But with the help of exhaustion and some melatonin, I do sleep.

Too!😩

He reminds me too much of my father.

Same with me. But lately I have made a concerted effort to distract myself, and find it really helps. Rather than jump online to see what the latest outrage is, I read or play online games, or organize my place (and it needs it!) or vacuum, etc.

I do feel (cautiously) encouraged in knowing cheato isn't doing so well (his numbers keep going down)--and I love watching town hall meetings and listening to people in the audience address whoever the maga happens to be, and savor the stupid looks on maga faces, and their lame attempts to change the subject!! ☺️🤣😎🇺🇸

Hang in there!!

But I've been down this road before and I have learned to deal with it by choosing to have other things in my life outside of the issues that cause the stress. Of course I am pretty occupied with my decision to relocate to a safer state so packing and planning take up a lot of my time now.

I have learned to let myself have some freak out time and then I have to find something constructive to do with my time and energy. I started doing that to control anger issues I had years back. I allow myself to get as pissed off as I'm going to get, for fifteen minutes, then I have to find something better to do with my time and energy. Sometimes it's painting or something artistic, other times it's going for a walk or diving into a project that will require all my attention for a length of time. Just don't obsess over any of it.

It's not easy but taking your mind completely off the subject of tension, you can help yourself a lot.

I'm sorry. It sounds like you've some good coping strategies, though. Hang in there!

My wife and I do the same when it comes to the news, we watch Rachel and then try to shrink our daily experience down to our immediate world. It is the only way we can endure.

We are four hours from the Canadian border and as the autocratic power grab continues the likelihood of us running is increasing.

Other than an armed uprising, we just don't see any path to preventing a dictatorship here.

I have had to let go of all TV news, even Rachel. A routine that has worked for me to sleep at night includes a breathing exercise: inhale through the nose for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale through the mouth for four counts.

No phone or laptop screen time before bed. Read a printed book for 10 or 15 minutes in bed, fiction, preferably a romance or mystery.

Get outside during the day. If you must watch Rachel, record her, and watch the next day, not at night. Give yourself time to distract yourself with something pleasant after you've watched her.

Hang in there. So many of us are having to learn new coping behaviors in order to adapt to stress and anxiety at levels we never thought would happen. I believe we will get through this, but it's going to take some time.

No appetite, weird sleep schedule, anxiety...

DU and other boards help keep me more grounded than I would be otherwise. Thanks fam...

The flip side of rose-colored glasses is modern catastrophism, thinking current problems are always worse than the bygone. But we've seen most of this before. I'll tell you, the early part of this century was a nightmare. One of those "silent" ones where you have no voice. Then we woke up, and our voice was a tidal wave.

Do what you can, do it with a grin, and know that you have all the power against evil's game.

Starting vegetable plants for upcoming season.
Watching movies in evening.
Eschewing MSM because we no longer trust it.
Writing to our legislators.
Waiting for the big march on Washington this spring.

Wake up worried about what Trump is doing and going to do.
Will we all be living in the street.

Remember the quote of the great Stephen King
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

just remember you are not alone.

I'm lucky to have 5 or 6 hours, but when we watch our shows after dinner I can't stay awake. I think it's the old-age drumph combo.

Take heart. This too shall pass. (I always think of the phrase, 'It came to pass... but it doesn't say 'it came to stay.') The country has begun to wake up to the nightmare; resistance and motivation is rising like the Kraken.

I truly believe these incompetent, selfish (and probably 'stimulant-addicted') idiots will be reigned in by the courts and the will of the people.

Please, no politics in the Lounge.