How are you handling your pre-existing conditions in the face of coronavirus?

[petra]

gaudior has written a series of essays on coping with the plague. One that I found especially useful was about the way the pandemic exacerbates what we were already dealing with:

...a thing that I keep noticing, and seems worth pointing out, is that everyone has some fairly familiar ways of being in pain, and those are what we end up with around this. If you hate yourself, you probably spend the plague thinking about how awful you are for not doing more to prevent it, and how badly you're dealing with it. If you're anxious, you're probably terrified right now, of getting sick, of someone you love getting sick, etc. If you're super-driven, you're probably overworking right now. If you normally dissociate, you're, like, fine right now, you guess, but for some weird reason you can't seem to get off the couch?

The problem with this is that your particular pain is really devastating for you, and the horror and uncertainty in the world is probably intensifying it well beyond what you're used to. The advantage of this is that, hopefully, you have developed some coping skills and ways of dealing with your pain.

From How to Handle A Plague, 9) New cause, old pain.

Hat tip to jesse_the_k for the link.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I think this may be pointing out my dissociative tendencies to me. I haven't been freaking out much and I have been wondering why. Do I have perspective or am I dissociative?

[petra]

You might both have perspective and be dissociative. I'm pretty sure that's where I am.

[starshipfox]

My therapist also said that we deal with situations with comparing them to things we've experienced in the past, and no one has ever dealt with something like this before, so our brains are kind of... fritzing. Which made sense to me! It also makes sense that the pandemic exacerbates what we were already dealing with. My fatigue is SO BAD.

[petra]

I think your therapist has a very good point.

My fatigue is pretty epic, too. If I manage to stay awake for 12 hours at a go it's a good day. *sits with you in sympathy*

[illariy]

Oh, I have read stuff by that user before and found it quite useful so I am off to read!

Ok, am back. That was very cool. I bookmarked it. Thank you for linking it! :D

[petra]

I'm glad the reminder helped you refind someone you've found useful in the past. Thanks for letting me know this was helpful.

[fred_mouse]

My asthma symptoms are flaring, so I'm doing a lot of testing (peak flow meter) to reassure myself that actually, these are anxiety-as-breathing issues, not asthma attack. Which, kind of okay? On the other hand, while I have exacerbated physical anxiety symptoms, mentally, I don't feel all that anxious, which might be because at the moment the level of anxiety I live with is actually 'normal' in that most of the population are living at that point, and thus the skills I have for mapping 'I feel bad, is there reason' are useful.

[petra]

I'm glad you have a test that can help you stay on top of how severe your symptoms are. I get what you mean about how one's normal level of anxiety can become the global norm and therefore not seem so bad by comparison. Solidarity is all I have to offer there.

[fred_mouse]

It makes such a difference to be able to put a number to where I'm at!