I have tried so many times to try to get on with my life in the pandemic. And although all restrictions are now lifted in the UK, the virus isn't gone, and it can continue to spread at any time. It's a worry for me.
Lifting restrictions and 'mental health'
So, trying to navigate my own life with lifting restrictions, continues to be a work in progress. My mental health issues are difficult to work with. Two years in now and going for walks, makes for less anxious times, thankfully.
I have managed to go to a retail park a couple of times, but I haven't been to a restaurant, coffee shop, bar, theatre, or cinema, or for me to be able to indulge in the odd manicure or pedicure.
The virus isn't done
It feels like it would be foolhardy to think the virus doesn’t exist. While I understand the country is done with the precautionary measures, we have to remember, the virus isn’t gone.
I get that many people were desperate to have a life, and whilst I appreciate that, there are still people who are vulnerable and high risk, and who have more to lose, if they were to catch the virus.
The 'high risk and vulnerable' groups
I appreciate life is very different for all of us now. But we are irked that we are high risk, vulnerable and forgotten about. I belong to one of many groups that simply put, have been forgotten and who are 'home' because it's easier for the UK government to legislate for the majority of people who don't need assistance.
Feeling comfortable in the Pandemic
I am, we are all in a drip, drip feed situation, and although it's not ideal, it is giving me time to figure out what I need, without feeling pressured, or living with fear induced anxiety. This is different from what has been the norm for me.
Two years in and I now feel I able to find ways that work for me. I am feeling confident enough to tackle the grocery store with a mask and or visor on, now I just need to think about timing, and when I go.
We are certainly living in a 'new different,' but observing people while I am out on site, you wouldn't know we are living in a pandemic, if you didn't know.
I think we are living in a dangerous false sense of security, here in the UK, created by a self-serving government, more interested in winning votes, than in establishing a sustainable way of life in the pandemic, for all groups.
I am under no illusion that the winter will bring a rapid rise in infections and hospital cases and potential measures such as waiting masks in supermarkets and on public transport, whereas those measures now, might well contribute to an easier time for all of us in the winter.
As the government is running for its political life I don't see any sensible decisions being made soon, which means the high risk and vulnerable such as yourself, will be under an informal lockdown for the foreseeable.
Thanks for the gentle reminders. I hope your words will start to make a positive impact for change.
You can't argue with truth and you respond with sincerity and truth. I am powerless to act to implement any physical change.
But the physical change has to start with mental and emotional change. Right now as you say correctly, the high risk and vulnerable are in their own informal lockdowns.
Yes, like many I am stuck. In the UK we had an opportunity to change that through local elections, but we didn't go far enough.
Until 'we get it,' it will be more of the same. Through the ballot box we can be instrumental. Let that sink in.