Has your overall stress level changed since Covid-19 has become a pandemic? Snapshot in time

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Has your overall stress level changed since Covid-19 has become a pandemic? Just a snapshot in current time March/April 2020, not forecasting long term. 

My story (you can skip if you just want to answer the question)

I was thinking today, that my stress level is down, but it isn't sustainable. It is like I am borrowing from my future self. LOL

I work 2 jobs. One full time M-F and one on Sundays for extra money. My husband also works, and we can survive (hand to mouth level) on just his paycheck if needed.  My Sunday job, has been to save money for a large flooring/painting project I was planning this year. I met my savings goal in March and was ready to start stage 1, the weekend our schools announced their 5 week closure. My youngest daughter is 13 and special needs. She can't go to daycare, so I am off work for the 5 weeks. I still work on Sundays at my other job, so I have a trickle of a pay check. At my main job, I am on FMLA so I can't file unemployment and I don't qualify for the 2/3 pay that was part of the Family First Act. In fact, I am actually going backwards in pay, because my health insurance and life insurance payments come out of that zero balance pay check and I will need to repay those payments when I start back to work.  But.....I have my project money to pull from, so I am fine. I am working a bit on my project to keep myself busy, but am waiting for the expensive parts until we figure out what is going to happen long term.

By trying to keep dd13 calm (Autistic and anxiety issues) , I find that I am way calmer and much more myself. I don't have a regimented day any longer, Everything just flows naturally through the day. LOL Years ago, I worked part time and homeschooled my older kids. It was the happiest years of my life. I am finding myself back in that same mental place right now.  It isn't financially sustainable, but it is a nice retreat from my normal life. LOL When the money starts to run low, I will feel the stress build up, but for now, I appreciate the calm. 

I read about the CV pandemic every day. I work in pharmacy, so I am an essential worker. But I  am realizing the stress in my life from CV isn't as high, as the stress I feel in every day life. A huge factor in that, is that dd13's stress is way down. With the world shutting down, she is soooo much calmer. That translates directly into my stress being lower.  It isn't that I downplay CV. I just have a crazy stressful normal life. LOL It is like a scale, I am up in one category for stress, but so far down in the other category, that I am doing better than my normal self. 

Once one of us gets CV and is sick, I expect I will swing wildly in the other direction. But for now, I am trying to not forecast my own future. Just live day to day and survive the worst part of my own brain.....my stress level. 

I am curious how life is going for everyone else. How is the overall stress level of the hive doing? 

[Liz CA]

Not much has changed for me. Services we used to provide face to face are now via telecare. I like certain aspects of it and wonder how other things will pan out in the long run, especially with new clients we don't get to meet in person.

My stress level overall is low. I don't stress anymore over things I cannot control - I finally learned this lesson sometime in the past ten years. :) I like a little slower pace, work is much more relaxed since no client traffic - less in person drama.

One of my clients said to me last week: "I am an introvert. I've been waiting for something like this all my life." (I am sure he is referring to the restrictions and not the illness.)

 

[Arcadia]

4 minutes ago, Liz CA said:

 

One of my clients said to me last week: "I am an introvert. I've been waiting for something like this all my life." (I am sure he is referring to the restrictions and not the illness.)

While my teens are introverts, they miss the people watching. They look forward to their online classes just to “see” other humans. 

My stress area change to grocery shopping because our refrigerator is small but we want to minimize trips to the supermarket, and keeping quiet all day during the week because of my husband’s work conference calls. 

[SKL]

My stress level tends to be kinda high anyway, but it went nuts for a few weeks as everything changed, business projects shut down, the house gave way to chaos, and uncertainty set in.

Now it's back to a reasonable-for-me amount of stress, but distributed differently.  I have gotten caught up on some things and resolved some uncertainties, like how to handle the kids' "crisis schooling" situation.  Not having to rush around to get them anywhere, not having to deal with certain difficult people, etc has been nice.  On the other hand, the new normal includes worries about future health and financial difficulties.  I have siblings who deal with patients for a living.  Financially, we'll have to figure out what to do about business expenses with no revenue; debtors who will be unable to pay; clients who can't provide needed info because they are closed; and so many other things.  It's impossible to plan much, and planning is one of the ways I deal with stress.  So yeah ... still plenty of stress ... but I find that once I have time to process each new change, it tends to go back to its usual level.