I am beginning to wonder if something is wrong with me, mentally. According to all the press conferences and news media, I should be feeling isolated, despondent and depressed due to being isolated from everyone else due the Corona Virus / social distancing. I feel fine and actually like being left alone and it doesn't bother me in the least. Everyone I need to check in with I can still call or text to check up on each other. What am I missing? Am I the one who's "OFF" and just doesn't realize it? It's almost as if the experts and the media WANT us to be depressed & anxious over this virus in which we have very limited control.

Note: I am in NO way making light of those who suffer with Mental Health issues of ANY sort. Please seek out help if you feel you need it, there are tremendous resources available now days.

Only thing I need to cheer me up is the GF and a 30 rack.

I know an old man in assisted living,they’re on lockdown and he’s suffering terribly because of it. He’s probably one of the most sociable people I’ve ever met (I thinks he’s obnoxious) It takes all kinds lol

Lots of lonely and terrified people out there. Worried about their health and that of their loved ones. Out of work without savings to buy food and shelter. But I'm glad you are healthy and well. You sound prepared.. Many people were not, and they have families. And they need help to survive.

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Just hanging with my dogs

I think the media like to assume that we're all needy and easily depressed. They judge Americans by the lowest common denominator.

Says a lot about their own lives...and that of many celebrities, whom they often admire.

...and happy, but the never ending handwringing by politicians, newscasters, newspapers, etc. is affecting me negatively.

Just finished a poll sent by a major national newspaper that asked my thoughts re: their coronavirus coverage.

I noted my dissatisfaction, in general, as they just highlight the deaths and numbers who tested positive. They neglect the people with minor or no symptoms and never post the SURVIVAL rate.

Further, if those ON BOTH SIDES somehow think Americans will accept the restrictions already imposed (and the additional ones likely) for many months to come they will surely be surprised when folks rebel. I do hope that rebellion will be peaceful, certainly. Better yet, I hope politicians come to their senses...soon.

Lastly, the overall effects of the so called ‘war’ (THIS IS NOT A WAR ) will be far, far more devastating that the purely physical effects. There will be irreversible outcomes.

I am truly sorry for the loss of life but we cannot lose our nation.

Be safe.

I have the "stuff happens" attitude regarding disasters (1 October country music slaughter; 2004 Malaysian tsunami) to the point I have been declared a borderline sociopath by some. The less charitable leave out the word borderline. Whatever. I'm pretty much the same over the current crisis.

I think there are a few reasons for this:

My father's and grandfather's WWII stories
I survived bacterial meningitis
I watched my first wife die over 8 months
Three years after that I walked into an ER room to find my sister-in-law dead with her upper torso black and blue from the attempts to revive her

These experiences brought home to me just how little control I have over major events, both close and far.

So you can see how COVID-19 falls into the "not worth getting ulcers over" category for me. I assess the threat level to our household on a daily basis, but otherwise I just get on with doing what work I can from home. Does this make me mentally ill?

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Release the Kraken

Tremendous resources??? Obviously you do not live in a rural area. We basically have none, at least in Iowa.

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Super Snooper

Sounds like Grandpa from "The Simpsons".

Everybody's different, thus their reactions will vary.

As introverted as I am, I still miss the occasional contact I got with the people I know. I also miss the activities I used to enjoy, like going to the movie theater, eating out, or walking around at the mall.

On top of that there's the stress of being in the high-risk category.

I'd be lying if I said I never got down in the dumps sometimes.

About the only positive thing I have going is that I still have my job, albeit working from home, so I can still make a living and make ends (sort of) meet.

Well, that and I'm still breathing...so far. *fingers crossed*

Well, it is Iowa, after all.

First off...I'm not busting on you personally.

Considering what we go through on a daily basis compared to people in other countries we are able to adapt.

Unfortunately resources don't always come to the individual. Sometimes you have to find ways to go to them.

First thing that came to mind was a woman in Africa walking miles in arid conditions to get some milk and some rice for her family.

Yeah,We got it tough.

Without statistical evidence to back this up, but probability on my side, I think that this group on this forum as a whole is not at all representative of the population at large.

On average, we’re much older, much more likely to be outer-suburban/small-town/rural, decent-size property owning, and with some military/LEO/other service background.

Some here are also, to put it bluntly, done with life and are just puttering along until it’s time to turn in the spoon. For medical reasons, I can count myself in that category.

So it would be reasonable to assume that for most of us, this situation of a few weeks or likely months of reduced human contact and confinement to the house should not be that big a deal. We know how to pass the time.

However, I’m not sure at all that thirty or forty years ago, when I lived in cities, travelled a lot, went to movies and pubs more nights than not, and was hardly ever at home, I could have said the same.

And I wasn’t even living in the situation of a lot of working families (I know some personally) with so many people living in a house that the situation is only sustainable because usually half the adults and teens are gone to work or school at any given time of day or night.

So concern about possible mental health issues arising from many people cooped up who are usually not isn’t some media conspiracy, but a real issue, especially in crowded cities where the majority of the population lives.

Be happy if it does not apply to you.

" ...turn in the spoon. " 👍

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Keep calm and carry on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Au Contraire Pawngal...I venture to say help coming from one's neighbors in farm country is by far more plentiful than that in the more populated larger cities where many persons don't even know the name of the persons living next to them, nor the help that they can provide.

Sometimes just being a friend is all that is needed. Right?


WuzzFuzz

I tend to agree, but find the outdoors to be the best resource for calming! Either our small piece of the outdoors, the open wooded prairie of Wind Cave NP or Custer State Park. Just driving the county gravel roads away from the tourist traps, sharing the countryside with cows, horses, occasional llama, wildlife, big and small, is heaven on earth! BTW, the 6+" of snow today really quieted the world for us! 😷

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Wherever my mind isn't
Jim

Actually , this is a relevant topic.
Many folks are gravely concerned about their livelihood.
Loosing 30+% of 401k $$$ if not more.
The increase of alcohol sales is enormous.

Depression and alcohol do not mix well.

Add guns to that mix. I hope I'm wrong but I fear in a month all those with the I'm too tough for this will see they underestimated this virus.

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Just hanging with my dogs

When 9-11 happened, my wife and I lived in the Washington DC area and my wife worked across the street from the Pentagon. Took us 4 or 5 hours to go the 4 miles to get home that day.
The next day, as I dropped my wife off at work in a big cloud of smoke coming of the Pentagon, the radio was playing, "We gotta get out of this place" and by the next month we were living in a brick house in small town West Virginia. Best move ever.
We basically socially isolated ourselves from the corruption, crackheads, bureacrats and terrorists of the big city.
And we like it that way. It's peaceful out here.

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Keep on Chooglin'

I'm pretty sure that there is nothing wrong with you. I am not depressed even though I am alone AND had to stop drinking just after this thing started, because I learned that I have diabetes. I do like to get out of the house now and then, but grocery runs seem to suffice. It also helps that I just drug my carton of Donald Hamilton novels out of the attic and started re-reading them, after about thirty years.

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Formerly Model520Fan

I'm just thankful my wife and I get along as well as we do. We're spending an awful lot of time together these days. She's easier to live with than I am.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

Home incarceration is fine by me. The warden is a hottie. 😍

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Not everyone can handle the forced isolation:

Air Force Academy eases coronavirus quarantine rules after 2 suspected cadet suicides | Fox News

"...Since those measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 were put into place weeks ago, two cadets have died within days of each other. The first death was reported Thursday and another on Saturday. USAFA said the deaths were not related to COVID-19 and investigators did not suspect foul play."

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USAF 1981 - 2001

Everyone understands that the death numbers forecasted depend on social distancing. That’s what scares me, do the numbers increase geometrically if we stop isolation? Likely is my guess. My other guess is that even at 1,000,000 dead it’s still less than one out of 300, so folks figure they can personally live with those odds. Especially those in more rural areas.

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Just hanging with my dogs