I'm Just ... Tired

[smirkymonkey]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/im-just-...-tired/

"I'm tired.

From what I've seen on the internet, we're all tired. And while normally I'd try to give some sort of insight into a problem or offer up some semblance of a solution, or at the very least talk about my balls, I don't know what to do here. Maybe you can help me with this one. I'm at a loss. I'm tired.

I'm tired of seeing high-powered politicians making a national argument over where someone is allowed to shit. I'm tired of them thinking the fight is actually about bathrooms. I'm tired of seeing assholes who don't deserve even one more second of fame twisting words to make it sound like transgender people are at high risk of committing sexual assault ... when the actual numbers show them as victims. I'm tired of people not knowing that there's a difference between "sexuality" and "gender."

I'm tired of hearing about how our most powerful representative wants to round up millions of illegal immigrants like cattle and send them ... just anywhere but here. I'm tired of worrying about him redefining for the rest of the world what we stand for. I'm tired of looking evil-by-association to my friends in other countries, other cultures, and other religions because I don't have the mental energy to denounce this constant stream of horseshit every time another terrifying news turd is squeezed out of its abnormally large butthole...[more]"

I so know how he feels. I think most of us do.

[oldtime dfl_er]

1. we are being beaten down

We don't have the money. We don't have the power. We don't have the press. We have nothing but our beliefs.

I am seeing a lot of the same sudden tiredness everywhere, and I'm feeling it too, because it seems like no progress is being made on our side. Last night's speech (I didn't watch) was apparently a first big step in normalization. When you normalize the abominable, the unacceptable, the horrific, then anyone who opposes this new normal is suddenly ... not normal. Insanity is the new normal, so we sane people are not normal. Lying is the new normal, so those who value truth are not normal. And it's a struggle when you're seen as abnormal.

President Obama took a month, but I think he's slowly dipping his foot back into things. It's OK to take some time out for family, vacation, just downtime. The Resistance will still be here in a week or two.

[smirkymonkey]

2. You go through life thinking that good is supposed to prevail and what we are seeing

is that evil is winning no matter what we do. It makes you feel like you are going mad.

[oldtime dfl_er]

5. I see it all around me

and it's kind of at the center of why everything is upside down right now.

[jehop61]

3. You are

not alone

[0rganism]

4. the odds are never in our favor

[Guilded Lilly]

6. I absolutely hear what is being said and have been there way too often since November...

Even being the stubborn feisty person I am, marching and pink hats, petitions and voter drives, local meetings and emailing/calling... this is wearing me down. Most days I can hoist myself up out of the great nothingness that this hideous person and his elitist, repugnant, anti-humanity administration has soiled the country with in just one freaking month...but some days I just sit in a stunned stupor or disbelief.

nothing like it in my many decades-long adulthood.

There is so little in the daily bombardment of wtf crap to hold on to for a ray of hope.
One damn month feels like one damn year already.

[smirkymonkey]

14. I know, I can't believe it has only been just over a month. I feel like

it has been ages. Every single day it's another assault against decency, truth and humanity. If we could have just a few days where things were going our way or at least where things WEREN'T going their way I wouldn't feel so exhausting. It's like rolling a boulder uphill. It's so demoralizing.

[uponit7771]

7. Amen

[bronxiteforever]

8. Sometimes all we have is each other and a quote from a movie or book

Gimli: Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

When some of us get tired and need a break from this darkness someone else will pick up the slack.

[Phoenix61]

10. Exactly

The only way to win this is is to run it like a relay race. And I love Lord of the Rings.

[emmadoggy]

9. I definitely feel it.

I have felt very stressed and tired since the election. And my admittedly already hopeless fingernails are an utter ruin these days.

I have a raging case of outrage fatigue. Every day there are a dozen or more new outrages flying at me and I just feel drained. It's sucking the life out of me. We're raising teenage twins - terrified for their future, and hopeless about college in a few years, to say nothing of proms and graduations and cars. I'm working a job that pays only 10 months of the year and keeps me under 30 hours so I can't get insurance benefits. Hubby is working two jobs to help us make ends meet, so we hardly see him. His little bit of extra income from the second job is putting us dangerously close to the income limit for losing our state health insurance for the kids (thankfully, we seem to have just squeaked by approval for this year - but very worried about next year). We have a mountain of debt that we never seem to make any progress on. We hate the town we live in (streets are a MESS and there are FAR too many Republicans. We'd love to move, but there's no hope of that!). I have a brother who is a raging Trumpite. UGH. And just all the other demands and struggles of day to day life.

It's exhausting. It's just very, very hard to find the bright spots and glean some enjoyment out of life. And I know I sound horribly whiny and ridiculous when, at the same time, I am very aware that huge numbers of people are in MUCH, much worse positions than I am. So then I feel guilty, too, on top of everything else.

[Phoenix61]

13. You don't sound whiny

You sound worried. I can't say I blame you but please take care of yourself. We will survive this mess, we will be changed, but we will survive.

[smirkymonkey]

15. Don't feel guilty - I was talking to my therapist. I am relatively lucky, but

if I were to lose my job I would be in a bad spot and that is always at the back of my mind. My therapist said this whole Trump thing has just magnified all her patients normal anxieties and fears and blown them out of proportion. It's like he has added a whole new layer of dread on top of our day to day worries and taken away any hope we might have for the future. She said it has been like an epidemic at the hospital, with almost every client affected by it in one way or another.

[delisen]

12. Evil Does Win A Lot and When You are Tired You Need to Rest

Evil Does Win A Lot and When You are Tired You Need to Rest

It's a long struggle and you have been at it a long time. You need to rest. In order to get the rest you need one thing may be necessary. It helps to have faith that other people are taking your place, and its true. We are.

Each of us does what we can, when we can. Sometimes one has to let it go and block it out to care for oneself- It takes time to heal.

Battle weariness is a fact and the first step is the acknowledgement. It may take you many months to rest and relax and that is ok. It is also ok to say "I have done enough and now I must tend to myself and live my life and trust others to take up the struggle.

We need the people who are leading typical and caring good lives-because that is what the struggle is all about. If we give that up then we have lost everything.

I would love to hear from people who are in rest mode about what they are doing. One of my politically active friends was so devastated after the election that he could not even go to a march in January. He is concentrating on camping trips and returning to his hobby of gardening. I check in with him occasionally and we talk about these things.

[smirkymonkey]

16. Thank you - you are right. I think it's just burnout. A person can only deal with

so much outrage and stress before they completely breakdown. I can feel it physically and emotionally. It's the feeling of powerlessness that really gets to me. The sense of unfairness. How is it that evil seems to be winning this battle?

Thanks for your kind words - and welcome to DU!

[delisen]

17. You have done a lot and your work is not in vain

Many people such as myself have used the ideas better understood issues because of just reading the conversations you and others have posted her.

Thank you.