Member-only story
How to Calm Yourself The Hell Down
It’s more important than ever
Around 2 pm, my stress peaks. By then I’ve been taking care of my toddler for half the day — by myself. My husband is still at work. He won’t get home for another four hours. The house is a mess.
They tell us not to read too much news right now, but keeping yourself in the dark doesn’t feel great either.
So I check my phone and see stories about stores running out of food and gun sales jumping to all-time highs. My daughter waves a book at me and starts whining, but I’m trying to find instructions on how to prepare wild rice. I’ve just spent the last hour following her around the yard, hoping she’ll run out of energy. It didn’t work.
Later I’ll take a short nap and then try to do some of that work from home everyone keeps talking about.
I’ve never had a panic attack in my life. But around 2 pm I start feeling dizzy and have to sit down. Part of me wants to tell my own daughter to shut up so I can think for a minute — I haven’t.
For lots of us, this is what life looks like for the foreseeable future. We expect things to get worse, but we have no idea how much worse or for how long. This is when our imagination starts to gallop. Panic throws a saddle on the back, and digs in the spurs.
