Ignoring if you should or if you could.

Now that it is pretty much illegal to leave the U.K. Or even travel or move to other countries with my British passport, does that now mean by definition, I am trapped ?

I certainly feel it. It's certainly a new experience for me. With my usual sense of freedom and privilege with travel.



Oxford Definition:

trap verb

Verb Forms
in dangerous/bad situation
​ [usually passive] to put somebody in a dangerous place that they cannot get out of
be trapped Help! I'm trapped!
be trapped by something We became trapped by the rising floodwater.
be trapped + adv./prep. They were trapped in the burning building.
​ [usually passive] to keep somebody in a bad situation that they want to get out of but cannot
be trapped + adv./prep. He was trapped in an unhappy marriage.
I feel trapped in my job.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

You are definitely trapped--no doubt about it. Fortunately, "trapped" is a continuum, not a specific point, and you're nowhere near the worst of it.

Neither am I, of course. My American passport, formerly quite useful, hardly allows me to go anywhere these days--even across the border 20 miles north of my home. But when I fret and whine about this, I do so from a comfortable chair in a modest (but paid for) home, with a variety of social supports and the distinct privilege of having been born white, middle class, and Western.

And when the current mess is resolved--maybe a couple of months, maybe a few years--I expect to resume expressing my privilege by going more or less wherever I want. Maybe we'll meet up some day, since you'll probably be doing the same...which is another way of saying we're not so trapped after all.

Mark

I do enjoy my central heated cage. But it's all very fragile. And not at all under my control.

I find that all very unsettling. I literally can not just get up and go somewhere else. I am beginning to fear we will never re-gain the freedoms we all once enjoyed.

Life is short. Years are a long time to waste.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Yes ........... very strange times for all of us.......... i really miss not being able to just get on my bike and go off for a couple of days. and plan another trip to morocco.
But i fear this covid will be with us all for along time, so what is the answer ?

Illegal movement ?

Start a revolution ?

Or do what everyone else is doing. Watch a lot of Netflix, drink a lot of alcohol and shrink into social hibernation.

It's so sad what is happening. Maybe all this will massively change perspective or what travel is now. A big step backwards perhaps.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

We have had those restrictions on us all last year & still current today, its how we managed to keep the covid numbers relatively low here in straya, i don`t feel trapped at all but that`s only because its a massive country & border restrictions permitting we can go where we like.

However if i was still living in the UK i try to imagine how i would feel right now? probably i would feel claustrophobic, my social life in the UK was the pub.

Mezo.

It's interesting how the mental health charities are talking about the stress and trauma of lockdown, yet have never made this point about prisons.

I vaguely remember a terrorism hostage (?) talking about his extended incarceration and commenting that he wasn't too affected as he had been a border at an English public school in his youth so was used to not having liberty.

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

We have a motorhome stored in Germany and another stored in New Mexico so we sometimes tend to be more than a little annoyed that our very wise government won't allow us to risk our life by going and using them.

But then, sitting comfortably in our other motorhome on the banks of a river in nice cool Tasmania (having first run the gauntlet of state border closures by crossing from NSW to SA, to Victoria) , I do have to admit that there are worse places to be trapped.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8uX6vhGKkCZ621Zg8

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

Tony, there is a slight possibility that I could think of a productive use for your New Mexico motorhome. I mean, in hopes of lowering your obviously high levels of stress while you're trapped in Australia. As a special favor, me to you.

You're welcome. Don't even mention it.

Mark

Isn't the whole idea of incarceration. That it is a punishment. It's meant to be horrible. That's the deterrent right ?

You are correct though. The mental health toll is going to be unsurmountable.


I won't deny that I'm really struggling with a winter lockdown in the U.K. Summer was bad enough but at least I could enjoy the outdoors and I was kept busy fixing bikes.

I don't have any work in the winter so that is my only time to travel and escape the British winter which I utterly detest. I can only bare the U.K in general because I immerse myself in work throughout the summer.

I feel utterly trapped. Poor. Useless and BORED UTTERLY SHIRTLESS. I don't even know what day it is anymore.

And I do believe most of my anxiety is the trauma of it all. It's new to me. I've had a life of freedom and privilege which has been ripped away from me so suddenly. And I've done nothing to deserve it.

But most of all I feel TRAPPED. That helpless feeling that it's all totally out of my hands. There is nothing I can do to escape it.

It's 9am. Too early to start drinking ?

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Hi Ted ! at 9 in the morning you are allowed to drink ............... tea + coffee............. but no booze till 9.30 !

Were all in the same boat ............ some sort of ark !

A friend of myne went for a motorbike ride last week with another person and at a petrol station was a police car............ nothing happend !

Ted it's not good . But I agree with the other posters , being a retired middle class guy with no mortgage on furlough , there are alot of people worse off then me / us .They include those that have died , have or are about to lose there jobs.....the list goes on . When I was a policeman I was very blase about death , not immune to it but unfortunately used to it . Things are different now , doesnt mater what your status in life is , you could catch this and be deep in the shxt .
So while you are feeling trapped and low.....remember that life does move on and generally there is light at the end of the tunnel........chin up and no booze till after 1200

They shut our town centre police station down a couple of years ago and moved them to a small office on the industrial estate. Can't remember the last time I saw either a cop car or a cop in person in the town. Whatever they're doing they're most certainly not walking the beat and checking your mask.

The old police station was redeveloped into a retirement housing 'tower block' - guess where all the covid cases are.

I do have a lot of sympathy for Ted's state of mind. Getting out of the British winter every year has been right up there on my list of lifetime ambitions and, like the other top ranking items, something I've failed miserably at. But it's one thing being stuck here through the ties that bind or lack of money or some other self inflicted reason but quite another finding yourself having to live in a dark and dismal plague pit because the government has locked the exits. Having said that it doesn't look like the usual bolt holes are any better - and in some cases considerably worse. 6pm curfew in France anyone? Plus there is a bit of media induced guilt factor about social responsibility etc. We're all supposed to lash ourselves to the masts and wait the storm out while the 'key workers' scuttle around trying to stop the ship hitting the rocks. No wonder everyone is turning to drink

What's even worse is that as the restrictions have continued and tightened I've noticed my desire to go anywhere has lessened. Even if Boris said tomorrow it's all back to normal I'd have to work up to travel again. It's a bit like when animal activists break into a zoo and open all the cages, a lot of the animals stay put as the bars are all they know.

I predict scammers will be moving into online 'counselling services' next to cash in on the upsurge in post covid PTSD. So, if you'd like to discuss your 'feelings' Ted all I need is your bank details to kick things off. A few sessions and we'll soon have you back on an even keel. Don't worry, I am a well qualified professional; you'll be in good hands.

We're always trapped. On the smallest level, we're trapped inside our bodies. We don't get to have any experiences outside them, and they restrict our freedom. On the highest level, we're trapped on this planet. Very few of us get to have any experiences that do not take place on or very close to the surface of it.

Between those extremes, all of us experience temporary as well as lasting restrictions that limit our freedom. These can be very invasive, such as incarceration, or less so. They can be (at least in the outset) voluntary, such as a marriage or employment contract. They can be temporary, such as financial problems. They can be moral, legal, physical, and restrict your behaviour, speech, movement and choice.

The feeling of being trapped happens when you focus on not being able to go beyond these restrictions. Accepting restrictions as part of the world you live in is the key to not feel trapped. For most people, even if you were to be paraplegic and in isolation in prison, there are freedoms to be enjoyed. Being able to live out those freedoms can be as satisfying as having the greatest adventure, as long as your freedom measuring stick is adapted to the situation.

Life has value because it is limited. Rather than dreaming of immortality, we should focus on each moment, treasuring it as the most valuable thing in the world. Having our movement restricted, should make us treasure the world close to us more. Your local creek may not be the Nile, but there are things there to experience.

The only thing that is really hard to replace is meeting new people, getting a glimpse into the unknown universes that their minds hide.

So, feeling trapped is mostly a choice of perspective. It is a natural response, but can be overcome by accepting the world as it is. Or you can choose to fight the restrictions, which while it may be correct in some cases (probably not this) is unlikely to give you happiness.