Yes, it’s another post that references Coronavirus. I know it’s annoying since it’s all that we are currently hearing about, but please keep reading. I promise to have a different perspective.
So many people have asked me recently how I’m handling all of this, knowing I have contamination OCD. Gosh, I love them. I love that I’ve created an open space for discussion around the topic by not being ashamed to talk about OCD.
In short. I don’t even know what the hell to think. I honestly never thought I would have to live through something like this in my lifetime. I didn’t see it coming. I thought it was honestly going to be like the Ebola scare we had in 2014. It was able to get to a few places, but it was nipped and gone within a few weeks. I guess that is what I get for being a little naive when it comes to our government, or when it comes to people being smart and proactive. To be completely honest, BEFORE the scare came to the US, I was taking weekly hypnosis sessions with Tim Shurr at Indy Hypnosis (he’s AMAZING by the way) to conquer my contamination OCD. I had gotten through 3 weeks before there was a case of COVID-19 confirmed in Indy. I noticed it was helping me so much to really separate the compulsive thoughts from realistic thought. I was genuinely feeling so much relief, getting better sleep, working out again and trying to eat less and then BOOM…..Indy has a confirmed case of COVID-19. Not Northern Indiana, not Southern Indiana….Indianapolis, 15 minutes from our home. Though, I did hear it was a case on the North side of Indy, so I’ll say 35 minutes from our home. It shocked me. I don’t know why it shocked me, but it did. That was last Friday, March 6th. That evening a report was on Fox 59’s website that a Hendricks Co woman had all the symptoms and was trying to get tested and no one would test her. That kinda brought it much closer to home for me and I honestly started to think about what would happen if it ACTUALLY came to Hendricks Co (where we live). I didn’t even really get the chance to process most of it before Sunday morning there WAS an actual case confirmed, followed by another positive case Sunday night. These confirmed cases were in a town about 5 miles from our house. I was SHOCKED and scared and unsure what the heck to do.
Since last Sunday (March 8th), I feel like all freakin’ pandemonium has broken loose in Indiana. I mean, it could be worse, that’s for sure, but it feels like an extreme amount of information has been thrown at us within 5 days time. Let me try to paint you a picture of how this feels.
I think you should realize that any type of “outbreak” or “epidemic”, and definitely a “pandemic” is basically someone who has contamination OCD’s WORST NIGHTMARE come true. It really is. It is the worst possible scenario we could ever think of. It’s so scary to us, it doesn’t even register as something that can actually happen. Let me make something clear, it’s not just the outbreak of this particular virus that is the worst nightmare, it has nothing to do with that (at least for me), it’s the fact that we have a global pandemic virus outbreak that is our worst nightmare.
I jokingly told my husband about a week ago that if the government truly wanted to keep Coronavirus out of the US, they should have hired about 200 people with contamination OCD to make sure it didn’t happen because we are ALWAYS 10 steps ahead of any type of preparedness or prevention measures that a non OCD person would put in place. It’s true though. Part of having contamination OCD is thinking many many steps ahead of the average person and thinking in great detail with extreme caution, of all the little things no everyday person would think about. Hence, why our brains are constantly in fight or flight mode…which causes all the stress and anxiety. Our brains DO NOT STOP OR SLOW DOWN.
So, our schools are closed, my company has put several preventative measures in place for large meetings, travel, cleaning and such and I’m going to try to get set up to work from home, which may or may not work out since my company laptop is a few years old and hasn’t been used in a while (it may not be compatible anymore and of course now there is a shortage of new laptops since everyone is trying to work from home). Our kids haven’t asked many questions to be honest. Brayden (our 5th grader) is just excited to be out of school, but he doesn’t realize e-learning is still like going to school and will start for him bright and early tomorrow morning (bahahahaha) and our kindergartner Mason hasn’t asked a single thing, mainly because I haven’t talked to him about what is happening in the world right now and aside from what his teacher has talked about in school, I feel like he really doesn’t need to know everything because he wouldn’t understand much anyway. All he needs to understand right now is to make sure he’s washing his hands for the entire birthday song haha.
Our grocery stores are OUT OF EVERYTHING by the time I can get there for grocery pick up through the week and even Target has gone to rationing out TP and Clorox until about 11 am when they run out completely. I will add that the past couple weeks whenever I had to place an order for groceries or our normal Target “home items”, I ordered things like children’s Tylenol and a can of Lysol and a package of Clorox wipes, just to have a little inventory in case the shit hit the fan. Well, I guess I should have ordered more of the Lysol and threw in some TP and hand sanitizer because now it’s all NO WHERE TO BE FOUND. You know things are bad when you can’t even find it on Amazon. Again, things I thought I would never witness hearing “the US is out of hand sanitizer, toilet paper, wet ones and Lysol and can’t keep shelves stocked”. As someone who is a frequent user of alllllll these things, it’s freaking me out. I use wet ones to open every door I use at work and in public while out shopping. I use them as soon as I get back in my car when I’m out and about and I use them to wipe the lids of my coffee from Starbucks when the barista with dirty money hands gives me my coffee. I literally use them for everything. I use a lot of Lysol this time of year, just for everyday things like spraying the couch down every night (school germs and dirty kids ha), the fridge handles and door knobs and the boys’ backpacks and coats. I don’t do these things in the summer or even spring, but I do during flu season (which apparently we’ve pushed aside at this point).
In a twist of perspective on this, I want to say that it comforts me that schools, businesses and stores are cleaning more. The truth of the matter is that I FEEL like they should have been cleaning this much during flu season anyways! I mean, it would drastically improve student, employee and customer well being if these cleaning measures were just a normal thing from December to March every year. Just sayin’.
Another plot twist to me is that it’s crazy to see people worrying now about “all the things”, since I’ve been worrying about all the same things for over 7 years, only to be met with little understanding from hardly anyone, lots of eye rolls and sometimes ridicule. Welcome to the worries and anxieties of normal everyday life for someone with contamination OCD, world. It sucks. Maybe this will teach some people to understand more and be more empathetic. Kinda funny how when you have to adapt to a certain lifestyle, you suddenly see how difficult it is and how much it changes your every day life.
So here we are. Sunday, March 15th. What normally would be a time of happiness with spring finally approaching, baseball season starting, March Madness bets going, kids looking forward to spring break and people gearing up for yard work has turned into everyone staying home, “social distancing”, stalking the kids with the stock carts at the grocery store for toilet paper and living in a state of not knowing what the next day brings. Every day we pray for the numbers to go down, for this virus to pass quickly, and that our government will make the right decisions. For someone with the anxiety that contamination OCD creates, it’s so hard to feel like you’ve lost the little control you once had. You look and find things you can still control, like making sure the kids are ONLY around people you know really well, that you only go to public places when you need groceries or paper products, making sure things are clean in your home, making sure your parents are taken care of, and making sure you are taking all your vitamins and making healthy decisions.
What can we do:
Social distancing is in place for a reason. It’s not because of the virus being as dangerous as the plague. It’s to PREVENT IT FROM SPREADING. All of these closures are to protect us in the long run. We have to do the sucky thing now for it to get better later….
Cancel your vacations. Ohhhhh ya, I just went there. I did. I get that a ton of people are like all “YOLO” with their lives. That’s awesome that you live your life that way, but right now this is NOT ABOUT YOU. As far as I can tell, going somewhere like the Bahamas or Jamaica where there are very few cases and you are FOR SURE healthy and have been for at least 14 days, doesn’t seem to pose a huge risk. BUT domestic travel needs to stop right now. Spring break is going to suck this year, but traveling to places like Florida, Texas, New York, California and Colorado needs to be halted for a few weeks. These places have much higher confirmed cases than we have (and that’s without having a lot of access to testing!) and places like Florida and Texas have an extremely large population of elderly; not only elderly, but many elderly with underlying conditions. Please think about hundreds of thousands of younger people (45 and younger) coming INTO a state for a week of vacation, not knowing if they are carriers or not, staying long enough for exposure, then bringing who knows what back into their home states upon return and leaving who knows in the state they vacationed to. It’s a hot mess of a situation and no one loves a beach vacation more than me, but this isn’t about me and its not about you either. It’s about protecting our 70+ seniors, it’s about protecting our cancer patients, our immune suppressed, and for the love of everything its about DOING YOUR PART to social distance so that more people’s lives can be spared as this virus moves along at a steady pace. You can reschedule your vacation later, I promise.
Stop being greedy….stop buying 200 bottles of hand sanitizer, 60 rolls of toilet paper and 200 cans of Lysol. Yes, the stores will get more in, but everyone deserves to feel a little prepared right now, not a week from now. You guys….as I mentioned before, there’s no one more prepared for any situation that involves germs like a person who has contamination OCD and even I only “stocked” up on Clorox wipes (about 6 containers), Lysol (about 5 cans) and medicine for kids. I didn’t hoard toilet paper or laundry detergent or wet ones (though I probably should have bought more of the wet ones since they are an every day staple for me). Come on people….again….THINK OF SOMEONE OTHER THAN YOURSELVES…..
Offer to online shop and drop off for the elderly…..need I say more? These poor people who are still completely capable of living on their own, should NOT be out and about right now. It may be a struggle for them to accept your help, but they know they should. Just make it easier on them, we need to protect them. Be the good.
If you have kids, DO NOT use this time out of school to go to every public place possible. This is why these public places keep closing, because the goal right now is to STAY HOME as much as possible, minus getting essential items like groceries and medicine. My husband and I have decided we will allow our kids to OCCASIONALLY see and play with their friends, ONLY if we know their parents extremely well and know they share the same beliefs we do on the subject. Simply stated, we know what occupations their parents have and know where they have been, haha. Also something I never thought I would be saying or writing, in case you are keeping track! Additionally, 95% of their friends live right in our neighborhood, so they aren’t leaving our sight or control much at all. We will not be going to the movies, we will not be going to the zoo, we will not be going to Sky Zone or even birthday parties. Praise the Lord above that this virus is not affecting kids as much. But, that doesn’t mean you should disregard others around you….again, I’ll say it one more time for the people in the back….THIS ISN’T ABOUT YOU! It’s about preventing ANY AND ALL the spread and protecting those most at risk.
If you’re like me, you’re exhausted at this point from talking about it, hearing about it, seeing it and living it. I think it’s completely normal for everyone to be mentally exhausted and confused right now. I’ve been listening to a lot of meditations as I go to bed at night, saying prayers, and journaling. I also have been trying to get in 30-45 minutes of treadmill time. I just walk, but it FEELS good to check out for that time and just get the anxiousness out. When it’s nice out, I spend A LOT of time outside. The sound of birds and sunshine are sometimes all I need to put a smile on my face. I’ve also been in frequent contact via email with my therapist and hypnotist. They know these times are crazy and they are figuring it all out as they go just like the rest of us. We are all in this together friends. If anyone needs someone to listen to their concerns or just talk, please know I’m always available. I’m here to help!
Take care friends, be safe and be conscious of what’s going on around you.
xoxox
Mary
Mary Keevers 