Letters to the Editor: Lockdown adds to the stress for mental health sufferers

We need a glimpse to the end in sight to give us all hope

It is more difficult to guard our mental health during constant lockdowns.   Picture: PA

Although there is a greater emphasis on mental health nowadays, many of us with long standing mental illnesses are struggling throughout the latest lockdown.

I have bipolar disorder. It is a mood disorder which means that it can be a struggle to stay balanced between depression and mania.

The pandemic has had a massive impact on me and people like me. Imagine you suffer from stress and anxiety anyway and you thrive on routine. Now imagine you’ve lost your job as a result of the pandemic. 

Part of you is relieved at first to get away from the stresses of work and take some time to yourself. But that time quickly becomes your enemy. That time becomes time to think. And think and think.

There are daily, endless reminders that a deadly virus is out there in the community right now and even if you are really careful and do all the right things you might catch it. Or a loved one might catch it.

And so your mind enjoys ruminating on Covid and how far its tentacles might reach. 

This is what Covid and the pandemic does to someone like me. 

The stress and pressure of lockdown. The monotony and the complete lack of control over the situation forces the mind of someone with a pre-existing mental illness to extremes.

I have noticed over the last number of weeks that members of my family and friends have started to feel symptoms of depression and anxiety. 

Not just feeling worried or fed up, actual depression and anxiety for the first time in their lives. And they are frightened by these feelings. And they don’t know what to do with them. I feel sorry for them. I do my best to comfort them.

The Government’s website healthyireland.ie has lots of good, practical advice on how to stay well during this time. I practice all the suggestions they have: Go to bed early, eat well, exercise, etc. 

But for someone like me the only way to stay fully well is to at least see the end of lockdown in sight. I’m exhausted from trying to stay well when you can’t go further than 5km and can’t work. 

I don’t expect the Government to open things up too soon but to catch a glimpse of the end in sight would give us all some hope.

Sarah McCarthy

Macroom

Co Cork

Sinn Féin uphold democratic rights

I wish to express my reservations about some of the content of Daniel McConnell’s article Hypocrisy in SF’s mixed messages (March 20). 

Much of Mr McConnell’s article related to An Garda Síochána’s investigation into Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, regarding a confidential document he admitted leaking to an associate, and the consequential response from the leader of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, who called on the Tánaiste to resign or be sacked.

Mr McConnell surprisingly directed most of his ire and criticism at the leader of Sinn Féin and never addressed the serious nature of a serving Tánaiste being investigated by gardaí on a criminal matter.

To the best of my knowledge, a criminal investigation of a serving Tánaiste never before happened in the history of the State.

In a country like Ireland, it is easy to take democracy for granted and dismiss the fundamental role that opposition parties play in preserving democracy. Of course, opposition parties, especially Sinn Féin, tend to overplay their hand to gain political advantage over the parties in government. 

However, at a time when democracy in many parts the world is under threat, this is a small price to pay to preserve the fundamental principles of Irish democracy.

Regardless of our views on Sinn Féin as a party, or the eventual outcome of the investigation, it would be concerning, from a democratic perspective, if the leader of the main opposition party failed to respond to the gravity of an unprecedented criminal investigation relating to the second highest member of government.

Diarmuid Cohalan

Ballinhassig

Co Cork

Investigating Leo is a pointless exercise

I am very unlikely to vote for Fine Gael. That is an understatement. But I am baffled by the Garda investigation into An Tánaiste Leo Varadkar. He did wrong. He said so himself. When all is said and done, he delivered a copy of the general practitioners contract to a very ambitious general practitioner. If that is a crime, the Garda Technical Bureau would struggle to find the “victim”.

e are a highly literate race of people. We love drama. Our dramatists have conquered the literary world. Most of our most significant problems are not dramatic.

The revolving door between high ministerial office in this country and our various lobbying agencies is staring us in the face. Hiding in plain sight. Hardly hiding at all.

Our politicians are very well paid. I have no problem with that. But surely, the other side of that well-upholstered coin is simple legislation prohibiting a former minister from turning around five minutes later to become a lobbyist? We need to attend to the basics.

Michael Deasy

Carrigart

Co Donegal

A drive-in solution: have outdoor Mass

Since people are understandably upset they can’t attend Church couldn’t the priests arrange an outdoor Mass like a drive-in movie?

Communion could be delivered to their cars and they could roll down the window just long enough to take the host, say on a plastic spoon and the recipient would keep the spoon.

John Williams

Clonmel

Priests defy Vatican for same-sex unions

Those Irish priests who already have said that they will continue to bless same sex unions in defiance of the Vatican’s prohibition should be commended as it is they rather than the Vatican who are acting as true followers of Jesus.

Hopefully, more and more Irish
priests and dare I hope, some Irish Bishops, will demand the total retraction of this pernicious doctrine by the Vatican.

Brendan Butler

Malahide

Co Dublin

Preserve beautiful core of Cork City

The proposed dockland development for Cork loses sight of the historic decay at the heart of the city. Cork city needs to preserve and protect those beautiful old buildings at its core that define our place. First, let’s respect what we’ve got. Hoping for a small touch of wise leadership.

JP Long

The Lough

Ring remains in the highest regard

Regarding Jim McKeown’s letter of March 23:

I would like to reassure Jim, and all Cork GAA fans, that the statue commissioned by Cork Airport many years ago to honour the late, great Christy Ring, continues to sit proudly on the plaza in front of the terminal building.

Contrary to the opinion given, it has not been “dumped in a field by Cork Airport”.

Staff and management of Cork Airport, who commissioned and paid for this bronze statue in his honour, hold the memory of the great Cloyne hurler in too high a regard for that to ever happen.

Kevin Cullinane

Head of Communications

Cork Airport

Credit unions need a level playing field

The shareholder model of business ownership has been broken for quite some time. We need to change that. We only have to look at the banking sector to see why. We now have a shareholder bank, namely Ulster Bank leaving Ireland. Ulster Bank was making money but not enough for its parent company and shareholders. 

Fortunately, we have a co-operative bank in Ireland — the credit union. It is embedded in many communities and its cooperative structures allow it to look more long term and act in the public interest.

Shareholder businesses are in practice precluded from doing this. They are first and foremost answerable to their shareholders for short-term profits. We need to change banking in Ireland. 

I call on the Government to set about removing the unfair obstacles credit unions face. Credit Unions need a level playing field when being asked to compete with the private interest banks.

Colette Finn

Glasheen Road

Cork

Thriving arts culture

Arts and culture are often our greatest source of pride and achievement.

Irish arts, be it music, literature, fine art, drama, poetry, dance, or theatre, have kept so many in society going through dark times.

I hope when this pandemic reaches an end that society can ensure Irish arts not only survive, but begin to thrive again.

Gavin Brennan

Jervis Street

Dublin 1