The Adventure of the March Madness
We're living in the end times, or at least that's what the media seems to want us to think.
This media-induced hysteria has led to panic buying, with the local supermarkets having bare shelves where items like hand sanitiser and toilet roll should be. One employee shared how someone bought 64 rolls on one shopping trip and someone on a local Facebook groups tells the tale of how they sold a shelving unit to a man just so he had somewhere to store the 180 rolls he'd recently purchased. There's also something incredibly stupid about over-buying hand sanitiser- your best chance of not getting corona-virus is surely allowing as many people as possible to buy it!
The panic over it all seems a bit odd, especially given that the only way it's affecting me is that I'll have to wait an extra six months to see No Time to Die. It's weird how something can be all over the media yet can make no difference to your life whatsoever.
I have been following the advice of washing my hands more often but I am resigned to the fact that when corona-virus does eventually make it's way to the area I will likely contract it. When you work with students who deliberately spit in your face and inadvertently sneeze over everything you are fairly limited to what you can do. The prospect of two weeks in self-isolation is frankly a particularly pleasing one at the moment.
For me adulthood feels like a constant cycle of feeling like I've finally got my shit together before the wheels come off in ever more dramatic and unexpected ways. To say the last few weeks have been tough would be an enormous understatement. I've been continuously full of stress and anxiety to the point it's made me physically ill. I'm no stranger to a bit of morning nausea but the worst stomach ache I've ever had lasting for a full week is a new experience which I've not relished.
There's no right answer for dealing with anxiety but I've picked up some things which work for me, at least some of the time. Here's a list. I love a list.
1) Talk. It's such a cliched thing but opening up to people about the hard time you're having does make a different. The worst moment of the last few weeks came after I bottled everything up and once I finally spoke about things it felt like a little of the pressure had been siphoned off. I'm still not great at doing this but I've opened up more than I've done before and I think it prevented a full implosion.
2) Distract with mundane jobs. I tend to feel less anxious when I'm doing something and so I've been busily doing mundane jobs like washing clothes and filling out paperwork as a distraction. They're the sort of things I dislike doing most of the time but when things are hard concentrating on something mundane provides a welcome distraction.
3) Find ways to relax. Obviously you can't always be doing jobs, sometimes you need to sit down and relax and that means taking your mind off your worries. For me, quiz shows on TV work quite well as I find myself focusing on recalling information rather than what my brain would otherwise be thinking about. I also find light TV dramas or books let me escape into an alternate world for a while and it's vital to be able to do that.
4) Don't linger. It's easy when you're anxious about something to hang back but the longer you avoid getting out of bed, or getting in the shower or leaving the house the worse you feel. I've taken to just zooming through everything and losing myself in the routine, not lingering long enough to let the anxiety build too much. I'm up, washed, dressed and out as quickly as possible.
5) Try to make travel enjoyable. This is not always easy given how soul-destroying a daily commute can be but there are ways. Going back a few years when I was travelling by train every day I listened to podcasts but these days on my drive into work it's the radio. For a radio presenter like Greg James it's just a job but I've found the Radio 1 Breakfast Show to really help to brighten a dark morning. Whether it's being locked in a room for a few days, making up a song about washing your hands or having a phone-in about whether you should put socks or trousers on first, Greg's silliness makes a real difference.
6) Make changes. This is perhaps the easiest thing to say but the most difficult to follow through on. If you're suffering from anxiety then the best thing you can probably do is to change things so that's no longer the case. You might need help to do this and the process might be extremely difficult. For me, this is something I've been working on and whilst I've yet to make any progress the desire for change is there.
This is a blog post which flowed out of my brain with very little planning but I felt like I ought to write something as it's been a while. At the moment it's all about getting through each day and looking forward to a time when things will be better.
This media-induced hysteria has led to panic buying, with the local supermarkets having bare shelves where items like hand sanitiser and toilet roll should be. One employee shared how someone bought 64 rolls on one shopping trip and someone on a local Facebook groups tells the tale of how they sold a shelving unit to a man just so he had somewhere to store the 180 rolls he'd recently purchased. There's also something incredibly stupid about over-buying hand sanitiser- your best chance of not getting corona-virus is surely allowing as many people as possible to buy it!
The panic over it all seems a bit odd, especially given that the only way it's affecting me is that I'll have to wait an extra six months to see No Time to Die. It's weird how something can be all over the media yet can make no difference to your life whatsoever.
I have been following the advice of washing my hands more often but I am resigned to the fact that when corona-virus does eventually make it's way to the area I will likely contract it. When you work with students who deliberately spit in your face and inadvertently sneeze over everything you are fairly limited to what you can do. The prospect of two weeks in self-isolation is frankly a particularly pleasing one at the moment.
For me adulthood feels like a constant cycle of feeling like I've finally got my shit together before the wheels come off in ever more dramatic and unexpected ways. To say the last few weeks have been tough would be an enormous understatement. I've been continuously full of stress and anxiety to the point it's made me physically ill. I'm no stranger to a bit of morning nausea but the worst stomach ache I've ever had lasting for a full week is a new experience which I've not relished.
There's no right answer for dealing with anxiety but I've picked up some things which work for me, at least some of the time. Here's a list. I love a list.
1) Talk. It's such a cliched thing but opening up to people about the hard time you're having does make a different. The worst moment of the last few weeks came after I bottled everything up and once I finally spoke about things it felt like a little of the pressure had been siphoned off. I'm still not great at doing this but I've opened up more than I've done before and I think it prevented a full implosion.
2) Distract with mundane jobs. I tend to feel less anxious when I'm doing something and so I've been busily doing mundane jobs like washing clothes and filling out paperwork as a distraction. They're the sort of things I dislike doing most of the time but when things are hard concentrating on something mundane provides a welcome distraction.
3) Find ways to relax. Obviously you can't always be doing jobs, sometimes you need to sit down and relax and that means taking your mind off your worries. For me, quiz shows on TV work quite well as I find myself focusing on recalling information rather than what my brain would otherwise be thinking about. I also find light TV dramas or books let me escape into an alternate world for a while and it's vital to be able to do that.
4) Don't linger. It's easy when you're anxious about something to hang back but the longer you avoid getting out of bed, or getting in the shower or leaving the house the worse you feel. I've taken to just zooming through everything and losing myself in the routine, not lingering long enough to let the anxiety build too much. I'm up, washed, dressed and out as quickly as possible.
5) Try to make travel enjoyable. This is not always easy given how soul-destroying a daily commute can be but there are ways. Going back a few years when I was travelling by train every day I listened to podcasts but these days on my drive into work it's the radio. For a radio presenter like Greg James it's just a job but I've found the Radio 1 Breakfast Show to really help to brighten a dark morning. Whether it's being locked in a room for a few days, making up a song about washing your hands or having a phone-in about whether you should put socks or trousers on first, Greg's silliness makes a real difference.
6) Make changes. This is perhaps the easiest thing to say but the most difficult to follow through on. If you're suffering from anxiety then the best thing you can probably do is to change things so that's no longer the case. You might need help to do this and the process might be extremely difficult. For me, this is something I've been working on and whilst I've yet to make any progress the desire for change is there.
This is a blog post which flowed out of my brain with very little planning but I felt like I ought to write something as it's been a while. At the moment it's all about getting through each day and looking forward to a time when things will be better.
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