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Is It Just Me?
The Problem.
I chose this photo because it accurately represents my mental state when I think of the coming midterm elections. I don’t know where or when it was taken, or who is in it. But you get it, right? The hair trigger tempers, dry tinder itching for a lit match. High tension. Zero trust.
This is no way to live, so how do I dial this anxiety down? I hate to admit it, but I don’t always want to. I find myself actually curating things that amp the anxiety up. I doom-scroll. If climate change is my ‘worry du jour,’ I watch YouTube clips of cars and houses floating by on the shoulders of the Fukushima tsunami. Or I find equally horrifying Katrina footage.
If the subject of the worry is political, then I cue the January 6, 2021 videos. I go looking for any authority out there who’s as scared as I am…someone to confirm my fears about the upcoming midterms.
(Did you catch that? I go looking for it…anything to actively worsen my own anxiety.)
But if there’s really a storm coming (whether geological or political), scaring myself to death beforehand is not the answer.
What is this all about? And how can I be a better citizen while also becoming a more balanced human being in the face of national…
