns isn't exactly encouraging l know. But l suppose it's what the rest of the world have been doing mths now and getting by and mostly open again sooo, hoping for the best myself , if they can we can. Speaking of, saw clips of the pm after landing in the US today, all the US officials were masked and distancing, but no, the PM of our country wasn't. Completely unmasked and talking into their faces from 1/2 a mtr away. God that man just keeps getting better doesn;t he eh, just WT ?.

Speaking of our trip down for the car yesterday , thank the Gods it wasn't today by the demo's that went on, we were gonna go today but changed our mind and went Monday instead. West gate was completely shut down, traffic banked back 20k. It would've been a total nightmare we'd probably still be driving home from now 10 o'clock at night.

Anyway , hang in there people , wish l had some feel good wisdom to spread around but sorry , all out.

rx

"Good Morning all you awesome and beautiful people."

( I was greeted this way this morning as I started to listen to a podcast.)

I felt so encouraged by it, so I am passing it all on to you.

Hi Shelll and everyone,

That's a lovely thing to share. Thank you.

I feel guilty posting here given that I'm a West Aussie and incredibly lucky compared to the rest of the country.

Was reading here about vaccinations and it hit a nerve I suppose. My psychiatrist has started 'encouraging' me to be vaccinated. Says I'm high risk as I take immune suppressing meds etc etc.

What annoys me is that a few weeks before he wasn't sure if he wanted to be vaccinated either and was understanding of my reluctance. Now he's being pushy and critical and I'm uncomfortable seeing him. Not great from a managing depression POV. Nothing anyone says is going to change my mind anyway.

Is anyone else finding that their docs care more about vaccination than whether you're struggling mentally?

Quercus,

It is good to read your post.
The messaging from the medical profession and politics is confusing as it changes weekly.

I know many people’s mental health is very fragile so ones psych should have a balance between understanding how ones mental health is affected by having a vaccination and the benefits of a vaccination.
I have a friend whose doctor was very understanding about her anxiety of having a jab.

Hello all,

Not knowing from fortnight to fortnight, or for some, week to week, or day by day is what I find so difficult. I get my hopes up, look at Qld's .gov website to see if whether some restrictions might be changing again, or if they are not. Especially, if to see if I can go into public buildings, without a mask, and not feel like I am some sort of space invader, or that I may be perceived as one of the selfish people, who simply refuse to wear a mask, as a statement of their 'right to choose'.

My PDr encouraged me to get my info from reliable sources. He takes his duty of care seriously, as does his colleague, and so made decisions about how the practice would be run. I agreed entirely with his reasons for, first, requiring hand washing. I had become mindful about how many surfaces I touched when out and about. Then he would be doing telehealth sessions instead of having patients coming and going to his rooms. They have groups as well. Too many people.

I was uncomfortable about zoom and Face Time, but I would try by phone calls, which I make at the usual time. Then, when masks became a recommendation, he invited patients back, provided everyone, including himself and his colleague would wear masks. That's when I tried to and had a (for me) a severe panic response, and 'flashbacks', I guess.

By phone is not ideal for either of us. There are pros and cons to it, so either way it is both better and worse.

I begin to wonder just how uncommon it may be for therapists to divulge their personal views to their patients? Is my PDr so unusual in that he tells me nothing about his personal life, and not his opinions about what the government does in relation to COVID-19.

As knowledge about COVID-19 increased, and we were seeing how devastating it was becoming for individuals, families, and society, I wanted to get my first dose as soon as I could determine I would qualify for one.

Initially, because COVID-19 was new, and information was scarce, and they were learning, and so, making decisions on the hop. New info comes in and changes have to be made to accommodate that.

It's hard to keep up. It is particularly hard to decide for whole cities, states and country - lots of individual people being effected by those decisions, and know you could not get it 'right'. We have a choice of hard options to choose from. We have limited people and financial and medical resources to carry us through.

Me, coping? I'm not sure anymore.

mmMekitty

l can understand it even living in QLD , one of the easiest states throigh all this apart from borders l suppose.

Where l am in Vic life has been pretty close to normal through all of it apart from the last mth. But after 18mths of it , all over the world , all over our country , the surrealism of everything happening , it's still getting to us even up where l am these days. Your heart breaks too for those in the cities and states caught yet again now , anxieties of the future, our kids waiting 2yrs to do courses lives on hold at that age, business, people separated, people alone, borders , us all being told yet again and again how to live and what to do, all of it.

l think we'd have to be living under a rock no matter where, to not be being effected at this stage.

rx

Sleepy, I want to apologise for my clumsy post which clearly came across the wrong way. I can understand that people like you need to go for a walk when they can't sleep or are anxious. If people didn't break the rules and have illegal gatherings then there would be no need for curfews. Going for a walk at night on your own is certainly not going to transmit the virus.

I am feeling very upset and frustrated at the moment when people deliberately flout the law, attend illegal protests and riots putting the rest of us----the vast majority who are doing the right thing at risk. Everyone is suffering with the lockdown and none of deserve to have the situation made worse by selfish decisions of a few. Especially the people on this forum suffering for no fault of theit own

Hello all,

I just wanted to come and ask if anyone else feels the same was as me.

Since the pandemic has started, I feel like my life has been on hold. That we're stuck in limbo and have no idea when we'll get out of limbo. I guess that's been the source of my anxiety right now. I feel like everything that I do is useless because I don't know when I'll get out of this limbo. My uni education right now.. feels useless. Doing anything productive feels useless... I just don't have the motivation to do anything until this pandemic is over and life goes back to normal.

Does anyone else feel this way? I'm not sure how to accept that COVID may very well be in our lives for the long run.