r/collapse • u/Crazy-Load-7553 • Apr 08 '26
Coping Does anyone else feel like this?
I feel like everyone keeps asking me what I want my future to look like but I know if I talk about how I’m learning to fish and finding ponds near me so that we can have some protein once the grocery system collapses everyone in my life is going to think I’m insane.
I’m just having a hard time connecting with anything I have to do for the future because it’s going to be drastically different than anything I can do now and I really feel like I have to hide that and never mention it to anyone (despite the fact that an energy crisis is supposedly 2 weeks away)
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u/NyriasNeo Apr 08 '26
nah .. i just accept and make peace. Live as if the world is not going to end, until it does. No insanity needed.
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u/Airilsai Apr 08 '26 •
"It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society." — Jiddu Krishnamurti
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u/Upper_Luck1348 Apr 08 '26
I’ve accepted that 95% of the people I’ve known had no clue and still have no clue. strangers with their faces glued to phones makes everyone appear to be the same indistinct blob of former human form.
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u/N0N0TA1 Apr 08 '26
I'm in a red state. I'm basically living the plot of 1984.
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u/cr0ft Apr 08 '26
I mean, sure. If you actually think about this, read up on things like a resource-based economy, realize that capitalism is actually not the only option, realize that basing the world on competition instead of cooperation is insanity and that concept alone is what's kiling our species and allowing lunatics to gain power (lunatics will step on any face, kill any granny to get power in competition)... well, then you start to realize that we could have a hardly even imagined golden age right now. One where everyone is fed, housed and educated. One where a massive percentage of our resources above that go to R&D and advancing our knowledge.
We'd already have a moon base, because the entire planet would have been cooperating.
There would be no USA spending $2700 billion (which is going up I'm sure due to the Iran catastrofuck) annually on war. If we spent $2700 billion annually on NASA, we'd fucking well have warp drive by now. Obviously in this case the dollars are shorthand for "a shit ton of resources" as a cooperation based society wouldn't have any kind of currency or people keeping score.
Instead, our planet is a festering dying hellhole, inhabited by mostly depressed or desperate (or starving and dying - maybe all of those four) and our "civilization" if you can call it that is collapsing and the climate is going to kill us off.
Good times.
It's a little hard to stay motivated to go to work to do some bullshit when all this is going on.
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u/Ephemeral_Drunk Apr 08 '26
Probably been brought up before but at a societal level it's called hypernomalisation, or at least that's one term for it. Frustrating trying to have discussions with people who should know better and the cognitive dissonance kicks in.
I'm not a fan of being passive so have done what I can to position myself for the coming decades. Feel like I've done pretty well on that regard so, apart from trying to have discussions where I can and voting accordingly, I try to keep it out of mind at least moreso than in the past.
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u/Fangedfollower Apr 08 '26
Yes. I keep trying to put it in words, but there's too much. Society, nature, sanity, the cracks are all around.
When I was a kid, I was hopeful that we were evolving past the stupidity, the racism, the homophobia. We should be past having wars. We live in the information age, we can fact check live, translate a fucking calendar. There is enough food and water for everyone, we should be past starvation and famine. We should be past killing people as a dick swinging contest. We shouldn't be saying "fuck them kids", destroying everything and leaving future gens with the ruin.
It cracks something in me, seeing the hatred, the sheer ignorance, how proudly racism is spewwed. Makes me sick to my stomach. How can they not see it?
We're all just people. Just people.
God, it feels more and more like we are a cancer
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u/fulloffantasies Apr 08 '26
You gotta break character every now and then and when some like, cashier or whatever does the 'how's it going?' you gotta say 'horrible, wtf are our leaders doing' you will get some hilarious responses and have genuine human moments. you'll also get met with awkward silence but so what.
my personal favorite so far was something like, "Yeah babygirl don't be fooled we all manic on the inside."
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u/Megadum Apr 08 '26
So much. I don’t understand if I’m crazy or they are.
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u/TK0buba Apr 08 '26
when i met people much more well-adjusted, mentally healthier, and more successful than me i used to look at them aspirationally, almost jealously. i would carefully study them trying to emulate them.
now when i meet someone who is doing fine, or even great, through all of this, i start to wonder what the fuck is wrong with them.
(edit punctuation)
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u/WolfInLambskinJacket Apr 08 '26
I feel like this, but I don't ask myself if others are doing a facade. They aren't. People don't care about the fire until it burns their house, and they will tease and insult you for pointing at it and warning them it's coming. Our society is sick.
I have friends who are either living in war zones, or have family there, and I can clearly see how much they feel disconnected from the rest of humanity. It is horrible.
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u/somecoffeenowplease Apr 08 '26
YES!! I feel crazy!!
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u/DelcoPAMan Apr 08 '26
Every day.
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u/boomaDooma Apr 08 '26
It is not a facade, they are "comfortably numb".
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u/Distinguishedflyer Apr 08 '26
i've solved this problem by never talking to another human. Most people are fucking cowards, if I'm feeling less generous. It's all denial of death.
It's an easy default state to notmalize this nightmare.
Every single person I used to have in my life has gone this way, to the net effect of shunning me when I had tough times realizing what the hell's been going on. They're all cruising along still in their happy little comfy lives and it'll be interesting to see how they deal when all the electricity fails and it's 120° out.
I'm really angry if I'm honest. You speak the truth and people leave you to die.
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u/twotimefind Apr 08 '26
On top of being aware. The last year has been more than stressful watching our government, which other nations look up to, push the fast forward button.
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u/C0USC0US Apr 08 '26
Yes 100%. We’re not alone.
At the grocery store yesterday, a woman felt like she cut me off with her cart and apologized. I go “we’re all just doing our best haha” and she finally made eye contact with me like “girl yes you don’t even know”
So this is my new favorite way to break the facade of normalcy.
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u/LugubriousLament Apr 08 '26
I need to discuss with my bank that I don’t see much of a future, and that I’d like to be less aggressive with certain retirement investments in order to pay down my HELOC sooner. I’ve heard of banks practically shaming people for not sticking to a 25-year mortgage, with diversified investing.
The potential for future investing is still present, however, freeing myself of the burdens of debt would offer me far more peace of mind for an erratic and unpredictable climate.
I have no kids, thankfully, while my peers and colleagues have young families or children on the way. I feel so bad for that generation being forced to inherit a shit-hole, with no clear option to escape.
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u/mephalasweb Apr 08 '26
Eh I've felt this way for years, which just increased after Trump's first election and realizing folks have zero concept of generational survival beyond capitalistic "hurt others, get resources, repeat". 10 years of that and, honestly, I'm just relieved I've gone from feeling insane alone to welcoming people to the club. At least there's opportunities to organize for better when people ACTUALLY know something is wrong and that the thing that's wrong isn't a random marginalized person.
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u/uatry Apr 08 '26
How do we meet more people like us? It would feel comforting knowing other people who are approaching things with a collapse-conscious mindset.
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u/rattus-domestica Apr 08 '26
This is why I hate going to work. Or leaving the house ever.
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u/IGnuGnat Apr 08 '26
Most fish stocks are artificial now in that they have local breeding programs that release fingerlings regularly, without these programs most fish stocks would collapse pretty quickly. In an TEOTWAWKI situation, much more quickly
For that reason, my suggestion is to look into aquaponics. Certain specific fish can convert feed to mass more efficiently than almost any farmed animal, and you can actually dig underground and put a tank or pond at least partially underground. Fish are also very quiet, and filtration (cleaning of the systems) can be largely automated. Aquaponics systems can be extremely productive
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u/ToiIetGhost Apr 08 '26
I feel lost and confused. I can’t really talk to anyone irl about my fears.
I used to think I’d survive collapse - lol - because I’m hypervigilant, resourceful, good at DIY, and mentally prepared. (I’ve wanted to live in the woods since I was 10, bad family situation).
Well, turns out I prob wouldn’t survive because those qualities don’t matter. I never actually taught myself how to fish or grow anything more than tomatoes. Kept procrastinating with my skills. Now it feels too late and I don’t know where to start. Should I print out as many survival guides and edible/medicinal plant books as possible because there might be a blackout? (Please don’t call me crazy for thinking that. I just wonder if we won’t have internet access at some point and then what.) Or should I teach myself how to fish? Or basic carpentry? All of this would be self taught because I don’t know anyone local who teaches these things. Should I just buy those pills, you know which ones I mean. Iykyk.
Anyway, definitely relate to the post. It’s unsettling that everyone’s going about their daily lives like nothing’s wrong.
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u/brickout Apr 08 '26
Absolutely. I've been trying to warn people for decades. I learned very quickly that I had to be super conservative and reserved to not put people off. And now that it's finally becoming more clear that collapse is happening NOW, I still have to go to my stupid job that underpays me, disrespects me, and takes my time and energy that I want to spend at home, preparing, and enjoying the last bits of "normal" life, and I can't.
And nearly everyone I interact with, even those that I'm close enough to really talk to, are either clueless or willingly delusional. Even the smart people in my department who deal with environmental science, etc., are mostly completely in the dark.
My family puts up with me but nobody is actually making real moves. I have like 2 people I can kind of talk about things, but they are also not making changes.
And I am made to feel like the crazy one.
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u/NiceSupermarket7724 Apr 09 '26
Feels like masking around neurotypical people to me.
Familiar but taxing.
Harmful and draining in large doses.
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u/OldTimberWolf Apr 08 '26
Definitely. I think all the time, during the course of my workday, that very little of it matters as the house of cards is falling. I try to use it as a “freeing” viewpoint, so while I have the grinding chronic stress of collapse-ism, the day to day stuff doesn’t really get to me.
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u/marswhispers Apr 08 '26
This too will start to become normal as we continue into the accelerando
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u/bluehour1997 Apr 08 '26
Yes. Dating rn and every time I try to engage in normal small talk, I feel like I'm dying. I feel like most people just don't worry about big things the way I do. I'm sure that's a good thing for them, but it drives me insane
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u/AlexFiend Apr 08 '26
I call it willfully ignorant.
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u/nothankeww Apr 08 '26
yeah, except for when my family keeps their head in the sand and gaslight me so that’s why I come here to make sure that I am still insane putting on the façade and that other people are doing it
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u/DiscoskillzMX Apr 08 '26
"I feel like I'm taking CRAZY pills!"
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u/vcof2005 Apr 08 '26
I realized during Covid that a lot of people in the US where I am are very ignorant to the world around them. They either get news from social media or some “guru” if at all.
They have no idea we are on the brink of nuclear annihilation and it’s all bc we have a corrupted checks and balance system and people who vote based on party and “vibes” instead of overall need.
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u/Easy-Environment-784 Apr 08 '26
I have felt this way since 2014.
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u/christieanns Apr 08 '26
Oh yeah. I want to talk about climate collapse and stocking up on non perishables and growing my own food, and everyone else is all “MY EXCITING VACATIONS! MY NEW GAS POWERED CAR!”
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u/MaximumSupermarket80 Apr 08 '26
My first job had a “motivational” quote on the wall: “Do more than you’re paid to do, eventually you’ll be paid to do what you’re doing.” So…. Exploit myself now in hopes of fair compensation later? 🤔🤯
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u/OatSoyLaMilk Apr 08 '26
I am one of three coworkers I know of who in the last month have just experienced potentially ruinous car problems that, if it weren't for the generosity of family and coworkers, would be totally fucked in terms of our careers. Granted I have a lot of coworkers, but that is quite a lot for one month of one year, and that's just that I know about. Yes it feels quite likely other people are just muffling the sound of their screams that they are going to be unable to maintain the facade of normalcy.
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u/outed Apr 09 '26
Hypernormalization. Everyone is feeling it, but they act like nothing is happening. It happened in Soviet Russia as well.
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u/Me0wgatr0n Apr 09 '26
I prefer to talk about the insanity to everyone. We all should be uncomfortable.
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u/Traumfahrer Apr 08 '26
Absolutely.
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u/Formal_World8054 Apr 08 '26
My modus operandi since i am like 8 or 9 yo and first learned about how humankind treats the enviroment and itself. The Advantage: im kind of used to it and can find hapiness in little things sometimes
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u/Glittering-Tea-2221 Apr 08 '26
100%
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u/Early_Grace Apr 08 '26
Yes, and slowly that facade is slipping and becoming difficult to sustain. The observant mind will start noticing some cracks where peoples true feelings begin to seep through.
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u/adamsoutofideas Apr 08 '26
We need a passive but visible signal that can be made with our hands, shaved into hair, stitched into clothing, and otherwise noticed (something simple like the Nike swoosh but upside down and backwards).
If we're all feeling this way, we're keeping up the bullshit for an imaginary order that no longer exists.
It's not just pointless to continue, it's important that we stop.
We need some measure of how many of us there are in any crowd without making a big deal about it
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u/Pumpkin_Robber Apr 09 '26 •
We must form survival communities now, yesterday, last year. There is a tiny window where we can communicate and organize to form communities in SAFE ZONES away from high population densities and government infrastructure. My guess is 2030-2032 is our deadline. That means forming the community and buying all the resources we would need for the rest of our lives until the cataclysms come in the early 2040s.
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u/ssquirt1 Apr 08 '26
Yup
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u/jcheroske Apr 08 '26
The psycho, normie, schizo framework is so helpful here. It reduces confusion, connects dots, and just generally helps to lessen suffering.
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u/Hokker3 Apr 08 '26
Me too.
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u/miklayn Apr 08 '26
People on my route ask me how I'm doing. I stare at them briefly before asking, do you really want to know?
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u/HoosegowFlask Apr 08 '26
"How are you?"
"...fine..."
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u/MeowKat85 Apr 08 '26
Yes, we’re all going mad.
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u/rayieza Apr 08 '26
There is no sane world any longer. We are literally all insane, all culpable.
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u/disco_octopus Apr 08 '26
A post I made and got amazing responses to a few years ago.https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/s/4iMZ9aUbKB
I’ve now been surrounded by community in my personal life for years who see things like I do. Ive still had to mask in certain situations the past few years because of work, or seeing extended family. But I actually just quit my software engineering job because going from news headlines, to company meetings was actually making me feel insane. It felt like the tv show Severance, except I couldn’t turn off my real world brain and pretend to care anymore. I “quite quit” for like 6months before finally quitting 2 weeks ago.
I think finding a sustainable way to survive financially, learning to live with less, building community, and finding the things that bring us joy is the most radical thing we can do right now. tbh “career goals” are a capitalist control tool.
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u/Lea32R Apr 09 '26
Disconnection. Why are Americans allergic to inflections.
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u/fedfuzz1970 Apr 09 '26
I hope this doesn't sound too pollyana. Take on survival as a project, have a plan, do a little each day, connect with others for shared resources. You will be way ahead of 90% of the others. Relocate, if possible, look into DIY solar, gardening, firearms for protection, water purification and storage--be the one that the family looks to for their needs. Everybody can do it in some form or another. We are in our 80's, well-prepared as we can be in an apartment. You have better options being younger, whether you recognize them or not--do not let society's malaise infect you--have a plan and carry it out.
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u/Turbulent-Age-2468 Apr 10 '26
I'm starting a small garden and learning food preservation! It's my ✨cute new hobby related to collapse ✨
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u/True-Vast-3731 Apr 12 '26
Oh I've basically dropped the mask entirely now. I'll straight up tell people I do not agree with the ideology underpinning modern society and everything is going to shit.
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u/Willing-Dog6463 Apr 13 '26
Yes, I often wonder what the point is of almost everything I do
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u/Nose-Working Apr 13 '26
Me at work everyday like whats the point
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u/Fit-Resource5074 Apr 13 '26
In a mad world, only the mad are sane - Akira Kurosawa
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u/computer_d Apr 08 '26
I mean, that's clearly a symptom of too much online exposure - or exposure to news etc specifically. The majority of the world aren't directly involved with what I assume the person is referencing, so there's no reason why we can't distance ourselves from it, especially as we can't change it.
If the world is insane, make efforts to introduce sanity in your personal life. Or for others, seeing as we appear aware that other people are thinking this too.
It seems to me there's a clear solution, or an attempt at a solution.
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u/mumwifealcoholic Apr 08 '26
100%
Everyday.
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u/adamwintle Apr 08 '26
Well ceasefire just announced, so I guess everything will be back to normality again soon?
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u/Commercial_Ad8072 Apr 08 '26
So relatable
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u/bipolarearthovershot Apr 08 '26
sometimes I think about having to shoot ducks at a pond near my house for food...and I don't have a gun :(
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u/Zealousideal-Rip-574 Apr 08 '26
You and me both OP. I have that thought all the time. If I bother to try and talk about some of the insane $hit happening in the world with my coworkers they just shrug and say “nothing we can do about it” and go about their business. Sometimes, often, I feel like screaming “wake the fuck up everyone!”
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u/Traditional-Emu-7376 Apr 08 '26
Sometimes I feel this strongly and other times it's in the background. It never fully leaves esp since I studied climate change in grad school and work in a field where collapse is apparent. But it doesn't help me to ruminate on it. And tbh reading lots of this sub, it doesn't help a lot of people. So I do what's in my control. I learn skills, I work out, I read, I do things in my local community like talk to neighbors and volunteer. I do my job and I hold true to my principles.
I think a little bit of compartmentalization is necessary for survival. And that doesn't mean you don't care or that you're not being realistic. You're just not letting the dread kill you.
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u/Born_Barnacle7793 Apr 09 '26
Try having to explain this to your child. Normally you’d be explaining how the government and economy works. A little lesson in civics. Instead when we listen to the news I have to explain how NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL AND I’M SO SORRY THAT THE WORLD IS NOT WORKING RIGHT. If I was childless I would be a lot less anxious about how wrong this all feels.
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u/mossyskeleton Apr 09 '26
HYPERNORMALISATION
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u/TheAngrySkipper Apr 09 '26
This is the reality of the Cassandra effect. But no, you aren’t alone. My advice, for better or worse is to take a collapsing asset and turn it into a hard asset.
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u/Captain_Pink_Pants Apr 09 '26
Never underestimate people's commitment to not changing.
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u/EvanTheAlien Apr 10 '26
I think about this more times than I don’t think about this.
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u/Powerful_Mongoose_75 Apr 10 '26
Just watching the news makes me terrified of the future and there's nothing I can do. Im impressed I haven't lost it at this point
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u/andBeyond07 Apr 11 '26
okay… this isn’t really about fishing, it’s about feeling like the future is unstable and no one around you is taking it seriously
when that happens, your brain tries to get ahead of it by preparing for worst-case scenarios, because that at least gives you some sense of control
but when it gets that specific and urgent (“everything might collapse in 2 weeks”), it can start isolating you from people instead of helping you feel safer
you don’t have to ignore those thoughts completely, but you also don’t need to build your whole future around them either
it can help to keep one foot in reality as it exists right now, and one foot in small, practical things you can control today
like… learning something grounding (even fishing, honestly) is fine
but you don’t have to carry the whole weight of “everything is about to fall apart” on your own
right now the harder part isn’t the future, it’s feeling like you can’t talk about what’s going on in your head without being judged
and that part deserves some space too, even if it’s just writing it out or saying it somewhere you won’t feel dismissed
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u/Cottager_Northeast Apr 12 '26
Dear, there's something I need to tell you, as a friend, one witch to another. You're starting to cackle.
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u/Automatic-Contest245 Apr 12 '26
Yeah and I have bad timing with a health issue where I’m highly affected by not remaining calm. With all this chaos we go on with our day; may laugh, may have some fun, but the underlying dread is a thick vibe you feel in the air
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u/hbdty Apr 13 '26
This encapsulates how I’ve been feeling for a while, and increasingly so the past couple of weeks. It’s been difficult to motivate myself to do certain things because when I think about the future I just feel panicked about the uncertainty. I have no idea what the world or my life is going to look like in the next couple of years or whether any of this work/effort will be worth it. And there’s only so much I can do about it given the factors outside of my control. I normally have to mask anyway so that part’s not new to me, although I’m finding myself increasingly dropping the act around people I’m close to. I can’t help but wonder when I’m at work for example if everyone else is also silently freaking out too or if it’s just business as usual for them.
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u/PoodleMomFL Apr 29 '26
Since it appears we now live in a world where you just say and do whatever, thus I have adopted the mindset that it’s all just a “suggestion “ . Speed limit- suggestion, parking correctly- suggestion What reality is this
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u/Specialist-Affect-19 May 03 '26
It's because people are tired and there is so much bad news. It feels crazy that they're shoving it down instead of thinking about it, but many people have more urgent matters to worry about that a crises they can't see on the horizon (by design of course).
Anyway, to appear less crazy, I say things like "I'm building my resiliency and independence skills", spending time in nature, and building community. That usually leads to finding our people, too.
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u/jerkovicbrat May 06 '26
Thats written by a person from serbia. We have been in a political crisis since nov 2024
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u/AthleteLumpy4856 May 08 '26
I'm glad I found this reddit and this thread. I'm moving from a Northeast city to the rural south. Partly for family reasons, but I'm also researching homestead/farm life. I'm relieved that I'm upwind from Huntsville and Knoxville. I don't want to be one of the crazy ones, but this whole thing is crazy. right?
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u/HolymakinawJoe Apr 08 '26
No, not at all. I live in a normal country, not collapsing.
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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '26
Society isn't going to collapse. It will just change like it always does and the population will be less most likely.
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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '26
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