To ask how you rationalise the worry about the economy etc to cope with every day life

[NameChangeLifeChange]

I am naturally a bit of a worrier and really struggled with PND during covid so got into downward spirals worrying about the future for my children.
I feel recently the worries about cost of living, economy, future for the UK have sparked similar worries for me but day to day most people seem fairly calm, crack on with life and genuinely seem quite happy and care free. I know it may be different behind closed doors but for a number of reasons but mainly family moving abroad isn’t really an option for us.
How do you just crack on without feeling sick with worry about the future? I don’t know if it’s mumsnet but it feels like the UK is headed for absolute disaster while the rest of the world is coping fine. We do have desirable jobs abroad so would consider that but I love the Uk (for now!) and being close to family. I worry I’ll wake up in a year in this terror landscape with awful schools, no healthcare and not affording anything. I’m really worried but don’t want to be.

I grew up expecting nuclear war at any moment and lived through three day weeks, power rationing, falklands.

Things do feel bad right now but we'll all get through it like we always do. Nothing lasts forever, not the good times and not the bad times either.

Avoid sm because it is full of doom, exaggeration and scaremongering right now.

Focus only on what you can control.

Realise that the 'best case scenario' is as likely as the 'worst case scenario' but for some reasons our minds only ever focus unhelpfully on the latter.

Think about the things in your life that are good or improving. I'm pleased that energy prices have been capped and fuel is cheaper in my town than it has been for months.

I keep busy. Mine are 2 under 2 and life is full on right now.

One thing that helped me stress about it less is taking one expense 'clothes for the kids' and making what we have pay for the next size up. I declutter and sell on Vinted and then buy new or second hand (also on Vinted). I know this is a very specific answer but focusing on this one aspect of our financial outgoings has made me feel like I'm accomplishing something for us and for the environment. However small

I grew up expecting nuclear war at any moment

Me too! Funnily enough I don't worry about that at all now.

Try and think of it as cyclical.

Bad times turn into good times and nothing lasts for ever. It will turn eventually.

One thing gave me hope:

Dueing the new pm debacle one of the pollsters was on who very accurate. I wish l could remember who it was. Anyway he said that the government will be a minority Labour government. They will introduce PR and voting at 16. The next government after that will be a normal Labour government.

l hang onto this when l feel shit. I remember the utter despair at Thatcher. 13 fucking years of it, then Major. And then Blair and a happy and optimistic country. The feel good factor then was unbelievable.

Evweything goes in cycles.

I do worry about it but also have more immediate worries which I guess take precedence - kids, elderly parents, marriage- so the bigger more abstract ones fade into the background a bit.

I also try to focus on what I can do, however small, eg reducing waste, raising money for food banks.

I don't worry about things that are entirely outwith my own control. That's not to say that I am either unconcerned or do not care, but I do not spend time actively worried about or fretting about things that I have absolutely no power to influence in any case. You'd never get out of bed if you worried about all the things that could potentially happen that you have no control over.

My life is fairly shit at the moment, so mostly I'm too busy dealing with that to worry about anything outside my family.

If you worrying about the future your not enjoying the present is a great saying.