Why Can't I Stop?

[qwlauren35]

I am checking the NY Times stats about 4 times a day. I am reading all of the COVID-19 articles on DU. I am reading all of the COVID-19 articles on CNN. If it says COVID-19, I read it.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME?????

Stay at home, where a mask when you go out, wash hands, wipe surfaces.

I really don't need to know anything else. Listening to the news isn't going to tell me anything that helps me.

Is anyone else in this rut?

Has anyone else caught themselves and escaped the madness?

[intrepidity]

1. ME TOO! I hate it

I try to take breaks by watching Netflix, but after awhile, I'm back into the cycle

[samnsara]

2. im not in a rut...i WANT to know what is going on.. Knowledge is power...

...so IMHO youre perfectly normal. Think if it as Great Courses Pandemic or a college course...
...but I dont submerge myself in it and have found great relief in The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet..and The Flintstones.

[MLAA]

3. Occasional breaks to play FreeCell or a little netflix

then back at it

[brewens]

4. I'm 59 and just got a PS4. Blowing shit up seems to help. :) I haven't done any real gaming since

my old PC died and I got a laptop. This is turning out to eat up time real nicely.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I'm doing it too. I did the same thing after 9/11

when for about the first week afterward I was glued to the TV, not so much Internet then. I couldn't tear myself away until finally I just couldn't stand to watch the same thing over and over. Also, I worked for an airline and I couldn't get away from it at all because I was in a department that was involved in front-line safety stuff - so after a couple of weeks I stopped obsessing over TV news; I just had to.

This is different in a way because it's an evolving and growing disaster rather than one that happened all at once; after 9/11 we were trying to deal with the aftermath and who was responsible. And it's also different now because on top of it all we have to deal with the incredible incompetence and negligence of Trump and his collection of clueless lackeys and grifters. (The extent of Bush's incompetence wasn't revealed until quite awhile later). So we watch the horror unfold. I think the obsession is basically a way to feel like we have a little control over our lives because we know what's going on, to an extent. Being stuck inside and having to wash your hands til your skin chaps makes it impossible to forget about, but I am starting to discover the value of doing something else from time to time.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. With all the handwringing going on, no one has bothered to spend much time...

comparing the growth of this thing with other pandemics.

In 1918, nobody knows for sure, but at least 30,000,000 died. Maybe 100,000,000. And that was in less than a year. The the virus evolved and stopped killing us except for a small comeback in 1919.

This could lead us to imagine that with the greater public knowledge and better healthcare now, it could all be over by November.

Hope it's over earlier. It could be.

Wanna really crap you pants? This is the perfect time to read, or re-read, The Andromeda Strain.

[gibraltar72]

7. Yeah I've quit predicting I'm no genius but I read and understand what I read.

I scared myself by being so close for a week or so. I check so I can let people know what is happening. But I don't think I'll be predicting things that much anymore.

[gibraltar72]

8. You Tube has something for every kink.

I find it both instructional and entertaining. Lots of absolute crap but anything that fascinates is on there.

[Laffy Kat]

9. If you REALLY want to drive yourself nuts, pull up the Johns Hopkins COVID map!

You can stay busy for hours.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

[qwlauren35]

12. I do.

I look at the NY Times map and their stats which they are updating about every 4-5 hours.

[yellowdogintexas]

10. I am also severely obsessed. I try to catch Cuomo and Beshear in their

daily briefings. I read from several sources. I am in and out of here and Daily Kos constantly and I never miss Charlie Pierce. Stephanie Miller every morning. Podcasts

Yep I am totally obsessed.

SO even though I am reading stuff and so forth I have something totally different on TV Dr Pimple Popper!!! She is so cute and funny and I am fascinated with the surgeries.

Everybody has at least one guilty pleasure

[elleng]

11. I suspect its happening to many, qwlauren.

I'm very lucky, live at river side so have interesting things to watch all day, including ospreys @ this time of year, so not as pre-occupied as many are with moment-to-moment news.