Just a photo to cheer you up. Orchid Festival, Kew Gardens 2019
You can find previous Isolation diaries here.
I haven’t been sleeping too well recently. I don’t suffer from classical insomnia, but I have been waking up very early and then finding I’m unable to go back to sleep. So I have been taking a nap in the afternoon, but it would be so much easier if I could get a good night’s sleep. I can’t really complain, and I’m having a much easier time of it than many others, but clearly the general anxiety is getting to me.
Mark Blackburn, who is my fellow admin on the Lib Dems in self-isolation Facebook group, has given this advice on the use of social media:
One, maybe stay away from Twitter and use FB more. Twitter tends to exaggerate and sensationalise, and can be pretty scary. Anything useful there appears somewhere else soon anyway. FB you still need to be a bit selective about, avoiding some of the generic stuff, but obviously groups like this and similar local-based ones can be very useful and supportive!
Two, maybe avoid social media, and for that matter all news media, in the evenings. Nothing’s going to change significantly before the next morning anyway. Watch some trash TV or read a good book so your head’s not in a bad place before you go to bed.
I don’t use Twitter much but the second piece of advice struck home. So I am now trying to avoid the news from 7pm each evening. Let’s see if that helps.
It’s a stressful time for all of us. I have been thinking about people who don’t fall into the medically vulnerable or elderly categories, but who nevertheless are under immense strain at the moment. Such as:
- families cooped up in overcrowded flats
- couples in poorly functioning relationships
- people with existing mental health issues
- people who are experiencing financial hardship
I’m afraid I’m not in a position to help any of them, but some of you are. If so, do think of them, as well as people who are self-isolating.
It’s so important that we look after our own mental health and that of people we know during this crisis.
Please note
We are in self-isolation to protect my husband whose immune system is compromised. We are not quarantined, so we can do one or two things (like going out for a walk) that you can’t do if you have symptoms or have been in contact with someone who has.
There is full advice on quarantining here, and advice on social distancing for vulnerable people here.
If you are in self-isolation then join the Lib Dems in self-isolation Facebook group.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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7 Comments
It is important ‘at times like these’ for you to receive a pontificating reminder that Twitter and Facebook are products of the devil.
But… if they work for people ‘at times like these’, I have learned to keep my gob shut.
I have tried to stay away from the social media merchants. With reluctance, I acknowledge that the world has moved on, and that Facebook (expletive deleted) supports vulnerable people.
Signing up to Facebook? They have tracked me for years, but I’ll sign up as last resort.
Mary, for a number of years I have been taking a tot of concentrated cherry juice diluted in water as an aid to sleep, particularly if I wake up after about 4:00 am. I buy it from a local health food store but you could no doubt source it online (called ‘Cherry Active’) and have it delivered. I first tried it for a different reason but discovered quite by accident that it had a mild sedative effect. I don’t know how it works but it usually does (but not always, particularly if I’m highly stressed), and it’s completely safe and free from any of the side effects you might associate with a conventional medicine. Since it is made from 100% fruit juice it will be beneficial in other ways too. Perhaps it’s worth a try?
Either that, or go for the old favourites hot milk or cocoa!
Good luck, and take care.
For those not aware of it, I can recommend the self help book “feel the fear and do it anyway” by Susan Jeffers and her website Susanjeffers.com
It has a lot on the negativity in the media and how not to let that paralyse you and how we can notice all the wonderful things in the world which are particularly evident as we get into spring – the birds, new leaves on the trees, flowers etc. All the acts of kindness, we are seeing from the coronavirus.
I of course don’t want to minimise the tragedy of those that sadly taken by the coronavirus or the sadness of their families and my thoughts and prayers are with them. But this year even with the coronavirus will be a better and safer year than ever before in the history of the planet to be a human in the UK and globally. And it’s worth remembering all the horrible things and diseases our parents had to face that are now trivial to deal with and to protect ourselves from.
BTW “feel the fear and do it anyway” is good advice for any lib dem activist – so everyone here make plans to stick out your focus when it’s safe to do so, create hell in the local council, get trees planted locally or whatever rocks your boat! As well as of course helping your community fight the coronavirus at the moment.
Good luck Mary and husband – stay safe!
@Yeovil Yokel – thanks for the advice, and I’m sure this may help. My main concern is that I have been waking up stupidly early and can’t get back to sleep. I have tried all the tricks – getting up for a while, having a drink. For the moment I’m just going with the flow and hoping it will get back to normal as things settle down to a rhythm.
@Michael 1 – thank you!
Unfortunately I was unable to avoid watching the PM at 8.30pm …
Mary, thank you for these Isolation diaries, which I’ve just begun to read as more of my friends fall into the self-isolation group – and thank you especially for thinking of the kind of people for whom being cooped up at home will be especially hard. People will need hope, apart from what help those of us able to be out and about can give: for some I know, the only crumb of comfort in Boris Johnson’s address was hearing him say he would review the situation in three weeks’ time.
I’ve been waking up early – about 4.30 am – for several years now. I hear this is not unusual amongst some of us seniors.
What has helped me is:
1. Going to bed at about 9.00 pm but before that watching something on BBC i-player that particularly interests me – in my case history or archeology. That relaxes me, and I then find I don’t need to read in bed for very long before I’m dozing off.
(2) If I do wake up very early, I immediately switch on the World Service, which does one of two things: either I hear a wonderful programme and learn something new, or I hear something that is not so interesting and find that this puts me back to sleep.
Virginia Morck: “I’ve been waking up early – about 4.30 am – for several years now. I hear this is not unusual amongst some of us seniors.”
People have been ‘waking up with the birds’ for as long as written history has existed. Over the years, I have been woken up by the smell of the milkman’s cigarette and by incorrect use of a car handbrake ratchet.
‘Blue screen’ light from tablets and computer screens disturbs sleep, although I am unaware of scientific explanations. Maybe it is the type of light, or perhaps it is the mental activity. I always read a paper book for 30 minutes when settling in bed, popping the iPad open to check the news, which gives me the excuse for another 30 minutes reading…