0249C: Quarantine Crazies



Metro Manila Community Quarantine - Day 144

We've been living with the cloud of fear that is COVID-19 that the slightest bout of the sniffles or the faintest scratchiness of your throat can send you down the spiral of wondering if this is it - have you finally caught it? You know the fear is illogical - you barely leave home and when you do you take all the proper precautions. And yet the fear lingers and gnaws at you. In the end, you silently monitor it and hope for the best and drink your darned Berocca.

I'm sure we've all felt this more than once throughout this quarantine period. For most of us, we've been lucky and things never progressed beyond questions. For some folks, it was the beginning of far greater symptoms and a bit of an ordeal of its own over the next few weeks. 

And it sounds crazy when you layout the experience in that manner, but it can't be helped. The common symptoms of COVID-19 and your typical flu (especially during the rainy season) are significant and it's hard to differentiate the two on your own. And we are conditioned to prepare for the worst, in a manner of speaking. 

This is just one sort of stress that one might experience in quarantine. There are so many variations on this theme - just insert your own irrational fears that visit\ you when you let the quarantine crazies get to your brain. And I'm sure a lot of us don't talk about these fears for fear of ridicule or maybe fear that they'll come true. But if name our fears, give them form through words, it helps us keep a healthier perspective and not let them dictate our actions.

And don't worry, Tobie and I are fine. But I did have the sniffles the other morning, and of course, that got me spiraling into overthinking about this. Hay this quarantine life is stressful in so many pervasive ways. How much more of this are we going to need to endure?

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