Living In A Ghost Town
The coronavirus pandemic is every bit as mental as it is physical. You are not in the clear if you don’t have physical symptoms because your perception on reality has now been altered. It’s not like you purposely altered your perception; it just happened as a reaction to the virus infecting humanity. Just take a look outside and you will see how quiet the streets are; ghosts have replaced human beings.
New York is not what it used to be. It now takes 30 minutes to get from eastern Queens to Washington Heights where Columbia University is located; on a normal day, it would take 45-60 minutes. Walking down the streets of Manhattan, very few people can be observed. Almost everyone is wearing a mask and you don’t even have to wait at a red light if you are attempting to cross the street; no cars are coming in the opposite direction!
There are more parked cars than there are moving vehicles. Sadly, people are either at home or in the hospital; society feels totally shut down. At least hospital cafeterias and coffee shops remain open; there are no lines and the food options have decreased greatly. But you can still get a nice warm veggie pizza however!
No more long Starbucks lines. You can now receive your Caramel Frappuccino in a couple of minutes. But as you slowly make your way back outside, you unconsciously start to panic after you see the empty streets again. You also develop a dry cough . . . “Does this mean that I have COVID-19?”
As you very well may now, this time of the year you are still susceptible to acquiring a common cold or the flu. But because of the coronavirus slowly destroying society, you start to freak out when your cough persists. Your anxiety level starts to build as you wonder if you are walking around infected. If you are living alone at home, you start to become sad as you start to feel isolated and distanced from society.
But then you remind yourself that the rest of the world is isolated at home too and that you’re not the only one. But does that help?
Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)
DSM (Defeating Stigma Mindfully) 
I believe that this virus is affecting more people mentally than the actual physical virus itself. Hopefully people can snap out of this hysteria and take this opportunity to improve on their health, gain knowledge, and better themselves in whatever way they need to. In a calming manner of course.
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It’s very mental! Agreed!
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I’ve felt so much stress and anxiety through this social distancing time! I have so many balls in the air (closing on the sale of our house next week, trying to move, trying to locate a halfway house for Matt when he’s released in a few weeks) and it sometimes literally causes tightness in my chest and shortness of breath. Then I start thinking in the back of my mind “is this the virus?” and, logically, I know it’s not because I’m not sick but sometimes you can’t help but think it. Everything just feels like we’re stuck in limbo right now and the last few days have felt like weeks.
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Exactly. It’s a very mentally impactful situation!
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