UO Thursday 4/30

gingermama29

Let's hear them!

stillcozy

I’m team mental health is just as important as physical health. As a result I believe we need to start reopening things (safely but we need to start). Too many vulnerable people are being isolated and I’m very concerned about the rate of suicides we are going to see if businesses can not operate, financial stress, isolation are not improved.  Not only that but I worry about kids and partners that have abusive family members that can’t go anywhere as an escape. 

inthewoods23

@stillcozy I feel like no matter how you do it, it's not going to be satisfactory enough for people. The reopen won't be fast enough, or why does X type of store get to reopen but not Y type of store. People are going to be mad about the wait times at restaurants because they have to close off so many tables to keep social distancing. 

piglitts

Mental health is important but death is worse. Even with the quarantine, we still have 50k+ people actually dead and without it, who knows what that number would be. Suicide and domestic abuse is terrifying and is happening but the alternative to quarantine is worse.  

keikilove

Look up the reopening of Wuhan. It’s not at all what the government thought it would be. People are scared to go out. Business is not booming. We think we *may* know the answers, but we are living through a time totally unpredictable. There  is no telling how people will respond to anything that is decided going forward. 

inthewoods23

@keikilove yeah who knows about businesses.... But I know outdoor places will be flooded with people. I heard that's an issue in CA right now. Beaches overrun with people.

keikilove

@inthewoods23 Yeah, the outdoor spaces is a weird issue. Our parks are closed but our beaches are open for exercise only. Our beaches aren’t crowded at all. People go to run, walk, surf, swim, or fish. Then they leave. Police are patrolling & ticketing those who “loiter”/lounge around on towels/stay still. But interestingly, we haven’t had any issues with crowds or breaking the rules. I just wish they’d open the parks so people could exercise there too. It’s the easiest place to keep distance too. Some of these decisions are hard to understand. 

legallykate

I think the mental health/physical health thing is a false dichotomy. First of all we are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, so it is absurd that people can't be safe/healthy in their own homes (I mean obviously most people are not enjoying/thriving being stuck at home, but everyone in this country should have access to way better mental health care and social services, and the wealth gap shouldn't be such that some people are quarantining in one of their several multimillion dollar homes and others are in unbearable living conditions). I know we are where we are for this pandemic but we shouldn't have to be considering prematurely lifting stay at home orders for those types of reasons. It really pisses me off.

But also I do not think (even more) mass casualties will be good for overall mental health, so the notion that if we reopen more (mostly older and immunocompromised) people will die from Covid but everyone else will be hunky dory just doesn't ring true to me.  

stillcozy

Literally shared my UO because that is what it is an UO as I’m struggling for with my own mental health because of this crap aka Covid while trying to keep others sane. But hey thanks for jumping on me the rest of you also piglets who even are you?  Thought this was a safe place to share my own sadness but clearly not. ✌️

stillcozy

@piglitts I don’t give a crap about the opinion of a lurker who has posted a total of 3 times one of which being to tell me off. When have you ever offered support to me or anyone in this community since you intro’d in January? But you want to get on a soapbox and call me out? Wow sad... maybe try offering some real support to the group instead. It would be a better use of your time.

stillcozy

@legallykate yeah there is so much wrong with your statement. I have many clients who had to stop therapy because they do not have internet in their homes and places they used it get it for free are closed. Just because something shouldn’t be that way doesn’t mean it isn’t the case because it is. Im not allowed to see clients in person. Nor am I allowed to do phone calls. That isn’t me being heartless that is the  department of human services call.

keikilove

@stillcozy You’ve been around long enough to know that posting in either the Unpopular Opinions or Flame-Free Friday Confessions threads may bring responses you don’t like. That’s just par for the course. I don’t think anyone jumped on you here—they simply provided an alternate opinion to your opinion. Again, this is par for the course in these threads & totally acceptable. 

What is not acceptable is the way you have been jumping on people the past several months if they ruffle your feathers even the teeniest bit. Several vets here gently redirected you when you had the audacity to  barge into the sacred space that is a BMB, and then dared to chide people there about how they should be grateful to be KU during a pandemic, because many of us would like to be in their shoes. How dare you lurk, invade their BMB, and scold them for feeling how they feel?! Isn’t that what you’re angry at Pigletts for right now?? 

If your original post here was truly about how you & many of your clients  are struggling through this pandemic, perhaps it would’ve been better suited to the April Mental Health thread, where you could have deeper dialogue about the issue. Personally, I’ve been staying away from most of your posts or interacting with you much because your posts are so intense and full of so much reactionary drama. At times it’s quite hard to believe you’re a therapist—you don’t seem to employ any coping skills you would presumably counsel your clients to utilize. I hope things start feeling better for you soon. 

whitealbum29

I always miss everything!  

@legallykate -- 100% agree, this is what's getting lost in the debate over when to reopen. The push to reopen now (from a very loud minority of people) isn't about helping anyone's wellbeing or mental health (even though that is of course a genuine concern for many people). It's about our government being reticent to give people the kinds of help and support that people in many other wealthy countries are getting right now -- guaranteed salaries or at least a large percentage for anyone who's lost a job, monthly direct payments for at least 3 months rather than one payment of $1200, not to mention people who lose work in other wealthy countries have healthcare thru their governments and are not getting kicked off their employer-provided healthcare like millions of people have here. Those kinds of programs here and knowing there's a real safety net and that we actually are all in it together, would make staying at home a lot less scary and isolating for people I think, and in turn would help us to actually flatten the curve so things can get back to something like normal.