Dalton555
Dalton555's JournalThe pandemic and social anxiety
I have a vulnerability to social anxiety. At one point, I stayed home for several months years ago and could barely be in public at all. Therapy and creating a functional life got me to the point where I can handle being in public and can handle social pressures as long as I know that I have an out.
A few months ago, after Walmart had started their mask requirement, I went to a Walmart store and I parked by the garden center. I use this strategy so that I can check out in the garden center where there are fewer people and fewer triggers. I went in through the garden center, walked around the store and got things, picked up some ambient nervousness from all of the people around me, as they looked terribly frightened, and then I started making my way to the garden center to check out.
They had chained the doors shut. Apparently, that was the day that they decided to start limiting the number of people they allowed inside. They only had one door in, and one door out.
Thank goodness I was able to do my deep breathing and refocusing, but for a few seconds, it was a really ghastly trigger. Huge heavy chains wrapped around the door and held in place by a giant padlock!
The long and short of it is, I worry about people who deal with anxiety in public. I worry about the pandemic trigger of shopping for people who have agoraphobic or social anxiety triggers like I do.
Yesterday, as I left a store in Idaho, I saw an elderly couple drive up with masks on. They sat in their car for a moment, looking terrified.
This pandemic and the terrifying hateful rhetoric that is flying around and the horrific mismanagement from the White House are combining to really harm America. This is a terrible period of our history.
I hate the politics of this pandemic.
I don't want to offend anyone, but I hate the politics of this pandemic. I hate the fact that our country is so broken down and divided that literally any positive piece of data instantly gets kicked into the political arena, where Republicans and Democrats find themselves responding in a partisan fashion.
It complicates our situation and makes it worse, I think. For instance, our economy needs to come back to life and we all need money and jobs and a revenue stream and stability. So we get pulled into the vortex in which Republicans act as if they own the economy and own the recovery, and some Democrats respond to that Republican perspective with statements that sometimes do appear to be wishing for a bad outcome.
I think this is poor strategy.
I personally think that Republicans should be allowed to own the pandemic, and Democrats in DC and throughout the nation should work to maintain good and healthy lives and healthy outlooks and to do everything that we can in our communities and states. but addressing Trump? Addressing his lunatic followers and their bizarre claims? I think it's a tactical error. They are insane, and when we get drawn into combat on their terms, we are having a lunatic conversation.
What I liked about Tulsi Gabbard
I liked her boldly challenging our military presence around the world. I thought that her attacks on Hillary Clinton were stupid and misguided, but I agree with Gabbard that the United States has overdone its military policing of the globe. I think that many of our overseas engagements have been stupid and wasteful and misguided.
I liked her for her grudging acceptance that, even though she was raised to hate gays, LGBT people deserve equality and civil rights. I mistrusted her so much on gay issues because of her past, but I did come around to accept that she is a civil libertarian and believes in equality.
If not for the attacks on the DNC and attacks on Hillary Clinton, I would have wholeheartedly supported Gabbard. Her negatives seriously outweigh the positives, however. I'm not going to go into a full list of her negatives. I assume that we all know them!
Across the street from my office, the lights are off in the dining area and playroom at McDonald's
I work in behavioral health, in a small practice. We are debating how to handle this pandemic, as there are some complications to doing psychotherapy work during a crisis such as this.
Some clinicians are attempting to get telehealth or teletherapy up and running, but that's typically not something you can do over a weekend. Also, there are all kinds of problems billing insurance for a telephone conversation. In addition, although I often see people pointing to research that shows that teletherapy can be effective, I myself am not trained to track people's affect and state of arousal purely by tone of voice. I use visual cues to inform me of what emotional or mental processes a client is going through. Looking at someone on a computer screen gives me a tiny range of their bodily affect, or embodied emotion.
Doing sessions by telephone or telehealth, you have to steer clear of triggering subjects or content that could cause a person to go into a downward spiral emotionally. In person, you can take someone into their affect and have them work through their feelings in a safe environment, but over a telephone, you're playing with fire if you do that.
On the other hand, my clients with intense depression, suicidal depression, intense anxiety, agoraphobia, social phobias, or germ phobias need our clinic to stay open. So we can't just shut down, and we can't just easily switch all of the appointments to telephone appointments for theoretical and administrative reasons.
These are my thoughts as I look across the street at the dark play area at the McDonald's across the street.
I was raised a Lutheran, although I'm basically an atheist now. Nonetheless, I pray for all of us.
Switched to Biden. Let us work to create a Democratic administration
that will tackle health care, the environment, minimum wage, and present a rational foreign policy to the world.
Bloomberg will keep his field operators on staff and working for Democrats
I did not support his candidacy for the nomination, but I am grateful that he is fighting with us for this historic election.
So excited about South Carolina
Mostly, I am excited about the amount of interest that the Democratic primary is receiving in the media and from the electorate at large. I personally just want to know who I'm going to be voting for in November!
Good luck to everyone, I hope everyone fights hard and fights fair, and I hope we all are together at the end.
Washington State mailed out primary ballots on Friday last week
I thought long and hard about possibly switching, but Elizabeth Warren has my full confidence and I can support her without having to come up with a strategic explanation. The other major candidates aren't really exciting me very much. It goes without saying that I will vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is, however.
One unexpected note. Cory Booker is still on the ballot in Washington State.
I slept well, I've had my coffee, and I'm ready to read inflammatory statements
I hate primary season sometimes because we all are flinging poo at each other, but I also get a kick out of how much energy we bring to this. The United States is in a horrible situation with this presidency and with the Republican party deliberately tearing down and destroying our institutions and norms as a nation.
I have my faves & my least faves, but at this point my hope is that we will all unite this summer and march toward November.
Okay, now on to the inflammatory statements!
I don't like Medicare for All as a litmus test
I don't like the idea that people who support Obamacare are somehow enemies or wrong. Of all the litmus tests, this is the most stupid. We can improve the healthcare situation in our country by introducing a robust public option or by moving towards single-payer. It makes no sense for Democrats to be torn apart by this.
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Member since: Sun May 1, 2016, 11:18 PMNumber of posts: 1,474
