# Stress management policies during crisis



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I'm working on creating a "policy" for myself related to stress and anxiety management during COVID-19

To begin with, I am stopping all use of social media, including message forums, at 12 noon. The logic here is that mid day, in daylight, is generally a pretty happy time. I am deliberately cutting off all social media (which seems to be prone to negativity) at noon to make sure it never contaminates my evening and sleep.

This has the additional benefit of preventing me from watching, and then responding, to markets and investments during trading hours.

I am going to add more measures, about limiting news consumption, but starting with this. And since it now is 12 noon, I'm signing off -- later, everyone!


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Not even a peep? Welcome back! I'm going to test how long you're going to hold out for. :smiley_simmons: :barbershop_quartet_ :sleeping:


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

I am betting he'll stay true to his plan and hold out until tomorrow morning. How big a challenge is that? I often take leave of this place for weeks and it does me no harm. In fact, probably therapeutic.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Not big of a challenge if it's just today Friday, Saturday and even Sunday. Keep trying that for the next 5 "business" days, then the week after ... I don't disagree this is therapeutic considering all the young folks eyeballs are glued to their phone these days. So then I don't think this kind of stress management would apply to you since you can easily go off grid ... tending crabs, baby octupus, and beautiful things/creatures of nature.


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

Yes, but Beaver, what I take j4b as saying is that until further notice, he will stay offline on a daily basis after 12 noon. So that means he will allow himself to participate every day, but mornings only. I recognize that that's probably a marked variance to his past practice, but not really a sea change. Now, if he said he was going to abstain entirely for days or weeks, that might be a challenge for the lad. 

And you are right about my stress management. I simply have to look up from my computer and out over the ocean, or take a walk along the shore or in the woods and I feel better. Speaking of which, it's time to get out there. A fine sunny day here. Time to walk up the hill to our small orchard. Just at outside the surrounding fence at the back is a stately Douglas fir tree that houses the nest of a pair of bald eagles. They have been returning to that nest and raising one or two littluns since we moved here, more than 12 years ago. About this time every year I take binoculars and look at the nest closely to see how it has fared in the winter weather. It's high enough (higher than anything else around) to catch a lot of wind. I expect this year to be no different. It always appears to come through unscathed. Those eagles know how to build them to last. They usually add a bit to it each year, but I have never seen any part of it destroyed. I understand bald eagle nests can weigh well over one ton. Like the proverbial brick....

The eagles should be home soon. They will be welcome. Even if they do occasionally eat one of our chickens, or our cats. I'll not begrudge them. I suspect they were here before the First Nations. Sporting of them to allow us to stay.

Funny story. One day driving anak to the school, we encountered a baby lingcod, about 3 pounds, right in the middle of the driveway, maybe 500 yards from the eagle tree. It rained the night before. I have heard of raining cats and dogs, but around here it's fish. One of the eagles must have dropped it. Probably just happened. I just drove around it and it was gone when I came back later.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

^ I'm envious ... nice to be in your neck of the woods. :fox:


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Sure, I'm still participating!


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

james4beach said:


> I'm working on creating a "policy" for myself related to stress and anxiety management during COVID-19


If that works for you James, go for it. We are all different and if stressed or anxious, should handle it as we see fit.

I am, like you, in self isolation. Not much to do outside as it's pretty cold. I don't tend to get too excited about some of the negativity and politics espoused here. I just ignore those posters. Been through markets like this before, so not too worried. So far dividends are still coming in. No need to sell for income. Look at this forum from time to time as well as News sites. Limited TV - sick of CNN after being in USA for winter. Not much into Netflix, but am watching one series about once/day.

Regarding markets, I have hard stop on a couple of stocks that I would like to move into other stocks that should recover more quickly. Otherwise, I bought twice - once for $1000 and once for $4000 - just to use cash. Both stocks went down further! No Worries 

Take it easy James.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Thanks agent99, hope you're doing fine too. It's also too damn cold outside here so I can't really go for walks, but am hoping the weather warms up soon.

Another part of my policy is limiting news, which includes all TV news sources and internet news as well. *Basically, no news after 7 pm*. This is meant to avoid overwhelming me with fearful stuff, which isn't adding value.

CNN and American outlets must be avoided at all costs as they are sensationalist and really push the fear. No need for that in my life.

So far, no social media/forums after noon, and no news after 7 pm is working out well for me.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

james4beach said:


> Another part of my policy is limiting news, which includes all TV news sources and internet news as well. *Basically, no news after 7 pm*. This is meant to avoid overwhelming me with fearful stuff, which isn't adding value.


I get my virus news from two sources, WHO sitreps and local the government covid page. I consider ALL other sources (TV, social media, etc), at be equal to "entertainment" in value, meaning I don't trust them for real information.

Many people are getting overwhelmed with the continuous onslaught of virus news, over 99% of it is just the "bad news" being reported. In the end it is pretty simple to avoid, 10 minutes to read your local government website info (usually updated daily) and you are done.

Add: Easier to say than do sometimes but RELAX j4b, sounds like you need a vacation!


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Great ideas cainvest.

Yes people are getting overwhelmed and we don't actually need that much time to catch up to what's happening. This is why I am working to minimize my exposure time to news. In addition to the 7 pm cutoff, I should also budget a limited amount of time in the day to get my updates, and then end it there.

There are many people now feeling huge amounts of anxiety, having sleep loss, etc. This is very unhealthy and society is going to get some significant mental health effects (even post traumatic stress disorder) after all of this.

In recent days, when I started cutting off news at 7 pm and instead watching fun shows like Seinfeld, my sleep and dreams have changed completely. The most recent dream I can remember mentioned La Cocina, one of George Costanza's lies... funny stuff. This is what I want in my dreams instead of round-the-clock virus panic.
https://www.reddit.com/r/seinfeld/comments/4wqrdu/would_it_be_possible_to_get_a_copy_of_la_cocina/
https://www.reddit.com/r/seinfeld/comments/c1h605/la_cocina_is_also_a_play_written_by_george/


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

And similar things relating to money. Absolutely do not watch BNN or CNBC. Nothing good will come of it.

Even the Yahoo Finance home page is quite dramatic. During the large market drops, they draw big red boxes around the worst tickers. This is ridiculous and just feeds financial panic.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

james4beach said:


> And similar things relating to money. Absolutely do not watch BNN or CNBC. Nothing good will come of it.


It's a new world out there and one must learn how to "filter". This doesn't just apply to virus info, it's for all info.

So a while back, when we were allowed to go out for coffee , I asked my friends to do a search using their smartphones about something that I needed a definitive answer for. It was kind of surprising (scary really) the results that came back in both how long it took and also, what they considered trusted sources of infomation. There should almost be classes taught in school on how to dig for facts in this information (or misinformation / disinformation) age.

TV has changed significantly as well, so much more embellishment and unrelated message tranfers going on. Even when I watch a PBS show now on say, the planets ... they've now tacked on a final two minutes with green "save our planet" stuff after 45 minutes of learning about Saturn. It wasn't always this way but you can see the influence of "where the money comes from".


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

cainvest said:


> TV has changed significantly as well, so much more embellishment and unrelated message tranfers going on. Even when I watch a PBS show now on say, the planets ... they've now tacked on a final two minutes with green "save our planet" stuff after 45 minutes of learning about Saturn. It wasn't always this way but you can see the influence of "where the money comes from".


Have you seen the new planet earth type series on BBC? It's called Seven Worlds and does an amazing nature doc of the 7 different continents. Makes the already-amazing original Planet Earth content seem like a home made film of birds in your yard...

Anyways it's great till the last 5 minutes, which is dedicated to David Attenborough scaremongering about climate change impacts and the coming devastation to the cute animals you just watched. I'm rather impressed with the quality of the televised propaganda these days. CBC has some great shows too.


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

cainvest said:


> It's a new world out there and one must learn how to "filter". This doesn't just apply to virus info, it's for all info.
> 
> So a while back, when we were allowed to go out for coffee , I asked my friends to do a search using their smartphones about something that I needed a definitive answer for. It was kind of surprising (scary really) the results that came back in both how long it took and also, what they considered trusted sources of infomation. There should almost be classes taught in school on how to dig for facts in this information (or misinformation / disinformation) age.
> 
> TV has changed significantly as well, so much more embellishment and unrelated message tranfers going on. Even when I watch a PBS show now on say, the planets ... they've now tacked on a final two minutes with green "save our planet" stuff after 45 minutes of learning about Saturn. It wasn't always this way but you can see the influence of "where the money comes from".


In my opinion, if this pandemic hit 30 years ago we would probably have twice as many people infected and about 1/2 the current decline in the stock market, at this point as a result.

This is because the information comes at everyone, at the same time, almost instantly. That has some benefits and unfortuneately some drawbacks as well. The best we can do is, as you say, try to understand its effects and use the good ones and guard diligently against the bad ones.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Nature of Things is really good too. I've been watching more of this in recent months.

I feel that my noon cutoff for social media is working well and I'm curious to see if it can help when markets are open again. The wild ride is likely to continue and I really don't want to pay attention to it during the day.

Limiting TV time has also been good overall. I am sticking to a 7 PM cutoff for *all* news of all kinds to reduce anxiety and keep my evenings pleasant. This seems to be working so far.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

peterk said:


> Have you seen the new planet earth type series on BBC? It's called Seven Worlds and does an amazing nature doc of the 7 different continents. Makes the already-amazing original Planet Earth content seem like a home made film of birds in your yard...


Seen a few good shows from BBC recently, only watched a few of them so far.



peterk said:


> Anyways it's great till the last 5 minutes, which is dedicated to David Attenborough scaremongering about climate change impacts and the coming devastation to the cute animals you just watched. I'm rather impressed with the quality of the televised propaganda these days. CBC has some great shows too.


Yup, exactly .... they should be leaving that stuff out of unrelated shows.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

OptsyEagle said:


> In my opinion, if this pandemic hit 30 years ago we would probably have twice as many people infected and about 1/2 the current decline in the stock market, at this point as a result.
> 
> This is because the information comes at everyone, at the same time, almost instantly. That has some benefits and unfortuneately some drawbacks as well. The best we can do is, as you say, try to understand its effects and use the good ones and guard diligently against the bad ones.


Not sure I agree with your opinion on 30 years ago, who knows what would have happened with the current virus.

The problem is there are soooooo many sources with embellishments, large bias and uninformed opinions by so many that have no interest other than gaining ratings or 15 minutes of fame. Also people don't need to be bombarded at every instant with the same information from multiple sources.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

james4beach said:


> Nature of Things is really good too. I've been watching more of this in recent months.
> 
> I feel that my noon cutoff for social media is working well and I'm curious to see if it can help when markets are open again. The wild ride is likely to continue and I really don't want to pay attention to it during the day.
> 
> Limiting TV time has also been good overall. I am sticking to a 7 PM cutoff for *all* news of all kinds to reduce anxiety and keep my evenings pleasant. This seems to be working so far.


Good job j4b, glad to hear it's working!

So with this "limited time access" you find yourself not dwelling on the markets/virus info as much?


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

cainvest said:


> Good job j4b, glad to hear it's working!
> 
> So with this "limited time access" you find yourself not dwelling on the markets/virus info as much?


I officially started this Friday, so whether it makes markets easier to deal with remains to be seen, but I suspect it will help. I'm way too tempted to watch the market and then actively come and discuss it here. This should put a stop to that. (It's normally fun, but not in the current environment)

As for virus info, yes, I feel less overwhelmed with all of that already. There is simply too much of it in the media. It's excessive, and by its nature, very frightening. It is not healthy to watch such frightening coverage endlessly. It's kind of like watching a horror movie (but which is real) without breaks.

Nope. Everyone needs a break. My advice is: watch what you need to stay up to date, but then pull the plug -- don't keep watching TV coverage.

I think people really have to watch out they don't focus too much on COVID-19 coverage and news. There will be people who end up with PTSD by the time this is done, guaranteed.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

james4beach said:


> I officially started this Friday, so whether it makes markets easier to deal with remains to be seen, but I suspect it will help. I'm way too tempted to watch the market and then actively come and discuss it here. This should put a stop to that. (It's normally fun, but not in the current environment)


Just curious, what exactly is it about the current markets that causes you stress? 

I saw in another post of yours that your target allocations are not far off from normal. Is it the discussion about the market changes here or the actual market values itself?


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

cainvest said:


> Just curious, what exactly is it about the current markets that causes you stress?
> 
> I saw in another post of yours that your target allocations are not far off from normal. Is it the discussion about the market changes here or the actual market values itself?


T-9 minutes to cutoff time 

Good question and I suspect the stress comes from just watching it too much. Too much stimulus, too many updates, too much noise.

Here's a good example. I have two alternate stock web sites I can use. One is a minimal, 1990s style page with some prices. The other is Yahoo Finance which runs dramatic banners and stories all over the place. They both provide the same information. I'm finding that the minimal 1990s style page works for me, whereas Yahoo Finance (during trading hours) causes me stress.

I would not say that the losses are causing me stress. Yes there are losses, but I seem to be OK with the fact I just am not as wealthy as I once was.


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## Dilbert (Nov 20, 2016)

^^Yes, those Yahoo app movement alerts can be very stress inducing!:apologetic:


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I think this is going well. I still cut off social media / forums / online discussions as 12 noon.
I allow short updates on news, but I also cut off all news (TV, radio, internet) at 7 pm.

The point of news is to get essential updates, and as little as 30 - 60 minutes in a day should be sufficient to learn all updates.

Currently, I'm not having any trouble sleeping, and had very little interest in stock market movements last week... seems good.

I think we're in for months of this and I think something like this is necessary to preserve mental health. There is (obviously) going to be endless bad news. I think people who pay continuous attention to the news and updates could lose their minds... definitely PTSD is coming.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Maybe I am not as prone to anxiety. I don't find the news to be causing me any difficulty sleeping or restlessness. I think having a realistic view of how our current situation is likely to unfold helps me come to terms with the fact that this is likely a longer term disruption. I would find it more anxiety inducing not to have a sense of what is going on and for how long.


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