2016 & depression

[IndominusRex]

I was just wondering if anyone else has found that this year has had a really hard impact on them emotionally and in terms of mental health. I feel like all the big political events of the year have been hammering home the message 'you don't matter' and I feel as though that has crept into my brain and across my whole life, and that this is echoed in how I feel about work (and wasn't helped by having gone for some jobs I felt really passionate about and not getting them) and also some friendships drifting away. But I think I'd be coping with those thinga much better without all the background noise coming from the wider world.

No, it really isn't.

Can you explain further, Xenophile?

OP yes, I'm a woman, I'm not white and I feel so shattered by Trump being elected, I don't know where to start.

The murder of Jo Cox also shook me up a lot.

On a personal level the year has been okay but I think there will be worse times ahead, probably all the more shocking because I thought we were making progress in certain ways and now I see we are not. I never wanted kids but frankly looking at things now, I think it's a really lucky thing that I didn't and my mum feels the same. Dad is very good at seeing politics as peripheral - but I wonder how much of that is due to him having had a very specific career which consumed him - so he only mixed with a very small group though tbh I'm starting to do the same - and also he's a man!

Lorelei yes Jo Cox is one of the things that shook me also. Prior to that I had been seriously thinking of getting involved in politics, having previously been too scared to do anything public because of abusive ex.
I'm the same as you re kids too. I've found it really isolating being the only one of my friends without them but I'm glad in my decision with all that's going on.

Just out of interest what age are you OP? I sort of feel like we have been here before with really bleak and depressing years...I wonder if what makes it worse now is that world news is so constant and immediate.

It has been depressing this year but I think you can choose your 'background noise' and switch it off for large chunks of the day. I keep fairly well informed of what is going on in the world but choose to avoid the sensationalist and dramatic media channels. I also try to keep and balance and seek out the good news that proves that in the main people are good and will help each other, it is not all doom and gloom.

...and we are lucky to live where and when we do, history has been far far more gruesome that what we experience today in the UK today, IMO one of the reason that we can't give in to the fear is so that we can keep it that way. I don't regret having children, the world needs to keep being populated by good people who will fight for what is right and help those in need in anyway that they are able.

I think the constantness of news is a problem if you are constantly plugged in - I haven't watched it on TV since Nov 10th tbh.

re Jo Cox, it's interesting because I guess in a way my generation has been spoiled - my folks can name any number of political assassinations. I was also in the US when Gabrielle Giffords was shot and of course Stephen Timmins was stabbed in London so I don't really know why it affected me so much.

I'm the opposite of you OP - I have been heavily involved in local politics and have had some stuff that I tried to do in terms of UK wide politics and general world issues that bug me. But post Trump I feel like giving up - mostly because the US vote makes me think that a large number of women don't want other women to be free, or in charge, or whatever.

History definitely goes a funny way and that's not a surprise - not constant forward motion, two steps forward, one back, round in a circle, then forwards again. But either I totally misunderstood the world - and I'm a pessimist! - or we have taken a big step back about 40 years. I always keep in mind Greer's comment about women not realising how much men hate them but I'm feeling a bit like Madonna with her comments on women hating women. That bit is shocking.

PS I'm 40 and friends ranging from 26-55 have told me this is the most depressing year they've had in political terms - and we lost friends in 9/11 (though admitted the political stuff that came immediately after passed us by as we were grieving). A few of the people I lost would be absolutely distraught at the way things are now.

I'm 33. So not a whippersnapper but I feel like recently is the first time I've experienced things getting worse with sexism, racism, xenophobia etc. I guess I had naively assumed we wouldn't regress back to such things, even though I've always been aware that rights are easier to take away than to win.

I work in the charity sector and I vary from wanting to fight harder to feeling beaten.

...and we are lucky to live where and when we do, history has been far far more gruesome that what we experience today in the UK today,

The West has made massive strides in the last hundred years, women's rights, civil rights, human rights.

I was a teenager in the 70s with the three day week and power cuts every night. Endemic racism and sexism. The Cold War of the 80s was terrifying. The IRA terror attacks after that. On the plus side, expectations were lower post war so discontent wasn't as prevalent. Kids were largely left to themselves and parents were very hands off. There wasn't the pressure for perfect parenting like there is today.

Teenagers had no knowledge of self harming or anorexia. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but again, it wasn't as prevalent.

Social media has revolutionised the globe. But it has a lot to answer for. You can access knowledge any time day or night. But you can also access the underbelly of humanity. And get to see everyone's opinion.

We have the world's ills beamed into our homes every day. It was always there but we just didn't see it.

lorelei do you mean something Madonna said? Could you share, I don't think I've heard it.

Personally aside from a few issues to do with one of the children this year hasnt been too bad

But in the world stage events i rank 2016 as the 2nd shittist and most 'depressing' year for me

The shittist was 2000 when my mum died and i had a miscarriage

prawn

I am reading a book about the geography of politics

I will get it and put the title on here in a minute

It is fascinating

And scaring the shit out of me

I am reading these replies and nodding my head :(

I also have had very difficult year although the last half has improved (acquired a wonderful boyfriend in the summer and will start a new job in January, in a field I've been wanting to join for quite a while). Still, I also feel that politics and the global economic prospects are bleak.

I feel abandoned by Labour and tbh most of my peers seem only to care about the most superficial social media aspects of life.

My very very poor health at the beginning of the year meant that I just checked out of being informed on world events - for the first time in my life! - and now I am seriously considering going back to not paying attention to anything. I feel guilty about that too, as a card carrying feminist.

The book is

Prisoners of geography by tim marshall

I understand op

Yeah, Ladybranston, I feel abandoned by Labour. I've left the party. Not that I was long term member but I always voted Labour until I moved somewhere where tactical voting appears my only option.

I think age does have a lot to do with how you react to the current scene. I've had several conversations with both my DS, reassuring them that I've lived through worse, both politically and economically. For teenagers and those in their 20s it's very scary and it's helpful to provide them with context.

The American scene worries me. My DB says Europeans don't really appreciate how astonishingly parochial most Americans are. Go 150 miles in from the coast and they know nothing about the rest of the world, and care less, he says.

My own fear is that with both houses Republican president Trump will be able to do whatever they let him get away with. Just hope there are enough Republican pragmatists to rein him in.

I feel the same actually, OP. I have felt utterly helpless watching the events of 2016, and I have an awful feeling things are going to get worse before they get better.

My biggest fear ever is the thought of another World War in the future. It used to be a fear of my brother/husband being called to fight - but now, god forbid, I fear my sons being called up. It scares me that I just wrote that.

The sensible side of me tells me that Trump won't be able to press the big thermonuclear war trigger because someone annoys him on Twitter - but Putin is looking v scary, and was just a bit too happy about Brexit and Trump for my liking.

User
Here it is
www.independent.co.uk/news/people/madonna-donald-trump-election-billboard-interview-a7459026.html

Thanks Lorelei.

Thanks rufus for the book recommendation. am on to it.

Prawn - me too Re America. I lived there for years (almost 12 in total) albeit mostly in new York city which isn't typical America to say the least!

But I just despair at how embedded the misogyny is in American culture.

I always in my heart knew that Republicans were misogynist and bigoted and racist but the election result was a stark indicator of exactly how much they hate women.

I worry too about a global conflict and I am sure it is coming. I see a great war over resources and global power, particularly when it comes to China and Russia.

I don't have any solutions. Sometimes I feel motivated to keep going with political activism and to keep informed. But wiyh a new job looming and potential decisions over whether to get married and have children in the next year, I'm starting to feel like being incredibly selfish and retreating into my nice, city worker, comfortable world. And I am ashamed I think that way.

Lore thanks! she nailed it. I thought it would be nice to post the paragraphs here.

Women hate women. That’s what I think it is. Women’s nature is not to support other women. It’s really sad. Men protect each other, and women protect their men and children. Women turn inward and men are more external. A lot of it has do with jealousy and some sort of tribal inability to accept that one of their kind could lead a nation.”
Her outlook was bleak and one that is becoming increasingly familiar: “We’re fked”.
“We live in a country that’s run by ­bankers. In a way, it makes sense that Donald Trump is the president. Because money rules. Not intelligence, not experience, not a moral compass, not the ability to make wise ­decisions, not the ability to think of the future of the human race.”

I must be thick because I never saw women that way. I thought there was the odd anti woman woman but not loads.
Like a pp, I've spent loads of time in New York and this week I've sat down and looked at voting stats. I'm still uncomfortable at the thought of going back, even though the stats for Trump voters are relatively low, you can see pockets of support and it weirds me out.
I'm afraid I think things will get worse before they get better too.

I don't think women see women that way at all.

Did the Republicans put forward any female candidates? Is there a problem with selecting women in the Republican Party?