God help us all

For everybody who says this, there's a believer. Things are balanced, just like they always have been. Shit is happening to one person, and another person is having a great day.

We can always choose to see the good or the bad, and that's what changes: what we look at, and what we're shown. The reason kids played out in the streets until more recent years is because we didn't have journalists reporting on every child abduction case all over the world, constantly. The bad new was there, we just weren't immersed in it.

Nothing has changed just reporting has changed. If you want to really feel helpless and put your life into perspective read newspaper archives back as far as you like. People don't change. Take a step back and touch grass for a bit or if it's really bad speak to a therapist.

I'm in my late 50s and every decade since about 1980 there have been years where it feels like this.
Honestly just give yourself a break from the news and SM. We have no control over pretty much any of it anyway.

If there is a god I don't think it's interested in helping us.

I studied history to masters level and I'm always so grateful that I was able to. Because it really helps locate ourselves and the modern world in something bigger. And in many ways very grateful for modern life in the UK.

Try going back to - say - 1940. Or 1917. Or any year before that. Death, war, disease, poverty, child abuse, no human rights, women as second class citizens ...... life is better now than it has ever been, at least in Western developed countries like the UK. People just fail to understand history.

Completely agree.

I'm not offended at all. I do however find it incredible that people can still believe in a higher being, despite all the awful things that happen in the world. But somehow that's not an acceptable thing to say usually.

You are part of the problem - you are apologising to strangers for believing in God. Pathetic.

I do think social media and having the world news in our hands via phones is unhealthy.
I recently spent a week in America. I was apprehensive as I live and work in a bubble of GC, climate change/ drug problems and penal policy.
I don’t know whether the data costs are too high there or it’s cultural, but no-one was on their phones. Teenagers chattered animatedly, no tinny music or podcasts, no political chat. We sat on a beach watching fireworks and apart from me taking a few photos it was screen free, everyone focused on the present, everyone friendly. The world in real life was nothing like the world in my phone.

God doesn't appear to do very much to prevent these things but you as a person can focus on what you can control.

Help yourself, and if you want to, look for ways to help others, no matter how small. Don't wait for a higher being to intervene.

When I was a child my brothers and I would spend the summer with our grandparents. They used to tell us stories after lunch. Your post has reminded me of one my grandma used to tell. My grandad was a coal miner. It was a protected industry so he remained in the pit rather than going to fight. He worked nights. She used to sit in the dark ,under the stairs, with my mum( a tiny baby) in her arms as planes flew over. She said to me "I used to pray and pray that we would still be alive in the morning when your grandad came home". They taught me a huge amount and the way I live my life ( bread making, gardening, making things, looking after my grandchild, is how they lived. Turn off the noise from outside Op. You can't save everything ,everywhere. Pick something that lifts your soul and focus on it. My son and DIL moved into their new house 15 minutes up the road last week. I picked a huge bouquet of flowers from my garden to take when I visit today. Find your joy.

The op hasn’t said much about what the issue is but agree with pp limit media and a bit of @DaisyAndDonaldDuck advice too

@Vellincharm is there one particular thing that has triggered this? Are you generally anxious? Can you chat to anyone about how you’re feeling? If you are religious, can you seek solace within your flock?

Great post.

Oh look, you’ve solved anxiety. Well done you, you should repeat this to the medical council, bet they haven’t thought of telling people who are struggling to ‘get over it’ 🙄

This. Life is what it is, there will always be catastrophic events, financial issues, disease outbreak, weather causing food shortages. We’re very good at saying this is the worst it’s ever been but that isn’t true. It’s easy to fall into anxiety, eco anxiety in particular , but you have to try and focus yourself mind on the fact that this isn’t an uncommon thing throughout history.

This

I lived through that period and was interested in politics even then.

I think it's a problem today that so many young people remain disengaged from politics. We need young people to care - and vote.

It is a complete fallacy that we can do nothing about this.

We can do nothing individually.

But we can do an enormous amount collectively. Join organisations campaigning for the right kind of change, and force politicians to stand up to business.

One of the worst things neoliberalism has done is to deprive us of our sense of collective, communal power.

I wouldn't want to live my grandparent's life, although it sounds similar to yours. They grew all their veg and kept chickens and goats. However they had ten kids in a three-bedroomed house with no inside toilet, and had very little money. They never had a holiday in their lives and lived a pretty basic existence. My mum and aunts took my granny on holiday to Spain once when she was in her seventies, it absolutely blew her mind! So no, I think it's easy to have rose-coloured specs on when looking back to older simpler times, but it was bloody hard work and most people would prefer modern home comforts. But there is nothing stopping you from choosing to live more simply if that's what makes you happy! I'd prefer to keep my ensuite, internet and central heating/air con!

Look up Positive News, it’s quite encouraging, they have an article called something like ‘What went right in the world today’

https://www.positive.news/

There’s no point looking back with rose-tinted glasses. In the ‘good old days’ there were no antibiotics, decent anaesthetics, cancer treatment, cataract surgery etc etc.

My grandparents lived through the Blitz in London during WW2. When I asked how it felt to think you might die in the bombing, Grandma replied that they didn't THINK they were going to die, they KNEW they were going to die. She went to bed every night knowing that . She had to go into her neighbour's bombed house and identify her friend and her children's bodies.

I don't think any of us today can know what that must have been like. If you find the TV news depressing, think about stopping from watching it and concentrate on your own life, children, pets, hobbies. There is more to life than the news cycle.