The coronavirus pandemic has required yet more adjustments in the way I do things, but in some ways, what the whole world has been asked to do — stay at home and, in some cases, self-quarantine — is what I do every day. Of course, under normal circumstances, I have no need to “quarantine” myself. And I am not a recluse by nature. But these days, isolating myself seems to be the safest option to lower my own risk of becoming seriously ill and the risk of those around me.
How You Are Now Living My Life
I am as concerned as anyone about the world at large. But the fact that everybody is living a lot like me right now almost feels comforting. In my life, the days blend together, small things seem big, and one has to make one’s environment interesting, since it is now one’s entire world. And now that’s true for much of the world, not just me. Many people are also having to work from home instead of commuting to their office, where colleagues and others make up the work world. Home and work can no longer be separated, since everything is under the same roof. That is my life every day. I have my breakfast at our kitchen table, about 20 feet from where my home office is, nestled into a corner wall in the dining room. It took years for me to find the most harmonious place for my desk, downstairs in my house, where it is quiet yet at the crossroads of activity. Why am I telling you all this? At this current moment, in the middle of societal chaos, my way, that is, my work life and just life in general, feels validated. As a person with a disability who requires rest breaks and not a lot of social stimulation, it is important that I take the best care of myself that I can, and that happens best at home. So finally I feel as though I am like everyone else at home, or rather, everyone else at home is like me! And there are other commonalities as well, though none that I had accepted until the world pandemic.
Stress, and Making Sense of It
Just because staying home a lot feels familiar doesn’t mean that the COVID-19 pandemic and the way it’s forcing most people to stay home is entirely comfortable and stress-free for me. The stress I am feeling The horrible realization that I could get sick does make me anxious. I live with an underlying autoimmune condition, multiple sclerosis, which makes me immunocompromised. The coronavirus can affect anyone, but those with underlying medical conditions are most at risk of serious complications. In addition to being anxious about my own health, if anything happened to my partner, who is healthy, or my mother, who is not, I would be shattered. But there has to be a way to shift my thoughts away from the fear and panic into something more useful. How I’m making sense of the stress I realize that some aspects of the stress I’m feeling are similar to what others are feeling right now. But I know myself, and something about this time feels different even to me. For one thing, the way we communicate with others has changed. And I wonder whether virtual communications with friends, doctors, and my own family, may become the way things stay in the near future. How others’ stress makes mine worse This entire time, I have been touting the fact that I am used to this. What I am not used to is mass sheltering and everything around me, such as businesses, being closed. When my “normal” movements are disrupted, I am more challenged than normal; that is a new feeling for me. I feel doubly isolated. Share Your Tips for Dealing With Stress on Tippi
I’m Heartened to See People’s Resourcefulness
Out of this entire surreal situation, it seems like people are showing what they are made of. While there’s nothing positive about the long unemployment lines or food pantry lines, people are showing they’re resourceful and are figuring out how to do things differently. For example, to avoid the grocery store, we ordered from our local farm store online. That certainly helps my stress level, because figuring out how to do normal things differently has always been my survival mantra with MS. I was so impressed to hear of schoolteachers learning to teach differently, via virtual special education classes or virtual laboratories. As teachers, they are learning themselves how to accommodate their students. As a person with a disability, I may be in the vulnerable category during this pandemic, but I am also feeling strangely comfortable. The pandemic has made the playing field more level. In other words, I may be disabled, but my disability feels more equal to everyone else’s ability during this changed world order.
