Saying this as an ethnically Chinese person who is not being racist… I had a eufy robovac and when I discovered it was Chinese-owned and had a video camera installed on it… I immediately got rid of that thing. I don’t trust any technology company owned by China to be able to see into my home.
When I’m really struggling it’s annoying to have people call me strong or resilient. I mean technically I am strong but it feels like a curse. I don’t want to be strong. I want it to be easier.
The worst one, though, THE WORST, is when they say “I don’t know how you do it/live like this.”
Uuuuhhhh, if I had a choice I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t do it. I have no choice. The only way out is through.
Now I have depression so it’s slightly different than a physical disability, but I have been on disability for 2 years and some days am completely debilitated.
The biggest thing that helps me is just meeting myself where I am, and accepting and working with my restrictions rather than fighting them. One example is I try to make meals for my boyfriend and I since I’m not working right now. But for the last couple of months I’ve been extra sick and so groceries go bad in the fridge, I eat nothing or trash or order in which is super expensive.
And finally I decided to stop forcing myself to cook only to fail, and now I buy tons of preprepared foods and meal replacement powders. It’s not as healthy as home cooked, but it’s better than McDonald’s or chips, and I don’t spend as much money ordering delivery.
I don’t know if this will be helpful, but I wrestled a lot with dealing with despair/fear from upheaval as well. Mostly climate like I said, but I used to cry for days thinking about kids starving in Venezuela, for example (that’s a crisis from many many years back).
Studying history actually helped me cope. Just learning about the past like 5000 years of human history and how much upheavals and famine and war and civilization collapses there have been.
I kind of realized that feeling like the world is ending (as we know it) is the NORM rather than the exception for most of human existence.
We’ve been exceptionally lucky in Western countries for the past 300ish years. But that caused us to believe that’s what’s to be expected. It’s not.
It just helped me understand that humans have survived through lots of things. And the turmoil comes with being alive.
I understand your desire to stay informed but also grounded. I have actually fantasized about a newspaper exactly like that - tells the world as it is, but also helps the readers cope. My biggest thing is climate change and climate despair. I ended up googling how to deal with climate despair and came across a number of articles that were really helpful.
Hooe you find something similar for Russia/Ukraine.
Between this and Northwestern, I’m so glad student journalism is getting a spotlight!