Day 14 in isolation

coronavirus isolation has my mind stressing, the amygdala, anion mal brain underneath the hippocampus, the thinking part of my brain.

Looking around at the newspaper, it seems like there's a lot of nutso animals on the prowl right now in our culture and around the world. And it's a lot of stress. It creates this stress, it's bad for MS, it's bad for many things. Almost anything that's wrong with you, you could do without some stress to deal with it, you know? So, people are not functioning in their highest level right now because of all the stress.

Begin Transcript

JOHN HOPPIN: All right, what's up, what's up? Thank you for tuning in to the What's The Matter With Me? podcast. My name is John. I'm a husband, a father, 40 years old. Feels older sometimes. I'm an MS patient, and I'm a small business owner and podcaster/radio DJ.

But I'm not really much of anything except a husband and father right now. That's been my focus for the past 14 days I've been at my house. My wife has been doing the grocery stuff and the toilet paper war, and all of this stuff; it sounds horrible.

I've been at home with my kids. We go out on a walk and usually, I use my wheelchair and then go around my neighborhood. I told you about that last time. We're still pretty much doing that every day. I had Zoom chats with my kids' school. Hold on a second, it's too cold out here. Sun is shining, but the wind is starting to blow.

All right, What's The Matter With Me? podcast, we're back. Thank you for staying with me. I went inside and I got a Pendleton, my Pendleton wool sweater. It's so comfortable and stylish, and it makes me happy. I got that on, I'm in the sun, things are okay, but I just wanted to say it's been two weeks I've been in my house, I'm getting some walks around pretty much on the daily. Today I finally took a walk without the chair, and that made me realize how much I'm missing the YMCA, and I'll get back there.

I wanted to make this episode to check in. First of all, I got to give a big shout to Patrick. Thanks for checking with me, shooting me an email. He emailed me via the contact page- email me there, and I will say what's up to you. What's up, Patrick? Patrick's always listening.

I also wanted to give a shout-out to Rocky. Rocky is always listening and connected, and shout-outs to all the other people who listen. You know, it's great to hear from people and I wish I could hear from everyone, but it's just the way it always goes in advertising, right? Couple of people write you, you know other people were listening, getting down the same way; they just didn't write you. So, I wanted to give a shout-out to all you silent lurkers. Thank you for listening to the What's The Matter With Me? podcast.

Right now, you know, multiple sclerosis can get aggravated under stress, and right now it's a very stressful time, and everyone functions worse under stress. We start getting dominated in our brain by our amygdala, which is like our animal brain, and it releases cortisol, stress hormone. It increases our fight-or-flight response. So, we're not creating positive thoughts, we're not in our hippocampus, we're not in the brainy part of our brain. I know we've talked about it. It's the part on top that looks like a brain.

We're instead all operating under stress, we all start operating from that weird, little brain under our big brainy brain. And so, we're all stressed out and fighting or freaking out. At least, I am. I mean, it's a stressful time. I haven't been able to go anywhere. I'm kind of like a nutso animal, right?

I think, looking around at the newspaper, it seems like there's a lot of nutso animals on the prowl right now in our culture and around the world. And it's a lot of stress. It creates this stress, it's bad for MS, it's bad for many things. Almost anything that's wrong with you, you could do without some stress to deal with it, you know? So,