As someone in the US it’s so easy to see so many depressing issues from the ravages of capitalism, to war, imperialism, and genocide. How can one care about these issues and hope for change without allowing themselves to be affected mentally?

I’ve been considering this for the past week, connecting it with Buddhist compassion towards the world and a need for mindfulness. But it’s so easy to fall into emotionlessness.

I’ve also thought through the world has always had issues and though some are getting much worse some are getting better.

I have gone to counseling before but they just make it an individual problem when it’s the world.

Edit: doesn’t have to be US centric. Just I’m writing from that pov

    • metaStatic
      link
      fedilink
      821 hours ago

      I think they’re 2 different things. being acutely aware of how totally an utterly fucked we all are doesn’t stop me from doing things I like.

    • @CallateCoyote
      link
      -14
      edit-2
      19 hours ago

      No other animal suffers from depression. If it were a brain chemical issue, where are all the depressed squirrels and buffalo? It’s a human problem. That brain chemical imbalance shit is a neat way for the pharmaceutical companies to push their expensive poison on us. Break your dick and ruin one of the few good things in life. Happy now? Pass.

      Depressed? Congratulations. You’re more intelligent and aware than most.

        • @CallateCoyote
          link
          -619 hours ago

          Behind a paywall so I unfortunately can’t read it. These are animals being held in captivity and being tested on by their captors? Heh. Pretty apt comparison if that’s the case. I’m sure the solution is to give them pills to numb them rather than free them no doubt.

      • @TrickDacy
        link
        118 hours ago

        Of course animals suffer from depression. This isn’t something I need to prove to you. This comment just goes to show that you’re either not very observant in any context or you’ve never been to a zoo. And no dipshit, it doesn’t make zoo animals not depressed because humans cause it in the cases where it’s easiest seen. By virtue of us being human, of course those examples would be seen by us. Jesus Christ some people trip over themselves to hold an insanely wrong viewpoint.

        • @CallateCoyote
          link
          -818 hours ago

          Yeah, I’m sure being held captive by terrifying ape creatures isn’t what causes their mental issues at all just like the conditions that terrifying ape creatures inflict onto us isn’t what causes ours. It’s just a brain chemical imbalance you are born with, you see, and you have to electrocute the brain to solve everything… wait, no, shove this ice pick up your eye… well, that was problematic… take these chemicals! Hmmm… let’s try a dozen more until we find the “right” one.

          Fucking hell no.

          • @TrickDacy
            link
            318 hours ago

            You seem like the type of person who cannot accept that things are complicated and multiple things can be true at once.

            • @CallateCoyote
              link
              -618 hours ago

              Only thing I need to know in this case is that I don’t trust that industry and find it terrifying that they have been given any credibility and legal power over others. Quacks with degrees in pseudoscience whose book of diagnostics was written by the same people on the pharmaceutical boards. I will have nothing to do with it.

              You do you and follow your own beliefs and practices.

              • @TrickDacy
                link
                218 hours ago

                Right, you’ve already told us you think in binary terms. Either psychology is a perfect science or its total bullshit. There could never be a case where any part of it is valid if any part of it were not. /s

                • @CallateCoyote
                  link
                  -417 hours ago

                  More bullshit than perfect as it were. Maybe someday with enough guinea pigs to experiment on, eh?

                  • @TrickDacy
                    link
                    317 hours ago

                    I took some prescription drugs to help with my very real depression and they didn’t work for me. You know how I responded? I stopped taking them. But I didn’t pretend that experience is not only exactly like everyone else’s, but also made me smarter than all the world’s mental health professionals combined. If I did think that way, it would make me pretty idiotic.