Part of it is the mantra “out of my control, out of my concern.” Or “not my circus, not my monkeys.” That doesn’t mean I don’t care. It means I do what I can do, and try not to despair about what I can’t change.

How do I cope?

The media sells the idea the world is on fire. By a lot of measures, humanity is the best it’s ever been:

Things do seem bad, things do need fixing. My advice is to pick one singular part of the world you want to improve and figure out how to fix it. Something like abolishing prison labor or environmentalism. It needs to be something you can make a noticeable dent in, where you can see your own contribution to the effort.

Don’t change tack every time something new like Isreal-Hamas or the scuffle at the US-Mexico border happens. You picked that one thing to fix, remember? And unless you plan on going down to the border with a gun, how do you plan on making a real difference? If you can’t make a difference, why let it bother you?

Don’t read/watch news. That’s the only advice I can trully gie you since news are made to purposfully make people restless.

I don’t doom scroll.

I read a copy of my local, still-Independent newspaper free every morning with digital access to my library.

I vote in every local, State and Federal election.

I vote Progressive in the Primaries and Democrat in the General.

I say ‘Yes’ to any/all referendums that Tax the wealthy.

That’s about all I can do without financially impacting my family or my career. If it was feasible I’d maybe even start attending my Town Hall meetings just to get a barometer reading on my local Council Members.

Crazy thing is I’m 36yo, and sanity checks have required me to act like a 60yo from the 90s… minus the ‘got mine’ Boomer attitude.

I browse Lemmy & Reddit for 12-16hrs per day and eat out of bean tins. I shower once per week before meeting my probation officer.

That’s about it.

Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.

I’m 51, I grew up with media fear mongering of the Cold War, the hole in the ozone layer and AIDS. I don’t think there has ever been a period in my life where there hasn’t been a threat in some form or another, and I sleep like a baby. We aren’t going backwards, it’s just another day at the office.

If you find yourself worrying about events on the other side of the world then you need to switch off the news and focus on what you can control in your own life. Sure, WW3 could be around the corner, Covid 2 Electric Boogaloo could be more lethal or the icebergs could melt, but we can’t do a goddamn thing about it, so what is worrying going to accomplish?

Worry about paying the mortgage, making sure your family are fed, and stay safe.

Best advice I have is to reach out in your local community to help where you can.

Doesn’t matter if it’s a municipal food bank, a church running a shelter, a charity helping battered spouses, or some kind of a mutual aid group getting people caught up on the bills… just working with others to help fix what you can does an amazing amount for your mental health. Volunteer to help shelter and feed migrants or the homeless. There’s after school programs for kids in single parent households or who’s parents have to work too much to be there for them. Cities across the US have citizens councils where local problems are brought and attempts to solve them are made.

I know it all sounds cliche and it’s all a bandaid on the bigger picture’s problems but, in terms of your own mental health it can do wonders… plus I guarantee groups local to you need an extra set of hands on a regular basis. When bad things are going around, we start to worry… when the bad things are enormous and out of any semblance of our control we think we can do nothing. That’s not true, you can do something, just on a local or regional scale. Reach out and offer to help in any way you can.

By dedicating a certain amount of time for things I enjoy while pretending that the world outside doesn’t exist. That time when I watch an anime, or read a book, or write fanfiction, or cook something delicious… that keeps me sane, it keeps me from falling back on my natural tendency to focus on all the bad things and ignore the good in the world.

You cannot allow yourself to be in that “constant stress” because it wears you down and grinds your sanity and willpower like a big belt sander.

That timeout revitalises me, and gives me the balance to deal with the stresses and worries about everything else.

Obviously there isn’t a silver bullet, and mindfulness is probably the best bet here.

I just don’t read news and I try to focus on my own life instead. Try to put social media to minimum/

Nihilism. And drugs I guess

Ingenuity: The helicopter drone that flew on Mars for the last 2.5 years when it was expected to fly just a few times. It is the embodiment of human achievement. Of our minds in this great unknown. I get so wrapped up in politics and war and social issues, then if I think of Ingenuity it scales all these issues down and makes me feel like a fool for that last period of time I’ve been lost. Science and engineering to further the incredible human story of understanding is everything and that is how I am able to reset where we are in this and where we can go.

How do I cope??? I don’t read the fucking news or political posts. The world is damn good.

Making memes and lexapro.

Constant masturbation, binge watching TV shows and marijuana.