Couch 212: The French Vanilla couch

Why did no military strategist in all of history realise you could paralyse so many countries by buying up all their toilet paper ?

Our kids k-12 schools have been closed now as well until the end of March. Our human services department is closed until the 23rd at least...guess who accidentally turned in their reapplication for food stamps late and now has nothing...me! We have some money on our credit cards so I went out and bought some groceries to help get us through hopefully a week.
So far I'm pretty sure our CPS team meeting will be canceled since the only other way to do it would be through phone or video chat. I haven't heard anything from T1 about canceling tomorrow morning.

The virus has come to my partner's teeny tiny town. They're probably closing schools and I don't know how this will affect my visa. This isn't going to die out by June, according to experts. It'll be at least till the end of the year.

Our toddler appeared briefly in two of my wife's Zoom meetings yesterday. My wife already loves working from home and enjoyed showing off the kid to her coworkers. I think things will be different for a while, but not all of it will be bad.

Yeah, my son and his gf had planned to go there next weekend - he just cancelled their hotel reservations last night. At least the tickets are good until 2022 or something so they're thinking maybe they'll go in August instead. Hopefully this all is settled by then but who knows.

I hope it helped talking about it. I'm considering calling L for one or two sessions just to talk over this stuff. Don't wanna call new t that I haven't really decided on yet for this, cuz don't wanna have to get into the whole intake crap and background and all that right now. She knows me already.



i'm going to rant now so I'm triggering it. feel free to ignore.

I'm with you, Artie. It's getting impossible to get away from.

My brother's medical school, UCL,Kings, and my school have closed down all teaching and placements.

My class being the eager beavers that they are have managed to still get our ENT exam to go ahead but postponed one week later.

Sorry I've been absent. Just in my own world with the usual exam drama, but with CV I've been active on other forums.

I hope you do call L up and arrange something.

It helped me at times to just take a step back and stop reading the live updates. Do something that helps ground you and helps you feel safe? I've been sleeping a lot more.

Do you have extra food in?

How late was the application by?

Do you have any food banks in the area, that could help for the following week?

I’m getting a crush on Dr. Fauci.

I love watching Dr. Fauci as well!

They're doing a thing in my school district where, while schools are closed, they're having pickup spots around the county every day where kids can get a bag lunch (I don't think they need proof of anything). Maybe see if anything like that is going on where you are? Or maybe a food pantry, though I imagine they might be cleaned out right now...

I imagine he's quite...sanitary.

Hugs, Artie. I think it did help to talk about and just get it all out. So I think contacting L would make sense. And I understand wanting to talk to someone you know rather than a new T. Much of my anxiety is about the anxiety going on around me as well. And I also am having trouble not reading articles about it. Doesn't help that like half of my emails are from places like local restaurants saying "Here's what we're doing to keep people safe."

I also emailed Dr. T last night after I found out (shortly after session) that they're closing schools for 2 weeks starting Monday. I partly wanted him to reassure me I'd get through it and also to make sure he planned to keep working in some capacity, even if by phone. Here's part of his reply from this morning (he also gave some specific advice re: creating a schedule with my D, but won't include all that):

"I hope you were able to get some sleep last night after the anxiety and fear so many people are experiencing over the virus. So much seems to have changed so quickly in how the US is approaching it! I will absolutely be working, and you are correct - I may end up doing some remote sessions depending on how things proceed and the preferences of my clients. I will make sure to communicate any changes as early as possible."

I think just knowing he plans to keep working and will let me know as early as he can if he has to switch to a phone session helped.

So I hope you're able to contact L and that she can help.

I think the Manatee had a great post on another thread, suggesting looking at events that could be read as anxiety or alarmism or panic as positive signs of people coming together: https://psychcentralforums.com/6792361-post9.html

I think also the way private enterprise and private citizens are both stepping up is a strong suggestion we’ll get through this. And we’ll be okay.

But yeah, if you have anxiety it can be tough. Remember many of the really bad-sounding stories are worst-case scenarios and they’re partly intended to get the people who still aren’t taking this seriously to take it seriously.

Its not much different for me. I already was socially distancing. And as long as there is water and electricity, im pretty good. I have rice and lentils and some freeze dried veg, if it comes to that. Incl tomato, so i wont get scurvy? Altho i would run out of meds eventually.

My workplace has decided to indefinitely implement a work from home policy. I knew this was coming eventually, but having it become reality has caused my anxiety to flare majorly. I depend on sitting near and occasionally talking with these people or at least hearing their conversations to meet my bare minimum of social needs. I'm not even sure the bare minimum level is being met, but it's something at least. Now I'm stuck at home, alone, for likely at least the next three weeks. I'm not sure I can do this.

NP--maybe the TV on in the background would help? (Not the news.)

I've been collecting funny tweets to reread if I get down. This one was a few days ago: "Hypochondriac introverts, this is our moment!"

OMG! I can't stop laughing! Thanks ATAT

Yes, thank you @LonesomeTonight! I actually received emails and texts this morning stating the school district my oldest attend is doing it starting Tuesday, and it doesn't matter what district they attend. It's a drive up and go thing where they'll provide lunch and breakfast for the next day so you only have to come by once a day instead of twice like some districts are doing. And I think they said they'll be working with local food pantries to help out as well. My father lives with us and bought some groceries too, so we should be okay. Just caused a lot of initial panic for me the past 2 days.

They even closed Mt Everest.

Eta - i gotta admit, this strikes me kinda funny. Just goes to show you how commercial its become. YOU CANT CLOSE A MOUNTAIN!!!

I'm angry about the scarcity mindset causing the shelves to be completely bare of toilet paper, bread, cleaning supplies and hand soap. Ramen noodles too! We weren't doomsday prepping, we are sincerely out of staples. I'll be cutting up old clothes to wipe our butts! We have enough to go around if people wouldn't be so damn greedy.

This is my largely unpopular opinion on diseases etc its a population control the earth knows what it is doing. People usually look at me like i am insane but i dont really care that is what i was brought up to believe in my family.

All of the usual big box places around me are out of toilet paper, but apparently the off-the-beaten-path/hippie grocery places have some. Might be worth checking out if you have anything like that near you. You could even check office supply or hardware stores if you're really desperate.