Longtime Seller Mentally Struggling

[moldy5]

Hi fellow eBayers, how are you dealing with this stay at home mandate?  For me it's the same day over & over. Even need to check the news to see what day it really is. Still selling & thankful. 1 or 2 items daily. Yeah, helps kill maybe 20 minutes. Then what?  Have over 100 of my free listings left but no energy to make new listings. Feel like I am screwing myself. But also feel like so what. Who cares.  I am in Michigan with the strictest stay home orders. Makes me feel safer. But makes me crazier too.

Please suggest ways to just keep getting up each day. I have frankly run out. Am 68 with COPD so dealing with my mortality. But keep listing/selling items of my favorite entertainer.  But it's so hard dealing with the fear, not knowing when this will end, seeing the future.  How do you keep going?   No am not suicidal. Just mentally screwed.

[cationdi]

Hi. I understand your mental struggle. The state I'm in we have a massive lockdown. I also have cardiomyopathy and cannot work outside the home. Having my business tank last 2 months wasn't what I anticipated for 2020 lol. I decided that I hadn't worked on MYSELF in a long time and took up exercising at home. I have leg and foot problems so do seated exercises along with You Tube videos everyday. Just getting your MIND working while getting your BODY moving has helped a lot. You would be surprised it will be 2-3 hours down the line from start to finish. It takes up my morning. I've also decided that I'm not going to stress over the money. Someday it might come back or it might not. 

[soh.maryl]

I don't usually recommend this because knowing someone else has it harder shouldn't make me happy.

And it doesn't.  But knowing that I am in much better shape than many makes me see my situation in a more positive light and also makes me feel compassion for those others.  

[mtgraves7984]

@moldy5 ... If I were to reply, it'd say:

"For me it's the same day over & over. Even need to check the news to see what day it really is. Still selling & thankful. 1 or 2 items daily. Yeah, helps kill maybe 20 minutes. Then what?  Have over 100 of my free listings left but no energy to make new listings. Feel like I am screwing myself. But also feel like so what. Who cares."

Don't waste time honing your mental telepathy skills... they're sharp! I feel like I'm reading in a mirror...

[upgradedendmills]

So far it is only a broken window and a few totes of eBay stuff tipped over and broken. If it makes you feel better, I can embellish it a bit for you. I was hoping to get carried away and meet Dorothy and the wicked witch, but I am still in Texas.  I think tornadoes are the Lord's way of punishing us for accepting MP or practicing bad customer service.

[keziak]

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@ed8108 wrote:

Please consider the adoption of an adult cat companion

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I would personally love that. No cats here though, husband's allergic.

[keziak]

I'm very busy with work but if I didn't have that my yard always needs lots of work. But by gardening we have gone to the nursery and Home Depot too much.  Did get some seeds and plants by mail but needed potting soil. 

[mam98031]

I enjoy you too, very much.

I hope you will take a moment and share with us what it is you like to do when things were normal for you.  What filled your days before this pandemic?  What kept you engaged?  What gave you comfort?

If you share that with us, we may be able to help you further on how to get through this difficult time.

I hope your COPD isn't taking too much of a toll on you.  I mother had that disease.  To say it is difficult is such an understatement.  

[buyselljack2016]

3 chipmunks this year.  Used to have one that would climb up on my hand to pack the seeds in it's mouth, and then make the run back down to it's underground burrow.

The current ones scurry up onto the deck many times when I open the door to go out.  They get up on the railings, and wait. The chase is on when one gets closer than the other thinks it should be.

A list is a great thing for me. About 30 things on the list today. Mostly small tasks. I can pick & choose which to do.  Not all will get done today. Some maybe not this week.  Have done 6. (along with other things not on the list) May do 6-12 more.

[bar-29368]

And another interesting selling thread gets sent to the gulag to die.

[mam98031]

This is actually where it always belong, not on the selling board.  If everything were allowed on the seller board it would get way to long and hard to weed through for actual selling issues.

[karthok.of.daolodus]

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@kathieskorner wrote:

I refuse to live in fear which is being made worse by the daily doses of media "news".    I have come to terms with my mortality which is why I refuse to be confined to my home.   I don't feel any safer within my own four walls than I do outside in the fresh air.  Besides sunshine helps boost the immune system and improves the mental outlook so get out and smell the flowers and listen to the birds sing.  

Instilling fear in us old folks is bad enough, but passing it on to children is far worse.   A childhood should be happy not filled with fears.   Talking about sending kids to school in masks and forcing social distancing on them is downright scary in my book.   Many have already lost too much education time.   Just as home schooling has had drawbacks so does online education - especially for those that don't have adequate home support.  

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i think that's putting your own fears and interpretations on kids.  i grew up with regular drills for 'the big one' (atom bomb) and air raids regularly in school.  it didn't scar me, it was just what we did at that time and then we didn't.  going to school in masks and social distance might scare YOU but dont put your fears onto kids - they'll do it when theyre told that its to not get sick and help others not get sick, and then it'll be done and they keep going - when they understand they adapt.  its the adults that create all this fear. if kids know where they are and why theyre cool with it.

[kathieskorner]

I also went through the air raid drills in elementary school, and it is something I have never forgotten.  But they weren't really any different than fire drills which were viewed as get out of class time. 

However, wearing a mask all day and having to keep six feet away from classmates  is a far different kettle of fish. As is no gym or recess, eating lunch at your desk, and some of the other ridiculous things being proposed that teachers will be expected to enforce - very difficult especially at the elementary school level.   Telling kids that these things are to prevent them from getting sick and help others not to get sick will instill fear in some and make others rebel.  As for  kids doing what they are told for their own good and that of others - good luck with that.   Going to school should be something to look forward to - not fear.   I do agree it is the adults instilling fears in kids - just as the media is doing to adults. 

I don't think I am  one who is wallowing in fear or putting my fears on kids.    I believe in taking precautions like washing my hands, but I am no more afraid of this virus than the seasonal flu or being involved in  an auto accident.   And I refuse to let it imprison me.

I have a far greater fear of the economy being ruined for future generations,   the younger generation being denied the educational opportunities we had, and a large part of the population mentally struggling because of a single health scare.