Just got back from shopping. We’d already gotten most of what we needed (including toilet paper, fortunately!) but had to grab a few things we forgot. The parking lot was full to the street (and it’s a big parking lot for a big grocery store.)

We enter the store to find a graveyard of abandoned carts in the first aisle. Past that, at the end of the first aisle is the end of the line. It winds around the store. Multiple people pass by empty-handed lamenting that others have been in line for two hours. We almost left, but there were rumors of a shorter 15-or-less line that made us stay.

Paper aisle was decimated, only plates were left. No paper towels or tissues. Ramen, beans, rice (even the stuff they sell in bulk) all gone. Chicken and beef coolers empty. And this line is winding through everything. We see a second line! It’s almost as long. We consider leaving again, but people’s carts are full, certainly not 15-or-less.

The store stops letting people in, as so many are now waiting in line that it is a fire hazard.

No one IN the lines seems to know anything, so we head up front to see what the difference is between them. There’s like, 20 registers I think, it’s very big. They’re usually all open, and there’s also self-checkout. It’s weird there would only be 2 lines. Well. There aren’t. We get up there and there are several open registers in the middle with lines of only 3-4 people. For whatever reason, no one is getting out of the long lines or even curious what’s going on, so they just stay put for hours or leave. We were out in 10 minutes.

I just... I feel like that says something about this whole situation, really.

OH Oh, but I do have an actual important thing to say. We went to three different stores and I noticed in each one that the pet food was practically untouched. Don’t forget about your pets! If you plan on staying home, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got enough supplies for them as well!

I'm from Poland, so far we have 84 confirmed cases, 2 people have died. BUT we're barely doing any tests – even if someone has symptoms, but doesn't live in a region where there already are some confirmed cases, and didn't contact any sick people/foreigners/haven't been abroad recently, that person is simply told to stay at home for some time, and is told that it's probably just the regular flu.

At the same time schools, shopping centres, cinemas, theatres, universities, libraries etc. are closed – small shops, pharmacies and large stores selling food are still open. And people are buying a lot of food; three days ago my boyfriend went to buy some chicken, and almost all meat was sold out, so was rice, bread, canned food, frozen food, potatoes, pasta... toilet paper and soaps also almost completely gone.

And I had to go to a clinic today, all newcomers had their temperature measured, and if someone's was raised, that person had to go home, so had all pregnant women.

Rant incoming from a german from NRW, because everybody knows that's what we do best. :D Sorry in advance. Also trans ppl and mental health issues anxiety rant.

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take care! Where exactly does your brother work? I work in court, and although most of trials have been postponed, as a secretary I still have to go there and work in an office with 8 people, and I'm going there by bus or tram... at this point getting infected or not is mostly a matter of luck, I guess.

Also, Polish borders are closed now, and it's another disaster – three years ago I was conducting field research on Polish-German relationship in German Gorlitz and Polish Zgorzelec, and most of people there had family in the other country – now they can't even help each other as crossing results in 10 days of quarantine, even if you visit only one person for an hour, even if you want to help your old parents. At least those who work and have papers for that can still cross freely.

As for sanitizer, people here mix ethanol and vodka/aloe vera juice, or simply use perfumes – hand sanitizers are long gone, there's some left only in hospitals and clinics. At least some companies also started making their own, so there's a chance it'll become available again... yet not everyone can afford it, especially since a lot of people lost their jobs (especially from tourism industry).

By the way, how are you? I hope it's not as nightmarish in your area as media portray...

Disclaimer: I'm not a mental health expert or anything of the sort, just someone living with several mental illnesses that has had to adapt to the news cycle lately. A lot of these points have been passed along from my local university's head of behavioral sciences during a recent public awareness press conference.

For anyone dealing with a LOT of anxiety, here are some things I've found very helpful in regards to self-care and not panicking:

1. Funnel some of that energy into preparation. Anxiety is good in that it can motivate you to wash your hands more, ensure you're thinking ahead for what you and your family need. Buy (read: not hoard) disinfectants, reconsider going to crowded areas. A little anxiety is healthy! It makes you pay attention when you might not have before.

2. Limit how much time you spend looking up news about the virus on social media. When every single person gets a voice and not just the experts and scientists, the toxicity and fear-mongering can easily surpass the healthy level of anxiety that's necessary to stay prepared. Recognize the fine line between helpfulness and self-harm.

3. To lessen anxiety when you check for updates (which you definitely should!), stick to local news outlets, the CDC or World Health Organization's websites, or scientific-leaning subreddits like r/COVID19. There are little to no reactionary, triggering comments in sources like these, and you'll still be able to follow safety guidelines and stay healthy.

edit: There is also a support subreddit specifically for dealing with anxiety and depression due to this outbreak: r/COVID19_support.

4. If you catch yourself spiraling, go read uplifting news articles! It's easy to feel like everything is horrible when you never let yourself see the good happening around the world, even in the midst of this misfortune. I would recommend PeppyPanda.com or r/UpliftingNews. You can even sort r/Coronavirus by the "Good News" tag if that's a subreddit you frequent!

5. Let yourself feel the way you do. This is scary, but ultimately, fear can't own us; when we lose our heads, we act without thinking. We need to stay hygienic and mindful of those who are immunocompromised, trust the experts, and have heart. Everything is going to be okay! <3

Again, I'm not a professional and all of this is anecdotal, but following these guidelines has improved my mental health tremendously over the past few days. Stay informed, stay safe, and stay healthy.

I'm ok we have some cases not far my town we have to avoid leave our homes as much as possible... and wait

Seems like a good idea. But I can imagine it sucks. IMHO Going by public transportation is a huge risk. Take care!

My brother is working in a workshop for the disabled. He's usually intelligent but a bit slow. Nothing more. But many aren't capable of hygiene. :V They eat together and work together. My parents now collect him after work.

Also Germany closed borders.

I guess being uncapable of hygiene is a common problem, here we're joking that we needed a pandemic for people to finally start washing hands... or at least buying soap, maybe some believe having it at home is enough. I hope everything's gonna be fine for you and your family... at least in worst case you seem to have really decent healthcare in Germany.

Also, , thanks for the advice, I guess might be crucial – the worst that can be done is listening to all those people who "know" something because a friend of a friend of their friend heard something. Not only the information is usually absolutely fake, it's also mostly negative and made to grab attention. Last week I've heard that borders of particular cities will get closed on Monday, and that large grocery stores won't be open anymore, which, of course, isn't true (at least for now), but a lot of people seem to believe basically anything now, so it just caused more panic. :/

No problem! <3 Yeah, one thing I read that stuck with me said something along the lines of "Those terrible comments could be contributed by one of the people hoarding toilet paper, a price-gouger, or worse, an anti-vaxxer." It's good to keep thinking critically. ^^

I've been calling my relatives to see if they have toilet paper or enough food. I didn't buy in bulk but I had a few extra rolls and extra food.

It's good to share a lil bit! Unfortunately, I have to take public transit to go to work. Wish I could bike to go to work.

Don't need to worry about the summer olympics. I don't think they have been cancelled, at least not yet.

Nope, they're still on. The thing about the Olympics is right now if it gets super bad by say May they might end up cancelling since that's kind of the deadline of how far they have to decide. This may blow over by summer, and it may not, but there's no way to know.

As for where I am, I'm in California and most places are closed. The public library I work at closed all city branches yesterday through April 6 as a precaution to abide by Governor Newsom ordering public gatherings of 250 or more to be cancelled. All public schools have closed in my area as well. He also ordered all bars and pubs( restaurants are still open but have restrictions on how many are allowed inside.) to be closed today as well. Disney closed all their parks worldwide. And most museums throughout the city where I am are currently closed, same for the rest of the theme parks throughout So-Cal.

I've been trying to limit the amount of news I'm ingesting at the moment since it's 24/7 panic mode at the moment, and my parents have been ingesting constant news and being in panic mode since at least early March. The best option since people are panicking right now is to just hunker down and wait.

Adding in some random news bits, but the first round of vaccine testing starts Monday. linking to the associated press article on it. Associated Press vaccine testing

I am just fortunate my hubby is with me. I am freaking out a little, and he is having a bit of cabin fever, but we're okay. We are on semi-quarantine status. I don't know what my employer is going to say if I take another day off, but I work cleaning a medical clinic, so you would think they would understand, but I'm not sure. I will call them tomorrow and see what they want me to do.

My company is recommending that we work from home, so aside from some shopping trips, I haven't left my house since last Thursday. They're saying 177 infected and 4 deaths here now, but with the low amount of testing done, there's certainly more. I had to pick up a few things at the pharmacy for my sister today and there were people just buying up medication for no reason whatsoever. I do think this whole thing is an issue that's important, but going this far is paranoia. I bought a small box of paracetamol, but they were already mostly out.

Aside from that, I constantly see parents out with kids outside on walks and playing, in the park or streets. I know it's difficult to take care of children now with all schools closed, but this is just endangering yourself and others for no reason.

Florida hasn't made an announcement as far as restaurant closures but as a server I'm beyond stressed out about finances. For now we reduced staff at our restaurant but there isn't much business to be had regardless and I'm sure we'll be following suit on closures.

Grocery shopping today went....alright? We managed to get stuff for dinners this week but so much was sold out, and we never found toilet paper even after trying a few other places. Sort of had a last hurrah with my MIL grabbing me a birthday bundt cake and Olive Garden for dinner because I've been craving their chicken alfredo.

At least Animal Crossing is coming soon?

Long Island, NY here.

I knew I would find no TP for miles, but I was NOT expecting all of the pads/tampons to be gone. Why are they hoarding that stuff? Most of us only need those items once a month. I'm incredibly unlucky in that department and need them twice a month. So yeah that's kinda scary lol

Also, the local news interviewed a woman shopping in a store and asked her why she needed the 6 cases of water in her cart. With a shocked looked on her face, she stared into the camera and said "I don't know". So, ppl are hogging supplies...just because?

It's awful-people full of carts with enough food/supplies to last a year; while others are forced to leave empty-handed.

Yet no one touched the pet food, like said. I'd rather myself starve than my cats, so I stocked up on cat food and kitty litter :D

I'm from RI.

All restaurants and bars are closed as of tomorrow. All schools and daycares are closed. They also closed the mall in the capital. I work in an office setting as a designer. We also have a "factory" packing and shipping area. I have been following this virus since it popped up in China. I work for a company that imports jewelry and fashion product and China is our main source. February was pretty horrifying, in a slow quiet way that caused a lot of lost income, shortages, and some people were temp to permanently laid off. It was horrible hearing the things going on in China and how people were being treated by the gov't. And now the virus is here.

Friday all hell broke lose in the grocery stores, the weekend was quiet...now it is just spooky-ish. About 5 people in my company got spooked away or told to go home. There was some drama where one guy just came back from a weekend trip from Colombia and people flipped. Our secretary left on TDI when she heard. Then they told him to stay and work from home. At least 1-2 women are going to work at home or claim TDI because they lack child care. One guy left and is working from home because he has been unwell since early Feb after a vacation. And one of the people who got temp laid off refused to come back and went on TDI. Today was a weird day.

They said any of us could go on TDI if we felt uncomfortable. TDI is 65% of your pay. It is already a small company and after last month and now more people missing, there is plenty of space between us all. We are all being clean and careful. I'm still going for now and have an "exit" plan to literally take my desktop computer home and work from home if things change. (I have an old Mac with older software that cannot be updated, so that's the easiest thing to do instead of saving down a ton of files.). The owner of the company is like 70+ and won't give it up...he is not taking things seriously enough. We have been down for over a month, things starting picking up, so there is business to be lost...

Other than that, I got some supplies, plenty of stuffs. And am not making any unnecessary trips here on out.

Germany here. More on the country, but stores have problems with the usual stuff - pasta, rice, TP, milk, soap, fresh meat, canned food. Shortage on cereal and bread is new.

I stocked up on the necessities, including pet food of course, but it' super annoying with the whole panic-buying that it's based on luck if you can get pasta again. I refrain from eating my pasta at home because of this. And people not staying home even though our government advised the people to do so! These are no vacations. I still see people in cafés, leisurely walking around, people meeting other people to party or even barbecue. (No, I haven't seen them in person, got friends in the bigger cities. I'm staying home, watching Netflix and playing games.)

Have you tried menstrual cups? At least where I live they're still available in many places, and although I'm not a fan, some of my friends use it and it's a perfect solution when it's so difficult to buy anything else... but yeah, people are hoarding like a world war was coming, without thinking at all. :/

UK here - things are looking bad here, shelves are bare, it's nigh impossible to get basic foods. There was a literal fight over milk today in Aldi. We managed to get some but who knows when we will again.

I am scared :/