I'm suffering from global warming/peak oil depression.

[GOPBasher]

I've going through a major depression. It's lasted a few months now, and I can't shake it. I can't get my mind off everything that's going on in the world. It's the combination of global warming and peak oil, combinge with war, terrorism and religious fundamentalism, sprinkled with our nations national debt, trade deficit and consumer debt, and throw in about ten other major problems I can easily think of. The world is going to shit. I just had a new baby -- I now have two kids -- and I think their future fucking sucks (pardon my language). I'm so scared for them. I can't think about more than two years down the road, because I think the shit is really going to hit the fan soon.

On a side note, I'm sure most of you don't know me. I used to hang out on DU a lot, but since my new baby was born, I have no time. So, I apologize for being such a downer. I swear, I'm usually much more fun to be around, in better times. :-(

[pitohui]

1. here's a hug

don't forget in our day the world was going to be blown to shit in global thermonuclear annihilation and we're still here, even though ronnie reagan said we launched the missiles 5 minutes ago

there is no use borrowing trouble, if something is too big to deal with, there's a lot to be said for sweeping it under the rug and moving on to something you can deal with

[GOPBasher]

2. Thanks!

Thanks, that made me feel better. :-)

[Lisa]

3. some of this may be due to postpartum effects ...

I mean, you've had a lot of work what with the new baby, and you're probably more than a bit sleep-deprived!

It's spring. One thing that may help is to get in tune with the growing season, and plant a garden (or at least start some seedlings -- if you haven't got enough space, I'm sure that people who do have gardens will be glad to take them off your hands!). It's one of the ways I cope -- I have been studying global warming since the late 1980s, and I agree that it's a topic which can be rather depressing if one gets to brooding on it. Helen Caldicott suffered burnout after working on nuclear proliferation issues and had to retire from that for awhile, and my colleagues (who study disease/poverty in Africa, and deforestation in Southeast Asia) admit that they too have times when they get really down.

Today, I brought in a bunch of heirloom tomato seedlings and distributed them to people in my office. It was worth it, to see the excitement and cooing over the tiny plants.

sources for rare seed:
http://www.terraedibles.ca/
http://www.territorial-seed.com/stores/1/Tomatoes_C162.cfm

[GOPBasher]

4. Thanks for the response and the idea.

I might try that. By the way, do you study global warming for your job? (If you don't my asking, that is :-))

[Lisa]

17. I teach environmental science and have done some impacts work ...

.... for the Canadian government. (My supervisor is currently involved in a wetlands restoration project in Iraq, so my job is relatively low-stress by comparison!)

p.s. you raise an important point ... not only can so much bad news be counterproductive (people figure it's not worth doing anything, so why bother?) ... but it can have health repercussions. Last year, my entire department received a memo from Student Counselling which stated that at least 2 people had cited our courses as contributing to their depression, and that in one of those cases there had been a "significant suicide risk" ... basically we were ordered to lighten up! I made some inquiries, and apparently it wasn't my course which had been cited -- but still. I started showing some of the more amusing Bush photos and cartoons which have appeared here on DU, as a precautionary measure.

[OhioBlue]

5. I know the feeling - I go through

those "slumps" about once a year - I usually come out of it around Spring time. Try to just focus on what you can control. Maybe do a good deed for someone - and don't even care if they appreciate it.

:hug:

[GOPBasher]

6. Good idea.

Thanks for the lifter. :hug:

[JanMichael]

7. Right there with you. Reading "Geography of Nowhere" and I'm bummed.

We're screwed as a society and fast approaching a meltdown economically.

Buy rice and ammo.

[GOPBasher]

8. I guess I'm not alone in

thinking it is that bad.

[JanMichael]

9. Not in the least. I'm still schocked that we're still a minority view.

Eventually however people will be forced to accept what we've been fearing for years.

Same boat.

[liberaltrucker]

10. Rx..EffexorXR 150mg qd

Works for me.

[GOPBasher]

11. I've been on Paxil and Zoloft. They worked well; I should get back

on them.

[liberaltrucker]

13. Maybe so

Granted, we're enriching Big Pharma, but when you think about it,
they make better drugs than ANYONE in Colombia, long as you have
a script and $, or good insurance.

[Deja Q]

12. Who the fuck isn't? Go out and have some fun.

:hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:

I just spent $130 on sharp, fancy new clothing.

We're all dead anyway. So why mope about it? You lot will end up as morbid and suicidal as me if you're not careful.

[liberaltrucker]

14. Hey, Hey(with all due respect to a certain DUer)

This shit doc has me taking has me moping not at all.
And with a $25 USD a month copay, a helluva lot cheaper.

:)

[Deja Q]

15. I envy you.

I've been fried by so many meds over the years that nothing seems to work proper anymore.

Zoloft will now physically kill me if I stay on it more than a week.

Depakote, which made me an even happy 8 years ago, still evens out the manic side - but I'm mega-depressed all the time and I re-started this drug 2 days ago. The side-effects are even more brutal.

[Shine]

16. An Ojibway prayer for you, GOPBasher:

Grandfather,
Look at our brokenness.

We know that in all creation
Only the human family
Has strayed from the Sacred Way.

We know that we are the ones
Who are divided
And we are the ones
Who must come back together
To walk in the Sacred Way.

Grandfather,
Sacred One,
Teach us love, compassion and honor
That we may heal the earth a
And heal each other.

:hug:

[SteppingRazor]

18. My best advice would be to come here less...

Seriously, I know that sounds odd, maybe even cold, but if you are actually, literally depressed over global events that you have little or no control over, you're spending way too much time with the news and Web sites like this one. Try to compartmentalize here -- if your own life is so positive that you have to look this far outside of it to find things to be depressed about, I would suggest that, in fact, you don't have a whole lot of reason to be depressed at all!