In addition to the pandemic we all face from COVID19, we also face some serious mental health issues. Hoarding, obsessing, denial, the list is long right now. Even several people in my cycling community are not taking the social distancing seriously. They’re riding 8-20 in a pack of people, under the presumption that they’re outside and they’ll be okay.
What happens when it’s cold and your nose starts to run? What happens if you brush up against someone else and that snot gets transferred? And now what we’re learning is that someone can have COVID19 without showing any symptoms, making this virus nearly impossible to contain.
Here’s a link to a post by an Italian who is about 15 days ahead of the US as far as impact is. Their medical system is overwhelmed and health care providers are having to make war time like decisions on who lives and who dies. This is really happening people.
My husband has been in Canada for the past 10 days, coaching a group of young cyclists and in a bubble. When shit hit the fan last Wednesday, I urged him to get those kids on a plane. The other coaches weren’t concerned. They decided to stay. Then their competition was canceled. Then the venue was closed. Each day that passes new closures are announced, our way of living changes, people hoard things because they feel like they can control what’s going on around them by doing so. I find myself obsessively cleaning things and then cooking making sure nothing goes to waste.
Ben comes home tomorrow and it can’t come soon enough. I head to the airport to pick him up in our van and already warned him about wiping everything down with disinfectant, insisting that he strip down when he walks in the door so we can laundry everything, trying to prevent any un-welcomed germs in our house, our safe place. Is that even possible?
He told me he was worried about my mental health today by the lists I created online. So I stopped checking media, I took a well needed break today. And then tonight I looked and more devastating news continues to come in from new sources. I’m worried for my mom in the heart of Seattle, I’m worried for my brother who is a type one diabetic and his teenage kids who insist on having friends over, potentially exposing them all to the virus. I’m worried for all of the unnecessary deaths that are soon to become a reality.
The sooner we accept this new reality, the sooner we as a group can work together and combat this virus and save loved ones, save health providers from having to choose whose lives are worth more than someone else’s.
Please people, please stay home and take this social distancing seriously.
Professional Coaching Service 