Focus on the Positive...but Develop from the Negatives

A study released a couple weeks ago based on location data stated it was a privilege of wealth to be able to stay at home during COVID-19. My initial response was it had to do with the types of jobs residents of poorer neighborhoods are more likely to have; essential laboring like grocery stores, gas stations, and factories, as opposed to urban firms where telecommuting can get the work done. However, after observing the attitudes and life situations of certain people, I realized that attitude has an effect on their not staying home, too. Case 1 is a relapsed alcoholic with a revoked driver's license who has been in and out of jail for 20 years with DUI charges, once a felony. He moves from one cash paying job to the next but is currently unemployed. Case 2 is a divorced single mother working jobs such as bartending and waitressing, quick to quit when something does not go in her favor. She always resides with a current boyfriend until moving in with the next. Both cases are m

Coronavirus Shelter-in-Place and Stay At Home Orders Have Slowed Society Down to a Pace that Chronic Pain Sufferers Can Adequately Keep Up with and Have Reduced Social Commitments to the Level Introverts Actually Prefer  We've all seen the posts of people complaining about being bored with social distancing and missing their social lives. But have you noticed any other post themes? Or perhaps you are one who is feeling opposite. I have seen people with social anxiety or even just introverts post their life isn't much different. I've even heard of anxiety actually decreasing for some, knowing there is nowhere to be and everyone else is home, too. Perhaps because it is easier to go through things in large numbers – until the pandemic panic anxiety sets back in, of course! For those with chronic pain or other conditions normally trying to push enough to just sustain everyday life, it has suddenly become easier for some people who do not have essen

Before you complain about your current COVID-19 circumstances, remind yourself that it could always be worse.... Before you complain about being stuck at home bored, Remind yourself that there is someone else stuck at home, too, who had a special party, concert, or other social event cancelled. But before you complain about not being able to celebrate your milestone birthday or having to cancel a vacation you planned for a year, Remind yourself that someone else had to postpone their wedding or won't have the graduation ceremony they earned. However, before you complain about having to miss a traditional celebration or reschedule a once-in-a-lifetime event, Remind yourself that some people are off work without pay, wondering how they will be able to just live normally from day to day. But before you complain about being laid off from your job temporarily, Remind yourself that some people have lost their jobs completely. They will need to look for new work