What are you doing to stay sane (and healthy)
Hello Friends,
Just wondering what everyone is doing to keep themselves sane during these trying times.
I'm not a huge drinker but I have indulged quite a bit over the last few days. Irish coffees have become my go to.
Also been playing a lot of video games, playing board games with the kids, and thinking about maybe writing something for the first time in 10 years.
What are you cats doing?
Can't beat a sore dick! ?
Running a bit, even though I hate running. Biking when it isn't stupid cold out. Working from home. Building many LEGO things with my daughters. Probably too much TV.
I'm really struggling. I've been slipping into a rough episode of depression over the last few months, and this whole situation has ratcheted up the anxiety. I'm very thankful that my job allows me to work from home, and feel fortunate to be employed given how many millions of people are out of work...but I find it impossible to concentrate. And my company isn't long for this world if the shutdown goes on for too long.
I have a list of habits I want to get into: long lunch walks, more reading, less social media, start meditating. But I'm stuck at the wishful thinking stage and can't kick my tired, depressed, lazy butt into gear.
That's where I was last week. Hang in there. If you are a person of faith, pray; it will help. If not, meditate; same.
Today was the first really bad day for me. Hopefully they'll only be sporadic. Go Blue!
Keep your head up Friend
We MGoLoveYou
March 24th, 2020 at 10:07 PM ^
Hang in there Tai first step forward starts the process. Pick one, random most enjoyable, appealing, have someone here pick for you...once that ball starts rolling it's easier to distract. My daughter is home from college and felt very tense and stressed with all that seems to be dumped on her...took her for a run against her will at first...started joking along the way, deep breath, and before you know it her assignments were done, room cleaned and college stuff organized...
I'll pick for you, start with 15 minutes of meditation...try to quiet the mind and give positive thought a fighting chance. Take care be good to YOU.
March 24th, 2020 at 11:23 PM ^
Hang in there. I have battled depression for a long time. Had some dark times and almost didn’t make it out. Running has helped a lot for me. Doesn’t help with the uncertainty surrounding the economy and jobs right now. I am still working part time and able to use my PTO. Should be able to make it through the end of April. After that I don’t know. Try and get out and be active.
March 24th, 2020 at 11:53 PM ^
For both of you, one of the toughest things is thinking the worst in an uncontrolled situation. I've shared with some of my students who struggle with anxiety etc control the things you can, ignore the things you can't. What seems like an impossible end leads to an impossible to ignore opportunity. You will bounce back perhaps better and happier than you were.
I have been a "remote employee" for at least half of my career, so at least that consequence of Michigan's shutdown doesn't really impact me.
I've been doing a lot of walking (4.5 - 6.0 miles per day depending on how much time I have), but have missed doing cardio at the gym. Yesterday, since it was stupid cold, I started doing some yoga that my daughter recommended on YouTube. Yoga is really, really hard. I thought I was in pretty good shape, but ... Holy shit!
No drinking. If I get COVID-19, I'm in a high-risk group, and I'm going to need all the strength I can to fight it off.
And lots of prayer which has been key to managing my anxiety level. It's funny that when I do, I think often of StephenJRKing and XtraMelanin. Even in my prayer life, I'm connected to MGoBlog.
I'm hoping to rediscover my faith. Can you recommend any good online Catholic masses?
I'll even take the ones in Polish if you got 'em.
Lol Putin you’ve been taking everything Polish you whole life.
Njia, i will take it as a compliment that you would think of me along with SRJK, particularly in that context.
i would never make fun of yoga. i haven't done it, but if that's all that was around, i'd try it and i'd expect to be gassed at the end of a session.
and when you are praying, it helps to know that especially in times like this He is in control.
I've been running everyday and make it a point to stop working for 5-10 minutes every hour and go outside on the porch for fresh air and sunshine. I'm still going crazy being inside so much, but these two things have helped.
Go for a walk every day. It really takes away a lot of stress.
1) Cooking
2) Prepping the baby’s room
3) PS4 - playing some new stuff, replaying some of the old stuff. Last of Us is up next tog eat ready for Last of Us 2, and then probably playing RDR2 again when I’m on paternity leave. Just finished Fallen Order this past weekend.
4) Starting new shows. Just finished Hunters, started Godless last night, will be binging Ozarks S3 with the Mrs. this weekend. Also watching Better Call Saul. If anyone is interested in a good Netflix science-y show, we watched 100 Humans this Saturday and loved it.
5) Spring Cleaning and finishing up the tail end of our bathroom remodel by early next week
6) Early morning walks before work.
Several walks and bike rides a day ---- I live on the Colorado Front Range, we have had a number of sunny and 60 degree days lately. It is gorgeous.
Just keeping my distance from others.
I've had voice-to-voice conversations with a number of folks - folks I haven't reached out to in a long time. That's good for the soul too.
I'm in the Springs and you're right, it is absolutely gorgeous out today (and looks like it will continue through Friday). Seeing way too many large groups at parks when I go for runs, though.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:19 PM ^
I talked to my friend from the Springs today - she was saying the mayor was pretty vocal "go out and enjoy the outdoors if you can!"
Then the mayor had to go back a couple hours later and say "but also social distance!"
Colorado is, of course, doing the "shelter-in-place" on a county-by-county basis. None for me in Broomfield. None for you in El Paso County. But Denver is doing "shelter-in-place". As part of that, the Denver mayor announced the marijuana shops would be closed because they were "non-essential." It took him 2 hours before he realized he'd have to reverse that!
March 25th, 2020 at 12:32 PM ^
Someone sent me a meme about "prohibition lasting 1 hour" in Denver. Shelter in place isn't much different from what we've been doing as a family for the last two weeks - take the kids (12 and 9) for runs everyday and then work indoors the rest of the day. I'm keeping an eye on the mountains to see a break in the cases up there and then thinking of self isolating through April up there away from the craziness down here.
I got trashed a few nights ago and called a bunch of people I hadn’t talked to in a few years. Apparently we had some great conversations.
Im supposed to be in Boulder and Winter Park this week,instead of stuck in my apartment...
To get my sports kick, I've been watching some of my favorite games throughout the years (YouTube has quite the catalog). I just finished the 2013 NCAA tourney run, including the Louisville game (the block was clean!). I just started the 2004 NBA Finals and might mix in some football over the weekend.
Lots of weed and lots of porn.
Switch to edibles Batman. You need healthy lungs right now. Stress and boredom make me want to smoke. I’ve been fighting the urge hard.
Username checks out
March 24th, 2020 at 10:06 PM ^
The weed smoking is not good for the lungs. Though there is a study if men have sex multiple times per day it can build their white blood cell counts. Wow, never knew that before. May be that is why the old guys are dying.
Since im stuck away from the gym, im working on advanced bodyweight strength routine (building up to one arm pushups, one legged squats, handstand push ups, etc.).
Also been playing a lot blitz and bullet chess online.
Working from home for now. Who knows when that will dry up. Watching Disney plus with the kids. Gaining weight. Trying to connect with my wife who is a total basket case after her salon was shut down.
Obvious times of uncertainty in the coming weeks. However, there is no point in worrying about things that are out of my control. Will just have to take it a day at a time.
I suggest a bottle of wine, putting the kids to bed, and figuring out how to paint nails.
I still am just baffled as to why the same panic doesn’t occur with the flu??
Flu season is hitting its stride right now in the US. So far, the CDC has estimated (based on weekly influenza surveillance data) that at least 12,000 people have died from influenza between Oct. 1, 2019 through Feb. 1, 2020, and the number of deaths may be as high as 30,000.
The CDC also estimates that up to 31 million Americans have caught the flu this season, with 210,000 to 370,000 flu sufferers hospitalized because of the virus.
Last I saw from the CDC it was 23,000 deaths in the US from the flu and the final number could be as high as 50,000.
We have no real idea what the mortality rate is. The cruise ship is too small of a sample size, though it is the best case study for transmission etc. We literally have zero idea how many people are actually have the virus. Could currently be millions of Americans. We just don’t know.
Gosh if only there were some kind of resources available that could very clearly explain why comparing this to the flu is stupid. And that information could be instantly accessed by just typing in a few characters on some kind of electronic device.
Oh well, maybe someday that technology will exist.
SA Utah probably one of the crew that thinks America should just shut down for 12 months to possibly end COVID but completely destroy America in the process. 50 to 75 percent unemployment is always healthy for a nation!
No, but I understand why this isn’t “just the flu” and is being treated with these unprecedented steps.
I also understand how, if I have any questions, to access the internet where there is an amount of expert information that can explain it, instead of me just sitting around saying “Hurr durr, I don’t understand why everyone is so worried. It’s just the flu after all.”
March 24th, 2020 at 10:00 PM ^
Interesting, isn't it, that a few people (user Western_ most of all) taint every COVID-19 thread with some degree of denial?
March 24th, 2020 at 10:00 PM ^
Every country in the world is freaking out about this. And they've all shut down (or are in the process of shutting down) their economies.
CDC estimates that, from October 1, 2019, through March 14, 2020, there have been:
38,000,000 – 54,000,000 flu illnesses
23,000 – 59,000 flu deaths
If we take the low numbers of 38 million illnesses and 23K flu deaths, the mortality rate is .06%; the higher figures yield a mortality rate of .1%
As of right now, the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 is 53,655, with 698 deaths. That's a mortality rate of 1.3%—over ten x the rate of the flu.
If the mortality rate for flu was that high, we'd have 494,000 deaths from 38M cases instead of 23K.
Math is faulty as fuck though. You’re taking dead people and dividing by known cases.
Youre calculating the absolute worst case scenario to date in terms of mortality rates. Worst case scenario it’s 13x worse than the flu, best case scenario, it’s less deadly than the flu. We simply have no idea what is true and how it compares. Like .... I can’t stress this enough ..... we 100%, absolutely, factually, literally .... have no clue.
There are likely anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of Americans who have the virus and are asymptomatic, or who have had the virus and had very minor symptoms and therefore never got tested.
We literally have zero fucking clue what the denominator is, so there is no point in trying to calculate a mortality rate, and therefore no point trying to compare it to the flu. Hell, the flu statistics are merely estimates ....
Exactly!!! And we can’t let this hard shutdown just drag on and on!
This is staggering. From Sunday’s Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency press release:
“The latest data shows 108,710 unemployment claims were filed between last Monday and Friday, compared to a normal average of around 5,000 claims – an approximate 2,100% increase.”
Just sad and the politicians can’t seem to get it together to pass the badly needed stimulus to help these people that are suffering financially. Just disgusting!
I think the shutdown is a good idea. I know it’s hard but I think it’s necessary. Since we don’t know much about the virus, we should try to avoid a worst case scenario. But also can’t cut off our nose to spite our face. I’ve been concerned that the hit to the economy ... people losing jobs/insurance/access/medicines from panic hoarding or loss of job/insurance .... these could have greater hit than the virus will. No one knows what the right answer is right now
Oh yeah, I’m all for a few week shutdown too, but not one that goes on for months on end.
Jesus, it hasn’t even been a full week yet and already you’re screaming “This can’t go on forever!!!!”
Unfortunately, pandemics don’t particularly care about how quickly humans want things to get back to normal. It astounds me how people seem to believe that we can dictate terms to the virus here
“Well, a few weeks is fine, but you’d better be done by then, because we’re not going allow you any more time than that.”
IT’S A PANDEMIC FFS. IT CALLS THE SHOTS HERE! If it decides it wants to infect and kill large numbers of people for the next two years, there isn’t a whole hell of a lot we can do to talk it out of it.
Well I guess you can just keep hiding in your hole for 12 months and hope that your utilities and banks don’t care about payments not being made to them. I’m sure the millions of unemployed Americans that will be alright facing homelessness and bankruptcy won’t mind waiting out a virus, that 99% of Americans recover from, for months on end hoping they still have a home to hide out in.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:05 PM ^
I'm in the mood to play, so ...
... exactly when should the shelter-in-place directives end, and why? Please show your work.
- - -
Also, has anyone downplayed the effect of all this on the economy?
March 24th, 2020 at 10:21 PM ^
3 weeks would be fine. Go back to work but maintain social distancing and proper hygiene policies. If someone tests positive, test coworkers in close proximity and quarantine if need be.
Should the shelter in place just go on indefinitely with no real end in sight? Let the American economy suffer a slow death, increase poverty?
March 24th, 2020 at 10:36 PM ^
“3 weeks would be fine.”
Oh well there we go. Case closed. Don’t know where I ever got the idea you were just pulling numbers out of your ass based on what Trump is telling you.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:26 PM ^
A month ago it was a hoax.
A few weeks ago it was well contained.
Last week it was people are overreacting
Now it’s “Three weeks should be fine. We are just needlessly hiding a disease that 99% recover from.”
You’ve moved the goalposts at every turn in attempts to downplay this, and, every time you’ve done so, the virus has proved you spectacularly wrong as it says “fuck you” and smashes right through the line and the sand you said it can’t cross
You’re useless.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:28 PM ^
See you next year when you emerge from your fallout shelter! Maybe you’ll be a little less abrasive. Your posting history is a portrait of misery and despair, not one positive post.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:37 PM ^
I’ll be sure to lay flowers on your gravestone.