Daily Check-In

[mecurtin]

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time on Tuesday) to midnight (8pm Wednesday Eastern Time).

Poll #23830 Daily check-in poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 65

How are you doing?

I am OK
58 (89.2%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
6 (9.2%)

I could use some help
1 (1.5%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
27 (41.5%)

One other person
21 (32.3%)

More than one other person
17 (26.2%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

Comments

Freaking out a little

[we_are_spc]

I'm not used to all the feels.

Depression and anxiety, sure. Both together, okay.

But those two plus executive dysfunction? ... Not so much. Oh, sure, maybe when I first wake up, but...not when it lasts most of a day, then when it lifts, makes me just about cry from relief.

I'm freaking out. It's weird and scary, and I don't know how to deal with the constant presence of it.

...

One of my room mates gave me notifications and reminders as coping skills...anyone got anything else to add? Like maybs we're overreacting, but....this is knew.

-T~

[wyomingnot]

Today I am beset not just by brain weasels but by exceptionally bad air outside.



The smell is creeping in too.

Re: Freaking out a little

[twistedchick]

Copied from my journal:
Emotions are hard -- and we're all in a pressure cooker right now.

There are more than 30 years of studies out there on how the heart affects health, how emotions affect people, and ways to manage emotions. They were done by the HeartMath Institute, which has a series of free videos that teach some of it here. I took their long course a few years ago, and it has helped me a lot -- but it is not inexpensive. What's offered here are the highlights of it. This is well worth a look. It's an overview, but a good one. It's a bunch of short videos, and many teach coping skills. And it's free.

[twistedchick]

*wishes I could send you some of the air here*

[wyomingnot]

me too! It's gotten worse. 999. I don't know if that's the actual number or that that's the highest it will show and it's actually worse. It's not unlike fog, except for the yellow-ish cast. I had to turn lights on even with the curtains open.

I felt bad (very bad) about ordering lunch in, so I gave the delivery guy a big tip. (but he was going to be out whether or not I ordered. which is why i caved and ordered in the first place)

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Ate almost the whole 5oz. bag of plantain chips.

Re: Freaking out a little

[fred_mouse]

Disclaimer: This is a works for me trick - I'm more towards the anxiety than the depression, but both have been cycling hard this last month.

Do you have enough executive function to stand up/move around? Do anything that moves your body enough that you can focus on that (patterned movement is good, something that is a skill you are working on that takes all your concentration is good) - this will help with both the anxiety and the depression. It will give the anxiety Something To Do. Swinging your arms in circles is enough for me, some of the time.

If you are a musician, a piece you almost know is good - just play it until your brain stops kicking (even if you keep starting from the beginning). If you are not, singing, whistling, something that gets your breath moving and requires you to breath evenly and not too fast.

If the executive function is kicking you too hard, you might need to pair the movement. Gotta get up for food/meds/toilet? Might be able to start a patterned movement (so, for example, in the bathroom, I have a single stretch that I do. I don't always remember, but it is good that I do it multiple times a day. And it is starting to be that I just do it, because I'm in there). This one has the disadvantage of needing time to develop, because it is unlikely that it will work the first, or the next, or the however many times. But it will work, and then over time it will gradually happen more often (in theory. This is the way mine works)

[feng_shui_house]

Yesterday I made gluten free cupcakes to celebrate fighting my way through a lot of unsewing on face masks, and on completing my income taxes. (I never make enough to owe taxes, but I want a paper trail showing that.)

Also added another fic to my Battling Coronavirus series. Currently up to 18.

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676572

[mecurtin]

WTH? What happened? Are factories starting up again or something?

[kathmandu]

Yay for cupcakes!

[kathmandu]

Technically, they're fruit, right? Practically good for you!

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I did buy them for the potassium. But now they're gone.

[kathmandu]

Ooog, sympathies.

[d_generate_girl]

Just got notified that I'm being furloughed effective next Tuesday. I have enough in savings for about 2 months of rent, and I'll file for unemployment asap, but I was really banking on my decent levels of seniority at my school and our comparatively high student numbers to keep me on for a while longer.

[feng_shui_house]

They make me happy. :^)