Month: April 2020

Going Nuts: Ways to combat COVID-19 Cabin Fever without losing your mind

going nuts

I think most people have some cabin fever right now, with many places continuing to have a shelter in place requirement.  As a physician, I understand the reasoning behind requirements, and make sure my family is doing all we can to continue to flatten the curve to help make sure my hospital system and other systems around me have all the ventilators, ICU space and PPE they need to take care of critically sick people.  I also appreciate that I am lucky to have a place to live, work to do, and still see people I care about at home. There are so many who have lost their jobs, their health insurance, and family members.  Having a sense of gratitude that feeling bored by social distancing requirements is in some ways, lucky, is important. This doesn’t mean, however, that I wouldn’t love to take advantage of some of the beauty and culture that the Pacific Northwest has to offer.  In my work as a psychiatrist, I hear a lot of variations on these feelings:

  • “I’m so sick of being cooped up in my apartment.”
  • “I feel stressed by the news and am trying to avoid it.”
  • “I miss other people.” (Or alternately, “I’m going to end up divorced if I spend 10 more minutes with my partner.”)
  • “I feel stagnant” or “oh-please-no-more-Netflix-or-I-will-lose-my-mind.”
  • “I wish things could go back to normal right now.”

Fortunately, there are a lot of things to help with these feelings! Let’s take each situation and offer some options to help combat those feelings, while acknowledging that many people are also feeling the same way.

Help for being sick of being cooped up:

  • Consider virtual travel: If I want to tour a different place in the world, I’m either taking a ride in a foreign country on the Peloton (Switzerland is on my bucket list to visit now) or watching Rick Steves tour places I would like to visit. It’s not just escapist, but gives me some ideas for later! I’m making lists of places to travel in Evernote, dreaming of times when we aren’t having to worry about our collective responsibility for COVID-19 and comply with social distancing.  Also, there are tons of places offering virtual tours right now.  Consider taking some of the tours on the Digital Giza Site  or multiple museums offering free tours (see this article from Travel and Leisure). Consider it a virtual scouting trip for places you might opt to visit, not because you’re stuck at home! Even my beloved Portland Japanese Garden is offering virtual tours.
  • There are lots of amazing travel writers, both in media (consider the New York Times’ “52 Places to Go” series) and books. I’m a long-time fan of Jon Krakauer and Paul Theroux.

Help for feeling trapped by bad news:

I give you permission to not keep absolutely up to date with the news. Consider a media diet. Decide what amount of news you need to keep up with to be safe and feel like a good citizen, and schedule that for your day. Then disconnect. If you need more help disconnecting (because the lure of social media is real), consider reading this article .

There is good news online. Check out the goodnewsnetwork.com!

I miss other people

Consider a specific app to keep in touch with people. I have a regular Houseparty date with my best friend, and send videos to friends with Marco Polo. Consider taking your communication off social media if social media has an adverse effect on your mental health. For an example, it is a friend’s birthday today. I sent a birthday card, and sent a text as well. I’ve been keeping up with some older adults via written letters. The written letters I’ve received are much more memorable and tangible than any email I receive, which are generally forgotten as soon as I’ve read them. Consider taking a walk in your neighborhood! Say hello to your neighbors- nothing prevents us from making eye contact and greeting people who live around us! I have noticed some people chatting from their porches, providing a wonderful sense of neighborhood cohesiveness that I don’t think was there before.

I feel stagnant, or I’m bored!

Mix it up a little. Instead of Netflix all the time, consider listening to a podcast as part of your routine. For pure escapism, I like the History of Rome podcast, and In Our Time from the BBC. To learn about current events and culture, I like the Monocle Magazine series of podcasts, which I think are uniformly good quality and cover everything from magazines, culture, business, foreign affairs to current news with an international viewpoint. I like Tim Ferris’s podcast for listening to a great interviewer work with great thinkers, and the Asian Efficiency podcast to help me get things done more efficiently in a relatable way. If you have a library card, or even if you don’t, as some libraries are waiving this requirement, you can borrow electronic books. I’ve made it most of the way through an entire Nordic crime series during this time of social distancing. If you decide to order a book to be delivered, consider ordering from your local bookstore instead of the Amazon behemoth! My local bookstore was offering free delivery, so I had the new Marie Kondo book “Joy at Work” delivered to my house, even though an electronic copy would have been faster. Also, I’m taking an online class for free, just for the joy of learning, on the history of the Giza Plateau. There’s no other reason for this, other than to learn something new! I found the course on this website, and have been impressed.

I’ve also added some self-care to my routines that I think helps with feeling stagnant. A regular meditation habit is made easier by all the great free content online (just google “free meditation” and be amazed by all you find!). I’m working on adding some better exercise habits into my schedule now (see the Peloton riding, above).

I just want things to go back to normal.

I’m working on the premise that a time of restriction now may turn into a fuller life later- one with improved health and habits! I know this is the optimistic view, but I think it’s also accurate to a degree. When this is over, I’ll have a list of places I want to visit, some new hobbies and knowledge, and hopefully be working on healthy habits like meditation and exercise. Lastly, I comfort myself with the (true) thought that this, too, shall pass. Even though this experience has been painful for people across the world, we’re all surviving this together, and with the knowledge that this period of restriction will pass. And hopefully, we’ll keep working together.

How I’m getting through the COVID-19 crisis…

COVID

Who could have anticipated that our lives would look like this two months ago? Even as a physician, the empty streets as I drive to the clinic, the closed stores and restaurants, and most of all, closed schools, seem incomprehensible. How could this virus bring the entire world to a halt? It is a baffling, stressful, and for some, life-threatening time. While some people have found new meaning in staying home, protecting people they love, others who have lost livelihoods and family members have had reasonably increased anxiety and depression.

I feel fortunate in this crisis, as I’ve been lucky enough to have a profession that I can still practice during this time, and help support our family. I’m still in the hospital, as some part of my job has to be practiced in person- doing Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)- but a fair amount can be done via telemedicine. Who thought telemedicine would be practiced on such a vast scale in just a month or two? However, even having safe employment doesn’t make me immune to stress and worry about the health of my family. How do we safely get essentials? Should I wear a cloth mask in public, despite some studies to the contrary? What happens if someone gets sick- how do we safely quarantine them in our house while protecting everyone else? How will this affect the feelings of safety and security of the smallest members of our household, when they have lost their classrooms, beloved teachers, and can’t go outside to play with their friends?

Routine and familiarity are so important for us all. So we have really worked to keep a routine for our family, and I’ve have leaned into my own routine. Routines in general are great ways to build productivity and wellness into our lives.

When I use a paper planner, I have a laminated bookmark with my daily, weekly, and monthly routines and tasks that keeps me on track. When electronic planning, I’ve added recurring tasks to Todoist (and Things 3-I’m trying out both to see which I like better). I have one for the morning, with subtasks:

  1. Drink water (I’m terrible at this normally)
  2. Meditate. I’m using the Daily Calm from the Calm app right now.
  3. Five minute journal- I use the template from Day One everyday, in it’s own dedicated “productivity journal.”
  4. Exercise- Hmm…not as good at this one yet.
  5. Review tasks and appointments for the day (Todoist/Things3 and Fantastical/Google Calendar).

I have an evening routine, which consists of something similar:

  1. Straighten up.
  2. Five minute PM journal and regular journal, again through Day One.
  3. Stretch or meditate.
  4. Read for 30 minutes.

If something really significant has occurred that day, personally or in the world, which frankly, these days, is more often then not, I use this short-cut on my iPhone to attach that day’s New York Times front page to my journal entry in Day One. I have this thought that some day, I will want to read back in this momentous time. My spouse’s family member’s account of taking care of patients in the Spanish Flu epidemic is still read today, and maybe this will be valuable for my descendants, too.

For our family, we have set up a home schooling area, and the kids have a specific schedule, with lots of fun time built in, too (playing in the yard, run-walking with me when I have time, impromptu brownie baking). They do school lessons in short bursts in the morning when they are most energetic and focused. We cleared a lot of clutter so there is not much distraction for them and we have dedicated spaces for their supplies. Also, I am working hard for us to be forgiving and kind to each other. This is a really baffling time for adults, and even more so for children. Fighting and tantrums are more common, and for the kids, too. 🙂 It’s hard to manage stress during this time, and I think extra care is needed to give partners and family members the benefit of the doubt.

We also keep up with friends and family far away, regularly, on a variety of apps, including Houseparty and Marco Polo. A regular coffee date with a friend online can really help your sense of isolation, and recognize, we really are all in this together.

What are you doing to soothe and stay calm during this time? Let me know below!