If You’re Feeling Cooped Up, Change Your Frame of Reference

Why is social isolation so stressful?

“Social monotony” is when you’re with the same group of people for a prolonged period. Those people can get on your nerves. You’re not going to get along all the time.

How do astronauts handle social monotony?

They train to resolve conflict, to not make mole hills into mountains. They’re also considerate—they think about themselves and their belongings, and how they’re affecting somebody else’s workspace or living space. Astronauts are trained in something called Team Care, which is recognizing that the survival of a crew involves taking care of one another. Astronauts talk about keeping an eye on their crew—looking for signs that members didn’t sleep well, or are overburdened—and assisting them.

Who does well in confinement?

We’re interested in people who tolerate relatively high levels of stress and also get along well with others. So, good teamwork skills, good group-living skills, and folks who adapt well to changing circumstances. Stress-coping skills become important.

What’s the key to stress coping?

It’s about taking care of yourself so you’ll be effective and not getting so depleted that you become a liability in an emergency.

Do you have any advice for workaholics?

Boundaries are important—recreational time, time to recharge. We build that into astronauts’ schedules. Also, you have to impose environmental boundaries. Astronauts have workspace, living space, and their own quarters where they get away from each other. We need to create that for ourselves.

What’s the best way to deal with physical confinement?

Get a different frame of reference. When you think of confinement, you think of an inmate in a jail cell with no windows, no variety, no stimulation. An astronaut might think of the space station as shelter from a harsh and dangerous environment. Right now, our lives depend on being cooped up. Look at the benefits rather than the costs.

And if you’re bored?

There are probably places in your home that you never go, like a guest room. This is a good opportunity to spend more time there, to make you feel like the environment is a lot bigger. This is exceptionally hard to do in a 500-square-foot apartment.

Do astronauts go stir-crazy?

We don’t hear that from them. They spend a lot of their free time looking out the window. There’s a cupola on the station, and they’ll sit in there, and their world seems much more expansive. Do whatever you can do to bring your outside inside—sit on your balcony, open windows, or just sit in front of one.

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