When you live with an incurable muscle condition it makes you very aware of your own mortality and sickness. It’s one thing to recognise death but as a culture (in the UK) we rarely discuss it. There can be a tendency to pose the question, ‘Why me?’ rather than ‘Why not me?’ At times like these when we are faced with a virus we cannot see there’s a huge fear of the unknown. We focus too much on the virus as the cause of our fear rather than looking at where this fear originates from, which is at a deeper level.
For many this can be a huge shock. It could be the first major indicator of our own mortality, especially for those who aren’t from a services background or emergency services, or of a generation who has lived through war. So what can you do to help yourself?
One thing you can do to help yourself is to help others, where you can. But what if we’re in isolation? If you’re in isolation you are already taking a huge step to helping others. Just as the virus is invisible to the human eye we can’t always see the people we are helping, like me, by isolating or practicing social distancing.
We are ALL in the same boat. In order for a boat to carry us all we have to come together to steer it through. We need to draw on our individual strengths and not panic when the going gets rough. It doesn’t matter who you are or what walk of life you take our final destination is the same. It’s part of our shared humanity. There’s no avoiding that fact. How and when we will arrive is out of our control and this causes discomfort so we push the thoughts aside.
What helps me is to remind myself that when I feel powerless or afraid it’s just a feeling and it will pass. Nothing in life is permanent and that includes the situation we are in at the moment. It will pass, but if we work collectively by supporting one another, even when in isolation, the journey can be one of self-discovery rather than trauma.
One final thing, although these posts are on my author webpage and Twitter, I’m writing them from the point of view of personal experience and not as a writer with an expert opinion on everything in life!
I hope they help but if they don’t, that’s ok. Take care and look after one another.
IP.