Dem
47
GOP
53
Here is the question we put before readers several weeks ago:
J.B. in Radnor, PA, asks: How does one keep their sanity and avoid becoming depressed from getting so deep into all the demoralizing news in U.S. politics, and the country as a whole?
And here some of the answers we got in response:
B.C. in Manhattan Beach, CA: I think that the best way to deal with the current situation is to remember the advice given to a Persian ruler many centuries ago: "This too shall pass."
That advice has been rephrased and repurposed many times over the years, but it points out the impermanence of both good and bad. The pendulum swings both ways, and a time will come (soon, I hope) when things are moving again in a positive direction.
I recognize that, before that can happen, the current regime will have done a great deal of damage to our country's standings in the world and to our relationship with both our allies and enemies, and it may take more time to undo that damage than I am likely to be alive, yet I still believe that things will eventually be better.
R.P. in Kāneʻohe, HI: I'm somewhat hesitant to share my own answer as to how I maintain my sanity in the midst of all the insanity that surrounds us, because I fear that many (most?) readers might find it even more depressing and, perhaps, even a bit nihilistic. But, here goes...
Whenever I find myself distressed, or anxious, or frustrated for any reason—due to events in my personal life, or in the world around me (or both)—I remind myself of what is probably the most profound image ever captured. I'm referring, of course, to the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF; later re-captured in sharper detail by the James Webb Space Telescope).
When I consider the implication of what this image reveals (i.e., that our galaxy is only one of about two trillion galaxies in the observable universe, further compounded by the knowledge that our sun is only one of about 100-400 billion starts in our own galaxy), it has a way of making everything else seem somewhat... trivial, by comparison. Even if I ignore the incomprehensible smallness of current political events in that enormously broad context, and focus only on our own home planet, I still remind myself that our entire species has existed for only about 300,000 years. That may sound like a lot, but if you compressed the age of the Earth into a single year, we arrived at the party about a half-hour before midnight on New Year's Eve. The emergence of civilization (i.e., when we'd had too much to drink and became pretty obnoxious to everyone else at the party) was less than 45 seconds before midnight on that timeline. Sure, most folks (and, to be fair, myself included) calibrate our baseline emotional state in the context of events that happen on much more proximate timeframes (months, years, or decades); but whenever things feel a bit overwhelming, I expand the breadth of my perspective a bit—to the timespan of my own life, or civilization, or our species, or our planet, or even the Universe. Personally, I find this to be calming. Your mileage may vary.
Addendum (and a more optimistic one): When I was 19 years old, I was living in a foreign country and suffered a debilitating accident that left me quadriplegic. At the time, it was unambiguously the worst day of my life. Four decades later, I have come to realize in retrospect that it actually was unambiguously the best day of my life. Why? Besides the fact that I did eventually regain my ability to walk, as a direct result of the events of that day, I went back to school (eventually earning a Ph.D.), became employed at the organization I still work for today, and met my wife (of 30+ years) in grad school. My entire career, family (including two wonderful now-grown children), and almost everything else good in my life would not have happened without the events of that fateful day. This is only one example of many in my life where things that are bad (sometimes very bad) at the time, end up leading to much more positive circumstances that would not have otherwise happened. I do not believe in fate, per se, but I do believe that in the fullness of time, challenging situations often sort themselves out in ways that would have been difficult or impossible to predict. So, when things seem especially grim, I often remind myself of the old adage, "This too shall pass."
G.B. in Kailua, HI: Re maintaining sanity in an insane world, it is a multi-factorial activity. Some, but not all, of the things I do:
- I read books and watch videos about cosmology and quantum physics to help place me and the rest of humanity into the grand scheme of the universe.
- I read and watch videos about human history, particularly the U.S. Civil War and World War II, to help place me and my experiences in the context of historical human depravity and social disruption.
- I read and watch thought-provoking science fiction (now mainly dystopian, unfortunately) to help me see the different directions humanity might head into to keep current conflicts and uncertainties in context.
- I enjoy my family. I marvel at the personal and profession successes my son and daughter are having. I revel in watching my four grandkids grow into thinking individuals with unique perspectives and skills (although this also leads to more than a bit of worrying about their and their future children's futures).
- And I ride my bike. I ride it indoors on my smart trainer, so I get to watch videos and experience the views (and work) of iconic climbs. I ride outdoors to help me focus on the immediate world around me, and enjoy the company of folks who are also just looking to enjoy the world around them for awhile. And both of those kinds of riding allow me to put the psychosis of our current political and economic realities out of my mind for the hours that I am riding. There is something about pedaling a bike uphill, at elevation, trying to figure out if you really can get to the top of that 12,000 foot Colorado high-mountain pass, to refocus the mind on simpler, more elemental concerns.
Oh, and I make it a habit to read your posts every day, as they tend to help me avoid over-reacting to the craziness and cruelty of our current administration and its Republican lapdog lackeys.
M.R. in Portland, OR: Retired mental health therapist here. I mostly do not watch or listen to the news, instead I mainly read it. Sometimes I just read the headlines. I follow enough news sources that the headlines often give me all the info I need. I do listen to NPR (which is now fully funded by local contributors) while I'm driving, since they offer stories I don't see covered in other places.
The reason I primarily only read the news is that the written word and language processing mainly engages the left sides of our brains. In the left hemisphere, we have more capacity to distance ourselves from the content, and to objectify it. I mostly don't listen and don't watch the news since these sensory experiences are more likely to engage our right hemispheres, where we have access to more feelings. I think my approach of primarily reading helps me maintain some distance from the awfulness. Also, reading seems to be more efficient for me.
Another way I manage is I allow myself to get angry (another capacity that resides primarily in the left hemisphere). Anger can get a bad rap. I think its helpful function is to provide energy to get us moving, hopefully in a beneficial way. I try to use my anger as energy to engage in activities that might make a bit of difference in the world.
A.S. in Fairfax, VA: My grandmother once lectured me about how much better things were when she was a kid... and then a minute later she was describing how they would have to walk across the yard late at night by candlelight to go to the outhouse.
I regularly remind myself that humanity continues progressing forward at a rapid rate regardless of the roadblocks we encounter each day. I also get involved in local political and community issues and try to help where I can. It at least helps me feel like I'm doing something.
C.R. in St Louis, MO: Since the 2024 election, I have stopped listening to news in my car. I still send donations to NPR, but I need a mental break from news. Since then, I have listened to every podcast episode of Dr. Patrick Wyman's Tides of History. I highly recommend the podcast, though it recently ended after 440 episodes. This week I am now back to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History episodes on World War II, Ghosts of the Ostfront. It is strange to hear Dan compare political situations of historical periods with pre-Trump assumptions. To be fair, when his earlier podcasts were written, the most off-the-rails that American politics had gone was the Tea Party.
G.R. in Carol Stream, IL: If I tell you there IS a remedy for anxiety, will you believe me?
Meditation. It doesn't matter whether the religious kind, or the secular kind called "mindfulness." Meditation will give you the tools to corral negative thoughts before they spiral out of control. But you have to do it daily. Just 5 to 10 minutes a day is enough for me. Try for at least 10 days before you make up your mind.
While writing this e-mail, i tried a few web searches, and "meditation web sites" is giving a good list of what's available. If you want to chat more or know what i use, ask the kind Electoral-Vote.com folk to put us in touch.
Repeating: Knowing how to meditate is not enough; regular practice makes the difference. It's like learning to play a musical instrument. Caveat: my wife is a psychologist and tells me that meditation doesn't work for every person. So, your mileage may vary.
Also: do learn how to play a musical instrument too.
J.G. in Farmington, CT: I tried twice to just avoid political news entirely, in 2016 and in 2024, as a way of coping, but the problem is that I read multiple news outlets every day and enjoy knowing what's going on in the world. I suspect Electoral-Vote.com readership is similar in this regard. My self-imposed isolation lasted maybe 2 weeks each time. There are other people who don't read the news. I can't be one of them.
In 2025, I decided the way I would cope is to get involved in state and local politics. I reasoned that there was very little a person living in a solid-blue state could do from a federal perspective—the state doesn't matter electorally, and our representation makes the right moves, so all we can do is donate and vote.
But on the state and local level, a motivated person can get involved and maybe even make a difference.
I've been passionate about passenger rail transportation since I was a child. People like me are sometimes called "foamers"—both because model railroad features are often made out of foam, and because we're insane and foam at the mouth over the choo-choos. (I don't actually have a model railroad.)
I decided to go with what I know, and started showing up to legislative town halls armed with a proposal and supporting data to improve passenger rail transportation in my state. I did an enormous amount of research, rehearsed my points, and spoke. I expected polite ignorance and dismissal. But to my surprise, I wrangled meetings with legislators and sympathetic ears. The project is ongoing. It'll take years, and the outcome will likely be failure.
But it's worth fighting for. And it's a good diversion of energy. So my advice is: Pick a cause you're passionate about and know a lot about, and get involved.
In case anyone cares: I propose to electrify the New Haven-Springfield Line, a branch line of the busy Northeast Corridor. The main obstacle is not a Republican federal government—there will be turnover eventually—but the state's own Department of Transportation, which a state Democratic legislator with transportation appropriations responsibility told me is terrible at rail projects and well behind our peers. I got stories. In fact, "state and local pettiness and incompetence" could be a regular, humorous, crowd-sourced feature for this site, if you wanted.
J.B. in Seattle, WA: A long time ago I attended a lecture by Dennis Meadows, famously the co-author of Limits to Growth. Most of his audience were college students, and in part, he was trying to give them a frame for what to do next.
He described four potential ways to deal (or attempt to deal) with the demoralizing news, the environmental degradation, encroaching oppression, rising inequality, and so forth. One can:
- Try to ignore everything, put one's head down and hope it all goes away.
- Try to buy one's way out of it, with gated luxury communities and dedicated food sources, or maybe finding a place to weather coming storms. Portugal? Costa Rica?
- Succumb to despair.
Or:
- Get involved, with anything meaningful, at any level, whether it's fighting to stop climate change, saving a local stream, or helping to combat hunger in one's town, or even one's neighborhood.
For Meadows, the fourth option was the only one that makes sense. Even if action, getting involved, doesn't fix the causes of the demoralizing news, the very act of involvement can provide a buffer, a way of getting a handle on it all.
One other option: Read some news that isn't demoralizing. Not Pollyanna stuff, but simply true stories of things going well, people doing good things. Fix the News may have been mentioned on this site at some point; it's a good source for that.
C.K. in Rochester, NY: Whenever I feel that I can't take one more negative headline, I stop to read the latest newsletter from Fix the News.
They offer a freebie version as well as paid subscriptions, I star it in my e-mail when it comes in, so I can quickly find it when I need a good news respite! Highly recommended; it always leaves me with gratefulness for progress made and hope for tomorrow.
J.C. in Oakton, VA: Living in Northern Virginia, it is hard to escape what's happening on the Hill and in the White House.
I rely more on my conversations with other folks—on both sides of the spectrum. And we all agree (even my Trump-supporting in-laws) that changes are coming soon. And not the cultural issues. More the economy-income inequality is a bane to our progress.
It's also refreshing to see the pushback on tech, social media, and AI. Folks are (finally) actually prioritizing their mental health. Remember that we live in a "system of systems." As you know, predicting the future is, oftentimes, a fools errand.
This country has had far worse times... I know that many of your readers don't necessarily agree with me, but I have absolute faith that the late '20s and early '30s will be a phenomenal time for the United States.
E Pluribus Unum.
K.B. in Madison, WI: I taught third grade for 30 years in a school district in a lower socioeconomic area. The challenges were many. Those that stood out include incompetent administrators, unrealistic test score expectations, and misguided parents who refused to hold their child accountable for his/her actions.
How did I avoid becoming depressed from work stress? I focused on what was most rewarding: Daily interactions with eight and nine year olds, the overwhelming majority of whom were still childlike at their core, respectful of adults, eager to learn, and filled with lively energy.
Now that I'm retired I have far more time to follow politics and the state of the country as a whole. The news is indeed undeniably demoralizing, and avoiding depression can be challenging.
How do I keep my sanity today? When it all starts to feel overwhelming, I take long walks that help to keep focused on the many good facets of life. I enjoy close relationships with my incredible wife, three adult children, sister, college buddies, and several others. Good health and fulfilling hobbies also provide positive mental wellness.
I understand how Trump and his supporters make it difficult to keep sane these days, but directing the bulk of one's energy on whatever positives are present in one's life is the path I'd encourage others to try.
F.M. in Fargo, ND: Every time I enter a VA hospital, I'm greeted by the glowering visage of Donald J. Trump. Knowing his picture is there means I can steer clear before the evil imprint can be made on me. The same goes for all media; avoid the visual, minimize the damage. This has been my practice since the campaign for Trump v1.0. I'd hate to think of how wounded I might otherwise be.
C.B. in Highlands, NJ: I hope all of you are well in both body and mind. Personally, I try to not oversaturate myself in the news and do as much for my small town as I can. By keeping a hyper-local eye on what I can do to help make everyday life easier and more enjoyable for those around me, I find peace and a sense of accomplishment. My advice is to get to know your neighbors better, join a board/club/commission, or run for local office. You'd be amazed at how much buy-in you will get once you get involved. People want to fix what is broken and make things better. As Project 2029 says, we "need to shift the focus from outrage to action" and there is no better place to start than your own backyard.
We've been very happy with these responses, and we've gotten a lot of feedback that they are helping people. So, we're going to do this for at least one more week. Maybe two.
There's still time to submit answers to comments@electoral-vote.com, preferably with subject line "Mental Dis-ease"!