Quarantine Thoughts #1
Mar. 21st, 2020 10:44 pmA couple of things have occurred to me as the rest of North America/Europe seems to be going mad self-quarantining: my life doesn't feel all that much different. Part of it is a fairly weak IRL social network where I have physically been the last little while, but more to the point it is this: living with your head on fire most of your adult life is excellent training for current times.
Anxiety about things I can't control? Yes, plenty of that. Feeling cooped up and trapped in a space as small as your own body? That, too! Having to split the difference between justifiable precautions and spiralling paranoia? Sure.
Many things are not the same, of course: the public health risks, the economic explosions on a macroscopic level, the careful balance between hoarding and stocking up, &c. But in some weird way, this feels like the world is normalising in the direction of the neuro-atypical, and all the posts on trying not to lose your mind when trapped indoors and managing your work-from-home life balance and anxiety sound like conversations that have gone on in my own head a million times before.
Anxiety about things I can't control? Yes, plenty of that. Feeling cooped up and trapped in a space as small as your own body? That, too! Having to split the difference between justifiable precautions and spiralling paranoia? Sure.
Many things are not the same, of course: the public health risks, the economic explosions on a macroscopic level, the careful balance between hoarding and stocking up, &c. But in some weird way, this feels like the world is normalising in the direction of the neuro-atypical, and all the posts on trying not to lose your mind when trapped indoors and managing your work-from-home life balance and anxiety sound like conversations that have gone on in my own head a million times before.