I am quite sure that by now you may be experiencing symptoms of what some have referred to as "Covid-19 Cabin Fever." The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines cabin fever as "extreme irritability and restlessness from living in isolation or a confined indoor area for a prolonged time." Even worse than the effects of isolation on families who are affected by the current stay-at-home order is the increased social isolation and loneliness experienced by many of the elderly who live in assisted living facilities that are currently on lock-down and who are not allowed to have visitors.

You don't have to be a doctor to know that social isolation and loneliness can have negative effects on our health; but research shows that the impact may be greater than yo would think. For example, a 2019 study led by Kassandra Alcaraz, PhD, MPH who worked for the American Cancer Society analyzed data from more than 580,000 adults and discovered social isolation increased the risk of early death by 60-100% among various patient populations. Although there has been significant progress in combating the Covid-19 virus, the California Department of Public Health has not yet announced when the current stay-at-home orders will be lifted and so we need to have a strategy to help mitigate the negative effects caused by social isolation.

For those of you who have loved ones who live in assisted living facilities where they are currently on lock down I would encourage you to create some new routines that help decrease their sense of isolation. For example, you might set up a regular daily time to call each day and check in with your lvoed one. We have enjoyed using Skype for family chats as it enables us to both see and talk in real time. There are several other easy to use phone apps such as Face Time and Zoom that help to make video chats fun and easy.

For those of you in isolation at home with your family, here are some tips from the Cleveland Clinics April Online Newsletter on how to beat the boredom of Covid-19 Cabin Fever:

Have a picnic: Take your family, pack up some favorite food and spread a blanket in your yard - or on the living room floor.

Learn a new skill: Sign up for an online art class, learn to speak Mandarin, try baking French macarons or teach yourself a chord on the guitar you bought seven years ago and never learned to play.

Schedule a happy hour: Plan a regular time to video chat with your friends or family members.

Write letters: Texts are practically essential during self-isolation, but it's fun to channel your inner Victorian. Dust off your fanciest stationery and write a longhand letter to someone you love. Bonus points if you actually remember how to write in cursive. (Encouraging your kids to write letters can help them practice penmanship and stay connected to their friends).

Make plans: Start dreaming up the things you'll do with friends and family, and the amazing places you'll go (even if it's just to the park across town), once things start returning to normalcy. "You probably won't be going on vacation next month, but someday this will end - and eventually, this cabin fever will become a distant memory."

We are in the middle of a once in a century pandemic and so we really don't have anything to compare the current pandemic to but we Americans have been through many difficult situations in the past and we have always emerged stronger. I would like to leave you with some timeless words of encouragement taken from a speech given by Abraham Lincoln who knew a thing or two about hardship:

"This too shall pass."