High Spirits: Tabletop Games & Mental Health

There are many things that affect our mental health in...

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Thanks for this. I am suffering at the moment with my wife trapped in the Ukraine and me trapped in Kuwait. Both of us are on lock down. I get to speak to her three times a day but it is super hard to cope when she becomes overwhelmed by the situation and begins to break down. I guess, from her perspective, the same is true for when I have bad days.

We are trying to cope by only thinking about today's tasks and not thinking too much into the future. Who knows when airlines will unlock and she will be able to come back to Kuwait.

In addition to that she has had her passport stolen by a pickpocket in Kiev so she has to replace her passport, which is in progress, but she is 1500 km away from the passport office and all public transportation has broken down. I keep trying to say that there is no rush and anyway no one is flying but, man, it is hard.

Both of us are still being paid by our kind employer (she is a classroom assistant for Grade 5 and I'm a senior teacher). I am supposed to be giving Zoom lessons but I frequently have to cancel because I simply cannot cope with talking to anyone else.

I keep saying to myself that there are people a lot worse off than us (infected, unemployed etc) but it doesn't seem to do much good.

ThirstyMan, that sucks and I am sorry.

If you are into podcasts, Tim Ferriss has had on a bunch of guests recently, talking about strategies for staying healthy during these extraordinary times. Lots of practical and actionable info in there.

Ryan Holliday is also very good. His books (The Obstacle Is the Way, especially) have helped me greatly at contextualizing the crazy amount of shit going on.

That's fucking brutal, Thirstyman. Sorry to hear it.

Damn thieves in Kiev... I feel you, man.

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I hope you two can be back together soon, but in the meantime taking everything a step at a time seems the best way forward. Things will improve but it’s so hard to keep reminding yourself of that.