Published on 12, July, 2020
This surge in far-right violence is frightening me. I'm dreaming about it and having trouble focusing at the moment. My sensitivities seem to kick off badly when stuff like this is going on.
I keep away from the news best I can but it seems to be everywhere.
How do you deal with the issues out there today?
I haven't followed the news much at all since the early 1990s, I have enough 'difficulties' etc as it is. My father was expected to 'keep abreast' of the news of the day in his lifetime career as a senior member of staff in the MoD. He would 'religiously' read the Daily Telegraph (not The Sun or Daily Star) every day and watch the 10 o'clock news. It didn't do him much good (in fact, quite the contrary) from where I was standing and I do neither / none of that as a consequence (I'm here on NAS online forum instead, at times / 'in moderation')
There is something to be said for that. "Watching the news during troublesome times can take a toll on our mental health. When major world events are taking place, we can find ourselves hooked on the news and feeling as though we need to know everything, but this behaviour, known as doomscrolling, can be to the detriment of our mental health. ... ":
https://patient.info/news-and-features/is-watching-the-news-bad-for-your-mental-health
In other words, who can possibly make sense of evil - these past 4 years, I have learned that evil is a very real and very tangible force in our world and the only thing that keeps me going is my religious faith, not any one (corrupted) religious institution - before there was any concept of “mental health issues” everything was expressed in terms of religion and the Churches would have taken a leading role in this, urging people to pray for desired outcomes in times past