I've been closed in for 11 months. What effect will this have on me mentally?
I stocked up and shut the door when I first learned about Covid19. In October I was able to go to a store safely. Now I'm wondering if I've gone over the hill.
Depends on a lot of factors, including your mental strength and attitude, and whether or not you have phone or e-mail contact with others. Your approach is a major factor as well.
Remember Thoreau? This article might offer some inspiration as well as balance on living alone, and we generally are living in houses with heat and running water.
I'm not minimizing the difficulty of confinement, but there are different ways to view it. And we can still get out and walk. I've seen more people walking in local neighborhoods than before the pandemic.
Yes I think you have.. time to get back into the "new world" I personally could not be alone locked in for that long, and I am a front line health care worker! Follow the guidelines and take care, but get back into some kind of life. This may go on for along time.. you have to decide to live as it is now, or live in fear forever.
I've been going to the stores safely the entire time the pandemic has been in existence. I've also been in & out of the hospital with my husband who's had open heart surgery, lung surgery, and follow up appointments, a heart catheter procedure and on and ON. He's been admitted twice, I've visited him for two solid weeks of hospital stays, and I've had 2 out patient procedures myself, that he's accompanied me to. On the 18th, I'll have another. Today I accompanied him to yet another follow up appointment in a bustling Kaiser facility downtown Denver. We have several more appointments coming up in December that we intend to keep, and we'll wear our masks to each one. It's all we can do.
Life goes on, with or without a pandemic. If you get yourself a few N95 masks, you should be able to move on with your own life without feeling paralyzing fear to the point of closing yourself in for months & months at a time. That type of life is even worse than catching the virus, in my opinion.
If my husband didn't have his life saving surgeries, he'd be dead now, at 62 years old. If I didn't have my procedures, I probably wouldn't be dead but I would have put off something that would create a WORSE situation a year or two later when things may get back to normal. I'm having a procedure on the 18th that may require treatments afterward if the results are positive. I intend to go for those treatments as necessary, pandemic or no pandemic.
You're putting your question under Alzheimer's & Dementia.............are you suffering from one of these afflictions? If you are a high risk individual with lots of pre existing conditions, you should be very careful about protecting yourself when going out. Naturally, you should avoid large gatherings and stay 6 ft apart from others when out & about.
Otherwise, turn off the news & go about living your life. We only have TODAY, so agree to make the most of it! You deserve to.
You don't provide any information about yourself so we don't know anything about you. Are you high risk (I assume so)? The effect of the pandemic is entirely up to you. No one has been left untouched by this global disaster. Each of us is handling this in our own way. Being cloistered for 11 months would certainly affect me. I think the constant bombardment of the COVID news contributes to the anxiety of all of us. Long term isolation can lead to PTSD, depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse and worse. Do we really need to know how many have died today, that there's a shortage of ventilators, that my county has just turned purple?
Being cooped up for as long as you have isn't good for you. Do you maintain social contacts? If not resume doing that. Do you get out by yourself? If not get out and get some fresh air. Do you keep abreast of the nightly news? Well don't! Limit your exposure to all that crap. Are you exercising at home? If not ,start. Do what you can to keep your spirits up.
All of us have been affected mentally to some degree even the youngest of us. Consider school kids... one day at school, the next day virtual learning, little or no contact with friends and moms quitting work to be home with the kids. 2020, the year that never was!
Wow! That's a long time to go without human interaction, don't you think? I'm sure it has taken some kind of toll on your mental status, like it has for a lot of folks unfortunately. Hopefully you still stay in contact with family and friends via Zoom, Skype or something like that. I just can't imagine not getting out of my house for that long. I would have long ago lost my mind. There's really no reason you can't get out and take a walk in your neighborhood, go grocery or other shopping, visit with friends or family, meet a friend for lunch or supper, or anything else you might want to do. You just have to be smart and use precautions. Sounds like you have taken it to the extreme, and have chosen to live in fear instead. I'm sure you're not alone, but really we were made for human interaction, and relationship. And if by chance you are a caregiver, it is more important than ever to get away from the one you're caring for occasionally, so you can rejuvenate your mind and soul. I was a caregiver for many years for my husband, including Covid until he passed in Sept. and I would not have been able to continue caring for him if I had not first cared for myself, by getting out of the house and spending time with friends, going to church, shopping, or just sitting on my patio with a few friends drinking some wine. Hopefully you can now take some baby steps into getting your life back. Best wishes.
I am not certain what your question is. Do you mean did you do a bit of overkill on protecting yourself? I cannot know what underlying conditions you have, but if there are none, it is my opinion as nurse you may have done a bit of overkill on shutting yourself in. Are you taking good walks daily? There is no reason that you should not. If you are following good mask protocol to protect yourself (yes, they do protect US as well as others, and there is good mask protocol instructions online), doing good hand washing, going to stores at hours they are least crowded and maintaining social distance, then you should be OK. Again, I am uncertain of exactly what you are doing, and what your condition is. Do you intend to take vaccine when able? More information would help. Following published guidelines will protect you quite a lot, and of course, we cannot 100% protect ourselves from ANYTHING.
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Remember Thoreau? This article might offer some inspiration as well as balance on living alone, and we generally are living in houses with heat and running water.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/walden-may-be-the-most-famous-act-of-social-distancing-its-also-a-lesson-on-the-importance-of-community/2020/04/06/e4a3eca2-77fc-11ea-b6ff-597f170df8f8_story.html
I'm not minimizing the difficulty of confinement, but there are different ways to view it. And we can still get out and walk. I've seen more people walking in local neighborhoods than before the pandemic.
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Life goes on, with or without a pandemic. If you get yourself a few N95 masks, you should be able to move on with your own life without feeling paralyzing fear to the point of closing yourself in for months & months at a time. That type of life is even worse than catching the virus, in my opinion.
If my husband didn't have his life saving surgeries, he'd be dead now, at 62 years old. If I didn't have my procedures, I probably wouldn't be dead but I would have put off something that would create a WORSE situation a year or two later when things may get back to normal. I'm having a procedure on the 18th that may require treatments afterward if the results are positive. I intend to go for those treatments as necessary, pandemic or no pandemic.
You're putting your question under Alzheimer's & Dementia.............are you suffering from one of these afflictions? If you are a high risk individual with lots of pre existing conditions, you should be very careful about protecting yourself when going out. Naturally, you should avoid large gatherings and stay 6 ft apart from others when out & about.
Otherwise, turn off the news & go about living your life. We only have TODAY, so agree to make the most of it! You deserve to.
Being cooped up for as long as you have isn't good for you. Do you maintain social contacts? If not resume doing that. Do you get out by yourself? If not get out and get some fresh air. Do you keep abreast of the nightly news? Well don't! Limit your exposure to all that crap. Are you exercising at home? If not ,start. Do what you can to keep your spirits up.
All of us have been affected mentally to some degree even the youngest of us. Consider school kids... one day at school, the next day virtual learning, little or no contact with friends and moms quitting work to be home with the kids. 2020, the year that never was!
Are you taking good walks daily? There is no reason that you should not.
If you are following good mask protocol to protect yourself (yes, they do protect US as well as others, and there is good mask protocol instructions online), doing good hand washing, going to stores at hours they are least crowded and maintaining social distance, then you should be OK.
Again, I am uncertain of exactly what you are doing, and what your condition is. Do you intend to take vaccine when able? More information would help. Following published guidelines will protect you quite a lot, and of course, we cannot 100% protect ourselves from ANYTHING.