I’m worried for the world. All I’ve been thinking about is WW3 and this shit makes me want to vomit. I can’t even smoke weed anymore without having a near panic attack. I feel unmotivated. I wake up and immediately just want to go back to bed. I’m not trying to spread fear but the Doomsday clock is 90 seconds till midnight, during the Cuban missile crisis, it was 7 minutes before midnight. Can we just have one day of fucking peace? Can everyone just stop for one day and enjoy one day of peace?
Do yourself a favor and disconnect from news feeds, notifications and social media for 2 weeks and see how you feel.
Edit: also take a break from Lemmy. I swear I think the doomsaying here is worse than Reddit.
Yep. To expand on this if people still want to use social media, here’s what helped me. The constant doom scrolling is unhealthy and unhelpful.
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Block or mute news/doomsday communities/people on social media. Link aggregators and algorithm-driven social media just sucks for news across the board. Use Lemmy (or Reddit, etc) for memes, interesting discussions, cool pictures, whatever, but not news.
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Collect a list of news sources you trust and add them to an RSS reader. Ideally in a separate folder from other feeds so you can easily filter them out when you aren’t interested in world news. You only get one “post” per article, rather than seeing the same “everything sucks now” article reposted to 20 different communities, and it’s buried in good ol’ boring news. Everything is less exciting in this format, it’s great.
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Ignoring problems rarely works…
Maybe take a break from the internet. I know this sounds like I’m being harsh, but I’m serious. There’s a lot of doom and gloom pushed on you because it sells.
Take a step away for a bit.
It helps to get perspective.
If all you follow are news communities (kinda like me) then you’re gonna see a lot of horrible shit.
Tbh I should probably unsub from a couple of them myself.
Also applies to nuclear wars and other forms of apocalypse
No more than ever before.
All I’ve been thinking about is WW3 and this shit makes me want to vomit.
We lived through WW2, most of us anyhow. Some times are harder than others, but let me tell you something. One of favorite cartoons of all time has a fairly flat character, who’s catch phrase is, “We’re all gonna die.” It’s her custom version of yolo before yolo was a thing. No matter the choices, precautions or risks, we all have to die eventually. It’ll happen regardless of how much we stress about it. Or how little.
I can’t even smoke weed anymore without having a near panic attack.
Ah, that makes sense. Pot tends to heighten anxiety over time. Talk to any of the old guard, and ask if the ever struggle with anxiety since stopping, or when they are clear.
the Doomsday clock is
Is someone else’s crystal ball. It doesn’t hold any power over your future.
just stop for one day and enjoy one day of peace?
Turn your phone off for 24 hours, take a stroll outside when it’s daylight, and forget about anything but real life for a day. Step away from the news. Don’t talk to people about politics. Get some distance while focusing solely on the moments that come your way. That will be your day of peace, and whenever you need another, you know what to do.
Excellent post. Thank you!
I think the weed might be more of the problem than the clock
Stop watching the news and get off of social media. They are literally designed to make you anxious so you’ll keep paying attention to them. Go find some local clubs and meetups to go to.
Nope.
I think people who worry about things outside their control might be missing out on things that really matter most in their lives.
I grew up during the Cold War era. It was pretty tense and, at least from my personal perspective, it seemed much worse then than it does today. The days after 9/11 were even worse. It really all depends on your geographic location though (I’m between NY and DC). If you’re in Gaza right now, yeah, you should be worried. If you’re in Oklahoma, go play in the mud and enjoy your life.
Things will get worse. They always have. Humanity deals with it. It’s not a good formula but it’s what we’ve got. I’d be much more worried about the population of the planet exceeding its natural resources and the continued loss of jobs to automation and slave labor (the unrelenting promotion of consumerism) than I would WWIII.
Not to dismiss the legitimate atrocities that are taking place across the world but I think your issue might be too much media consumption. The media is getting worse faster than the world is. Everything is rage bait to garner viewership and ad revenue and attention and profits for stock holders. Limit your media consumption to your passions and hobbies and to neutral journalism like AP and PBS. I mean, I can’t tell you how many articles I read from formerly-legit news outlets that have little to do with a click bait headline now. It’s so frustrating that even the news has a bias now - even when it’s biased towards my preference.
With all the energy you’re putting towards worrying about the entire planet, I’m sure your immediate community would benefit from a fraction of that concern.
Edit: Invest some time is setting up an RSS reader. Use it as a filter for the news you want and trust. Fill it with things you’re interested in, blogs, local news, world news, neutral news outlets, newsletters, etc. I’m in the Apple system and have been using Big News for about a year. I like that it gives you an email address to subscribe to newsletters so they don’t fill up your inbox.
Get off the news cycle.
2nded.
Find your own source for information about the things you can understand, apply, and for which you can create solutions.
Then, build your strength.
I personally don’t thing we’re all fucked. I just take in life day by day and appreciate what I have. Let’s make today a day of peace. I’m probably gonna go for a walk and try to do something nice for someone.
Log out. Find something you can do in physical space. I found that organizing with some people doing mutual aid really helped me feel better. Just refocusing away from things you can’t really do anything about, and towards things you can. In my case, it was helping feed and clothe vulnerable neighbors.
Stop smoking weed, maybe it’ll help.
I went to therapy for almost this exact reason. I will tell you what my therapist told me. Just because these terrible things are happening, doesn’t mean you can’t have meaning and joy in your life. It can be hard to feel grateful, it can be hard to feel happy, during such times, but it’s possible. I would suggest reaching out to a professional if you can afford it.
Meh, therapists are paid to say that shit. Reality is objectively awful in so many ways. I agree you can choose to ignore it and be happy if you want, but it’s also perfectly rational to look at the train wreck and feel anxious.
I’ve noticed over the last few decades that every time I start worrying about WW3, climate change, solar flares, super volcanos, giant meteors etc. that there’s something going on in my personal life that’s causing me stress. Something I feel like I have no control over.
I guess my brain doesn’t want to admit/deal with my own issues, so I focus on something else, something that feels just as overwhelming.
Working on taming the anxiety itself is quite useful, especially if you can’t help the situation you’re currently in.
The things that have helped me the most are: meditating (chakra and mindfulness) which has been great at helping me calm down; finding activities that feel meaningful to me; spending time with the people I care about (making the time); and finding beauty and/or amusement in everyday life.
All of these things take practice and time, which might seem useless if you think that the world will end tomorrow. But even if all you can do is one meaningful/fulfilling thing today, then it will improve your day and help make your last day on earth a little better.
Of course chances are good you’ll wake up tomorrow, and the next day etc., which means you have even more time to live an even happier life.
Good luck my dude.
In the words of my mother, who:
- survived a brutal civil war in her home country
- survived a husband who didn’t let her work and made her entirely dependent on him before ditching her
- survived all her kids turning on her during a messy divorce (read: the kids were brainwashed)
- survived supporting her own mother get steadily weaker and insane before she died
- survived a thankless job in daycare watching her less experienced colleagues get promoted over her
- survived no pension
“All you have is your health, and these tender moments. Everything else is just extra.”
Your mother sounds like an amazing woman. I’m sorry to hear everything she (and you and your siblings) had to go through. It takes incredible resolve to survive all that.
As someone who’s had poor health their entire life, I can absolutely agree that the ‘tender moments’ really make life what it is.
Thanks for sharing.
I have a friend who went through throat cancer. Her boyfriend left her, her job isn’t great, her rent is high, in her 40s with no kids.
She goes for long walks, does bellydancing, makes her own clothes, and is genuinely one of the most interesting person’s I’ve ever met. Do what makes you happy, kind stranger
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If we are all fucked, whatever, then why bother worrying? - you can’t change anything and it makes you feel worse. Enjoy what you’ve got left.
The doomsday clock is very misleading. People assume that, because it is managed by scientists and is widely credited by different agencies, that it is quantifiably measured.
The truth is that the clock is entirely subjective and basically based off of the scientist’s vibes. Of course a subjective measurement system, spanning over dozens of scientists for damn near 100 years is going to be extremely inaccurate.
Due to human psychology, negative emotions such as fear, anger, shame and anxiety are much stronger than positive emotions. All news outlets heavily abuse this fact, since it gains most traction. Many people use this too, to gain traction to their posts, or gain more influence.
I would recommend you unplug, and focus on hobbies or work that aren’t related to the internet. Over time the internet has become increasingly hostile in a bid to capture more attention than competitors. Personally I like to avoid it when I can these days, despite working in tech.