Tri-City News journalist Mario Bartel is voluntarily self-isolating and working from home for the rest of the month after his wife and son returned March 13 from a brief getaway in Arizona. He is writing a daily diary during that time.聽
Four days into our self-isolation and it鈥檚 becoming more and more apparent that this effort to bring COVID-19 to its knees before it does the same to a good chunk of our population is becoming as much about mental health as physical well-being.聽
There鈥檚 no doubt about it, being stuck at home, bombarded by an ever-increasing barrage of worries sucks.聽
Retirement funds tanking, jobs lost, even more jobs in peril, grocery shelves being emptied, the cultural and athletic endeavours that bring joy and richness to our lives getting cancelled, even police being called because someone coughed in a dispute.聽
It鈥檚 like a straight-to-Netflix movie, except it鈥檚 really happening and there doesn鈥檛 appear to be an end in sight.聽
Every click on to the New York Times website or log in to the daily briefing by B.C.鈥檚 health minister comes with a sliver of hope the trends are reversing and normalcy might once again be within our grasp. But alas, no such luck. Yet.聽
The fear, stress and anxiety over everything are overwhelming, crushing at times.聽
Then your seven-year-old comes to you with a comic book he鈥檚 drawn and written quietly in his room for the past hour while you鈥檝e been helping to tell the story of this calamity, or pitches you an idea he鈥檚 hatched to help bring back sports. Your heart melts, the fear lifts ever so briefly.聽
We鈥檝e been trying to go outside a couple of times a day; sometimes all three of us, sometimes my wife and I spell each other off so we can have some alone time to get a task or assignment done. We鈥檙e vigilant about keeping our distance from people. We find a quiet corner to kick the soccer ball back and forth. Sunday, we drove to four parks before we found an empty basketball court so we could shoot some hoops for an hour.聽
Afterward, my son asked if we could go for ice cream, as we sometimes do as a treat when we鈥檙e out and about on a sunny day. I had to remind him why we couldn鈥檛 do that. He was sad but he understood.聽
Tuesday, he was crushed to learn he might not be going back to school this spring. He loves it there and his hunger for sharing what he鈥檚 learning is so joyous. For weeks he鈥檚 been telling us about the regions of Canada, and he鈥檚 amazed there鈥檚 a piece of France right off the coast of Newfoundland. He also doesn鈥檛 understand why Nunavut doesn鈥檛 have an NHL team 鈥渂ecause it鈥檚 so big.鈥澛�
It鈥檚 hard to know the toll all this is taking on him, on all the children. But we have to fight for their mental health, as much as our own.
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