Hi - I'm not sure if this is the right place, it didn't seem to belong in the coping with coronavirus thread, and I do have bipolar disorder...
I have a respiratory condition called gustatory rhinitis. All that means is that if I eat / drink, I can get a runny nose.
What that means, is that in coronaland, I am a leper. So many places ask 'do you have a cough, cold, runny nose...' etc - and if you have one, they tell you to not come in / leave. I also have medication-induced sedation. Fatigue. Medication side-effect. Like my gustatory rhinitis runny nose, I've had it for years. I went to my health insurance office this morning. Sign on the door: if you have cough, cold, or FATIGUE... don't come in. Another place that considers me a leper. A pariah. For having a medication side effect.
Last time I went to my GPs office, I walked in the door and was handed a piece of paper by the receptionst. If you have a cough, cold etc go outside and ring reception from outside. I went outside, and had to wait in the cold and wind (it was late afternoon and raining) until the GP came outside and told me I could bring my occasionally-runny-nose inside. That's going to happen every time I go to the GP.
Tafe SA says 'If you are unwell for ANY reason don't come to campus'. Any unwellness, stay home. So if you've got a migraine, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, a sprained ankle... stay home. No education for you.
Last time I saw my psychiatrist, I got asked cough/cold questions... but they left out the runny nose! Hooray! They let me into the waiting room. Ironically, I see him at the psychiatry clinic of the local public hospital. I vented to him about my frustration about being treated like a pariah for my gustatory rhinitis and fatigue, and he said he didn't have a problem if I answered no to those questions. He said that only new-onset cold-and-flu symptoms were a virus concern, that chronic respiratory symptoms even were not a coronavirus risk. I'm not a risk. He's telling me lying is okay. That was the expert opinion of the clinical director of the inpatient psych unit at a teaching hospital.
Corona is used as an excuse to discriminate against sick people. People with chronic illnesses, even mild virtually-non-existent-ones like mine are treated like lepers. Public health policy actively discriminates against chronically sick people for no good reason.
Being discriminated against causes me anxiety and distress. I'm told to go away. For the forseeable future.
