{"id":58,"date":"2021-12-30T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-30T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=58"},"modified":"2021-12-30T13:41:22","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T13:41:22","slug":"talk-therapy-thursday-pandemic-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=58","title":{"rendered":"Talk Therapy Thursday – Pandemic Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

These types of posts I\u2019m hoping to use as a kind of therapy. A safe space to just unload my thoughts, fears, feelings, and strategies. I had a therapist a few years back, to help manage my anxiety issues, but the cost of visits, time spent, medication adjustments, and ultimately his retirement left me not seeking another therapist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first topic (and probably a recurring topic) is COVID-19. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s high on everyone\u2019s mental list of worries. Here is America (and I\u2019m sure throughout the whole world), we have quite the range of individuals. Some completely believe it\u2019s made up, some think it\u2019s not serious, some have isolated themselves from everyone and everything in an attempt to stay safe, some vaccinate, some don\u2019t. Others do everything \u201cright\u201d by masking, vaccinating, social distancing themselves, yet still catch it. Others run around with no masks, no vaccines, come in close contact with positive cases, and don\u2019t seem to catch it. This virus truly has no boundaries, no limits, and presence itself differently in every individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankly, I\u2019m tired of all of it. I don\u2019t care what people believe, or what freedoms or liberties may be getting trampled, or that the government is most certainly out to get us, or that so and so had it and it wasn\u2019t that bad, or you know someone who died, or was on a ventilator for weeks, or has long COVID, etc\u2026 I know it sounds heartless to say it out loud, but it\u2019s so hard to find empathy when it\u2019s basically the same shit day in and day out. There\u2019s not a dinner table out there that hasn\u2019t had pandemic talk. We are sliding into our third year of dealing with this, and it\u2019s exhausting. And yeah, I had to do the math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 2020 \u2013 America started shutting down. My oldest daughter\u2019s birthday is March 6th<\/sup>, and we had traveled up the Wizarding World Comicon in Cleveland. I now know that it was in the news in the few months before, but at this point in time, I hadn\u2019t heard of it. Just a few weeks later our Girl Scout cookie booths were cancelled, it was everywhere in the news and social media, the public was panicking, and we had no idea what was going to happen next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Our last weekend of cookie booths in 2020. This was right before everything shut down, and we had no idea what we were in store for, no idea if we would be financial responsible for cookies we didn’t sell, and no idea how much this would impact the future.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

June 2021 \u2013 Over one year in and masking and capacity restrictions lifted in most of Ohio. Vaccines were rolling out, people wanted back to \u201cnormal\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

December 2021 \u2013 Cases are at the highest since recording started. In my county, there have been 17,618 cases reported as of 12\/28\/21, with 325 deaths. Our 2019 population was 115,710. That means over 15% of my county\u2019s population has been infected. We are worried about Delta and Omicron variants, some local companies are terminating employees that aren\u2019t vaccinated, other companies are taking surveys on which employees are vaccinated, in the event the government mandates go forward and vaccination becomes a requirement for employment in most companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are just getting ready to start another Girl Scout cookie season, and I\u2019m hesitant to order big this time. In 2020, most of our booths were over with before the shutdown occurred, so we ended with 165 boxes that weren\u2019t sold, and our council took a big hit by letting troops donate unsold cookies to food pantries. Last year, we participated in booths, but some of the better spots did not let us set up. Mask mandates were in place, and 95% of people we dealt with followed the mandates and were masked. Everyone was just so happy so see a bit of normalcy that although we didn\u2019t sell quite the number we normally do, it was only because we were reserved with numbers and didn\u2019t expose ourselves nearly as much as if it were a regular selling season. Now, mandates are cancelled, new variants are around, politics and people are surrounded by tension, and the future few months seem so clouded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 2022 \u2013 We will be entering Year 3 of the pandemic. It\u2019s no longer a matter of if, but when will we catch it, and how bad will we have it? It\u2019s hard to quarantine in a house with 6 people, 1 bathroom, and shared bedrooms. We go places on occasion. We still have Girl Scout meetings. The girls still have karate lessons (although it is only private lessons, not group). I am by far the most exposed since I work retail, so I am out of the house and exposed to people at least 3 days a week. There are people we know who are more careful than we are, that currently have it, so I feel like we are on borrowed time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentially, it\u2019s a waiting game, and it really plays on my anxiety\u2026 How will this event shape the future of my kids? How will it continuously impact mine? Will things ever be back to \u201cnormal\u201d, or will time now be split into the \u201cbefore time\u201d, and the \u201cafter time\u201d or \u201cnew normal\u201d? Are we all going to carry around a form of PTSD from this? Will the stigma surrounding mental heath change? Will our healthcare change? Will work from home options become more easily attainable and permanent? Will online ordering and curbside pickup surpass spending hours shopping in a store for groceries? Will spending more time at home foster more creativity in kids, or will they become more socially isolated?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world has a lot of evolving to do over the next number of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, I still care, and I still worry, but man, this is getting tiring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These types of posts I\u2019m hoping to use as a kind of therapy. A safe space to just unload my thoughts, fears, feelings, and strategies. I had a therapist a few years back, to help manage my anxiety issues, but the cost of visits, time spent, medication adjustments, and ultimately his retirement left me not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,28],"tags":[32,33,31,25,29,30],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ramblings","category-talk-therapy","tag-covid-19","tag-girl-scouts","tag-pandemic","tag-ramblings","tag-talk-therapy","tag-talk-therapy-thursday"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=3000%2C1500&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=89","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":0},"title":"Talk Therapy Thursday – Domestic Goddess","date":"January 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you ever feel like you are doing it all? I mean EVERYTHING! From work, to scheduling appointments, to house work, to meal planning, to cooking, to cleaning, to organizing... The list goes on, believe me. And then something happens that sets up back a bit. You take time for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ramblings"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":716,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=716","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":1},"title":"Do What You Love…","date":"February 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Groundhog Day! Phil has told us Spring is in the air. No shadow this year (despite us being able to see his shadow, apparently it did not spook him). See that shadow, and his smug look \ud83e\udd23 Have you ever watched this ceremony? All those guys with top hats,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Holidays"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":714,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=714","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":2},"title":"Reflections on Life","date":"January 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Things always seem to be busy. I have tons of blog posts I haven't written. We've been doing house renovations, the older two kids started ground school, we've had holidays, gone to see real mummies, went to the hills, had our last visit (unless someone breaks something) with the Orthopedic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Day to Day Happenings"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":164,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=164","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":3},"title":"Another One Bites The Dust","date":"July 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I was supposed to go back to work. It's been six days since the last positive test, and the CDC recommends testing 5 days after. Well today, daughter #2 says she might have caught covid, because her head hurts. One test later, and she's positive. One test later, I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Day to Day Happenings"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":158,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=158","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":4},"title":"It Finally Caught Us!","date":"June 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"We had our theater show over the weekend, so we were around a lot of people. I figure that's where we finally picked it up. COVID-19 has finally found our house. The husband has had a tickle in his throat, I've felt a bit fatigued, and daughter #3 spiked a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Medical Stuff"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1070,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=1070","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":5},"title":"2026… Bracing for Impact","date":"January 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The world is a mess, and everyone is just trying to survive. That seemed to be 2025's theme, but it didn't start off that way. Logging back into this blog, I see 4 draft posts for 2024 that I never finished. They need photos and refinement. 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