Preparedness for when

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Ebola can survive outside the body for about 1 to 2 days, but bear in mind that transmission is via physical contact with bodily fluids.

if this bodily fluids include sweat, and a person infected with ebola touches something, then you do, then there is a chance you would get it?? extreme I know,

lobbyludd

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/qas.html

Frugalsod

http://www.theonion.com/articles/how-to-protect-yourself-against-ebola,37085/

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Frugalsod wrote: »

http://www.theonion.com/articles/how-to-protect-yourself-against-ebola,37085/

HAHAHAHA... boil all bodily fluids before consumption..

siegemode

fuddle wrote: »

Mental health is so important in ensuring we can act on the innate survival instinct.

If our mental health is out of kilter then I feel the ability to deal with whatever is needed will be hit with it.

RAS wrote: »

So agree fuddle; there have been challenging times in the past and it was sometimes difficult to cope with the basics let alone any additional problems. Seriously lacked resilience sometimes.

It's not just our own mental health that is important or relevant during shtf situations. As has been mentioned many a time having a stock of personally relevant meds on top of the normal first aid kit is a good idea especially if your life depends on them. Problems can occur when certain meds fall into the controlled category like some pain relief that makes life liveable for some. OH has patches and is only allowed a months supply and is unable to get them more frequently. Without them the life can easily become intolerable and even normal daily tasks a huge drain and near impossible. This in turn effects both mental and emotional health and resilience.

Then there's those millions given meds for mental health issues and whilst on these meds people might find they are better able to cope with life ups and downs, but take the meds away and a whole load of other problems begin on top of the original issues that made meds necessary in the first place.
Whilst most meds have side effects whilst taking them there are many that have even worse side effects during withdrawal and this is what OH is finding now. Unfortunately this is not made clear when you are prescribed them. To say OH is finding it difficult would be an understatement, but he has been weaned off them slowly and its still not pretty. Sudden mood swings, irritation, low tolerance, rants, anger, frustration, the inability to think or cope with even small tasks. Add this to the inability to absorb new information or learn new skills or remember existing ones and it feels like a living hell a lot of the time. Unfortunately talking therapies are difficult to get if not impossible and it suits the profit making pharma to promote the meds.:mad: They call this treatment, I call it covering over. OH has had no choice in coming of the meds because they are seriously damaging his eyesight and that's creating a whole new set of issues which he is struggling to cope with. His not coping makes life difficult for anyone close by and its hard to imagine what it would be like if I had to deal with others like him and couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I dread to think of the hoards of people that would be affected if their magic pill supply chain were cut.

GreyQueen

(((((((((seigemode)))))))))) I am sorry to hear that your OH is going through the mill, and you by extension. Far too much doling out of pills IMO. My Mum was out on Librium and one other back in the sixties (she had post-natal psychosis requiring 2 months of inpatient pychiatric treatment after kid bruv's birth). I recall what she said on the subject; they don't make it any better, they just stop you caring.

She asked to be taken off them after a year. GP refused. She flushed them and went cold-turkey and never looked back.

One thing I took away from reading books about Hurricane Katrina, one little horror among so many horrors that people went through, is that they had junkies desperate for a fix acting out in the shelters. I've often been at my local pharmacy and seen the methadone crew in for their little bottles.

They're no trouble most of the time, just look like regular blokes, greeting each other like it's a cafe, Mr Pharmacist comes out with his little bottles on a tray, they take their dose, bottles back on the tray and all is smooth. Can you imagine what would happen to these people if their methadone wasn't available? Not good.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

One thing I took away from reading books about Hurricane Katrina, one little horror among so many horrors that people went through, is that they had junkies desperate for a fix acting out in the shelters. I've often been at my local pharmacy and seen the methadone crew in for their little bottles.

They're no trouble most of the time, just look like regular blokes, greeting each other like it's a cafe, Mr Pharmacist comes out with his little bottles on a tray, they take their dose, bottles back on the tray and all is smooth. Can you imagine what would happen to these people if their methadone wasn't available? Not good.

From my acquaintances who are addicts methadone is a poor replacement for heroin, and pure heroin is probably a better solution. Though that is not likely down to fact that politicians have backed themselves into a corner over drugs. Many addicts if they can get it legally and within their budget there are no real problems. Enid Bagnold who wrote the book National Velvet was an addict for decades but because got a doctors prescription that she never had all the sundry problems we associate with drugs.

All of our problems with drugs stem from a few crooked doctors selling prescriptions. The government over reacted and banned that and created the whole illegal supply problem. Addicts had to get their drugs somehow and at the high prices that heroin then attracted it pushed it out of the range of many so crime became a problem. Many of the health problems that people associate with drugs come from all the crap that suppliers cut their heroin with to boost their profit margins. Pure heroin has none of those impacts though you can still OD from the stuff.

siegemode

I think most people just think of the consequence of the junkies not being able to get their fix and that's frightening enough, but I think that most people underestimate the possible consequence of ordinary folk not being able to get their usual prescription meds.
It was OH who said this morning "can you imagine 1000s going through withdrawal if the shtf" ? My reply was I don't want to it's too much for me to think about. It's hard for me coping right now and such a test on our relationship at times and we could have months of this and eye problems ahead of us. I'm strong, but it's certainly testing.
I think most people are unaware of just how many out there rely on prescription meds for sleeping issues, depression, complex mental health issues and more. If a virus hits the country hard it won't just be the junkies going mad and feral, but ordinary folk too.

Your mum is spot on they only mask the problem and leave it in the to be dealt with later part of the brain. Pills are too easy and profitable for the health service professionals and the big pharma and the system makes me angry beyond measure.

calicocat

Holy moly...........!!

Anyone watch Extreme Survival Bunkers???......just watching it now as recorded it. Blimey...they know how to prep don't they??

Amazing...!....lol.

I want one....lol.

GreyQueen

I'm kept alive by prescription meds, would have died nearly 20 years ago but for them. Consequences of not having them several times a day are muscular prostration, collapse, coma and death. Which would accelerate rapidly from the first to the last should I also be subject to shock.

I would be one of the early casualties once the meds ran out (which is why I have several months' worth at all times, stashed in several different places). Better hope that a functioning industrial society continues for the foreseeable or I shall be checking out early, dammit.

I scare the stuffing out of medical professionals, frankly. Diabolical weakness in one of the preptastic persuasion, but you get what you get and have to get on with it.

It does have its funny moments, such as the time my BP reading nearly caused an A & E nurse to have a cow. Well, she made me lie down for one reading and stand up for another........that's always good for a laugh. She literally gaped at the monitor as my BP fell like a stone and yelled SITDOWNRIGHTNOW!!!!!!!!! Poor lass, think she thought that I was about to fall over like a giant redwood and take her down with me. Wasn't going to happen, I wasn't even dizzy.

On another occasion I did have to gently ask an A & E nurse to take the pressure cuff off as she couldn't believe the readings and had taken 4 in succession, thinking that the machine was wrong, I guess. Trouble was, by that point I was losing sensation in my fingertips due to the cuff on my arm. :rotfl:

GQ, a woman with a metabolism so peculiar they bring medical students to meet her.......I've had my brain scanned, y'know. Several times. From the top of your skull, looking down, your eyeballs and optic nerves look like boiled eggs in twisted socks. Weird s**t.