How to cope with the end of the world
Living through 2024 reminds me of lasagna-loving comic cat Garfield, who believes Mondays are a weekly plot to slap him in the face and make him crawl under the covers with his beloved teddy bear Pookie, praying for Tuesday. This year feels like an entire calendar of Mondays — only Tuesday never comes, the lasagna is poisonous and Pookie is trying to kill you.
Every single day, we're inundated with the news that we're on the brink of World War III, that our very American democracy is at stake in the wake of misinformation and treason, that storms are getting bigger and deadlier as the climate reels, and now there's bird flu ! Yikes!
Dealing with this constant bleak reality in the news and on our phones can be disastrous for our mental health , creating stress that can destroy our physical health as well. Be honest: Waiting for the sky to fall is not a sustainable way to live.
I asked for advice from two Marylanders who make their living getting people through tough times: clinical psychotherapist Candice Mitchell of Baltimore County and Takoma Park's Susan Comfort, a current adjunct professor at American University who teaches classes in yoga and stress management. They agreed that since we can't control the crises around us, we have to reframe how we deal with them.
"Control is an illusion," Mitchell said. "Anxiety is built up because we think we have this control that we just don't." Because we as a society are in a constant state of trauma, we exist in what Mitchell calls "collective PTSD." And man, do I feel that.
This is not the first period in time where all seems lost. My Gen X cohort and I grew up believing we were about to be nuked at any moment, then lived through the 9/11 attacks and coronavirus. We literally had a hit song when I was in high school called "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) ."
But we do not feel fine, and it's OK to admit that and then plan for it. "Just like we can't know how to perform surgery before you go to medical school, the moment that we have to practice the skills of stress management is before" everything hits the fan, said Comfort — and yes, that's her real name. "Once it does is when we really need those breath and body skills that we have cultivated this whole time. We forget we have to prevent, and not treat, a crisis."
Yoga, she said, is a powerful tool in that preparation because it can teach us "how to breathe, how to be more flexible and balanced and how to deal with whatever life gives you. The breathing is the most important thing we have. When we have anxiety, and we're worrying about the future, we can focus on our senses and our current moment."
I can confirm that. My life is much more manageable on days when I practice yoga, even for just 20 minutes. I am a scattered, Type A single mother, but being intentional in a moment that is just about me, and what's going on inside me, works wonders.
Mitchell suggests we focus on changes in our lives and the world that we can be in charge of, like volunteering for causes important to us, writing to service members or supporting candidates we believe in. We can also watch our mouths. "The most important and powerful tool is how we speak to people. We use catastrophic language. What we can focus on is what we tell other people."
More than that, we can be more careful with the information we're taking in — and yes, I'm talking to you, my fellow 3 a.m. doomscrollers. "We can control the media we consume, the graphic images and videos. We can use critical thinking skills and limit our exposure," Mitchell said. "We can look up credible sources and not pick ones that confirm our greatest fears." Not spending time endlessly obsessing on the internet also helps us sleep better, she added, which can temper our anxiety and anxious thoughts.
Look, things are not great, and yoga and putting down the phone isn't going to stop very bad things from happening around us. But these tools can help you be more clearheaded and calm to face them — if, or when, they do.
