Quote:
Originally Posted by Izulde
This is going to sound weird, but for me, it's been the sharp rise in world atheism that's been probably the biggest trigger of anxiety. I've had occasional panic attacks related to dying ever since I was a kid, but they've gotten more frequent and severe as our culture has increasingly become less and less believing in Deity and an afterlife.
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I find that when I start reading about politics and world news, it get a little overwhelming. I read about patent trolls and feel like the world needs patent vigilantes. I read about religious cleansing in Africa and feel the world needs a police force. There's always something - it's an endless cycle. I'm kind of opposite about atheism. Being of Jewish descent, you can either go full monty on afterlife (which Jewish people don't) and embrace the Gandhi/Bobby Knight relax-and-enjoy-it approach to death. Or you can say belief in deities who can even the scale is an exercise in terminal frustration. You'll find the balance is in the Borscht Belt (humor is a good coping mechanism).
But the bottom line is that paying attention to the world is a double-edged sword, and anxiety is the price you pay for the fruit of knowledge. No way to avoid it, just a matter of learning how much you can handle without breaking. I have to turn away sometimes, realize I have no control over 99.9R% of the world.
I've read a lot about CBT, and wonder sometimes if it might be a good idea to put in the work and try it. Maybe that would have shortened my recent four years of rediscovering myself. Lots of good work on myself during that time, but a rather meandering path.