Hello Mel,
It is nice to meet you here. I am sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis. The general concern around the pandemic is hard enough, let alone having additional health worries and also the particular challenges of your daughter's separation from her support.
While the BeyondBlue helplines are great for a little help when you are feeling quite bad, it sounds like you are looking for some help to deal with stress that has been building for some time, and perhaps exacerbated by the recent diagnosis and needing to adapt to that. Have you thought about reaching out to your GP to have a chat to them about how you've been feeling, and perhaps even whether having a counsellor would be a useful support for you? If your GP is aware of the arthritis diagnosis, it may even be easier to talk to them as they will have understood where you are coming from as well.
James
