I feel like I keep repeating myself with how hard it is to be isolated. I’m 5 months into this and I’ve probably seen friends/family only 5 times since then. Even though I’m not the most social person, I need more social time than just once a month. I am trying to use this time to understand how my personal mix of being an introvert and extrovert works. But I’m done with that experiment in my mind and I’m ready to apply what I’ve learned.
I want to go out and do more, but I’m so terrified of getting sick. I’m stuck in this weird space of not wanting to put my life on hold but also not wanting to risk my life. I have had friends get sick and are still dealing with health issues months later. I have friends who have lost friends, family, and significant others. This is a serious virus and it should not be taken lightly. And for a while, I have been doing everything I can to never leave my house. I’m still rarely leaving my house, but I’m trying to get out at least once a week just to feel like I’m not trapped inside 24/7.
I’ve done a lot of things over the past 5 months to try to make this time as low-stress as possible. And I know that some of those things have worked because I believe I would be doing much worse now if I had done nothing. And I try to continue doing those things like having a regular schedule and trying to do some tasks every day. But I also know it’s not enough.
I’ve seen several articles about low-grade depression, especially after Michelle Obama said that she has been dealing with it during the pandemic. The more I read about it, the more I think so many of us are experiencing that right now. Low energy or motivation, sleep issues, fatigue, trouble focusing or concentrating, lack of enjoyment with things that used to bring joy. Those all sound very familiar to me. And along with low-grade depression, I know that can bring extra stress. You can be stressed about the symptoms. You can be stressed about how to make yourself feel better. You can be stressed about if you need to get more help or not.
I’m not letting myself stress about if I need more help or not. That is the one I have a clear idea of. But I have been stressed about my symptoms and how to make myself better. And it’s an evil cycle because I want to feel better and then it’s frustrating when something doesn’t work and I have to keep trying to figure out new ideas. But that’s the cycle I’m stuck in for now. I need to find ways to be happy and bring joy into my life right now. When something doesn’t work, it brings me down. Fortunately, it’s not always testing things that don’t work and I have found a few things that have helped. But I know now that I will keep having to find new things the longer this goes on. What brought me joy in March and April might not be doing it for me anymore. This is a continuous thing I have to work on and that’s exactly what I have been doing. Hopefully, soon I’ll figure out the next thing so I can bring my stress down a bit again.
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Trusting It Will Be Ok (or Dealing With Stress In A Healthy Way)
Showing My Stress (or Hoping Things Will Get Better Now)
Adding A Little Control In My Life (or Finding Little Ways To Be Helpful)
Continuing To Support My Friend’s Place (or Learning New Ways To Help Others)
Finding My Strength (or Continuing To Find New Ways To Push Myself)
Continuing To Find Ways To Be Creative (or Podcasts and Online Shows)
