I’m getting very anxious about the new rule coming into play soon about it being compulsory to wear face masks in shops. Not just because of my own anxiety, but because of what I’m seeing online at the moment - so many people are judging others that they don’t know.

Yes some deserve to have that judgement put on them, but if you don’t know their life what gives you the right? My anxiety stems from the fact that I’m HOH, and rely so much on reading lips. I spent so much of my childhood being made to feel less than by friends (unknowingly)

Just because I couldn’t hear them properly. That is one of the reasons I struggle so much with social anxiety and depression, it got to a point where I wouldn’t go anywhere on my own just incase someone couldn’t understand what I was trying to say.

I spent YEARS learning to lip read, and I can only do some words now but it has helped my anxiety SO MUCH. I was able to get a job, I moved to a different county for uni, all things I didn’t think were possible before, because I was made to feel worthless.

The fact that my ability to lip read is being taken away from me and I have to go back to that place scares me so much. To the point where I’m genuinely not sure if I want to leave the house again until this is all over.

So if you see this thread and then see someone else with worries about wearing face masks, please for the love of God, do not judge them. You do not know their struggles.