Actual serious PSA

******Actual serious PSA*******

I've spent at least the last five years or so basically home alone, doing nothing and pretty broke. I see some of you struggling with being home and worried about money, so here are some things I've learned.

There are plenty of distractions like TV and reading, video games, social media, etc, but none of them are satisfying if you find yourself in the wrong frame of mind doing them. Don't think of it as something you're forced to do while you'd rather be doing something else. You have to train yourself to live in the moment, even if what you're doing in that moment isn't your first choice. A lot of things are free or cheap, so you don't have to spend money that you don't have.
In that regard, learn to enjoy things you look on as a chore. Cooking is a prime example. We tend to tell ourselves that we don't have time to cook, but now you're going to have lots of time. Cooking is fun and satisfying. Deep clean your place. Don't just run a vacuum over the floor for a minute, clean and organize. Fix the little things you've been putting off or propping up. Go through that closet full of stuff you haven't looked at in years and get rid of what you don't want.

Keep in touch. There are going to be a bunch of people you know in the same boat. Reach out, and connect. You can still be social while social distancing. Join or make a secret group on Facebook, where you and your friends or family can stay in touch and be more open and at ease with each other. When you spend too much time alone, you live in your own head, and that's no place you want to spend too much of your time. Keeping in contact with people keeps you sane. More on that later…

Get some exercise. If you have any home exercise equipment currently acting as a coat rack, start using it. You can do aerobics or yoga in your living room(close the drapes, no one needs to see that!), and there are plenty of exercise routines online to follow along with. Go for a walk or bike ride. You can practice social distancing and still be outside.

Find new hobbies and activities. Take up knitting, learn to sew and patch your old clothes. Try drawing or writing, or learn to play that guitar you bought five years ago and gave up on when you found out about f chords. Organize your old photos and make a scrapbook or album. Learn to meditate. Go online and learn something like a language or photoshop or a million other online courses. There are millions of things to do to pass the time, and improve some areas of your life along the way, and millions of sites to tell you about them and instruct you.

Find some apps and games on your phones. I know that a lot of people don't care about video games and such, but there are so many different kinds of games out there to pass the time. First off, any stuff you used to do in newspapers and magazines and real life is on your phone. Crossword puzzles, Sudoku, jumbles, cryptograms, trivia quizzes, jigsaw puzzles, slot machines, poker and card games, you name it. There are games where you build civilizations, simulate evolution, role playing games, racing games, action games, and versions of a lot of the older arcade and console games that you loved. They don't require much from you, and they really help pass the time.

Make meal plans and stick to them. Eat your perishables first. We all joke about how we buy food, and wind up throwing it away because we just order take out. You might not have that option soon, so start now.
Also, when you're bored, you eat, so be careful not to snack yourself into a coma. Put your snack foods away in a cabinet so you're not seeing them every time you walk into the kitchen. Out of sight, out of mind.

Regarding TV, there are more viewing options than ever out there. If you look, there are probably a bunch of shows and movies you forgot about or just missed. We are living in a golden age of television, where TV shows are better than most theatrical releases. Streaming has lots of free or cheap optims. A lot of people feel guilty about watching too much TV because they think it's wasting time when they should be doing other things, but now you'll have all the time in the world. So watch to your heart's content. Discover new stuff and expand your horizons, indulge in your guilty pleasures, or just watch comfort TV to take your mind off of things. Same thing with music. Take this time to discover bands and music you haven't had time to discover when your life was so busy.

Keep a routine. You can find yourself quickly letting things slide. You find yourself putting off taking showers. You eat at all times of the day or night. Your sleep schedule goes to hell. Figure out a routine, and stick with it, no matter how pointless it seems at times.

As far as money goes, there are going to be lots of relief efforts for people, and public pressure will force things like mortgage payments and rent and utilities to be put on hold. If you get behind in your bills, talk to the companies you owe money to. They will work with you, and you can make arrangements to pay what you can, and it won't affect your credit score. Even if it does, credit scores can be fixed fairly easily once you're doing well again. Don't just ignore it!

You might think that since I wrote this, I must be in great shape, my place must be impeccably clean, and my life in perfect order, but we all know it's not. I can write about the pitfalls you might encounter because I've fallen into just about every one of them along the way. A big part of that is because depression can grab hold of you pretty quickly when you're isolated. Humans are social animals, and that's hard wired into us and not about to change.
When you become even a little bit isolated, you can feel like you have nothing to look forward to, and that there's no point in doing a lot of the things you know you should, because who's going to notice? That's a bad road to go down. There are a lot of different types of depression, and one of the most insidious is just getting worn down and you stop trying. It usually gets you because it's not a chemical thing. It's not something you've ever dealt with or experienced before, so you have no frame of reference. It happens gradually, and you don't see it and you deny it's happening. There's no magic pill or real convenient treatment plan for when you just let your life get away from you. It just becomes your new normal. You can crawl out of it with some herculean effort, but it's much easier to just not let yourself get to that point in the first place. Trust me. You want to guard against it.
Just as bad as depression is the anxiety and neurosis that comes along with isolation. Especially if you're not working and your life loses structure and routine. I mentioned about living in your own head, but that's what can happen as the hours and days start to blur. When you start thinking too much, it can multiply every worry or fear that pops into your mind. You have to guard against it. You need to talk to other people, you need to have distractions, otherwise you can eat yourself up from the inside.

If you're having trouble, reach out to friends and family. Keep in mind that there are a lot of people who aren't very good at offering advice or being comforting, or even just being good listeners. You might have to talk to a few people to figure out who is capable of truly being there for you. Work to be good at it too, because people are going to need you as well. Being judgemental or defensive or dismissive isn't going to help anyone, so try to be understanding and patient.

If we all work together, we'll get through this, so don't give up and don't give in.