A relationships counsellor has urged couples struggling with lockdown to spend time apart in order to avoid living in a “pressure cooker”.
Peter Saddington, who works with the charity Relate in the Midlands, said there is now a greater need for people to get support from somebody “objective”.
He said there are a number of reasons why people have been getting in touch with counsellors at the charity – such as financial troubles and no longer having a structure.
Speaking about the higher volume of calls, Mr Saddington told the PA news agency: “There’s more need for people to get support during this time and they are reaching out to try and get support where they can – that’s obviously something Relate is used to.
“There are several different things and the first one is lockdown itself – whole families being in the same position where they are in the house all together without a structure and without people being able to go in or out, and sometimes that can feel like a pressure cooker.
“One of the ways people manage their emotions is creating distance – not wanting to be close together, needing time apart and having to learn to do things differently.”
Mr Saddington continued: “There are pressures with financial worries – ‘have I got a job at the end of this?’, ‘how are we going to manage on the money we’ve got?’… so there’s added tension for financial reasons.
“Think of the ways you can have some time apart – almost schedule times when you’re going to have time just for you as opposed to always being together.
“Make sure you really do make use of exercise time, do go out, do give yourself the chance to let off some steam.
“Try to have some structure – you’ll probably find having structure makes you feel more settled and have an understanding of what to look forward to.”
Mr Saddington did say there were some positives that could come from the coronavirus lockdown.
He said: “There are benefits too though for some people actually having time together, seeing part of the family and enjoying that time is proving very beneficial.”
Urging people to get in contact if they were struggling to cope with the lockdown measures, Mr Saddington said: “It can be really helpful to talk to someone that’s not connected to the family or somebody that’s objective.
“Phoning Relate can be a really useful way of helping to get through this period of time.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here