Stressing

 MUCH IS BEING WRITTEN AND SPOKEN about the accumulation of emotional and anxiety affecting many in America. Quoting the Rolling Stones: "It aint the latest thing". It aint new, but its more. Donald Trump was "elected" with a bit of foreign assistance, on a rising wave of anger and frustration at economic conditions, the vanishing white middle class,the decline of religion, the influx of brown skinned immigrants, growing demands by brown, black, and gay minorities for social equality, the disappearing of traditional patriarchal white Christian cultural dominance, among other causes. The pandemic, and our failure to avoid the worst of it, put us over the top and out of the park, mental health wise. Trump's racist, pro wealthy divisive, chaotic administration only heightened the anger and the stress, making matters worse. The economic collapse and hardship, sickness and death, of the pandemic added to the political division and conflict, gasoline poured onto fire. We showing the wear and tear: enhanced irritability, quickness to anger, rushing to take offense and hold grudges, friendships strained and canceled. I try to avoid getting angry at people individually. I'd rather spread my anger thin, across the entire human race, and merely roll my eyes as human filly at the level of the single citizen. The unreasonable behavior of the people in my life I accept as mental illness, accumulated anxiety boiling over, part of our growing mental illness epidemic. Anger directed at me personally I ignore, and I easily can, for invariably it comes in the form of sudden loss of contact, complete cancellation of long friendships. They stop responding to my emails, letters, and calls, they stop reaching out, there is only silence, and its over. I treat it as liberation, a reprieve. Relieved of the burden of uselessly trying to repair a friendship not worth the effort, I am free to embrace and contend with my own anger, alone. It seems many of us are retreating into a delusional, fabricated worlds of our own choosing, in which conspiracies and mysterious, unseen forces control events, presumably relieving people of the responsibility. Hidden enemies, hidden conspiracies, invented global power paradigms supplant any need to take on the real world, head on. The mental health crises is an onslaught of narcissism and delusion. By retreating from the actual world, people render themselves useless to it, but at least mostly harmless, but sometimes, harmful. Those who do not participate co not contribute.Our narcissistic, delusional anxiety based mental health epidemic takes potentially productive people out of circulation.The weakening of the greater community damages us all, and therefore, we must find ways to heal ourselves.