Is That All There Is?

Pretty much, yeah. Sorry OP. It gets worse. Find stuff that makes you happy, for when you’re NOT surrounded by shit up to your ears and imbeciles.

"Every day I watch the news"

STOP THAT RIGHT AWAY. Give yourself a break for a while.

I feel it word for word, OP.

Lowered expectations have helped me. Along these lines:

"We always ask too much of life, you know. We begin by wanting a whole lifetime of happiness, then we learn that to have even a few stolen years is wonderful luck ... Later we reconcile ourselves to reality and could be satisfied with a single evening ... Then suddenly we've only one evening left, and we discover that even that is a boundless oasis in the desert ... Five minutes' happiness!" - Jean Anouilh

OP if you're a news freak like me, try looking at other sources: BBC.com. CNA.com. Al Jazeera.com. ABC.com.au.

Sorry, OP, but this is it. So break out the booze and have a ball.

OP here. Not trying to bring others down, but I literally feel like I’m drowning. I even gave in and took a Xanax because I was going to lose it. It doesn’t help that my parents are huge Trumpers so I feel completely alone. I’ve tried therapy but I feel like even I’m in better shape than they are, I can’t imagine how many morose patients they must have to reassure daily.

I take care of my 89 yr old mom with dementia and she can’t walk. No other family - except the cat. Money is beyond tight. She is getting “extra kooky.” If I could make a Trump voo doo doll I would. I have gotten into a bad habit _ “is this the last ….?” I just filled out the ballot for the special election - is this the last time I’m going to vote? My mom and cat are old and sick. Is this the last Thanksgiving? Is this the last Christmas? ….. I hear you totally OP. Things are getting dark. Even JB Pritzker can’t reassure me anymore . …… is that all there is? Then let’s keep dancing ……

It doesn’t get better for anybody. Just worse and worse. You’ll continue aging, your body breaks down, your waistline keeps expanding, it’s harder if not impossible to date and maintain relationships and get laid, your friends and loved ones keep dying, you’re more lonely and isolated with every year that passes. And what’s the endgame? Cancer? Nursing home? Dementia? Being tortured in a memory care unit? The future is so bleak OP that someday you’ll look back fondly at 2025, because it’s just further downhill from here. Work. Bills. Pain. Death. That’s life.

This is me too

See the magic mushrooms thread, OP. There's no changing the outside at this point. All we have control of is the inside.

And on top of it all, we've now got this AI thing, where we can even tell fake from reality. AI that knows more than we do.

It used to be, with politics and world events, you could say "this too shall pass" or "been there, done that"....but not now....we are in uncharted territory. We can't look to the past for answers.

Unfortunately R9 is right.

Ask my 103 year old mother.

Complaining about inevitable life realities and being depressed about living in an unending dystopian nightmare are two different things.

Dogs or cats, gardening, cooking, hobbies, yoga, friends.

Live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse.

OP, it sounds like you are battling some level of depression. My advice - two things

1) Get out into nature, whatever is easily accessible to you, be it a local park or a beach, ideally bush or forest if you can. Being out in nature like this is known to be healing and is a good way to get out of your head

2) Some sort of exercise - and not necessarily the gym either. When I was in a similar funk to what you are in a few years back I took up swimming, best thing I ever done, it definitely helped, both because exercise itself releases stuff that makes you feel better (endorphins?) and because it got me out of the situation I was in at least for a couple of hours. You dont have to be good, you just have to do it. I still swim every day if I can, and I'm still not great. The best exercise is the one you keep doing every day

You could even combine the two and go walking/ hiking in nature, and it doesnt need to be a an epic hike, even 20-30 minutes walk will have benefits - like preventing the expanding waistline R9 refers to - that doesnt have to be an inevitable thing when you get older.

And like R2 says STOP WATCHING THE NEWS. (and especially Al-Jazeera, its a Qatari asset) Go walk in the park instead. Only worry about shit that is directly under your personal control. If you cant fix it dont waste energy worrying about it

I have days like this. It’s happening more often and I really have to battle it. My golden years.

No I don't OP. I'm old. I've been through crazy times in this country and one thing I know is that they always play themselves out. I know it's hard right now, but you simply have to be patient.

This sure wasn’t the thread to read first thing in the morning.

Find a No Kings demo near you on Saturday and participate.

There are vile people in this country but there are also ones who will dance in inflatable costumes to Latin music in front of ICE facilities.

Every time I glance at the news, I see articles that haunt me for weeks. Eg. I don't usually look at The Mirror (trash newspaper) but this (attached) event happened very near my home so I stumbled upon it - these kinds of stories make me feel ill and utterly hopeless about humanity.

I believe the answer is to greatly curtail my ingestion of news. However, I do think it important to have at least a sense of what is happening around me, and to not close my eyes to the suffering in this world, to remain sufficiently-but-not-excessively informed. It's tough to strike the right balance and I am struggling to do so. If any of you have hints on how you have achieved this, please let me know.

But definitely, less time "doom scrolling" and more time volunteering, going on walks through my neighbourhood, reading fiction, digging in my tiny garden seems like a bit of an antidote.

[quote]Every day I watch the news

This is your first mistake.

Slowly gettin’ old and deteriorating and then dying was always the best case scenario. It was part of the life package deal from infancy and childhood.

Yet there do exist seniors who are more happy than unhappy.

If you take a deep and broad enough scan of world history… America in 2025 is problematic yet still quite stable, and this is a far better existence than what a random dice roll across the world population of the past 100 years would likely place you.

I won't post a link, but man, DL is seriously slipping that there are over 20 posts and no one has added Peggy Lee singing her famous ditty... posted just for the snark factor!

OP the advice to overcome existential ennui or dread is pretty standard. Do something for others who appreciate the gesture. I specify that it's important to have some young people in one's orbit. They are not all polluted. Many are charming and optimistic and welcome expertise from old folks.

getting in touch with animals of course is another way. I like Plumes on YouTube who sings to animals. It must be healing to have that momentary connection with non humans. His music is kind of treacle but the interspecies contact and appreciation is genuine.

Focus on the little things in your life that you can enjoy. Cook, get outside, exercise, watch reruns of Golden Girls (or whatever makes you happy). Forget the news, it’s all rage inducing click bait.

Oh, and avoid social media. It’s just more rage inducing click bait.

Life and Death are just words that mean the same thing.

Something died, or, if you will, "transitioned" from being in its former form into current bio-animate and inanimate matter that now sustains us. Then it our turn to transition into life-giving death.

I find it comforting that humans, in the grand scheme of Time, Gravity and Matter are just quarks, parasitically existing off of death and life.

Us humans are painfully cruel to ourselves and each other. It's appropriate and just desserts when we finally off ourselves over our continued self-destructive ways.

So, I use this nano-second of time to put effort into acknowledging or extending even the most momentary, slightest, yet targeted kindness to myself and others.

And, oh, by the way, that full moon was glorious last week.

Limit news consumption and only from select sources. Avoid upsetting news that serves no purpose like the link R23 posted. When I see links like that I just scroll past. Reading that is not going to do anyone any good. I'm not saying to bury your head in the sand, but save your anger/fear for reading about actual things that affect you, like local crime, government malfeasance, rising authoritarianism and unchecked corporate greed, or violence with a larger context like wars, genocides and rebellions. You don't need to know about every case of every crime in every city, everyday. You don't need to read about child abuse or animal torture. Just avoid that shit. Learn to skim headlines and nope the fuck out of anything toxic and useless.

Of course avoid most or all social media. Stay off of X, Facebook, TikTok, etc. They are toxic to your mental health. Delete those profiles. You won't miss them, trust me.

Seek joy: make time to watch shows and movies, find a hobby or restart an old one, take trips, see shows or sporting events, schedule activities. Be intentional about creating things to look forward to. This is key. If you're hopeless about the larger world, create a smaller one (of people, events, media and activities) that is just for you.

Lose yourself in projects that improve your life, routine or functionality: clean, purge, organize. Get rid of your old crap. Donate or sell things. This alone can be a big distraction from the bad shit, but it also makes an immediate improvement in your daily routine.

Improve your living space further by refurbishing and replacing things. Buy new artwork, change your window treatments, rearrange the furniture, paint a room. Again, these are distractions from the awful things that serve to improve your immediate environment, thus helping to keep your mood up even (especially) after the task is completed.

Go outside every day. Take walks, explore new areas of your neighborhood, visit a park. Buy what you need at real stores instead of ordering everything online. This is also an opportunity to support small local businesses instead of giving all your money to evil billionaires and corporations.

Spend time with friends, call up family you haven't seen, invite people over. If you're partnered, make a regular date night even if it's just a special dinner at home. If you are single and/or live alone, have a face to face interaction with at least one human a day, even if it's just saying hi to a neighbor or thanking the cashier at the store. Staying social and socialized is key. We naturally isolate in times of turmoil but try to counter that with intentional social contact.

Finally, get good sleep, eat nutritious food, meditate, stretch, and exercise daily. And of course, hydrate.

Stay strong folks. We're in this for the long haul.

R31, that is absolutely solid advice.

Clearly, R30 has been sampling the mushrooms.

Thanks for all the good advice. I’ve been hanging on for 10 years now and 24/7 chaos and drama and no corner of the world feels free from MAGA or Trump and I’m mentally and physically exhausted. I’m also connected to the Hispanic community and helping the homeless so it has made it doubly hard to look away or not feel the need to constantly stay vigilant and push back but the onslaught has just become overwhelming. I know I’m not the only one who is tired of it all and I’m usually the one who tries to maintain optimism. But at this point I am starting to disagree with Anne Frank who said she believed all people are good at heart.

This

It is a feather in our collective cap that no one mentioned that POS song. Until you did. So thanks 🙏 for nothing.

It’s number two in my list of songs I have always hated.

ICE will be in my city for at least another month and it's killing me. I can't stand having these thugs crawling over the city.

I have not watched any current news on tv since Mar 2016. But you can’t escape it. Crazy gets out and around no matter.

'When you find you're at the end of your rope, make a knot and hang on!"

--Edna Garrett