Today I’m writing a short post in order to share some thoughts based on this past week. Now that I’m living in the USA for a spell, things are picking up here, as governments (local, state, federal), businesses, schools, and other institutions are finally awakening to the potential health crisis.

Everyone who reads or watches the news ought to be familiar with the mantra of washing hands, social distancing, etc., so no need to harp on that. Here are some additional suggestions for those among us who are going through the condition of “Coronoia,” a full-blown overreaction to the news of the outbreak here in the USA.

This is not to make light of this health crisis, as you’ve seen from previous blogs I’ve written lately. Still, we do need to pull ourselves together if we’re gonna get through this. Some of these suggestions are based on my own personal experiences over the past few weeks as I left China with my daughters during the peak of the viral madness and came back to my home country, the USA.

1)    Get some sleep. Cannot overemphasize the importance of good sleep. For those whose anxiety levels are now seriously heightened, it’s easy to spend your wee hours tossing and turning and fretting and worrying. If this is happening, try to prevent it from doing so, since this just creates a vicious cycle of exhaustion and fear, and makes you even more susceptible to illness. Best to leave off reading news reports in the late evening hours. Better to grab a good book or watch a show or have a conversation with a loved one—call up your long lost friends and relatives, especially the older ones who are more vulnerable in this health crisis. If you need something else to help you nod off, take some medication; I use melatonin and it works like a charm. Get your 8 hours of sleep in on a regular basis, especially now that you can afford to do so, since you ain’t goin’ nowhere for a while. (This applies to those who, like me are now working from home during regular hours of course).

2)    Take long walks outdoors. Nature has a calming influence, and if you have access to woods, parklands, seashores, and other relatively uncrowded places, make the most of them. Sunshine especially helps, but even cold, cloudy or rainy weather is no excuse for not getting outside and raising your heart rate for a while. This doesn’t necessarily substitute for strong aerobic exercise, which you should also try to get on a regular basis. Go out with a loved one, an old friend whom you trust, or just by yourself, and have a long walk and a good conversation (with yourself if not with others). This will also help you to achieve (1) above.

3)    Please resist hoarding. Over the past few days, I’ve personally witnessed our local supermarkets getting stripped of things such as toilet paper and other paper products, as well as pasta, canned goods, bread, and other items. Our local CVS is out of hand sanitizer and a worker there told me that people were lining up nearly two hours before it opened at 8 am on Thursday to get their hands on the latest supply. Hand sanitizer doesn’t hurt, but soap and warm water are much more effective, or so I’ve read consistently in health reports. My guess is that once the current frenzy abates, these items (sans the sanitizer) will still be in abundant supply. So no need to fill your shopping cart with ten bales of TP or twenty boxes of spaghetti unless you are hosting an army of 50 people over the next month. Consider all the others who need things too. Their safety is your safety.

4)    If you have children, put them on a schedule now. Don’t wait for them to adjust to the new regime. No matter how disciplined or well-behaved they may be, kids will have trouble adjusting to a home-schooling routine, so best to establish some basic guidelines and routines at the very beginning. For me, the difficulty of doing so has been compounded by our traveling through different time zones and moving to different locations over the past month. Now that we’re settled in my folks’ home in Acton Mass., I’m hoping to get my daughters on a regular rhythm. Work out a schedule with them and award them for sticking with it. This includes wakeup time, showers, meals, schoolwork time, play time, and exercise. (Will let you know how this goes for me, as I’m still working on it myself).

5)    Limit your time with news and social media. The outbreak is a huge bonanza for news services, who have focused almost all of their attention on this global story. To be sure, there’s good reason now to pay attention to what’s going on in the world, but the world goes on nonetheless. Don’t go down endless rabbit-holes of news reports and social media posts about coronavirus, as everyone seems to be doing now. Things will get worse before they get better, that’s for sure. But as long as you are doing your part, whether through your work (in my case, online teaching and writing), social distancing yourself and your loved ones, helping your children with their home-schooling, helping friends and relatives to cope, and so on, there’s no need to keep abreast every moment with all the bad news out there. Better to set limits to when, where, and how you access news. Lately, I’ve been turning more to local news reports, such as our Town of Acton webpage, and to regional news. To be sure, I’m just as bad as others out there, peeking at the New York Times and Facebook in the wee hours of the night over the past week, but now I’m trying to change my habits as we accept the circumstances.

I sincerely hope that these points are helpful to those who are suffering from a serious case of Coronoia right now. Stay safe, protect yourself and your families, and try to remain positive in these hard times!