Talk me off the ledge.

[cilla4progress]

I’m afraid I’m starting to lose it over this trump admin.

I think we all may be.

[renegade000]

1. Focus on what you're going to do in November

Talk to your like-minded friends and family about voting, about making sure they're appropriately registered and know their polling places. Attend some Democratic events (there's usually a good amount of healthy positivity at such events in my experience).

I don't know, maybe I'm preaching to the choir.

We're all going to get through this together!

[sprinkleeninow]

3. 👏 Thank you.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

12. Baby steps. Focus on stopping him ?

[sprinkleeninow]

2. Sending my 💓 to you. I've been breaking down and crying more often.

Haven't been feeling well since right after Christmas and what we're subjected to daily really amplifies it.

I just said yesterday, to myself, I don't care any more what comes of this. Then that other strong resident in my spirit said, "You know you care and you won't stop because you have an aggressive nature, are a fighter and a persistent kiddo, and will continue the resistance no matter what it takes."

Love to you tonite, my sister/brother in humanity!

💙🇺🇸🌊

[cilla4progress]

5. Thx

💏

[GReedDiamond]

4. Can't do that...I'm on the ledge with you...nt

[Garrett78]

6. I'll be honest, it's pretty tough to contain the anger and sadness.

I was deeply depressed for weeks following the 2016 election, and I still struggle with accepting this batshit crazy reality.

I take comfort in the election results we've been seeing since 2016, and that's what I'm clinging to for now. That and writing posts, such as this one, which is somehow therapeutic.

[First Speaker]

7. Just remember...if you jump, the bastards win...

...and I'm damned if I'll let that happen. Believe me, I've spent my own time out on that ledge since 2016...but I always come back in and start fighting again. And we *will* take the fuckers down...

[cilla4progress]

9. Nice,

thanks.

[Yupster]

8. Just live your life

People have lived through all of history under Mongol invasions, centuries of slavery and bubonic plagues. A bad president shouldn't ruin your life. If it's bugging you that much, take a break and spend more time with your friends and family.

[Totally Tunsie]

10. I understand, but we need your vote.

Come back in and get ready for the midterms.

[nolabear]

11. Remember, you're the Underground.

We’ll get through. They’ll write songs about us.

And if they don’t we’ll write our own damn songs.

[renate]

13. I think this administration hurts us more than the Obama administration hurt them because...

(and when I say "administration" I mean the mere existence of President Obama)

Many of us are personally affected by Trump's actions, but many of us are outraged because of the effects they have on the disadvantaged--people we may know but also people we don't, who we care about anyway because that is who we are and that is what we do.

People who didn't like President Obama because... I really don't know, because he's black? because Fox News told them? Whatever. I don't think there were many people, if any, whose lives were genuinely worsened in any material or meaningful way because of any of the things he did. They really really didn't like him... but he absolutely never ever hurt them deliberately or spitefully, never.

So I do think we truly have it worse than they did. And for unselfish reasons, too, much of the time.

The far right thinks that their turn having been pissed and outraged is equivalent to our turn at having lives, our own and those we care about whether we know them or not, destroyed.

I think nothing could be more normal than to feel a real sense of existential dread and fear. It's real, not ginned up by Fox News to make money.

[VOX]

15. You're 100 percent correct. No need to say "I think that..." because EVERYBODY is being hurt...

by the Trump administration. Especially the folks in the Red States, but they cannot grasp that. Take the signal example of the state of Kansas -- it's been tracked as somewhat remarkable because, no matter how far Kansas sinks into the toilet (flatlined business, crumbling infrastructure, schools, public buildings, roads, etc.), people there keep voting for far-right-wingers who make Bob Dole look like a blazing liberal. Kansans are apparently content to live poorly, because they will not abandon their hard-right beliefs.

But when this happens nationwide, as we're seeing right now, there are millions of people who do NOT want to let everything fall apart, and for America to foolishly make "friends" with enemies, and enemies of our friends in Canada and Mexico, Germany, the UK, France, etc., which will hurt all Americans when the economy goes south. And if you're Hispanic or African American, you're already hurting from the loosening of the civility that used to keep racism repressed, at the very minimum. And the free press is under attack as well. Whether they choose to admit it or not, ALL Americans are hurt when our basic institutions and ideals are being torn to bits before our eyes.

All those on the right who cried and moaned that Obama was "trampling on the Constitution," or "wearing a tan suit unbecoming a U.S. President," they had it SO easy! What suffering did they actually endure? Did they lose their SSDI? No. Their precious guns? No (in fact, they used to look-at-me-open carry when Obama visited their towns). Their freedoms? No. They lost ZERO. But they were frothing about the idea of government healthcare (which they now want), the Iran-Nuclear business, and their number one issue, which they investigated for two years? BENGHAZI!

I have no tears to shed for our right-wing foes. I find them shameless and without a speck on honor.

[Hekate]

14. Turn off all the electronics and read an old favorite book. I'm revisiting Middle Earth just now...

But I stopped half way thru to give myself a break and read a new book of short stories in The Dresden Files series. Then I picked up Peter Wimsey by Dorothy Sayers. I first read her in the early 1970s, and the pages are now all brown and falling out so I've got a rubber band around Book 2. Wimsey runs to nearly 2 dozen books all told, so I should be happy for awhile.

I am absolutely serious about this. I know I keep posting here, but mostly I've got my iPad turned off. I can't stand the news and I can't stand DU. I limit my news programs to just a couple of people that I like, but even then I find myself walking away part way through. We are living thru an utter catastrophe and it won't help if we all lose our minds.

I don't do drugs, and when I am sick with horror my instinct is not to drink, either, it usually does not work for me that way (and I'm not a teetotaller by any means). Books have always been my means of shutting out the world -- for instance in crowded noisy airports, my husband gets overstimulated and feels awful, but I stick my nose in a book and shut down.

Try to find what works for you that won't harm you. I found a great program on PBS tonight all about the history of landscape painting, and at the end of that hour I felt calmer. Get outside. Walk the dog. Find a therapist, I kid you not -- that person will tell you that her patients are all freaking out about Trump, and you are not alonE.

When you come to DU, at least try exploring some of the non-political groups. People you only know from GD turn out to have obsessions you never imagined: raising backyard chickens, collecting copper cookware, you name it.

I don't know if this helps at all, but just hang in there. This, too, shall pass.

[VOX]

16. Excellent advice, and some well-needed wisdom.

Thank you, Hekate. I've found myself (more than once) actually physically ill over the whole insane mess. Spending days reading about Trump and posting about related this-and-that, then rushing into the den to watch Rachel and then Lawrence...no wonder I lie awake at night, and re-start that same scenario the next morning. That's no way to live, I realize, and then take a break.

While one doesn't want to give up the fight, you're 100% correct: "find what works for you that won't harm you."

[KY_EnviroGuy]

17. cilla4progress, try doing some writing...

it's helped me out of some trying times. Just write down your thoughts and feelings on paper, then keep or throw it away as you feel like.

For me, there's something magic about doing that. I think it brings our worst and best emotions into the sunlight.

........ ............

[JI7]

18. you don't have to pay attention to politics all the time . it can be a good thing

to do other things and tune out for a long time.

just remember to vote .

it's getting to me also so i think i'm going to try to focus on some other things a little more.

[MariaCSR]

19. I'm on that ledge with you.

I need help the news about Trump & Co. has got me so shook I already have anxiety reading about Trump all day makes it worse.

[cilla4progress]

20. Thanks everyone.

This helps.