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Comment by puranjay | Hacker News Reader

While I've been following all Covid-19 related news and keeping track of the numbers with near morbid fascination, I've found that being in lockdown has made me happier. It has also given me perspective on life.

As cliche as it might sound, I've realized that what truly makes us happy is family, friends and time to devote to hobbies. I've been chatting with my family everyday, calling friends, playing board games with my wife. I'm producing music again, learning new things again as opposed to just being "productive".

I used to order in food 3-5x a week. Now I'm making all meals from scratch and really diving into what makes good food taste, well, good.

I haven't bought anything except groceries in a month and honestly, I haven't even missed it.

I really don't know how I'll approach the world post-Covid-19. The thought of going back to the old life and routines seems a little absurd now.

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I have exactly opposite feeling than you. I usually spent 7-8 hours at work and then do hobbies, visit friends and family and usually spent weekends away from home and computers. Now, I am locked at home and I can't visit anyone and I work way more and spent way more time on computer (at least I live with my girlfriend, so I am not completely alone). I am also way less productive as I am not happy and I am tired all the time from not being able to really relax my brain. Also I cook at home a lot normally so cooking everyday is not that big difference.

I prefer meeting people in real life so chatting and video calls are not enough for me. Many of my friends are not good at tech too so it is sometimes difficult to connect with them. I look forward to go back to my pre-covid life.

Yeah same, vidoeconferencing with friends is better than nothing but still doesn't hold a candle to actually hanging out for me.

Basically this whole exercise has lead me to discover that while I assumed I was pretty introverted because I'm not generally outgoing, I'm really not.

Also I'm a total night owl and being at home all the time has seriously messed up my sleep schedule. Last night I went to bed at 3AM.

It's funny, I've got almost the inverse of your inverse experience. An old group of friends, formed over IRC/TS2/MMOs, had in recent years traded a lot of that sort of thing for less-frequent IRL hangouts as lives and interests developed. Recently, all the old lines of communication have come back to life and it honestly feels like going home.

That said, I'd probably change my tune after a year or two. I think a lot of "quarantine is the best thing ever" floating around right now is driven by various forms of novelty/nostalgia bias.

I totally agree with you about the friends. I do not need to meet them often but it has to be in real life. I am not owl so I often wake up in 4am and go to sleep at 8 or 9 pm. It is really funny that when people start to connect to slack I have already worked 3 or 4 hours and I am ready for my "lunch" :-D

Yeah indeed, videoconferencing is super depressing. I completely stopped doing it (except for work), as it enforced my emptiness even more.

I agree with the general sentiment, but: I have two small kids and I spend a lot of time just dealing with the chaos that results having no preschool, and then I have to work because, yes we're all in the same boat, but many people either don't have kids or have older kids, or have been in lock for a shorter period of time than where I live (schools here are closed since 23 feb). On top of that I'm a bit workaholic too, and I'm having trouble letting go some projects dear to my heart. The net effect is that the my levels of stress have really gone up. Yes, in the evenings I do feel blessed I have a nice family and I have a general feeling of happiness resulting from it, but I think I had that before the lockdown too (I think? how can I know ... it feels like ages ago)

EDIT: I was working from home already; I now realize I was taking for granted things like lunches with the family

The stress level even goes up if someone from your family is ill or getting ill (anything non-Covid19, like still the majority of illnesses among broad population) and may be in need of medical assistance. Also, all the folks who are working in "system-relevant" jobs are under extremely heavy load, some of them facing inconceivable situations. So yes, if you are in the lucky situation that the lockdown is giving you unprecedented possibilities of self-improvement, lucky you and make the best out of it! But I am wondering how much is the percentage of those lucky people currently?

> I've found that being in lockdown has made me happier.

For how long have you been in lockdown? Given that in my country (Italy) I started doing that on March 3rd.

Even though I'm fairly privileged (part of the family in the same building, being able to work and earn money) and that I do not particularly long for social contact, the lockdown has been a very heavy hit on my mind.

This is the fifth week. Almost every morning I wake up with a feeling of dread, and a couple of times, before I stopped listening to the news altogether (save for a very short press roundup) this degenerated into full-scale anxiety attacks. Work is also pretty stressful and I realized how much my subway + train commute was useful to clear my mind when coming home, now every weekday is a constant struggle to keep focused or to do anything save the routine.

One family member has also the same problem, and another one said that it's getting really hard on them, too.

On weekends I end up playing online with a long time friend of mine, but as others said, it's not the same as meeting in person.

I end up talking sometimes to the porter (he's deemed essential as he also does the cleaning and trash collecting ,etc) just to have some extra conversation with someone who is not afraid of me (like all shopkeepers for the few times I go out to get stuff).

That's why I say this can't go on for too long. It's not a matter of money only. Long time withdrawal from social contacts, even superficial, can be potentially deleterious for one's mind.

I feel you man. I live in Spain and we have been in this since the 12th of March. I live alone and it's horrible.

It's a total nightmare. I'm not even sure what's the point of living anymore. The virus can't be that bad.

I really miss walking in nature, there's mountains nearby and I always walked there to clear my head. Now the walls are coming at me.

I really wish they would let us go out but with care (observing the 1,5m etc).. Like in other coutries with more sane politicians. This is extremely cruel. I'm sure it's very safe and all but this is killing me inside too.

Literally if this lasts a few more months I will not be able to live with it.

The first few weeks I spent time cleaning up and doing some online learning but the constant state of extreme anxiety makes this impossible now. I wish I could just go in a coma for a few months (or years, however long it takes).

> I feel you man. I live in Spain and we have been in this since the 12th of March. I live alone and it's horrible.

You have my honest sympathy. Having family (and a couple of pets) for me helps, but the constant shut-in can also cause some minor annoyances to become "major" and a source of attrition. That's why the rule is never to talk about SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19.

To be honest, neither the government or the press helps at least here. For the former I could say many things, but it would be OT, and I don't want to rant, at least not on HN. ;) For the latter, it's usually "you must endure suffering" or "we're all gonna die". This makes enduring this even harder.

Yeah for me the worst is not knowing how long this is for. And the complete refusal to relax even a little bit. If I could just go out for a walk on my own... This would give me so much stability and would compromise nobody.

There's mountains nearby where I can walk for hours without meeting anyone. But I need to walk a couple km through the city to get there and the chance of getting caught is too high.

I don't really have any annoyances to be honest. Just complete anxiety :'( I'm not worried about the virus at all. The solitude is literally much more life-threatening for me. The lockdown is hitting where it really hurts because I have a strong tendency for depression.

In Toronto, Ontario, we've been in a state of emergency since the 16th, so far we're only being requested to go out only when needed, and to not interact in close quarters unless you live with the person. People still go for walks, and such, but the penetration of infected people was still fairly low ( we're at under 600 people hospitalized). It's a softer approach, but it's still challenging even for introverted folk. The spread has stabilized, so maybe a lighter approach is okay once the urgency has set in.

Did Toronto learn from its experience with SARS-1 in 2002, or was it a panic with Covid-19 like the rest of the world?

(Toronto hospitals got hammered by SARS-1 in 2002, with newspapers printing panic stories, just like the US is doing now.)

It was the panic from the rest of the world, at the beginning of March it was business as usual. It became real when Italy locked down its people.

During SARS-1, I was in high school, and there was no major panic outside of downtown. I don't know about internally, so perhaps the hospitals were better prepared because of it this time.

Having a 1 hour break to have lunch with my wife and kids has been a very pleasant change. Not wasting two hours to commute and spending that time with my family has also been great.

And after a period of adaptation (and after buying a proper monitor, keyboard and chair), I can say that I'm back to being productive enough even when WFH.

I made sure to take the dual monitors, dock and office chair home with me when we were sent to work from home and I suspect my colleagues, who didn't do the same, regret that decision now.

Seeing them hunched over their laptop screens makes me cringe for their backs. My setup isn't ideal (I didn't get the monitor brackets!) but it's a lot better than it could have been.

There's an interesting article in NYTimes on how heart attacks are way down https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/well/live/coronavirus-doc... People just not wanting to go to the emergency rooms is not enough to explain it.

The article's comment section is full of people all saying how they're so much less stressed now, sleeping more etc. Work really is killing you! Mondays are well known to have the highest rate of heart attacks, and Saturdays the least.

How are you finding time to do all of this around work? I and many WFH people I know are working more than they were pre-corona, unfortunately.

I and many WFH people I know are working more than they were pre-corona, unfortunately.

This is common when people first start to work from home. You feel you have to do more in order to prove that you're working at all.

It's also common to feel that all of the time you were out of the house before is 'work time', so whatever you spent commuting before is now time you should be working.

It's worthwhile trying to fight those feelings and define scheduled hours that you work, otherwise you will find work takes over your home life.

The combination of working from home and having kids out of school is particularly rough. Either on its own would be enjoyable. Both at the same time is less so!

I appreciate the sentiments, but I'm in a line of work where we have to track billable hours. Similar to how lawyers have to do it. I have clearly defined my boundaries, and have none of the problems you have described. Really my main problem is that my higher ups are clearly not taking this seriously and are expecting people to put in the same amount of work pre-crisis. I'm thinking that is probably what a lot of my peers are going through too.

I'm with you. This crisis has also given me a certain impetus to complete projects I've always been interested in for surviving hardship, like growing food and various crafting in the garage.

I also don't feel so bad about not leaving my house.

It has been really wonderful at turning my roommates from people I maneuver around and occasionally socialize with to close allies and friends working through stuff together. With all the constant insistent pressure of the outside world removed the people you see everyday become way more special. Just my experience.

I feel completely different. I think I would be happy if I had free time, but my university is giving me more work to do now and finding the motivation to study is very difficult.

I am in the same boat, going back seems absurd. Nature is better, the air is cleaner, I am less stressed out. I don't want to buy crap and I stopped watching TV completely. I have time to talk with friends and family. I have more times for the kids, really enjoy home schooling. They are much happier too. I don't want to go back.

I don't care about getting sick of corona either.

Any advice for those being alone?

Do not watch TV and play computer games too much and stop drinking and using drugs (if you do it). It will make you depressed really fast which is big problem in isolation. Focus on positive things and try to contact your family as much as possible. This is also great opportunity to read or to learn new things like cooking or you can try to do something about current situation - sewing face covers, 3d printing face shields or whatever suits you. And the most important thing is to not pressure yourself too much. If you really are not in the mood to do something just postpone it.

* Listen to some instrumentals, if you like

* Read

* Write

* Avoid: News, Twitter

* Breath, exercise

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