I adore my fella, but may kill him if this keeps up much longer. There is such a thing as way too much togetherness
And I know he feels the same about me. Patience, love and understanding
I am seeing most people are arising to the occasion and coping. This is typical for people when a crises first breaks.
I am concerned though what happens as this goes on, especially in the area of domestic violence, as children are home.
Even in the best of times, every parent can confirm your children can get on your nerves. When we’d get obnoxious as youth, my mother had no qualms of saying “Go outside and play.” Sometimes we need distance.
My concern is since this option is now limited, we’ll see a rise in domestic violence. I hope am wrong.
My commute to work, sans traffic, is surprisingly depressing to me.
Which is beyond weird. That seems like it should be a silver lining but it’s not.
3 out of 4 of us in my household are doing ok. Freaked out at times as things get more and more real, but we’re lucky that, so far, we’re all healthy and my wife and I still have our jobs and are able to work from home.
My wife has been great through this, supportive and affectionate, and it’s brought us closer together, unlike the stories of the quarantine causing a big uptick in divorce rates out of China and other countries that have already been through a long quarantine. We use a lot of black humor with each other to cope.
My 14 year old son has been taking things in stride, though lately he’s been getting a bit grouchy and stir-crazy.
My 17 year old son, on the other hand…he’s had a long history of emotional issues. He was diagnosed with OCD when he was 11 or 12. In the past few years he’s made great strides in getting control of his issues and has been doing great in school. In general he is fine unless his routine is broken. And the pandemic has disturbed that routine just a wee little bit. His anxiety manifests itself in hostility and occasional meltdowns. For example, the other day we ran out of La Croix sparkly waters, and he demanded we go to the store for more. We said no, because we were well stocked up with food otherwise. He had a temper tantrum worthy of a 2 year old. And a toddler tantrum in a mostly grown teenager is kinda scary.
Pretty much the same here. It sucks, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do if this goes on too much longer.
My sympathies, for what it’s worth.
“Until such time as the world ends we will act as though it intends to spin on.”
-Nick Fury
As a more personal reply, I’m doing well. I’m really happy to have found my current job before all this happened, as it easily affords me the opportunity to work from home, although I’d been putting off doing so until now (I concentrate a LOT better at work than I do at home, where an ornery cat insists on having my undivided attention). Several of us decided this week to finally start working from home, so Monday marks the start of that.
Mentally, I feel okay about it. I’m more frustrated with an impending June trip, where I’m planning to see someone extremely special to me. If we can’t meet up this summer we’ll hopefully try to in the fall, but it’s hard enough without him here as it is. Fortunately, my mood swings have improved since the winter, and it’s been weeks since I lay in bed crying, so that’s a yay 
So far the whole pandemic thing hasn’t really affected me personally a whole lot. Obviously that can and likely will change, and when it does there’s a good chance I’ll feel differently. For now though, apart from never going to the movies or hanging with my friends (I’m admittedly a bit of a homebody), I’m managing to continue on fairly close to normal.
My daughter is a nurse, her fiance is an MD. They are both working hard and feeling stressed out. They have a dog, but just agreed to foster another for a shelter that is currently overwhelmed.
Fostering a dog or cat for a set period of time might be something to consider. She has helped this shelter before, so they actually did a quick phone interview and someone dropped off their dog later that day.
My little brother sent me a link that he urged me to watch if I need mental health help. This is an area he knows a lot about. I never watched it, but if he suggests it then it must be good.
I’m depressed. Not as depressed as if I lost my job, which could happen still.
Hey, now that it’s Friday, I wanted to share that last weekend I did a Covid news-free weekend and it did wonders for my peace of mind. I think I’ll do the same this weekend.
My wife did not participate in the news blackout so I just asked her to not give me running totals of cases and deaths in our state, and that sort of thing. I said if rioting in the streets or a nuclear war breaks out, then let me know, otherwise it can wait until Monday.
I realize it’s not a strategy for everybody, but during the week I’ve been tending to refresh the CNN front page and our local news site obsessively, so the weekend break is very therapeutic for me.
I endorse this strategy. Either a news blackout for the weekend, or if you are not ready for that, at least cut-down on watching it, and stay off social media like facebook. It may also lessen anxiety to stop or pause news feeds from news stations, if you signed-up for those things.
I’m most worried about my 10 year old son, an only child. He’s not in school, obviously. He’s a big extrovert, normally thrives on playing with his many friends. We try to keep him occupied but he has crying fits regularly where he complains of loneliness.
We just started having virtual play dates over Zoom with a few of his closest friends. That helps some.
Relatable. All of it. And I *have *a job and a 5-person family, but that doesn’t particularly help, since the job is a pretty solitary one and I can’t really go full-on on the family socialisation because … I have this job. Which I’m not being very effective at this, past week.
Attempting to fulfil my social contact needs on Facebook, which is kind of like being an alcoholic forced to doss down at the brewery, and reminds me of why I gave Facebook up in the first place (because it’s murder on my goal-setting, effectiveness, and sense of agency)
Lots of people bonding over shared anxiety, and reassuring each other’s anxiety, which is very … disconnecting. I don’t feel any anxiety at all. Partly because I don’t think I’d get a serious case anyway (assuming my recent sickness wasn’t IT) but also because I just can’t get all that invested over the difference between being alive and being dead.
(don’t worry - still being socially responsible. I don’t need to be scared into being socially responsible)
It will get better
We will live through this
It’s a marathon not a sprint
I’m OK so far. My daily routine hasn’t actually changed much - my son’s daycare is still open and I still go to the office to work. That is, until this week, when I have to work from home some days. I haven’t gotten stir-crazy yet, like I did when I was housebound while unemployed, but we have a ways to go here. We really don’t do much socializing anyway, but weekend day trips are missed.
Things are definitely surreal. The procedure when dropping my kid at daycare is is now like were visiting an ICU patient or something. I’m barely allowed inside, they take his temperature and shoo me away with hand sanitizer. Combined with the empty roads and crazy grocery stores, for the first hour or so after I sit down in my cubicle I have a strange sense of what I have to assume is anxiety.
I survived cancer without ever feeling anxious. It’s a weird feeling.
I’m already on medication and I meditate and I’m resigned to dying at some point (hopefully not too soon), so the pandemic isn’t affecting me mentally too much. Also my parents have already passed away so I don’t have anyone in the family to worry about.
I’ve been trying to do that, but not having any luck so I just decided to adopt one instead. I’m picking her up tomorrow. I hope we will be good companions.
I think I’m becoming slightly agoraphobic, which is not something I’ve ever suffered from before. I go outside every few days for groceries and necessities, and when I do, I find myself irrationally nervous, even scared - not just when there are other people nearby, but even when I have the whole block to myself. It’s disconcerting, and a bit embarrassing, and I hope to God it isn’t something I’ll be stuck with after all this is over.
My soulmate! Thanks for the laugh.
My stress levels are going up, though I mostly manage okay. The fact I run a 5k most days, lift weights, and cook like crazy helps. I’m alone but have phone and digital contact with several people.
I’m supposed to move into a rental unit at my boyfriend’s house on April 1. Obviously I’m not doing a full-fledged move right now (we’re on shelter-in-place so I haven’t even tried to line up movers) but I do plan to take the basics over - cats and cat supplies, kitchen stuff, clothing, toiletries, computer. I guess. I waver.
I wish I were more driven and efficient. I could take care of my taxes (complicated, I’m glad for the extension!), do a few assignments that have been hovering over me, and then totally relax and wallow in mystery novels and Netflix. But noooooo, I have to procrastinate like a fiend, so that I still have stuff to brood about. Good grief!
I’m having mood swings, stress, anxiety, making some weird decisions, have trouble sleeping, feel tired all the time, lack motivation to do anything, lashing out at people, and have spend my entire week looking forward to grocery shopping. I don’t think I can do this much longer.