I know I mention this every time some notable fascism happens, but one simple way to help fight it is to to help people work around it. Buy a pack of these stickers for $20, or ask for a free pack if you don't have the money. Then stick them in public restrooms, etc
www.plancpills.org/stickers
We have been working around some pretty advanced fascism here in Texas for a while now. Longer than the rest of y'all. Mutual aid is 100% the way to go. And I mean actual community work, not asking for personal donations on the internet. Build systems of care.
Houston's chapter of Food Not Bombs is always looking for people to help procure food donations, to cook, and to serve meals. The same is probably true where you are if you live in a city.
Or make donations to community free fridges in your city. Feeding people is a powerful act of rebellion.
Get yourself a prison pen pal. Humanize someone that the government has worked so hard to dehumanize. Massive fight against fascism win.
Do a book drive for people in jail or prison, if you're in a state where they are still allowed to receive books. Education is power.
These are the types of things I started doing in 2016, and while they won't keep you from occasional spirals, they will lift you out of a persistent feeling of helplessness.
You're only helpless if you decide to be helpless.
Take a bit to feel really rotten if you need it and then get to work.
I also started taking anti-anxiety medicine. If you've never been evaluated for anxiety, but you feel anxious or helpless a lot, maybe look into it. I'm not trying to medicate everyone, but I will tell you that it has immensely improved my life.
I’m not medicated for anxiety but I’ve had a lot of therapy around “existential anxiety dread” lately and it’s really helped
the other thing that really helped me was stopping drinking caffeine - but of course this is all very individual
I was not actually medicated for anxiety, I was medicated for unlivable hot flashes in perimenopause. But with an anti-anxiety medicine. I would never have told you I had anxiety before, but clearly I did because I'm a different person now. I no longer live in unchecked doom about politics.
Caffeine gives me arthritis. This is apparently rare. Osteoporosis isn't rare, especially among women. It's *supposed to keep you awake* so insomnia should be expected. Never got anxiety from it, no matter how much sense that makes.
My best friend is soothed by coffee. When she’s unmedicated it helps her sleep. If I have a cup of coffee after like 1pm, I’m not sleeping before 1am.
Bodies are *so* damn weird.
Yeah, when said friend can actually *get* her adderall she doesn’t drink much coffee- maybe a cup a day? But lately she’s been stuck with one of the lower dose generics and has had to up the caffeine to match.
That explains a lot with one of my close relatives. I didn't connect these two. In my defense, there's an unbelievable number of issues to consider, and this never seemed very important. Well, it's not necessarily life threatening so there's that. Excellent progress is being made.
I can't do diet anything - allergic to aspartame. Other sugar subs make me queasy. Caffeine gives me arthritis, so more is not enticing. Prescription drugs are not something i do lightly. "All medicine is poison, what matters is the dose". To me, menthol is medicine. Wasn't always.
Caffeine is weird. Used to drink coke to get to sleep. This didn't work forever. Had insomnia until 2002. I went cold turkey for 18 months. Again doing that. In month 14.
