Its come as a surprise to me as I'm usually good at dealing with stress and problems, but this situation has hit me hard. I'm completely upset and finding it hard to relax. I wake up in the night to go to the loo and then can't get back to sleep, so for three days now I've survived on approx. 4 hours sleep a night.
I think its because I can normally analyse a problem and work out what to do, however difficult. Then I adjust and cope. Right now that is not happening. I simply feel that I'm 'out of control' (which of course is true). Cooking is usually my number one de-stress activity. But to be honest, I don't really feel like cooking.
Any tips for relaxation would be appreciated!
Sorry to hear that, I know it's a big problem, because all the coronavirus sites I've seen include a "how to deal" section. I'll peruse a couple of those and see if anything sounds helpful and pass it on.
Me, as funny as it sounds, I deal with it by largely ignoring it and staying in a routine. That doesn't me I'm running around shaking hands and kissing people; I'm taking the precautions the govt and health officials are outlining, but I'm just not thinking about it.
Our state is updating the state website once daily. I think that's a great idea, because it keeps me from obsessing over the latest updates. I know to check the website every day at 3PM, note the numbers, read the daily update, and then move on mentally, because if I check it again at 5PM, then 9PM, then 7AM the next morning, it's going to be the same. I check national headlines once a day as well, at around 11AM.
One thing I'm very good at is compartmentalizing. I can put all the virus stuff in a little virus box in my brain, and then use the rest of my brain for other things. I can honestly say that for large parts of the day, I more or less forget there's a pandemic going on. When I'm cooking, I'm not thinking virus. When I'm watching TV, I'm not thinking virus.
I think sticking to a routine as much as possible is helpful. I'm working from home full time now, but I work from home so much already, it doesn't feel much different. I go into town less, but I still go in when I need to. I feed the dog, do the laundry on Thursdays (arghhh!), just as usual.
Relaxing...I love to watch TV, so I could do that 15 hours a day and be happy, but I don't. I play music (meaning on an instrument) every single day. That helps a lot. I was cleaning up some stuff and found a mandolin my mom bought when I was a teen - I'm cleaning that up and am really looking forward to fooling around on it in the next few days. When I found that, I sure wasn't thinking about the virus.
The most stress in my life has centered around two unexpected job losses, my wife's stroke, and most recently, my wife's heart attack. In each case, I just put everything in its own little box and dealt with things individually.
With the job losses, I designated a couple of hours each day to job hunting, and I gave my wife 30 minutes when she got home to ask any questions about prospects - outside of those times, no thinking/talking about being unemployed.
With her stroke, she was in the hospital for nearly a month, 45 minutes away, and I had to get up, feed the dog, rush over, come back at lunch to let the dog out and deal with any usual issues (mail, etc), then rush back, then rush back home to feed the dog in the evening, then rush back for the last couple of hours with her before going back home for the night.
When I wasn't at the hospital, as weird as it may sound, I wasn't thinking about my wife. I was feeding the dog, paying the bills, mowing the grass, vacuuming the floors. When I was at the hospital, I was focused on the wife. Didn't care about the laundry or dishes then.
Compartmentalize!
