How to manage depression during COVID19 age?

It sounds like you have helped yourself by exercising at home and just stepping outside for a bit. Sunshine is such a mood booster. I have never tried the cold water but I suppose a cold shower would have a similar effect. You live far enough away so you won’t hear my screams when the cold water hits me.😲

@aliali, I've added your discussion to the COVID-19 group as well. See https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/covid-19/
I invite you to browse the topics of the COVID-19 support. Many of them offer constructive diversions for this time, such as joining the Mayo Connect virtual walking group, go on virtual tours with others, humor and visual escapes.

You may also appreciate this related discussion:
- How are you handling anxiety in this time of COVID-19? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/anxiety-7/

I agree with @suz55 that you sound like you are being proactive, especially with the exercise. Are you also practising good eating and sleeping habits?

@aliali, It sounds like you are doing some exercises at home. Here is a video which may give you some more ideas for exercising.

COVID-19: Importance of home exercise while being isolated:

Hi @aliali, How nice it is to be making a new cyber friend from Saudi Arabia. The Mayo Connect forums have introduced me to an amazing number of courageous members whom I could have never become acquainted with otherwise. Members from Canada, Nova Scotia, Scotland, Australia, England,and Italy are but a few who are enriching my U.S. life through their posts and glimpses of how our more distant neighbors are managing virus conditions during this worldwide pandemic.

Like you, I am missing "before virus" face-to-face contact and previously shared activities with friends and family. While some seem to be using more stay- at-home time to be cleaning out closets, starting new volunteer projects of making masks, delivering food to others and tackling large productive projects, exploring new hobbies and pastimes, I seem to wander through each day under some cloud of non-physically induced blanket of fatigue. Basic home, yard, health, diet and sleep maintenance seems to be the most I can accomplish these days. You know life has radically changed when you have a dream of fresh radishes, which were never a favorite veggie, and the first item on each daily "to do list" is planning the evening meal. Smiles

What seems to help me most is to force myself "to keep moving" throughout the day even if that just means less time sitting in front of tv or computer screens. Like you I enjoy exercising in groups but I'm finding as @suz55, @colleenyoung, and @johnbishop mentioned, a bit of daily sunshine and regular solitary walks or home exercise does wonders for improving my mood.

Like suz55, just the thought of voluntarily taking a cold shower gives me goose bumps! However, even though it might "shock" me into more constructive action, I'll leave that to other braver souls to explore. Just call me a royal wimp; I shiver at just the thought of winter.

The numerous threads provided within the Covid-19 forum have offered a wonderful way to stay cyber connected with others who share the same interests and hobbies. The walking, visual escapes, gardening, humor and anxiety threads have added both a positive diversion and also needed motivation for me to share and participate with others.

Just catching up with member posts so the wordy girly wanted to respond: Loved what you wrote @zep, “Weeds get a bad rap!” I’m laughing in agreement. If our county fair offered competition for “best weeds” like they do for quilts and pickled okra, mine would be in the running for a blue ribbon!

@pollyanne, Over the years my sleep and waking patterns changed dramatically. If I sleep in until 8 or 9 am now, I think I’ve lost the better part of my day. Vbg Not sure what the temp was on the early morning walk but if we are experiencing triple digit heat on May 1st, I can only dread what a scorcher the summer will be.

We’ve been on twice/week outdoor sprinkler restrictions for several years. Drought worthy plants are the name of the game here and the challenge will be to keep those alive with hand watering.

@lioness, I’ve plucked many a tender dandelion leaf to sample but they always tasted so bitter. Sounds like your hubby may have sautéed them like I
I do, using olive oil and a splash of apple vinegar with spinach, kale or swiss chard for a wilted salad or omelet. Do you remember how he prepared them? I’ve heard of dandelion wine but never got to sample any. Now, an apricot cordial or glass of blackberry wine is another matter entirely! Smiles And hats off to you for crediting your walks to the loss of 5 pounds. Since I have the opposite challenge, would you consider a cyber share with me? I mean if you don’t have someone else in mind for them???

@zep and@robbie1956, Thanks for reading between the lines on my earlier post. I am mortified that my impulsive share may have had unintended consequences. Feisty: Remember you have duct tape, use it!!!!

We can only hope but I fear that “your saint and my ‘abutt” are much more driven by the urgency of economic survival than that of saved lives through using a more considered and measured approach to reopening.

@jimhd I’m laughing at your take on weeds. The old adage of : “one person’s trash is another’s treasure “ certainly applies here. Vbg

I sow Bachelor Buttons, (cornflowers) each year to encourage their multi-hued bursts of early color. And when my feverfew eventually died out, I was thrilled to bring back seeds from my daughter’s new home to restart them in a few of my beds.

You have to remember that this is the same gal who liberally spends retirement dollars on liberal annual purchases of soil amendments to soften concrete hard clay for some patches of beauty. I will confess that the few spindly twigs of evening primroses given me a few years have now created hours of plucking because of their unexpected spread. Your choke cherry sounds like the sprawl of planted honeysuckle that nearly took over my yard before spending big dollars to get it eradicated. We live and learn, yes? Smiles

@gingerw, like you I spend far too much time going after plum and pecan tree sprouts that are the very devil to uproot.

@sueinmn, I like your analogy of the virus particle as a “speck of dust not a cockroach”. We in west Tx have a liberal share of those dratted cockroach varmits as well!

I'm off for another "bonus" morning walk before doing some more Johnson grass weed pulling in a back flower bed.

fiesty76 - Your posts are beams of sunlight in the gloom, most enjoyable. I wish I could cyber-share some of my rich central Texas dirt with you. I've been amending it here in the same place for 45 years now. The dirt's good; it's the energy that's getting a little scarce. Oh, and the rainfall. And the bees.

On that note, I would like to take an unofficial survey of garden thread readers here. Are you seeing as many bees as usual where you are?

@zep I don't know what qualifies as "as usual" here, since it is my the end of my first year here. There are huge bumblebees here, who are not happy that I cut down a Japanese burberry. I haven't seen too many of the regular bees, which is fine, because I am allergic to beestings.
I can only hope to see them before they see me.
Ginger

@fiesty76 If I could Id mail them your way lol

Fiesty76 That's how he did it wilted them with olive oil some garlic the put them over mash potatoes or eat them plain . We had lots of them in our yard we had 3 acres so we would go collect them till we had enough then saute them up I didn't like them but he did so that is what we did . In fact when he was in the nursing home at the last he wanted them so we didn't live that far and I made a bunch for him took there and he loved them .

Laughing. Hope that you always do. (see them first!)