Hi, Wil. The past few days have sucked. (Not that the past year and a half hasn’t, but…you know.) My anxiety is kicking into high gear for the first time since I went back on my mental health meds in January and it’s making it difficult to Do Things. How do you draw the line between “it’s my civic duty to ensure I know everything about the nature of our current dumpster fire” and “it’s my duty to myself to protect my brain from the inevitable panic that knowledge causes”? Thanks in advance.
I have experienced this exact struggle, and I decided that I could unplug for a full week, because the world would still be on fire when I got back.
It was a great week, and I felt like I had done some important and good self-care while I was on vacation from the shitshow.
Some people will complain that you don’t care if you aren’t handcuffing yourself to the bulldozers, and I would just remind those people that you’re no good to anyone if you aren’t taking care of yourself. Oh, and not everyone needs to be handcuffed to the bulldozer to be involved and making a difference. We all fight the battle the best we can, and for folks like us who live with mental illness, sometimes the most important and vital battle is the one happening with our own brains.
I give you permission to step away and care for yourself, and if anyone gives you a hard time about that, tell them I said to go fuck themselves.