Isolation

I was watching a youtube documentary about our failure to address the problem of so called "care in the community". Where so many people are being released from institutions and not getting the support they need to cop with daily living. It is not just people being released from institutions that cant cope.
There is a "sub culture" growing where people are cutting themselves off from society and not leaving their flats or even room where they live in the house.
According to the documentary a lot of young business people are struggling to cope to make ends meet because of high rises or rent specially in London they are just becoming more and more isolated.
Depression is a terrible feeling and if not treated then it can affect how people function on a daily basis. People are isolating themselves from not only family and friends but society and stay in their flats all the time.
I still think we are living in the dark ages when it comes to treating depression especially if you are just out of an institution and trying to cop on your own. I was shocked at so many young professionals who are being pushed out of London because they cant afford somewhere to live. Isolation is such a awful experience what is the answer? More support more funding of projects to help people adjust to being outside. One woman had not left her flat in seven years. She gets everything delivered and has no contact with family. Please if you do feel depressed or isolated then talk to your G.P. Don't just cut yourself off.

I would be one of those sorts. I very rarely leave my apartment and don't seek out company either from family or friends. I'd honestly say it's partially down to money too, I just can't afford to run a home, a car and go out. I always feel bad for spending money on nights out socialising etc.

If you remember last year it took a police visit to make me realise just how bad things had gotten for me. Even now I keep all the blinds in my house closed to shut the world out. I only answer the door if I am expecting a delivery. I don't bother with my neighbours and apart from going to darts, which I could quite happily drop, I wouldn't leave the house other that the occasional trip to the shop for bread and milk and GP appointments. There have been times when even that was too much for me.

It's actually much easier to become isolated than you realise, and it happens far faster and you don't always notice until it's happened.....

I rarely go out, apart from to go and get shopping and pay some bills that is it I stay in, my blinds stay shut unless I know someone is coming to visit, it is one of the reasons that I decided to have a stall on the market last year it at least got me out of the house, But I hate being outside my anxiety and panic rises as soon as I step out of the door.

That's my case too, no friends in current place, my anxiety and issues, if not my work and church, I would have probably stayed in closed house.

I have experience isolation, but not long term and so many people are slipping through the cracks of the mental health system. I have no idea why that is but it must be addressed. I cant understand how you can have a job yet fail to make ends meet. Did the tory government not say last year that it is always better to work than be on benefits? I disagree and although i support people who work hard and earn a living to work hard and not must be soul destroying. There is something wrong if people who are working cant afford to pay their rent or even go out for the evening with their friends.

Ah pf, isolation and economy are separate issues (though there can be a link). People become isolated because they become ill, not always mentally ill either; they lose family; no sense of community etc.

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Originally Posted by purplefan

I have experience isolation, but not long term and so many people are slipping through the cracks of the mental health system. I have no idea why that is but it must be addressed.

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It's not just those with mental health issues. But where the services have been cut, cut and cut again there isn't the staff or the money that is there any more.

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I cant understand how you can have a job yet fail to make ends meet. Did the tory government not say last year that it is always better to work than be on benefits? I disagree and although i support people who work hard and earn a living to work hard and not must be soul destroying. There is something wrong if people who are working cant afford to pay their rent or even go out for the evening with their friends.

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With the rise of rent costs, the rise of food and utilities it's not that hard to be working full time and not make ends meet. I have had members here who have had 2 working parents and 3 children living in a 2 bedroomed house because they can't sell their home to buy a bigger one. With all the money they have coming in the bills and mortgage swallow most of the money meaning she ends up at the food bank most months because even though most of her shopping is done when the food is reduced she still can't make ends meet.
Another of my friends works in a school and nearly all of her wages goes on after school childcare for one of her children!
Society is wrong when people are paid far more to kick a ball than they are to educate children, tend to the sick and the elderly and police our streets and put out the flames....

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Originally Posted by Paula

Ah pf, isolation and economy are separate issues (though there can be a link). People become isolated because they become ill, not always mentally ill either; they lose family; no sense of community etc.

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I agree that people become isolated because they are ill but the documentary was exploring financial hardship as a link to the growing problem of younger people isolating themselves and becoming ill because of it. I am flabbergasted at how many 20 somethings just work, eat and sleep and make no contact to go out. They become more and more isolated.

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Originally Posted by Suzi

I have had members here who have had 2 working parents and 3 children living in a 2 bedroomed house because they can't sell their home to buy a bigger one.

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I was stuck in a one bed maisonette with two kids and couldn't afford to get a bigger home. Because I owned it (mortgaged) council refused to help us until I sold it, but if I sold it I was intentionally making us homeless and ineligible for council support. I went through hell not knowing what to do and being on maternity leave after the little man was born money became even tighter and in the end I had to just hand the keys back to the bank because I couldn't afford to stay there and it wasn't fit for our needs. Even then we had to jump through hoops just to get emergency accomodation let alone anything else. The council were happy for for me and my ex a 5 yr old and 10 month old baby to sleep in the car in October!!!

(bear)

Its no better on benefits, before I met Jay there could be two or maybe three days a week I lived on just drinking coffee so that I had food for my eldest and my middle one to eat, so I never went out, I had no money for babysitters, no support from family and was somewhere that I hadn't lived very long so very few friends.
But even now I do isolate myself yet I have support and friends here where I am, I still don't go out unless I have to.

I think Social Networking can make you feel more isolated. I dread the family christmas pics, and of the kids first day back at school, and at the moment I'm getting more and more wound up over holiday pics. I would love to go on a family holiday, or take pics of my boys in fresh school uniforms, or videos of them opening presents on christmas morning, but I can't and it makes me feel even more alienated, like I don't fit in this world and makes me wanna retreat even more.