Managing Anxiety During A Plague

Hello Dear Readers. I hope your week has been a good one.

Managing anxiety has become a far more pressing issue in the past couple months than usual. Anxiety hits everybody differently, but for me I can get insomnia, and/or completely lose my appetite, and/or get a headache because I've hyper-focused on something and forgot to drink water, and any combination of these things will absolutely screw me up worse if I don't take care of myself.

I have a plan written on my white board that says the following:

"If you feel like everything is going wrong, or you can't sleep, or your head hurts, or your chest is tight, or your stomach feels like lead, remember to do three things:
1) Drink water - a full glass!
2) Eat something green or lean protein
3) Take a nap, Nerd!
If you've just done 1, do 2 and then 3. If you've just done 2, do 1 and then 3. If you've just woken up from 3, do 1 and then 2. You are more than your anxiety, and you are more than what is posted on your resume. Breathe."

Living during a time of Plague and also Spring is not great for me. Spring and Fall are prime times for me to get sick, and it's usually a throat/upper respiratory cold, which makes the prospect of getting sick that much more anxiety-inducing. I would prefer to not have to play a game of "Regular Spring Cold, or Plague", just because I came home from running an errand, and then a couple days later started sneezing/coughing. I have a mask, but the amount of people blithely running about without one, so convinced of their superiority that they will be immune to Rona's pull, is irksome. I go out as little as possible in response, and manage my anxiety about going outside to run errands as best as I can when I go out to get supplies.

I hope, Dear Readers, that if you are experiencing anxiety, that you are finding healthy ways to manage it. I hope that the world acquires a new normal that is healthier for everybody, but in the meantime, remember to wash your hands and stay safe.

-A.M.W.