Edit:
Fuck. I don’t want to downplay your suffering if you’re American, Arab or Ukrainian, an oppressed minority and/or female (I’m neither) but sometimes I feel like empathy is taking a toll on me. It’s a huge weight to add to my mental problems. Thanks for the advice, I’m trying to get my parents on board with the “winding down” on the project while I try to get my mind off things and establish a schedule by trying to work in a help call center (I would have preferred manual labor but they are the only company hiring around that is large and evil enough I don’t mind them losing money through my incompetence in the presumably short time I last).
Original comment content below.
I’m European but after doomscrolling on Lemmy, watching Last Week Tonight etc. I can’t keep my calm over the US election, which is not helping my existing depression and suspected ADHD. The only good thing I did today was not eat much (I’m overweight) and 15 minutes of gardening. I can’t keep todo lists because I’m really depressed over not having completing any meaningful item for weeks, and not even my long-abandoned passion projects spark joy anymore.
I’m afraid things will go very wrong for my mental state if Trump wins. I have two psychologists and a psychiatrist but I’m only meeting them next week. Please help me get my mind off this and maybe even get something done.
Go for a short walk. Leave your phone at home. Don’t worry, nothing will happen if you forget your phone at home.
Take in the sights. Look at the trees, the birds, the squirrels. Find a bench or something like that, and just sit for a bit. Force yourself to sit. Give yourself an easy goal, like counting to twenty in your head. Then get up and go home. Repeat this tomorrow too.
Remember, you’re European. Your entire continent has its own politics, not to mention your country, your province, your town. All that affects you way more than some orange man building a wall. And you can vote for those things.
Don’t worry so much about things you have zero influence on. Focus on what you can influence. Unattainable goals are death.
I’m not in a crime-ridden city but a beautiful countryside. I only go walking with my SIMless phone because of offline podcasts and crosswords I’m addicted to. I guess I should go on a longer walk but resist the temptation to actively use the phone, which I carry for GPS logging (not for fitness but OSM).