# Do you have strategies (successful ones) for keeping your sanity in these troubled times? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2020, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895 "2020-01-24T11:39:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/41 "2020-01-25T17:14:37Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I have followed that thread religiously from the beginning and I wonder how I have kept my peace of mind and my hope in humanity. But you gotta be informed to complain. Yeah, that was a bit of humor directed at the OP. I’ve contributed to that thread in the past, but I’ve stopped as part of my no Trump policy for this year. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/42 "2020-01-25T19:35:20Z")
The Italian Marxist suggested “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will,” and given his time on Mussolini’s prisons, well, gosh. But these days I say “optimism of the intellect and the will,” and look for silver linings. As an oldster, I feel duty-bound to offer hope to the next generations. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/43 "2020-01-25T20:14:07Z")
I used to be an extremely optimistic person. At the moment I focus on simply maintaining my peace of mind and I achieve this by keeping busy. I spend time with my family. Despite the inherent daily little frictions, my happiness stems from my family members’ happiness. I prepare 50% of my daily food take, with the other half being prepared by my wife. This includes shopping. It is a time-consuming activity, but we enjoy following a healthy diet. I derive a strange feeling of satisfaction from the whole process. I exercise. Outdoors. Reducing screen time is not enough. Spending long time outside enhances my inner peace and happiness. I plan things on a regular basis. Things related to my work, my family, home improvement, etc. There are short term and long term goals, minor plans and major plans, personal ambitions and family objectives. Long time ago I stopped being idealistic. I don’t have dreams, only plans. I approach them pragmatically and every little or big success makes me feel I am constantly improving. This is a sentiment I have nurtured (i.e. fueled through what I perceive as achievements) all my life: right now I am better than I have ever been before. ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/44 "2020-01-27T01:23:10Z")
I hear you, OP! In the last few years, Stoicism has become very persuasive to me - as a reminder that “we don’t control and cannot rely on external events, only ourselves and our responses.” Several of the replies you’ve gotten in this thread express ideas handed down to us from the Stoics. > **[What Is Stoicism? A Definition & 9 Stoic Exercises To Get You Started](https://dailystoic.com/what-is-stoicism-a-definition-3-stoic-exercises-to-get-you-started/)** > > For those of us who live our lives in the real world, there is one branch of philosophy created just for us: Stoicism. It’s a philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier, more virtuous and more wise–and as a result, better people, better... ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/45 "2020-01-27T01:53:45Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > I hear you, OP! > > In the last few years, Stoicism has become very persuasive to me - as a reminder that “we don’t control and cannot rely on external events, only ourselves and our responses.” > > Several of the replies you’ve gotten in this thread express ideas handed down to us from the Stoics. > > [What Is Stoicism? A Definition & 9 Stoic Exercises To Get You Started](https://dailystoic.com/what-is-stoicism-a-definition-3-stoic-exercises-to-get-you-started/) The Stoics had a lot on the ball. The popular conception of them is off-base. Thanks for that link. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/46 "2020-01-27T11:56:21Z")
I used to read the news obsessively and worry about things constantly. Trump’s election changed that for me. I glance at the headlines but don’t look at the details. It just was too upsetting. The world goes on without my active monitoring. I have my own things to worry about now. I’m much less stressed. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/47 "2020-01-28T18:44:18Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > “It must be late in the day that pygmies cast such long shadows.” --Gian Carlo Rota, Italian American mathematician. > > As far as climate change goes it is getting to be very late in the day. And the orange menace is certainly a mental pygmy. The Australian has even smaller mental stature, which I didn’t think possible. > > I won’t live to see the worst, but I have children and grandchildren. This. I won’t see the worst of it either (I’ll see probably more than you, since IIRC you’re a bit older than me), but my son would be 93 when the 22nd century begins, so if something doesn’t kill him first, he will see it get a hell of a lot further along than you or I would. Like you undoubtedly feel about your children and grandchildren, I want him to be able to live his life in a fundamentally hospitable world. I don’t want to go to my grave knowing that I and my generation have failed him on this score. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/48 "2020-01-28T18:50:47Z")
Well I … oh. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/49 "2020-01-28T19:33:38Z")
For me, what’s depressing is not just Trumpism and its fanatics, and all the depressing anger in the news. What’s tipped me over the edge is the scope of climate change, deforestation, etc. and the likelihood that the world as we know it is already well down the road to physical destruction. I’m basically a nihilist now. The earth is going to come to an end someday, so why not now? I try to be a responsible person and I take action in the remote possibility that my actions will make a difference, but I basically just see the social and physical world as self-destructing, so I have to make peace with that. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/50 "2020-01-28T20:02:38Z")
For me it’s the knowledge that my lifelong commitment to nihilism was well founded. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/51 "2020-01-28T21:33:19Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > …Like you undoubtedly feel about your children and grandchildren… I don’t have children or grandchildren. Or nieces/nephews, for that matter (I’m an only child). I used to be sad about this-- now I’m kind of glad. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/52 "2020-01-28T22:12:36Z")
Me too, not having children was the right call. ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/53 "2020-01-29T09:19:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Do you have strategies (successful ones) for keeping your sanity in these troubled times? On dealing with others, stepping away from the crazy, now matter how long I’ve known them. And when I meet new crazy, I make it clear I’m not interested. On dealing with myself, learning to make an effort to avoid negative thinking. It’s especially important in the morning in those first minutes/hours after waking up. When some people get upset over something, they can’t stop dwelling on the indignation. They might call it “doing the slow burn,” but I’d say they’re just fanning their own flames. Anyone who considers themselves an adult should have more control over their own thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/54 "2020-01-29T12:48:48Z")
At this point, where I believe we are past the point of return, I take cold comfort in having been right. When hurricanes and tornados ravage red state America, at least I can say to myself “we tried to tell you.” I think at this point, that’s all we have. > [@](#): > > …“I always thought climate change was a bunch of nonsense, but now I really do think it is happening,” said White, a 65-year-old Trump supporter, as she and her young grandson watched workers haul away downed trees and other debris lining the streets of her posh seaside neighborhood last week, just as Hurricane Michael made landfall 700 miles away in the Florida Panhandle. > > …An Elon University survey taken in early October, after Florence hit, showed that 37 percent of Republicans believe global warming is “very likely” to negatively impact North Carolina coastal communities in the next 50 years. That is nearly triple the percentage of Republicans — 13 percent — who felt that way in 2017. > > The percentage of Republicans who felt climate change is “not at all likely” to harm the state’s coastal communities dropped by 10 points over the past year — from 41 percent in September 2017 to 31 percent now. > **[In North Carolina, hurricanes did what scientists could not: Convince...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-north-carolina-hurricanes-do-what-scientists-could-not-persuade-republicans-that-climate-change-is-real/2018/10/17/45136c56-d0ac-11e8-8c22-fa2ef74bd6d6_story.html)** > > As polls show their numbers growing, some Republicans say the evidence is right in front of them. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/55 "2020-01-31T01:30:40Z")
Sanity may be overrated but it’s better than going stark raving bonkers, which ain’t funny. Compartmentalization helps maintain my mental bubble. I do not watch TV or news vids. I do not observe political events. I read headline aggregators online and then proceed to sites of written and musical arts. I definitely don’t argue politics because no attitudes will change. Tiddlywinks are more rewarding. I read of a fellow who only reads newspapers when they’re a decade old so he has some perspective on which reports are relevant. UFOs and crop circles haven’t made headlines lately. Did the coverup work? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/56 "2020-01-31T04:24:57Z")
I click on a news aggregator every morning, to see if today is the day they dropped the big one, sort of half-hoping it is. Most days I scrollll through the headlines without clicking on any for more pointless details. Journalism is now so bad, the details I want are in the last paragraph, if there at all. I keep my sanity by refusing to Hate or Fear, the two things the media spends the most effort coercing me to feel. ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/57 "2020-01-31T12:38:50Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Four simple words. > > “This, too, shall pass.” Yup. My late mother used to say this. She wasn’t necessarily a fount of great wisdom, but she was right about that. In a similar vein: “The Good Ole Days weren’t always good, And tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems…” - Billy Joel ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/58 "2020-01-31T12:52:52Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Me too, not having children was the right call. Me three. For a while I was sorta concerned that I’d missed out. Now I’m kind of glad. If we can just make it another ~35 years or so before the world comes to an end… ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/59 "2020-01-31T13:32:57Z")
Troubled times? What troubled times? It’s just more of the same. The next regime will be idiots, too. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895/60 "2020-01-31T14:06:16Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Troubled times? What troubled times? It’s just more of the same. The next regime will be idiots, too. If denialism is working for you to run out the clock, who am I to argue? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-strategies-successful-ones-for-keeping-your-sanity-in-these-troubled-times/846895.md?page=4)