The Quarantine Diary 4
Day 4
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard during this outbreak was offered to people prone to depression: turn your attention to others.
As we sit at home day after day, watching the bad news roll by, it’s easy even for people without mental health challenges to succumb to depression. Here are a few things I’ve done in the vein of thinking about others, which I hope helped them, but which I know helped me. None of these ideas are new, and some came from an aunt who comes by this behavior naturally. Nonetheless, they should be shared far and wide.
The person who cuts my hair is unable to work because of the nature of her work. When I got paid last week, I prepaid for several haircuts, so that she could put that money in her pockets now.
A friend of mine is newly unemployed, compliments of coronavirus. The debacle that is the Florida unemployment website was impossible for him to navigate. We spent hours on the phone together, while I helped him get through it. It took a few hours a day for almost a week. We were forced to restart the process numerous times, and even when it was finished, it wasn’t. There were more steps to be done at ANOTHER website, and we’re working through those now. (This could be a post unto itself, and probably will be…)
Another friend lost her husband last year. Our family has been trying to talk or email every few days, so she knows someone cares.
Still others are fending for themselves for food. I cook for a family of four. It’s easy, now that the supermarkets are returning to normal, to make that five, and drop off a portion or two to those neighbors or friends.
I don’t write this to be self-congratulatory. As I mentioned, all of this does far more for me and my spirits than it does for the others. Rather, I just want to share these ideas so that if you find yourself being a bit too introspective, a bit dispirited from all of this, you know that there are many things you can do to take control of the situation. You will help others and yourself in the process.