Lost my mojo amid political drama

[mona]

There was a time when I would dive into my hobbies or explore new avenues, but these days I feel like I'm just waiting for everything to fall apart. I want to believe as I used to that there's more to life than republicans vs. democrats, conservatives vs. liberals, etc. I want to freely focus on reading books and blogging about books and not feel like I have to be on the frontlines of political resistance and have that define me. I want to block out the political drama, but then I feel like I'm not being active enough to bring change. I hope someone can relate.

 

[triceps]

Hi Mona and welcome. I think the answer is simple. I've had to concentrate on constructively furthering my views, without pushing them on anyone, and just accepting that these are unusual times. The polarization was increasing my anxiety until I put the extra effort into accepting that everyone has the right to their own views.

 

[mona]

Thanks for your input, @triceps .

I believe people have the right to their own views. My anxiety comes when I catastrophize about white supremacist extremists revolting no matter who the next president is. And so I wind up sitting and ruminating about that instead of reading books or writing poetry.

 

[Hurt&Hopeful]

These are definitely weird days. I'm only 40, but I can't remember a time in my lifetime when folks were this divided or this upset any time politics were brought up.

So if you like books and poetry - have you thought about using that? If you're obsessing over it, write about it. Write about how it makes you feel. It might be cathartic.

 

[Howlingvapor]

I’ve said this before on the forum multiple times, but I actually used to do political commentary on YouTube. I used to love the fight, I’d get into debates just because and I would be arrogant and sarcastic towards people that disagreed with me. But for whatever reason at some point I got tired of fighting and doing so gave me intense anxiety. It didn’t help that someone doxed my address in the comments of one of my videos and threatened violence against me and my family. I don’t make videos anymore and my friends from that scene keep begging me to come back, but I just can’t anymore. I really relate to that concern about not being politically active, but you have to do what’s best for you. No matter how scary things may seem right now we have to fix ourselves before we try to fix the world. Kinda like that analogy everyone uses about making sure you have your oxygen mask secure before helping others put theirs on when the plane’s going down. And even if you never go back to talking about politics, maybe that’s not where you can make the biggest impact right now.


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[smilingsoul]

I second what howlingvapor said about taking care of yourself first, and the oxygen mask analogy is a great one. Its ok to let others carry the burden of our political opinions. We can support them with time and money if it comes to that. The web is full of people writing and vlogging. You don't need to add to the noise.

 

[Cuchculan]

Here in Ireland we can block politics out. We all think one lot are as bad as the other lot. So we ignore them all. I see the same in the US. There is no new big name that will sweep in and change everthing. You have a load of bad choices to vote for. When that happens I would simply ignore it all and not bother with any of it. Why? Because nobody is going to make a difference. They are not in a position to do so. No matter who becomes the next President, they still have the same mess to deal with. It is out of your hands.

 

[smilingsoul]

Our Congress is really powerful, and the President is supposed to act as a check against their influence. That hasn't been the case for the past 4 years, as the current Executive doesn't understand or care about policy.