Anyone else having trouble getting excited about anything?

[cobright]

...My normal was hardly ever being in my house. It will be 4 years or more before I can do any of that.

but if things are like this for more than a year or 2, at some point it’s time to just accept the risk and move on. I will not spend 4-5 years of my life at home avoiding people because that’s not life. Our society and economy will be shattered and we’ll all be way worse off if we let the virus rule us for that long.

I always wonder where this notion started.

I heard pro-opening political messaging push the idea, in various forms, that since we probably won't have a vaccine ready for common use for years, we should just live normally and let the virus run its course. But that's absolute garbage. It's a message people tell you to get you thinking that we either accept a larger death toll or we run our economy into the ground for years and years. It's a message meant to get you comfortable accepting a higher death toll because the alternative is financial disaster. It's manipulative garbage.

And even though we can clearly see that this is false, people seem eager to believe it.

Other than a few hundred test subjects, no one has a vaccine and no country has achieved anything close to 'herd immunity' levels of cases and yet life in much of Europe and Asia is largely back to normal. No, not normal, but their kids go to school and the adults go to work and to stores and restaurants. New Zealand is now completely restriction free.

The ability to contract the virus (non-immunity?) is nowhere near the largest driver of this disease's transmission. The biggest driver is the prevalence of active cases. When you get the active cases down to near zero, in very short order there simply isn't many people you can catch it from.

With an actual quarantine, a country can arrest the spread of the virus and within a month or two get their daily new cases number down to near nothing. From there, with a strong mandatory test, track, and trace system the country can re-open with minimal restrictions and the fight against the virus becomes one of quelling sporadic little outbreaks. This isn't opinion or conjecture; it's what's happening in the rest of the world right now.

Here's a BBC story from 2 weeks ago. That's a head of state that sleeps easily at night.

 

[ORD2KOA]

My sweet husband is like “I promise this will eventually be over” but I’m struggling to believe him. I’m not trying to be so negative but that’s what has been happening lately. I’m the kind of person who needs something to look forward to, but I’m having a hard time finding that right now. Is there anyone else feeling those same sorts of feelings right now? I’m trying to focus on all the wonderful things in my life, but these thoughts still creep in.

During my last "woe is me" pity party, I had a thought: what if you were sick and were given one year to live and THIS was that year? That made me wake up and think, it's just a few months, things on earth have been worse for many people. Most of us are safe in our homes. I have friends who lived in cities that were being bombed in wars. This is a hiccup in our lives. We can do this. If you don't have one, get a hobby or learn to do something new that you never had time for before. Don't worry about what can't be. I'm most certainly older than many here, so maybe I think differently. But I think this is kind of like how you can't change the past. It is what it is. Move forward because you don't want to get stuck in the mire. Concentrate on what can be. DH and I were saying what if this had happened in the early 80's and you were stuck at home without the internet, streaming, Amazon, etc. We'll get through this. Keep calm, and carry on!

 

[mantysk8coach]

It’s 2:45 a.m. and I have been awake since 2 a.m. in a near panic attack. Cases are rising like crazy in my county. I am very careful...have been wearing masks since the beginning, not hanging out in bars, only eating outdoors at restaurants...but as cases spread, I’m worried it hasn’t been enough, and that somehow I inadvertently made a wrong move, let my guard down and was exposed. It’s so frustrating to see people not taking it seriously.

Im also one of those that needs something to look forward to to get through the day to day. There is just nothing on the horizon right now, and there is jno light at the end of the tunnel. My kids were so active before this with dance, figure skating, theater.....who knows when they’ll ever be able to return to that. And I don’t even want to think about school in fall yet. Online school was a struggle as I also worked from home in a high-stress job....and now that I’m back in the office, home schooling will be even more challenging.

This isn’t living. It’s existing. I feel like the weight of the world rests on my shoulders and I am not ok.

 

[Flight]

I like to read the old Stoics, like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca, and they tell me how to let go of regret and concern my mind only with things I have control over. It helps, but it's easy to get overwhelmed by it all too.

Admiral Jim Stockdale writes how the study of the Stoics influenced his life, especially when shot down and in prisoned in the infamous Hoa Lo (Hanoi Hilton) in North Vietnam.

He spent years in isolation and was tortured many times. He received strength from the understanding of his studies. He continued to learn more about them after his release.

I in turn know others have suffered greatly and that puts difficulties that come my way into perspective.

Still, a person can getting gloomy on occasion as there seems to be no end in sight.

 

[*DisneyDreamer]

I always wonder where this notion started.

I heard pro-opening political messaging push the idea, in various forms, that since we probably won't have a vaccine ready for common use for years, we should just live normally and let the virus run its course. But that's absolute garbage. It's a message people tell you to get you thinking that we either accept a larger death toll or we run our economy into the ground for years and years. It's a message meant to get you comfortable accepting a higher death toll because the alternative is financial disaster. It's manipulative garbage.

And even though we can clearly see that this is false, people seem eager to believe it.

Other than a few hundred test subjects, no one has a vaccine and no country has achieved anything close to 'herd immunity' levels of cases and yet life in much of Europe and Asia is largely back to normal. No, not normal, but their kids go to school and the adults go to work and to stores and restaurants. New Zealand is now completely restriction free.

The ability to contract the virus (non-immunity?) is nowhere near the largest driver of this disease's transmission. The biggest driver is the prevalence of active cases. When you get the active cases down to near zero, in very short order there simply isn't many people you can catch it from.

With an actual quarantine, a country can arrest the spread of the virus and within a month or two get their daily new cases number down to near nothing. From there, with a strong mandatory test, track, and trace system the country can re-open with minimal restrictions and the fight against the virus becomes one of quelling sporadic little outbreaks. This isn't opinion or conjecture; it's what's happening in the rest of the world right now.

Here's a BBC story from 2 weeks ago. That's a head of state that sleeps easily at night.
View attachment 511855

I completely understand this. It’s just hard to imagine getting to that point here because people aren’t doing what they need to do to get the active cases to near zero and we don’t have a national plan to do so. So it just feels like we’ll be stuck in this wild spreading phase for a really long time. We had our chance to get the cases lower and people couldn’t take it seriously and wasted it.

 

[anniemae]

It’s 2:45 a.m. and I have been awake since 2 a.m. in a near panic attack. Cases are rising like crazy in my county. I am very careful...have been wearing masks since the beginning, not hanging out in bars, only eating outdoors at restaurants...but as cases spread, I’m worried it hasn’t been enough, and that somehow I inadvertently made a wrong move, let my guard down and was exposed. It’s so frustrating to see people not taking it seriously.

Im also one of those that needs something to look forward to to get through the day to day. There is just nothing on the horizon right now, and there is jno light at the end of the tunnel. My kids were so active before this with dance, figure skating, theater.....who knows when they’ll ever be able to return to that. And I don’t even want to think about school in fall yet. Online school was a struggle as I also worked from home in a high-stress job.

This isn’t living. It’s existing. I feel like the weight of the world rests on my shoulders and I am not ok.

I have the same feeling, like I slipped up somehow. We have been staying in as much as possible, wearing masks and not allowing kids to get together with other kids etc. But then I think of the video of the guy wiping down the groceries and I panic thinking the groceries will kill us because I didn't wipe them down. It's exhausting.

I also need something to look forward to. Now it's just a big question mark in the future. It feels like we will never be back to normal.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

I have the same feeling, like I slipped up somehow. We have been staying in as much as possible, wearing masks and not allowing kids to get together with other kids etc. But then I think of the video of the guy wiping down the groceries and I panic thinking the groceries will kill us because I didn't wipe them down. It's exhausting.

The video of the guy wiping down his groceries was ridiculous when it was released and even more so now. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over that. Put your groceries away and wash your hands.

 

[PollyannaMom]

This isn’t living. It’s existing. I feel like the weight of the world rests on my shoulders and I am not ok.

 

[luckygirl0100]

I feel the same way. We have a trip scheduled for January and I'm praying we don't have to cancel. (We refuse to go if masks are required)

 

[Blueeyes101817]

It's definitely been hard because so many things we were looking forward to were cancelled. I am trying to focus on the positives as much as I can, but sometimes it just gets hard. We are expecting our first child in September and this was not how I imagined my pregnancy being-my husband not being able to go to appointments, family not being able to come to the hospital, etc. Im still so excited to meet our son, but it is just hard when I think about the things that we wont experience. I keep hoping that things are a little more normal for all of the holidays so we can celebrate with our families with our son but I just get so worried things wont be even close to normal.

Plus, add in we had some deaths in the family (not covid related) and we had to do make shift funerals and not have the typical closure.

Just keep hoping things get better soon!

 

[shh]

The video of the guy wiping down his groceries was ridiculous when it was released and even more so now. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over that. Put your groceries away and wash your hands.

Right? My DH insists on wiping down all the groceries every single time...I can't convince him otherwise. But he's under a lot of stress right now as a healthcare worker and taking so many precautions - we're in the Florida covid epicenter. I'm just letting it go - he's the one doing all the extra work...it's not really hurting me and we all have to do what we feel is right and makes us feel safe.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

Right? My DH insists on wiping down all the groceries every single time...I can't convince him otherwise. But he's under a lot of stress right now as a healthcare worker and taking so many precautions - we're in the Florida covid epicenter. I'm just letting it go - he's the one doing all the extra work...it's not really hurting me and we all have to do what we feel is right and makes us feel safe.

i can understand a bit more in that case. He’s feels like this is one thing he can control. I do get that. It’s just the notion of losing sleep because you didn’t do it. No one should feel that kind of anxiety over that....there’s already enough to be anxious about!

 

[Farro]

I feel the same way. We have a trip scheduled for January and I'm praying we don't have to cancel. (We refuse to go if masks are required)

I'm sure you will still need masks in January. Should be a breeze to wear them, it won't be hot!

We think we will need them next May and that's fine.

 

[cobright]

He received strength from the understanding of his studies. He continued to learn more about them after his release.

I absolutely love the down to earth mentality of Stoicism. The classic Stoics were usually people writing from a place of great privilege (props to Epictetus as the exception) and generally counseled against believing all the courtiers and such telling you how wonderful everything is.

On the other hand, Stoicism is something of a popular movement again and a lot of those advocating it to others come off pretentious or tone deaf. So much of the old wisdom gets boiled down to a few quotes along the lines of "Those things making you miserable don't really matter." That's a great worldview to strive for but kind of an insensitive thing to tell another person as they struggle.

 

[RamblingMad]

I have a trip in a week, and I'm totally bummed. I guess it's anxiety that built up from being stuck in my home for so long.

 

[J'aime Paris]

The video of the guy wiping down his groceries was ridiculous when it was released and even more so now. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over that. Put your groceries away and wash your hands.

And yet people are still wiping down groceries and delivery boxes.
Why?

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

And yet people are still wiping down groceries and delivery boxes.
Why?

A sense of control is my guess. To me, it always seemed like such an enormous waste of time and supplies (I knew people who sprayed Lysol on their packages and used the wipes on their grocery boxes).

 

[luckygirl0100]

I'm sure you will still need masks in January. Should be a breeze to wear them, it won't be hot!

We think we will need them next May and that's fine.

It's not about the heat.....

 

[luckygirl0100]

I completely understand this. It’s just hard to imagine getting to that point here because people aren’t doing what they need to do to get the active cases to near zero and we don’t have a national plan to do so. So it just feels like we’ll be stuck in this wild spreading phase for a really long time. We had our chance to get the cases lower and people couldn’t take it seriously and wasted it.

But if the cases were lowered, then what?!
Even if EVERY single person wore a mask and the cases were under 100 in every state, then what's the next step? Because as soon as you resume 'normal' cases will go up. Why is this so hard for people to understand? And why is this board the place to complain about those who don't want to do as you do? I thought this was a Disney board?

 

[dvcdream4fld]

I have not been on the boards for a while. I guess I wondered here to get a little sense of Disney escape. Therefore, I won’t comment on the state of things. My DW and I usually take multiple Disney vacations per year and have cancelled several vacations. We are still holding out for an 8-day Very Merry Disney Cruise with our cruising buddies at the end of November. There’s a rumor that our cruise itinerary may become a double-dip at castaway cay, but there’s probably a good chance it will get cancelled. We have a plan B and have DVC reservations at the Riveria and the Poly. I’ll be honest, I’m kind of interested in going to WDW with limited crowds. I know it won’t be the same experience that I’m used to, but I have been going to WDW for 40 years, so it’s not the first time WDW has changed for me. I guess what I’m saying is that WDW was, is and will be my happy place and I don’t see that the current state of affairs will change that. I try to look at the advantages of the situation, come up with a plan B and take comfort that this too shall pass.