How Long Before You Crack Up?

[Camerus]

Still employed. Working from home now, but go in once a week. I'm slightly less worried about getting my job cut than some might be, but do forsee some kind of looming pay cut. Wife is also WFH now. Fortunately we have no kids and no debt other than a very tiny mortgage, so paying the bills is for now less of a concern for us than for some folks. We also have potentially formidable support networks on her side of the family should our luck change and if it comes to that (but hopefully it will not, obviously).

However, emotionally it's a burden. I worry about my parents who insisted for years on still living in a city where none of their kids live anymore and who are thus all alone. I'm not super social, but nor am I exceptionally introverted and miss bars, movie theaters, malls and the like. I find myself obsessing too much about wiping things down a lot, washing my hands more than is probably necessary even now, feeling anxiety about coming too close to people when going on my daily walks, etc.  All that is rather unpleasant.

I suppose we humans are adaptable and this may all become easier in the coming weeks. But at the current rate I suppose I could take this until after Easter or so.

[Legbiter]

I worry about my elderly family members and relatives. We've a pretty good setup at home with the boys, we'll muddle through. More optimistic the health care system won't blow up because our ramp-up capabilities seem to double every week. We were very lucky, the US shutting down early flights from China may have saved us, plus no superspreaders.

[mongers]

I'm pretty much there. 

I was saying to someone the other day, just over a month ago I was looking forward to a vacation I had planned in Malta for June. In the heart of winter driving, I was picturing myself, my first evening there, sitting on the hotel balcony facing the Mediterranean, drinking a beer and enjoying life.
Now that's all come to shit. Not just the holiday. Looks like I'm losing my job soon. And no matter how long this virus lockdown lasts, what comes after it is going to be extremely difficult for most people. Lifes gonna be shit for several years.
A few years ago, my parents, who are elderly were having trouble going out, and i made the decision of moving into their home, it made more sense than me driving there every day to visit. So now, I'm stuck in a house with two elderly people, who are bored silly.
And yeah, I go through my days now, with a terrible knot in my stomach.

Josq, that's hard, but you did the right thing for your parents. I'm halfway to your situation.

I know exactly what you mean about the knot in the stomach, I think fairly soon I'm going to have to stop caring and worrying and accept what will happen will happen. I've done the best I can and nature now will roll the dice.

[merithyn]

Seedy has decided that I'm not going to last longer than a few weeks. He already thinks I'm losing my mind.  I'm convinced I'll be okay for at least a month or so more.

Motivation is pretty much gone. I have a lot of projects to work on and I just can't make myself do them. My friends are regularly checking in on me, and there are tons of online classes and meet ups. But I need physical connections.

I canceled all of my trips in 2020, which made me cry. Sorry, Syt, but Austria isn't going to happen this year.  I know that's all very trivial in the grand scheme, but it's not to me. My trips keep me sane.

Financially, I'm good. I'm saving what I can so that I can help the boys and my friends who are out of work over the next few months. Unemployment will help most of them, but not all.

[Grey Fox]

A couple of months, I wager. It will get old very fast having to educate my children & also work full time without ever going anywhere.

[Syt]

I canceled all of my trips in 2020, which made me cry. Sorry, Syt, but Austria isn't going to happen this year.  I know that's all very trivial in the grand scheme, but it's not to me. My trips keep me sane.

No worries, there will be other times.

[PDH]

I'm not going to crack from being at home, I am going to crack from having to go to work and try to make sure my workers in the Mail Services are as healthy and secure as I can make it.  I really figure in a week or so we will know the effects on me and my staff, corona-wise.

[celedhring]

I miss social life. Coffee breaks, eating out, going for some beers, that sort of thing. My flat is also way too small for this kind of thing.
As for how long, I'm afraid we will see. Even if general quarantine is lifted, I can't see myself working normally with the bug out there. I might have to go on medical leave and continued isolation. Which would suck balls.

Also worried about finances, of course. It was hard enough to win projects competing with Eastern Europe, and now this. I very much doubt cars are going to take off (haha!) until we get a working vaccine. So I could very possibly lose my job. And it's not the sort of job in abundance in Spain.

Yeah, pretty worried about my finances too. Even if the quarantine is lifted in May, the summer months are usually pretty dead for me. And by autumn my savings will run dry.

[Razgovory]

I've gone 20 years like this.  I bet I can do another 20.

[mongers]

I've gone 20 years like this.  I bet I can do another 20.

That's the spirit Raz.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Because I'm the principal carer of someone with profound autism my movements have been circumscribed for years. The problem we do have here is preserving his mental health when he has no hope of understanding why everything has got weird. Perhaps paradoxically the work we are having to do to keep him entertained is helping to keep our morale high. My wife can do all her work from home so is incredibly busy.....her main risk is getting annoyed with all the people going on about how they don't know what to do with all the free time.

[Josquius]

Yes. I've heard there's been a lot of trouble at shelters for autistic adults trying to keep people under control and explaining they can't go out anymore. They have no idea what to do if  there's an outbreak in one.

My girlfriend works at an autistic school. Since there's far fewer kids there these days normal class schedule doesn't apply. One kid was told he could use the computer as much as he wanted that day.
He wasn't having it. Threw a tantrum.
He had to do his maths and English and get rewarded with tokens before he could use the computer.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Sounds about right 

I'm not sure what will happen if we get completely confined to barracks; lobby for an exemption I guess. The problem is that if he loses it he will start smashing his head against the wall; a long walk precludes that.

[mongers]

I think for some people, those not as far-sighted/pessimistic as 'us', the weight and importance of the restrictions are really dawning now.

At least that's what I've learned from talking with family.

[Sheilbh]

I feel like there was a baby-boom thread somewhere.

But just saw that Shanghai divorce lawyers are seeing a boom in demand since the lockdown's started easing