Coronavirus didn’t cause your stress and bad habits. You were already infected with them.

The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening pre-existing stress-related problems, including insomnia and unhealthy distractions like compulsive habits, poor diet, and alcohol consumption, all of which weaken the immune system. The emotional need to distract oneself from stress is much greater now than it’s been for a long time. Self-isolation and lack of outside-of-the-home entertainment options (sporting events, casinos, bars, nightclubs, concerts) have brought out emotionally compulsive tendencies. So many people are drinking, smoking, and eating more, sleeping less, and otherwise handling their stress poorly. In most cases, these problems were NOT created by the response to the coronavirus pandemic, but they were brought to the surface by it. NOW is an important time to focus on resolving your underlying problems, since they’re becoming very hard to ignore.