My immune system has deteriorated due to a long-term illness, and getting infected could be a death sentence. This was one of my first thoughts after hearing about the spread of the virus to Finland. I was particularly concerned by the asymptomatic virus carriers who I could run into anywhere. I had to avoid all unnecessary movement in public places and to minimise my contact with other people. My best option was to isolate completely until the increase in infections was at least slowing down.
Initially, isolation seemed easy. I had plenty of entertainment, I did not grow bored of frozen and canned food, and daily calls with my wife were enough to maintain social needs. I was not prepared for the realisation that loneliness would on the long term would test my mental health so much. The weekdays and weekends blurred together, the days became long and boring. I felt that I became a more boring person, I was no longer able to maintain a normal discussion, and my previous areas of interest seemed superfluous.
Corona helped me understand the importance of being close to other people and that opting out or being excluded from society for one reason or another could be very harmful to mental health.
RIP
Tomas