My cousin is struggling quite badly without social contact

Funky_Chicken

Funky_Chicken

Well-known member
He has bipolar and is having to work from home. He’s in his thirties and lives on his own, he has a girlfriend but they don’t live together. He’s very active and exercises quite a lot which helps him cope with his bipolar (he thinks) he’s a bit of a workaholic too and he’s missing that contact with people he gets at work. Phone and video calls aren’t the same as face to face interaction and just being able to get out and about. I know lockdown is needed but how long before some people just say I’ve had enough I need to get out. There’s must be thousands of others with mental health issues who are struggling more than most. I’m quite worried about the lad now


🐔
 
Feel for him Funky. Sadly the consequences of the virus are going to have huge implications for mental health for months and years to come.
Just as well we are geared to support that .........?????
 
Mental health services have been hammered in the austerity cut backs. My cousin copes well with his bipolar usually, but something like this lockdown is going to be brutal for so many out there


🐔
 
Yes he has contact via group chat but as I say it’s not quite the same as face to face real life contact, plus he isn’t coping being couped up on his own very well


🐔
 
I am in the same boat

i feel lonely at the best of times. Video calling at work isn’t the same as being in the office.

I know I will struggle if this goes on much longer.
 
Aet290204 said:
I am in the same boat

i feel lonely at the best of times. Video calling at work isn’t the same as being in the office.

I know I will struggle if this goes on much longer.
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If you ever need someone to talk to mate, I've got a lot of time on my hands
 
Funky_Chicken said:
Hold in there mate, keep in contact with people if you can - do your trip out each day an get some fresh air - and hopefully we can get back out again soon


🐔
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To be honest with you I’m coping ok. But the technology at work is letting us down big time and working at home is a struggle

couple of days last week I worked 9 til 2 went for a long walk then worked into the evening until 8. But then word got back to me that they thought my team was sat doing nothing all day which ***ed me off no end.

it’s an uphill battle
 
the detriment to people’s mental health of isolation will be the second biggest killer of the corona virus
 
Aet290204 said:
I am in the same boat

i feel lonely at the best of times. Video calling at work isn’t the same as being in the office.

I know I will struggle if this goes on much longer.
Click to expand...
This place is helping a lot for me.

Mental heath issues are a real b***r. Best to try to express your feelings in some way rather than bottle it all up.

It is great that you can post about it on here.

Most of the people on here are contrary old gits. Nevertheless they do support people.
 
I work from home a lot, and I do have a family, but.... In normal times, if I work from home for 2 weeks I start to feel proffessionally isolated and usually head into my local office (canary wharf) just for some interaction with my peers. I can understand that this will have a detrimental effect on those less able to cope with the isolation.

It does get easier and you have to put a strategy in place. By this I mean. I get up at the same time, 7am, shower, shave and dress as I would on any work day. I work the morning and take a lunch break away from my computer. Then work the afternoon.

The other things I do is have a 15 minutes webex with my team once a day to catch up. It's essentially a water cooler catch up.

At about 5 or 6 I shut down work email on my laptop and do not check it again until the following day.

I don't do this, but Friday at 4 it's a good idea to go for virtual beers on webex/video conference for an hour, and actually have some beers and wind down from the week.
 
The problem that we are having is the technology we use (Citrix) isn’t up to 1000 plus people all working from home. We don’t seem to be able to convince IT that we are struggling.

I was really struggling to do simple and basic tasks on Friday and it put me in a really bad frame of mind.
 
Aet, I am lucky, the company I work for put in 40,000 new vpn gateways so we are not struggling for connectivity from home. Some of the companies we work with are having the same issues you are experiencing though
 
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