Coping with Covid-19

Its definitely worth avoiding the news at the minute.  The constant barrage does nothing good for anxiety and ocd.  FB and twitter arent much better.

Go to work, cough a lot, eat a ton of chilli so the sweat is pouring off you, look like absolute crap, complain about feeling hot while coughing a lot.  They will *** bricks and send you home.  Thats at least 3 weeks of self isolation and you can probably get a week or two beyond that without raising any flags.  By that point the country will be up *** creek anyway and I doubt anyone will be working unless its absolutely essential.

Or you could tell them you cant work there anymore due to the breach of current H&S guidelines.  Add that you are going to report them to Public Health England for breach of said guidelines, if you want to add flames to the situation.  That will likely get you some time off.  They also cant fire you for it without leaving you in a situation for a tribunal for unfair dismissal.  But they also might change the workplace to enforce the rules.  Its a 50/50 type of play.  Could go either way.

Or you could quit and sign on, but be aware lots of people are doing that at present. If you go down that route id apply for ESA instead of UC/JSA based on your ASD.  You will need your doctor to write you a sick note for severe anxiety/ocd due to ASD or similar.

Update, I'm alot more positive today. I've found that if I lay still, propped up on pillows and my heat mat on my back and drink loads and dont talk. It helps tonnes. Still struggling but loads easier than yesterday. Sorry I was a moaner xx

I feel your anguish right now. I have tears as I read this. I want it to end. I took myself off of social media that's helped. This forum is my only connection with the world outside

It's awful I want to wake up from this hell :(

The hot drinks do help! I'm drinking so much right now. I find if I havent had a hot drink in about 15 mins or so I'm struggling again

Our neighbours di this all the time I hate it so much

Sorry that posted before I finished. Breathing has been such hard work, I've not slept properly in days. I asked if I was panicking also or a chest infection as the breathing issue comes in waves. He thinks it's the virus but they only test on icu. He listened to my lungs etc said I'm healthy enough to fight this at home. I cried was almost at meltdown but knew its be even harder to breath. I'm so tired right now. I've been indoors around 2 weeks. Online shopping has been hard, getting an emergency inhalor from the pharmacy after being told none of us could leave the house was hard as they told me to collect it myself regardless. Sorry to moan I'm not coping. Breathing is alot better today so if it is the virus I'm winning. I'm asthmatic so I guess it's why I'm so bad. I tried ordering plants online as it's my special interest but online shopping has become impossible. Everything's wrong right now

Hi both. I was actually very sick so havent been able to reply. My lungs were struggling I wont go into to much info but 111 called 999 and a paramedic came out. I had collapsed with weakness and turned blue but as im not vulnerable I should be able to fight the virus. Through gasps I explained why I dont think its covid. Ie I've had temp one day then chills etc. But he seemed to think it was. I'm so not coping at all to be honest. 

I'm running on CPUs only for now as I'd have to provide external power to any GPUs (server boards with hot swap PSUs and no provision for PCIe power), it'd be messy.  I do have other GPU friendly hardware lying around that could be put to work, but my concern is the impact this would have on my already ridiculous electricity bill.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm just too old to train every day lol.  Plus I'm an ectomorph, so that frequency is of the least benefit to me in terms of gains.  I usually aim for around three two hour sessions per week, with the focus being on lifting heavy while maintaining form, with longer rest intervals between sets.  Can't be bothered with cardio if I'm honest, even when cutting it just seems like a lot of work for little benefit (strictly my opinion, feel free to ignore).

Probably seems quite sad to normal people, this weird guy lifting weights alone at home, but for me it's just something I've always enjoyed, and really a simple form of self improvement that even I can do and draw satisfaction from.  I'm sure it must be nice to be able to go to the gym, I just don't want to deal with the whole 'other people' aspect of that scenario, regardless of Covid-19.  Sweat, noise and unwanted attention, it's just not for me.

Any of you still needs to go to work? My workplace is not “essential “ but as businesses are told to keep going we keep going as if nothing happened, even 2 meter rule can’t be implemented because there’s not enough space. 

And I’m freaking out, I cannot focus at all, I’m constantly worried/angry/crying and everything is too stressful. I can’t adjust to the new situation at all and I want it to be over but I don’t believe carrying on as normal is the right way to do that. 

At the moment all I want is to go home, curl up in bed and stay there. I can’t carry on as normal and I don’t want to. I just want to go home and wait for this to be over, even though it might be months until situation gets better.

At the moment I’m seriously considering stop going to work. If they fire me so be it. I don’t know what to do.

I know what you mean about flitting between feeling positive/gloomy - I've been feeling like this myself. I suppose that taking care of each other and looking for the silver linings is the best we can do.

I'm surprised at how difficult I've found social distancing considering I'm an introvert. I think it's because I have a small number of very close family and friends, so I'm finding it hard that I'm unable to spend time with them. I also get a bit stuck in my own head when I'm trying to work from home, whereas when I'm in the office, I can have a 5-minute vent and then move past it (usually!).

I think it'll make businesses realise that it is possible to work flexibly in most cases.

It's really good to look for the positives, even though things are sad and scary. I'm hoping that people will become nicer and appreciate each other more too.

It is really surreal - hard to believe it's really happening sometimes. We all have our coping strategies.

Unfortunately, lots of people are still ignoring number 6! Hopefully that'll improve since the latest measures came in.

I really hate the smell of weed - hope your neighbours give you a break from it!

I used the online version. How are you feeling today?

It's brilliant that you're able to get involved and help out Sounds like you're taking some good steps to take care of yourself too.

I keep flitting between thinking there might be silver linings to everything is doom and gloom, guilt (because I've had to purchase some things from sites like amazon and it kinda feels wrong to order stuff and then expect a delivery driver to risk his health for deliveries). The silver linings I consider are environmental. But then I've seen videos of animals suffering because of lack of humans. Now people can rant all they like how it just goes to show we've messed with nature blah blah but as I always point out what exactly are we supposed to be if not a part of nature ourselves? There was never any way we could exist on this world without also having some interaction with other non human animals whether those be positive or negative. We see social distancing as purely a human thing but also it's a distancing from many animals that have become used to our presence. For some animals the quieter streets will be their version of bliss and for others, not so much. 

For myself social distancing from humans has always been my nature. So that isnt much different for me, if anything it's a bit of a relief. I can go as far as I've often wanted to to distance myself , like refusing hand shakes without any judgement. And keeping my distance generally when out on my physio small walks, is no longer looked upon as strange behaviour. 

I like to think that maybe after all this, more people will realise that working from home can be done in a lot of instances, therefore permanently reducing pollution from traffic. 

Yes, I'm hoping that the cloud may have a silver lining too. It is sometimes a valuable lesson to have something taken away from us to force us to realise that we have taken it for granted and need to focus more on what really matters in life.

Many of the changes feel scary and at times I feel sad.

I'm trying to be optimistic though. I can see some positives. There are less planes in the sky so the environment is benefiting. 

The soap operas and sport won't be on TV soon and I can see a good side to that; a lot of people are addicted to TV and it can be a bad influence. Without things like that to hook them, more people might develop more mindful hobbies like reading, gardening or cooking.

People could become nicer. No knowing but it's a possibility. With no pubs or restaurants to go to, and socialising being limited to 2 people at a time maybe people will begin to appreciate talking with each individual more.

Just some thoughts running through my head.