Particularly - America.
I personally have found that, I live in the past to cope. Nostalgia is my drug. It sometimes doesn’t help because all it does is that it makes me yearn and beg for things to be back to where things were. Because it warps my mind into opening time capsules whenever I watch an old show or listen to an episode of some niche radio show that long stopped producing new material.
However, it helps because, it at least reminds me that there are some things that I can revisit. If I couldn’t revisit anything, play the games I played, read the books I read, watched the movies/shows I used to, then I’d be up shit’s creek because I’d have to face the fucked up things people consider what are the ‘best that’s offered’.
I read the news just to entertain myself. And then I ignore the content because most news are just depressing: Armed conflict here, murder there, capital offense, you get the gist.
For several months I didn’t read any news, that works too. You’ll realize that most of the stuff in the tv and tabloids doesn’t affect you.
And for the third point I do whatever it takes to distract, lose in or occupy myself completely. That could be a book with a nice story or some outdoor activity. Yesterday I did some kind of mini-camping. I took my bicycle and brought a camping chair, gas stove, water and cocoa powder and rode a bit into the woods. And then I had some quiet relaxing time reading a book on my phone. The hot chocolate and a thick jacket kept me from freezing. It was only 10 °C/50 °F and a bit windy.
I’ll repeat that tomorrow but this time I’ll switch the cocoa to tomato-soup-in-a-cup. The cocoa was too sweet for my taste.Turn off your phone and enjoy real actual life as in the situation right in front of you. Make it happy. Fuck the noise.
Try and see the optimistic side of things. Like, maybe if Trump and his ilk are successful, they truly will try and make things better for the world. I know it’s a long shot, but what the fuck else can I do?
Avoid news. Turn off internet. Literally, stop looking for like two weeks. The difference is palatable. I’ve used this technique a handful of times over the years.
The old “ignorance is bliss” strategy. Tried and true.
tonight im drinkin but normally fantasy but I can’t allow myself much outside of bedtime. Like here is a nice one. Wouldn’t it be great if that cigar shaped extra solar object had uploaded us all to a simulation and destroyed our more polluting constructs and the worlds biosphere were actually healing now. Would be nice.
Planet will be fine but that’s like a couple million years in the future. Don’t worry, our sun has billions of years before it expands and consumes our planet.
Nom nom
yeah but all the species won’t be and its already to late for some. aaaannnnd im reading the nom nom part and putting it together.
Who says we’re coping
I’m not American, so not only am I distanced from what is going on there, but also from Mr Rogers. Regardless, I take his advice for children- When something bad is happening, look for the helpers. They aren’t in the headlines of the day, but they are there.
Following on from this, one of the things that I believe made me an adult was when I started helping the helpers.
Go volunteer for a cause you believe in. You’ll not only feel better about the cause, but you’ll feel better about yourself, and you’ll help other people feel better.
I weigh the pros and cons of committing suicide every single day.
As long as there’s a chance of revolution, I’ll stay alive to see it. I don’t see a reason to take my own life when I’ll soon have an opportunity to give it willingly.
Don’t an hero when there’s cool games like super smash bros and mar!o party.
When I was a teenager I was way into eastern spirituality and meditation, taoism. People think meditating is having no thoughts. The thoughts are still there. They speed through your mind like cars on a train. Meditation is letting each individual car pass you buy. You let the cars blur by, not trying to focus on the individual cars. It’s a blur, and you eventually see them as a train going by not the singular box cars.
I bring this up because during some of the darker days in my life, I let time pass by me in such a way. Each day fading into the next, slipping through my fingers as though it were sand. It helped me not focus on the train car I was currently in. Carrying on autopilot. Like fast forwarding on that Click movie.
Sorry this was so long winded. I just have shared your feelings for a long time throughout my life, and this stuff helped me through what I felt trapped in earlier on life. Addicted to spooky drugs. Homeless. No jobs. Felt like I was at the bottom on the ocean there was so much pressure. I hope you find your way through these feelings. Not tryjng to tell you how to feel or what to do. I definitely understand how you feel. Some one else cant make you feel better.
Better circumstances would be a huge help i know that. I made it to the next day bitter and jaded and pissed. I wish life could be easy, and giving up is easy. I can’t tell you for sure things will get better, but time will carry us forward. If you can’t find something in the now, live for the maybe.
Peace.
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. I appreciate it and your perspective. Logically I can understand and accept what you’re saying, but emotionally I’m not so lucky.
I’ve struggled with my mental health for most of my life anyway, but I lost my wife, 2 cats, FIL and everything I owned in a house fire that I, for whatever reason, walked away from last April. I’ve spent the last year trying to understand it, and the conclusion I’ve come to is death. No matter the highs or the lows, the recognition of the present or the expectation of better days, death seems to hold the most weight. I’m tired, you know? Not like a long day tired, but like my soul, if it exists, is tired.
I’m in therapy and have been for years, and I know the tricks pretty well. I have a cat and a few friends that for better or for worse guilt me into staying, but they don’t know this pain thankfully. We’re all going to die one day anyway so what’s it matter if I, 1 meaningless person out of 8 billion, goes early? That’s where I weigh the pros and cons.
I found that not caring about what happens in the world beneficial to my health. It’s a lot less burdensome when I’m not worrying about what X person is doing or what Y company is doing to their customers.
As a corollary, not doomscroling social media and news articles helps immeasurably. Seriously, stop it, it is not good for one’s health.
Spend more time doing things you enjoy.
Alcohol
I’m traveling to a different Quantum version of our universe. I’m done with all this shit.
Weed
Weed, psychedelics, gaming, and my least/most favorite alcohol (work in progress, it’s complicated).
If you’re upset or feel bad, just do what you can and hang on. If you make it through a year, a month, a day… thats a victory. Thats doing something. Things won’t be like this forever. Nothing lasts forever.
We don’t have to go back to the previous status quo after we weather the storm either. We can make things better for all. Don’t let the tiny box thinking people with low standards convince you otherwise.
Therapy, family, plotting to overturn the system in my head, imagining carrying out those plans with them going swimmingly, imagining myself as the warlord-poet of the enlightened utopic society I would erect afterwards, imagining other things.
There’s a lot of imagining.
I attempt to ignore it…
Ignoring the US news is the only way I maintain my sanity. Focus on things I can change, and control. I tried staying within the US laws to affect change, to no avail. Now have to support those I can, and protect me and mine.
