Protecting Your Mental Well-Being in a Turbulent World

A record-hot summer is on the horizon, and election season in the United States is already well underway, where the stakes for our democracy are high. With eroding civil rights at home, and atrocities taking place abroad, keeping up with current events has become a distressing and unpleasant obligation for many. Americans are already exhausted, yet many of us are still committed to pushing hard for positive social change. I find myself searching for ways to continue fighting for social justice while also protecting my energy and mental well-being.

Whether you operate inside existing systems to affect change or present your views loudly through your work or on social media, it’s easy to burn out. This can lead to long-term mental health challenges, especially for people who consider their social change or advocacy work a big part of their identity and purpose. A recent study from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education found that in my age group—Gen Z young adults—58 percent of survey respondents reported experiencing little or no “purpose or meaning” in life in the previous month. Across other generations, we find that adults’ satisfaction with both their personal lives and the state of the country is on the decline, and trust in government officials, media, and community leaders is also waning. The Harvard study notes that many young adults find purpose in social-change work, where they can help address urgent issues facing our country. Still, there are mental health risks attached to finding purpose solely through working to move colossal systems.

Since moving to DC at the beginning of the year, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the “best” ways to advocate for macro-level change without pushing myself until I break. In a recent conversation with a policy advocate, he suggested evaluating what you, personally, can achieve in different settings. He finds it frustrating to work inside massive organizations at times, but given his background and skillset, he was confident that he could accomplish more there than he could by making public statements on his own. For others, making public statements may be more powerful, and this is admittedly the side I have more experience with. When the world feels like it’s falling apart, it’s easy to feel like you should be doing everything you can to fix it, in both personal and professional settings. But it’s impossible to engage fully on every social justice issue. This requires each of us to optimize and prioritize: Where might we apply our unique skills and perspective to do something meaningful?

In recent months, many social movements have emphasized bearing witness to world events through social media. Citizen journalism and the reach of online content platforms like YouTube provide an unprecedented opportunity to broaden our understanding of complex issues and the role of our government. This can be especially important for Americans, who often don't see the consequences of our foreign policy on our shores. (I was struck by this while traveling in Romania in March 2022—while Poland took in more Ukrainian refugees, significant changes to Romania’s transportation infrastructure were visible at every major hub as NGOs and local governments partnered to better support Ukrainian refugees entering the country.) However, “bearing witness” in some cases has become “watching an ethnic cleansing streamed live on social media,” and we need to be mindful of the mental health effects here, too.

While social media is an excellent tool to build understanding and momentum in social movements, overexposure to media with themes of violence and trauma can have notable negative effects on mental health. Even mental health professionals—who are trained to bear witness to other people's traumas—still often go to therapy themselves to talk about vicarious trauma. As consumers of Instagram stories and social media posts from the people most impacted by global injustices, we are taking it all in, with few opportunities to make a meaningful difference in these people’s lives. While vicarious trauma usually doesn’t meet the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) unless listening to these stories is a part of one’s full-time job, learned helplessness is a key component of complex trauma, which occurs when people are regularly exposed to traumatic events over time and unable to escape the situation. Over time, as you are continually confronted with terrible situations you can’t change, you can accept that it’s impossible to make life better for yourself or anyone else. Despite not having Complex PTSD, which is caused by long-lasting trauma, some related challenges may pop up, including difficulties regulating distress, maintaining close relationships, and making decisions under pressure.

With no end in sight to tragedies in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, at the U.S./Mexico border, and elsewhere, along with a presidential election on the horizon, here are my recommendations for maintaining your mental well-being over the coming months:

1. Figure out what you can do to make a difference with your specific skills, resources, and connections. We all have different knowledge and skill sets based on our work, hobbies, and life experiences. I am a writer and a storyteller, so I often write social media posts about the intersection of mental health issues and politics on a whim. Occasionally, I’m asked to expand my hot-take posts into full pieces, leading to policy-focused essays. Meanwhile, one of my friends is an experienced protestor who regularly helps coordinate events. Some people read books and educate people in their community; others are skilled at bringing social change discussions into contexts where they are uncommon without seeming pushy and annoying. If you’re in a job where organizing, advocacy, or direct service is inherent, bringing your full self into work each day is doing something on its own. Whatever is best for you, identifying that specialty and spending the majority of your energy there ensures that everyone’s contributions are optimized to create the greatest change.

2. Update your list of “distress tolerance” activities. These are activities that can help you regulate your emotions and calm you down when you’re feeling upset or destabilized. These could include classic recommendations like box breathing or turning to a hobby that you find calming like drawing or listening to a specific album. I recommend keeping this list handy as a note on your phone if you don’t already have one, as when you’re in distress, it can be difficult to recall all of your potential options. The list should focus on ways to calm down when you’re too upset to address a problem or stressor with a “wise mind.” Activities solely meant to distract are fair game as long as you are diligent about returning to the problem once you’re no longer experiencing distress. My distress tolerance list is color-coded: green for things I could do in a public bathroom stall as long as I have my phone, orange for things I could do anywhere with the necessary supplies and some privacy, and pink for things that require me to be home. Mental Health America has a list of suggestions, though I’d recommend against including problem-solving activities on a distress tolerance list. Save that for when you’re feeling more grounded and in control!

3. Be intentional about community. I don’t include reaching out to friends on my distress tolerance list, as I prefer not to include items that rely on the availability of other people, but community is an essential part of maintaining your mental health. To reference one of my favorite quotes:

“You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.”
—Jamie Tworkowski, To Write Love on Her Arms

Whether it’s friends, family, coworkers, or like-minded people online, engaging with others is immensely valuable, and it’s important not to lose that. Also, as Mental Health America notes on their list, “warmlines”—or non-emergency peer support lines—can be a great resource if you need to talk, but can’t or don’t want to reach out to someone you know. Unlike a “suicide hotline” such as 988, which operates on the assumption that you are in an immediate crisis involving a risk to your safety, a warmline will connect you to a trained specialist who can be a listening ear and provide support in hard times.

It’ll likely be a long summer and year ahead, but we can’t do our best work caring or advocating for others if we’re not taking care of ourselves. And you deserve to be healthy and cared for, even when terrible things are happening in the world.

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