Covid-19, Seclusion and Peace in the Chaos
Monday will mark 3 weeks that my state has been under shelter in place orders due to COVID-19. I am not a super social person to begin with. Nearly physically crippling social anxiety mixed with mild autism will do that to a person. Even so, the forced seclusion brought on by the corona virus has been a challenge. Especially mentally. All of my usual outlets are closed. Can't work, go to the gym, or go down to Southern Indiana and walk along the Ohio River. I could do alright without one or two of these things, I think. but having no outlet has been a real struggle.
Early on I, like many people I know, experienced serious stress and panic. The stores were out of basic supplies {shipments of toilet paper are still gone in seconds in my area}, the internet and air waves full of conspiracy theorists and end-times zealots. In nearly an instant everything about life changed. One by one most of my friends found themselves working from home, or without a job entirely, homeschooling despite no desire or ability to do so, and coping with all sorts of restrictions on our day to day functions. To top it off, nursing homes and other care facilities here closed to the public ahead of the official order, so many of us are also coping with the inability to give beloved friends and family the human contact and frequent visits that are so important to their mental health. Of course, even those of us who aren't completely locked down are starting to have coping problems. Around the world and especially in the United States, reports of domestic violence, child abuse, and suicides are climbing at an alarming rate. The longer this goes on, those numbers will only go up. The economy will recover, as it always does, but in the meantime hundreds if not thousands of people will lose everything. Already major businesses including most recently AMC theaters and Nordstroms, have been in the press as at-risk of not surviving. Many small businesses everywhere are at even greater risk of the same. None of this is good for the economy, and mores so not for the mental health of the people involved. History tells us what happens when extreme shakeups in our financial and personal lives happen. The sheer volume of suicides following the 1929 market crash and during the subsequent Great Depression equals the population of entire countries. And that was in a time when people lived close to their extended families and had ingrained support systems. Think for a minute of how much worse it could get now, in our hyper-mobile society where people live entire continents away from their families and many have little to no local support system or their support is primarily people in their same age/socio-economic position and therefor of little help during these stressful times.
So how am I finding peace in this chaos? First and foremost, in constant communication with God. Not really formal prayers. More like frequent thankfulness and requests for peace and grace. I was and will get back to working on a more focused, thoughtful prayer life. But for now what I'm doing is giving me peace and making me feel more connected. So I will be thankful for that and worry about the rest later. I am also reaching out to people I know in at-risk groups to make sure their mental health is as good as possible and offering help when asked, a listening ear, book recommendations, links or phone numbers to appropriate resources, whatever I can do to be a lifeline. Helping others gets me out of my head and gives me something tangible to focus on. There's not much time for a fear and pity party when you're busy serving others. Secondly, I am trying to be more aware of and thankful for the blessings in my life. It sounds and is to an extent rather cliche but thinking about the good does drive out the thoughts about the bad. Or at least make it seem far less bad than it could be. Sure, we are using off-brands on some things I swore I'd never buy off-brands of, and we're mostly confined to our little quarter-acre piece of the world. And that, let's be real here, sucks. But we have the money to buy the off brands, and our quarter acre is ours and we are able to continue to afford it. I do worry about my husband being in contact with high risk exposure every day, but at the same time, I trust. It's a lesson I learned years ago when he was in the Army. Let the worry come, face it, and come to terms with the fact I'm powerless to do anything about it. It doesn't always work 100%. I still have occasional freak-outs. But I don't fight them, and for me that is what makes the difference. I face the feelings head on and move past them.
What works for me obviously won't work for everyone. So I urge you all to find something that brings you peace. Make it part of your daily routines. Watch the sunrise or sunset, listen to calming music or nature sounds. Pray. Meditate. Read your Bible or other spiritual book. Google laughing puppy videos. Whatever it takes, take care of yourself and your people.
Early on I, like many people I know, experienced serious stress and panic. The stores were out of basic supplies {shipments of toilet paper are still gone in seconds in my area}, the internet and air waves full of conspiracy theorists and end-times zealots. In nearly an instant everything about life changed. One by one most of my friends found themselves working from home, or without a job entirely, homeschooling despite no desire or ability to do so, and coping with all sorts of restrictions on our day to day functions. To top it off, nursing homes and other care facilities here closed to the public ahead of the official order, so many of us are also coping with the inability to give beloved friends and family the human contact and frequent visits that are so important to their mental health. Of course, even those of us who aren't completely locked down are starting to have coping problems. Around the world and especially in the United States, reports of domestic violence, child abuse, and suicides are climbing at an alarming rate. The longer this goes on, those numbers will only go up. The economy will recover, as it always does, but in the meantime hundreds if not thousands of people will lose everything. Already major businesses including most recently AMC theaters and Nordstroms, have been in the press as at-risk of not surviving. Many small businesses everywhere are at even greater risk of the same. None of this is good for the economy, and mores so not for the mental health of the people involved. History tells us what happens when extreme shakeups in our financial and personal lives happen. The sheer volume of suicides following the 1929 market crash and during the subsequent Great Depression equals the population of entire countries. And that was in a time when people lived close to their extended families and had ingrained support systems. Think for a minute of how much worse it could get now, in our hyper-mobile society where people live entire continents away from their families and many have little to no local support system or their support is primarily people in their same age/socio-economic position and therefor of little help during these stressful times.
So how am I finding peace in this chaos? First and foremost, in constant communication with God. Not really formal prayers. More like frequent thankfulness and requests for peace and grace. I was and will get back to working on a more focused, thoughtful prayer life. But for now what I'm doing is giving me peace and making me feel more connected. So I will be thankful for that and worry about the rest later. I am also reaching out to people I know in at-risk groups to make sure their mental health is as good as possible and offering help when asked, a listening ear, book recommendations, links or phone numbers to appropriate resources, whatever I can do to be a lifeline. Helping others gets me out of my head and gives me something tangible to focus on. There's not much time for a fear and pity party when you're busy serving others. Secondly, I am trying to be more aware of and thankful for the blessings in my life. It sounds and is to an extent rather cliche but thinking about the good does drive out the thoughts about the bad. Or at least make it seem far less bad than it could be. Sure, we are using off-brands on some things I swore I'd never buy off-brands of, and we're mostly confined to our little quarter-acre piece of the world. And that, let's be real here, sucks. But we have the money to buy the off brands, and our quarter acre is ours and we are able to continue to afford it. I do worry about my husband being in contact with high risk exposure every day, but at the same time, I trust. It's a lesson I learned years ago when he was in the Army. Let the worry come, face it, and come to terms with the fact I'm powerless to do anything about it. It doesn't always work 100%. I still have occasional freak-outs. But I don't fight them, and for me that is what makes the difference. I face the feelings head on and move past them.
What works for me obviously won't work for everyone. So I urge you all to find something that brings you peace. Make it part of your daily routines. Watch the sunrise or sunset, listen to calming music or nature sounds. Pray. Meditate. Read your Bible or other spiritual book. Google laughing puppy videos. Whatever it takes, take care of yourself and your people.
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