Is anyone NOT feeling anxious about world events?

[youhadmeatjello]

Just curious. My anxiety is out of hand at the moment so I feel like everyone must be terrified and full of dread also, but wondered if that’s actually the case?

No. I keep reading posts about people not sending their kids to school (in the UK!!!) and endless crying, not eating. 'Making Memories' just in case, It's absolutely mad!

I'm heartfelt sorry for those in Ukraine and families who are fleeing the situation, and estranged families around the globe. I'm disgusted at Putin for inflicting these horrors on the Ukraine, but it feels very grief-vulture of me to sit crying, wailing and fretting about a situation I'm simply observing from a safe, warm house with food, healthy family members and a relatively secure future.

EVEN IF Putin went nuclear, it would be localised (albeit horrific). I think some people are under the impression the first nuclear bomb will wipe out life as we know it on the planet.
The countries of the world have been exploding nuclear bombs for decades. Nasty, evil things they are too, but despite his posturing, he knows Russia's limitations.

Yes yes to the Serenity Prayer quoted above by @senua - this is my approach to life. I'm not anxious or worried about the current situation, although it is desperately sad and awful.

I don’t know if worried is the word but I have a sort of fatalistic acceptance that things can and might get hot here (UK) and elsewhere - mostly because historically we’ve had such a long drawn out period of peace. The trend throughout human history has been really positive with conflict in decline globally but it’s probably overdue.

I think only the utterly clueless would not be worried at the moment re climate change and the war. Anxiety quite rational watching the news yesterday. That said we owe it to ourselves those around us particularly the young and society as a whole to battle on. Collapsing in a quivering mess of anxiety about events one cannot control doesn’t help anyone or change the situation.

LadyCatStark

Yep, same.

Nuclear? No. It's too big a burden for me to carry, so it'll have to be what it will be.

War? Maybe a little. But again, all I can do is face that if we ever get to it.

The impact this is going to have on heating and fuel costs? Yes. That's a highly likely knock-on from all this and with heating already twice what it was 2 years ago, the thought that it could go up again by another 50% and be 3 x what it was is a big worry to me. Plus, how it will impact food and commodity prices and subsequent inflation with the impact on borrowing and mortgages. I don't think we are yet at the peak of the cost of living problems and I worry we're not even close to it.

I'm obviously concerned, but I'm not worried about me or my family.

I would have been worried when I was 13 and had just read 'children of the dust' though.

Now I'm 44 I've seen a lot more, can make sense of things easier.

When I started having kids I became hugely anxious.

It turned me into a bit of a prepper, and I've been the same for the last 20 years.

I find it calms me down to have as many things as I can possibly have sorted in my home, anything I don't have sorted is outwith my control.

Funnily enough Covid made me hugely less anxious because that was, obviously, a scary time in the beginning, but my prepping over the years ensured that we didn't have to leave the house at all for weeks so we were very lucky we didn't struggle at all and had surplus bits to help others struggling to find things.

On a personal note its the same for this situation, and I'm not worried it will personally affect my family.

I am hugely worried for everyone in the Ukraine, its absolutely heartbreaking, and I find myself feeling sorry for some of the young lads in the Russian forces too, many don't have a clue what's actually going on and are being fed lies by their government and are just scared teens.

No.

Oddly enough I am always calm in left threatening situations. If I die, the situation is no longer worth worrying about, after all. Waste of time to worry about dying whilst alive.

I've got a history degree, and I grew up rurally, with a predisposition to just "cope" rather than panic (school ten miles uphill both ways sort of thing).

So yeah. If bad stuff happens (which has been predictable for a while - though that's easy for me to say when one of my university friends is one of the main correspondents for Latvia, and a published author on Putin)... It happens. Out of my control.

(and I have been on anxiety medication in the past for stress of things under my control, so it's not like I'm immune)

We are right in the midst of the full force of propaganda at the moment and this is designed to create some level of anxiety - I don't think I am anxious more curious about what is going on - and that means I am curious about how the propaganda is working from both sides, curious about the level of fake stories created for propaganda purposes (both sides) and what purpose they serve, curious about how temperatures rise so quickly, and basically curious about the mindset of war.

I don't pretend to know anything about war tactics / strategies / outcomes etc. my brain just doesn't compute it all, so instead I just observe and try and remember how humans do tend to overcome these challenges. Books like Viktor Frankl, 'Man's Search for Meaning' which is a very direct account of surviving Auschwitz, remind me of the human spirit to overcome hell. So if hell arrives, we will do our very best anyway.

I was very anxious about covid and the vaccination because I felt I had some control over that, ie I could avoid catching it or not have the vaccination, or choose AZ or Pfizer (I've had all three jabs) so I do suffer from anxiety.

However I feel desperately sad for all those caught up in this war that didn't want it but I'm not anxious as there is nothing I can do to control the outcome. I do hope however that if it happens I'm in the centre, I have no desire to try an live in a nuclear winter.

I tend to follow the headlines morning and evening .Throughout the day I actively avoid reading anything about it .Did the same with Covid .I think it just feeds into our worst fears .I was a child when we had mainland bombings from the IRA.Mum had to go by tube .She said later she had been worried ,but never showed it to me at that time.I think we have had a golden period of fairly low fuel and food prices ,and relative calm .Hopefully we will get that again .Praying each night

I am, and I am not prone to anxiety about world events. I think Covid (which I was not particularly worried about) shook up my world view a bit as in the month leading up to lockdown I was one of the ones saying “oh it’s all a lot of fuss about nothing, it’s very sad for the countries that are suffering but there have been similar outbreak scares in the past and they have never come to anything here” and I was so wrong. It now makes me feel like anything can happen, and my world isnt as stable as I had thought. So yes, I also am carrying around anxiety and dread, and I know people say why worry about what you have no control over, but I can’t choose what I worry about, and also it is precisely the things I have no control over that are scary.

Not anxious, pissed off and sad for Ukrainians but that’s it. It could be quite literally the end of the world if Putin loses his cool but I can’t give headspace to something I have zero control over. There were people in Tesco last night buying whole trollies of bread and milk ffs. If there’s going to be a nuclear Holocaust I want port and gin in my cupboards not sodding hovis.

This whole thing actually makes me more grateful for what we have, rather than anxious. NATO's firepower is so far ahead of anyone else's that I doubt we'll be attacked, it's not like 1938 where the rival powers were well matched.

Also, the whole world has united so quickly against this, that you know we're doing the right thing, as opposed to the Russian people, who suddenly find themselves pariahs for reasons beyond their control. Visa and Mastercard have been cut off in Russia, and being suddenly unable to pay for my groceries would make me extremely anxious.

Plus, who knows? It might actually be good for the climate if the Chinese are burning Russian gas rather than digging up dirty brown coal. A step in the right direction at least.

Fuck knows what will happen to the Ukraine in the meantime, though. That part makes me sad.

I am very saddened by the reports from the Ukraine, and I am concerned about how the situation could potentially escalate, but I wouldn't say that it's having a detrimental impact on my mental health in any way. I'm anxious for the Ukrainian people, but not for myself at present.

I’m no overly anxious no

Sad sad sad yes

I honestly don’t think anybody’s going to get nuked. I might go and buy some more beans or something if things escalate.

I try not to let it affect me because I have no way of knowing the full truth regarding the situation - it's coming to me via the media which never tells the truth, so I refuse to get emotionally caught up in it. Male aggression is sooooo boring!!!! And the women and children as always suffer for it. I'm busy getting on with my own life and supporting my own friends- the things I can control and and change in positive ways xx

I think the situation with covid has caused many to lose their minds about risk evaluation and panic about things

Im not anxious, I feel we have seen all this before, back in the day.

Putin wants the wealth that the Ukraine can provide him so I believe is largely caused by that, he also feels I think that the US/NATO backtracked in terms of the previous agreements about how close NATO got to Russian borders and now this gives him the convenient reason to invade and get his hands on all the mineral wealth

I feel sorry for the people living in Ukraine, hopefully we can provide refuge for them but its not the same as not having it happen in the first place

I feel sad for them and angry. It's all so tragic and pointless.

But I don't really feel anxiety. There's nothing we can do about it either way.

No I have so much going on personally right now that I can’t free up the head space to worry about others’ possible outcomes. Whether that’s pandemic related or war related. Before Ukraine it was Afghanistan and before that it was somewhere else, there will always be evil in the world.. unfortunately.

I'm not happy about what is going on but I can't change it.

I grew up during the cold war and it was always there in the background.

I would be very anxious if I followed the news very regularly and watched it daily. I'm selective with how much I see. I know about world events but it's not part of a constant feed so I find I focus on things closer to home instead. My job and family etc. I can be easily affected so I just limit how much exposure I have. In my old job they had a news channel playing pretty much the entire day and it was so depressing that once I left I barely watched the new again.

I don't feel anxious at all. There is nothing I can do to change anything, it's not in my control. I'm just carrying on as normal.

If putin wants to blast us all off the face of the earth then there's not a lot I can do about that except hope it's fast and painless.

I'm raging about the corruption leaders of the world and the rampant capitalism that has resulted in this atrocity against Ukraine, but there have been other wars in recent years that I could say the same about, and I'm angry about them, too.

I don't know why this one in particular feels so much more anxiety inducing for the UK, perhaps off the back of the pandemic we are all a bit more anxious in general.

I am holding it lightly in my mind, however. I can't influence world events, so I will do what I can in my own family circle. We have a food store already and I have some cash. We live in a city and recently reduced our outgoings as much as we can. That's all we can do.