Is anyone up? I have a headache and I just need someone to talk to and to calm down.

[Hellokittymania]

Just not really… I just made one of my Vietnamese coffee’s. I can’t sleep and I’m getting a headache… I’ve had migraines for the past couple of days. Just everything is getting to me.

Hi , it's ok to be overwhelmed . If you're not at one point. I was yesterday . Hoping for a better day

Are usually like the little things anyway, so that’s what I’m trying to do now. I had a really nice dinner… But everything is getting to me now. I was trying to make space in the flat earlier so I can at least exercise… And there’s nowhere to put a nothing…

I'm awake as well feeling a bit stressed. Worried about my kids - one is travelling back from Australia and is worried about being stranded and the other is in the police! I woke up with a cough about an hour ago and was just wide awake instantly.

I'm wide awake too , the current situation is overwhelming. I'm sure we aren't alone , I'm waking around 3am every night at the moment, first thing I do when I wake is checking the news. I also suffer from migraine, and lake of sleep/stress is definitely one of my triggers
I've been resorting to playing soothing music on a very low volume around 4am if I'm still awake to try to relax and get some rest.

I know what that overwhelm feels like.

Try to take deep breaths - I know that might sound trite but it should ease your headache a bit.

One thing most of us have more of now is time. I'm trying to slow down. I have 3 dcs, busy life etc but am trying to get us all onto a slower lifestyle.

So moving things around in the flat is feeling too much, but try telling yourself you've got days to do it. You'll see how it works having things in this room, try it for a day, if it doesn't work you'll move it round the next day.

If each task feels overwhelming try breaking it down into lots of smaller tasks.

So instead of 'sort the flat out' as a job which is a big job and feels overwhelming you might have 'try putting the small table in the hall for a day and see if it gets in the way'

I'm lucky that I have DH with me, but don't want to let on to him quite how stressed I am because I'll pass it on to him! Trying to keep calm.

Totally devoid of ideas, I totally understand. I did a lot of work in Southeast Asia, and was there as recently as November. My friends and Vietnam have all said it’s still OK, things aren’t shut and people can still move around… The cases there are very very low though. Who knows how things will be… I have a disability though, and I have a friend I’m on my own here, but I think the visa issues and everything else would worry me a lot… who’s out there by himself who is also disabled. Anabout him a lot…

Good idea mummee. I'm having various sort outs at the moment because it's good to have your environment under control, but you need to pace yourself and make it last for one thing! I was so bored I mopped the floor as well.

Sorry, I’m using dictation and that didn’t turn out the way I had said. I was saying though that I would have had the same worry if I were in Vietnam right now, and my friend who is there is trying to decide whether to go back to the US while he can or stay in Vietnam and have to maybe face visa issues and unemployment. It’s really, really difficult. I have very, very good friends who I can rely on on Vietnam, so that part wouldn’t have worried me. But even so, I wanted to go home to my mother, she lives in Florida… The border is closed… So I’m just having to deal with this… Last week I was crying quite a lot when I was speaking to her, and she was getting upset… So I’m trying to be brave… But even tonight, I was on Skype with her trying to have her to help me to rearrange things in the flat… And I was getting really frustrated…

Hellokitty it's such a worrying time if you're travelling around as airports keep shutting down to transit passengers each day, so difficult to be sure you'll make it. Ds has four flights over four days and has only done the first one! If you're disabled it must be a hundred times more worrying. I can see why you're worrying about your friend.

That’s a good idea. I live in a studio, and it’s just finding space… I have a side table next to the bed that might be able to fit in the entrance hall… I don’t think I have much space to walk around it, but that doesn’t matter…

How are things in Florida at the moment?

Totally devoid, my mother’s neighbor is a nurse and when I asked her if she thought it was a good idea for me to come to Florida, she said to me that if anyone on the flight had coronavirus, I would likely be in quarantine in some strange place, with nobody around that I knew, in a new environment… Which for me would have just been too much… Also, my mother is at high risk. Like here, everybody’s been panic buying, she did find a slot for delivery online though. Her neighbors have also been helping her… I didn’t want to make her sick, or end up in a strange place under quarantine… My mom wasn’t worried about me making her sick… But I was.

My mother hasn’t been out for over a week, my sister is homeschooling her four children under the age of 13… I think she has her hands full…

She’s in Florida too, and then I have one sister who is in New York, where the situation is very bad. I think they have about 25,000 cases now. So they’re on lockdown.

Is Australia crazy like it is here?

which country are you in at the moment.
are you able to get food supplies ok.
i find night difficult too.
i listen to radio a lot, esp speech radio, with phone-ins, and also some stories. i find it helps.

I'm trying not to watch the news all the time, but it's got me.

I think Australia is maybe a bit more normal still as things are open, but everything is changing on a daily basis. Your poor mum Hellokitty! You must be worried about her but you're doing the right thing staying away. A friend of mine goes to stay with her elderly mum once a week to help her with things and she is staying away at the moment, which is killing her.

It's 439an here and I haven't been to sleep yet. I have got to face a supermarket shop and I'm too scared to go. I should go and run but I'm too scared to go out. I'm trying to homeschool 3 kids and work. It's impossible.

Alex, I’m in the UK. I have enough food for the moment, but I will have to either try and find an online slot… They say there are slots for disabilities and vulnerable people now, but finding one is the question… It’s so hard to get a supermarket delivery slot. Does anyone know, if you were in the UK, is it OK to walk to a supermarket that’s further away but where I know they will help me with in the supermarket. And it’s a supermarket or I know the layout very well.

I am blind, so things like this get really tricky at times like this…

I have family and friends, and good friends in Italy, and hearing what it’s like in northern Italy is very very scary. I have a friend who’s in bergamo for the situation is really really bad.

I have also not find any sanitizer, any gloves, any masks… Nothing… And not being able to see… I am a very tactile person… Tricky one… Especially when you have to buy food in a supermarket where nobody wants to help you… Which is why I was asking if I can go to the one further away? If I can order online…

What day is it, how are your children coping with this? Are they adopting a little bit, or is it really really difficult for them? Do you have enough space at home, or a garden or anything so they can move around? In this building, there are a few families and I am in London so block of flats, no garden, nothing…

Hellokitty, wow you are coping with a lot! I used Morrisons food box delivery to get something sent for our quarantine next week, as assuming son does make it home that's what we will need to do. The food boxes look a bit basic but they just give you £30 worth of food. It's supposed to be enough for two people for a week, so giving it a go! I think if you have a supermarket further away that's fine if they are the place you are happier with. Wish I was your neighbour, I'd help you!

I wonder if countries will waive visa restrictions for people who are stuck there? I haven’t seen anything on this yet… That would have been a massive massive worry though for me. There are some visas for six months, but you have to leave the country once within those six months. I’m sure a lot of people are not able to leave at the moment… Not an easy time to be abroad…

Totally, that’s very sweet of you. Thank you. Can you tell me how I can find the Morrison‘s food boxes? When I go onto the website, where do I find them? I might order one. If they have anything left… Who knows nowadays…

You're doing the right thing to stay put, definitely. I'm just hoping we all get through this in a couple of months so we can have normal life again.

Separate website. Morrisons food boxes. They deliver by courier not their normal vans so there's no choice.