After 2.5 years of pretty much full-time study (I’m unemployed) and writing about Collapse, but not making it all the way to radical acceptance, I’m at the point where I understand more than enough and try to avoid learning more, because it’s bad for my mental health.
I still absolutely peruse it on a daily basis, but tuning it down a big notch has simply been necessary. It’s that or doom-spiraling. I have a daughter to raise. And I’m still not okay.
One can never unsee collapse. One cannot regard anything without taking it into account, because it renders so much of what people are doing and planning pointless.
Well said, and I'm the same way. I can't "not think about it," but I can control whether it's in the front, middle, or back of my head and how much energy I give it. We do what we can but, yeah, we reach limits and find out we're still human.
perfect. It is a PART of my day - like setting a foundation of what big thing changed and is it important right now my concerns are focussed on fascism and trying to grow food in a chaotic climate - i just finished a painting about neurological damage because of covid. I am calm.
Jessica, this is one of the most insightful assessment of the collective psychological response to the approaching collapse of industrial civilization I have seen. Well, I know that there have not been so many that one could say are really assessments at this level, but yours is top notch anyway.
But the thing is, while we can speculate as to the terrible mass starvation already beginning in some places, and the governmental and corporate spinning out of control, etc., etc., we do still have choices if we will recognize our own agency, not just personally, but in the power of collective action.
The current surge of collective protests over the attacks on just about anyone or any agency that operates in ways that do not support the autocratic coup attempt by the Trump REGIME (not administration, for they administer nothing; they only destroy what they cannot plunder), is a healthy sign, but so much more is needed, but can yet arise.
Bruce Berlin is starting a movement to write letters (email of course) to Senator Lisa Murkowski urging her to lead a bipartisan effort in the legislature to stop the destruction of the "checks and balances" of the three branches of the federal government. That is another good sign, because the fight for ecological survival is inherently the fight to stop the neo-fascist overthrow of democracy itself.
You can join that effort. Here is what he suggests:
I have been researching the history of nonviolent civil resistance movements and violent insurrections lately. What seems clear for the best outcome, is that nonviolent movements succeed more often, and depending on circumstances, if the movement has very high participation by large numbers of people it is far more likely to succeed. Now, if we want to directly face what I call the New Great Transformation of society--which, by the way has more than one potential outcome, depending on our collective agency--we will have to confront the political-economic movement toward tyranny, oblivious to the accelerating destabilization of the entire Earth System, first, and throughout the greatest transformation of human society ever. But we do have the power to in some degree, as yet undetermined, to influence that great transformation so that some surviving humans can shape an ecological civilization, which to be viable must also be democratic.
It's hard not to spend all day listening to the news because there is just so much going on in every 24 hour period now with the U.S. government imploding and reshaping itself into a fascist style government. Then there are all of the environmental news stories from Inside Climate News that needs attention in order to prepare for the next big storm. Especially now that FEMA is all but gone. Not to mention Covid and the next big pandemic on the horizon.
I have learned to only spend a half day reading or watching the news via podcasts and articles like yours to stay abreast of things. If I spend all day, I feel wrung out and unable to sleep. So, half days for doomscrolling and the other half day working in a garden, or a home improvement project, or an IT project to round out the day. As long as I use good time management, the anxieties are manageable. Mostly.
I was sitting down to read this latest and had my summer 2025 playlist on … I Don’t Remember (Walker & Royce, VNSSA) came on and it felt on the nose to get up and dance it out. The lyrics <handshake> this post.
I really appreciate this perspective, and find myself doing much the same without awareness… except that I will now think of doomscrolling in a more enlightened, accepting way instead of using the term pejoratively. Of course there are limits to how much scrolling is therapeutic, healthy defense mechanism versus tipping over into obsession and driving anxiety. The way you have framed it will help a lot of people emerge from each session with a chillapsed meta understanding of what they just did!
I take the long view of the heat death of the universe, our sun expanding and boiling off the oceans, the ephemeral nature of what it means to be anything much less a consciousness - at once terribly depressing that we only have this miraculous vital moment in a mostly vacuous universe, and incredibly inspiring that here we are today, luminous today. Probably tomorrow, too. 🤞
I think I'm at he same place right now. I found myself cheered after reading about the Black Death in the 1300s recently, where the article pointed out that actually ordinary people benefited after the disaster. Because so many died, the whole serfdom thing broke down and people started to be paid for their labor and it ushered in a new prosperity for all and inspired automation for tasks, etc. So I hope mankind will come out of this in the end. I may not be here to see it, but unless there is a nuclear war that destroys life on the planet, this may actually be a long-term benefit. Maybe people will revert to being cooperative because we'll need each other again.
Chillapsed seems like a new word for the old term of 'acceptance'. The final stage in the stages of grief model. Accepting that yes we're in a collapse but there's nothing we can do about the macro cause. So we need to live our own lives. Accepting the inevitability of collapse and continuing to live life.
great way of describing this complex emotional space. And you're so right, that it overlaps with other kinds of trauma, in the way that you have to find a way to process the emotions. Not enough spoons to say more, just found this article really profound today.
I feel it! First, there are all of the tasks that produce the progress, without much distraction from the outside world, Maybe? And now....the view toward the weird, wild "future" that the endless barrage of info brings to my view and perception from my peculiar (?) point of view.
I work with machines, and processes, and my way of thinking is that everything, and every process, is a chain from one point of reference to the next. My human choice is to continue on the chain, step by step, or decide to begin anew. Wow! A new way of thinking about my previous lifestyle- I'd better get working on that new project. Doom? We got it sussed. Cheerio
As always, it’s a careful balance for me. Part of the day reading, part of the day scrolling, part of the day out and about in nature, and final part either writing or reading fiction. And on certain days, spending time with my family. That’s the pattern that just about keeps me sane.
I think that I've learned enough about what's going on and how to handle it (like this Substack. (Thank you, Jessica!) that I've started reading about specifics that might affect me and my family. The scope of the issues facing us is so huge that it's not humanly possible to grasp it all.
I try to read about topics that interest me that aren't about the current world, like science, humor, novels, etc. A good book (video, whatever. YMMV) can take me away for a few precious hours of peaceful, stress free entertainment. There are a few activities that I do which help as well. Distraction has its place in times like these, as long as it isn't most of what you do.
Chillapsed, I like that hehe.
After 2.5 years of pretty much full-time study (I’m unemployed) and writing about Collapse, but not making it all the way to radical acceptance, I’m at the point where I understand more than enough and try to avoid learning more, because it’s bad for my mental health.
I still absolutely peruse it on a daily basis, but tuning it down a big notch has simply been necessary. It’s that or doom-spiraling. I have a daughter to raise. And I’m still not okay.
One can never unsee collapse. One cannot regard anything without taking it into account, because it renders so much of what people are doing and planning pointless.
Well said, and I'm the same way. I can't "not think about it," but I can control whether it's in the front, middle, or back of my head and how much energy I give it. We do what we can but, yeah, we reach limits and find out we're still human.
perfect. It is a PART of my day - like setting a foundation of what big thing changed and is it important right now my concerns are focussed on fascism and trying to grow food in a chaotic climate - i just finished a painting about neurological damage because of covid. I am calm.
Excellent. :)
Jessica, this is one of the most insightful assessment of the collective psychological response to the approaching collapse of industrial civilization I have seen. Well, I know that there have not been so many that one could say are really assessments at this level, but yours is top notch anyway.
But the thing is, while we can speculate as to the terrible mass starvation already beginning in some places, and the governmental and corporate spinning out of control, etc., etc., we do still have choices if we will recognize our own agency, not just personally, but in the power of collective action.
The current surge of collective protests over the attacks on just about anyone or any agency that operates in ways that do not support the autocratic coup attempt by the Trump REGIME (not administration, for they administer nothing; they only destroy what they cannot plunder), is a healthy sign, but so much more is needed, but can yet arise.
Bruce Berlin is starting a movement to write letters (email of course) to Senator Lisa Murkowski urging her to lead a bipartisan effort in the legislature to stop the destruction of the "checks and balances" of the three branches of the federal government. That is another good sign, because the fight for ecological survival is inherently the fight to stop the neo-fascist overthrow of democracy itself.
You can join that effort. Here is what he suggests:
"Get an electronic copy of my blog which includes the letter to Sen. Murkowski at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog/.Once you have the copy, go to https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/contact/email to email Sen. Murkowski the letter, or your own version of it urging her to form a bipartisan caucus to save our democracy."
I have been researching the history of nonviolent civil resistance movements and violent insurrections lately. What seems clear for the best outcome, is that nonviolent movements succeed more often, and depending on circumstances, if the movement has very high participation by large numbers of people it is far more likely to succeed. Now, if we want to directly face what I call the New Great Transformation of society--which, by the way has more than one potential outcome, depending on our collective agency--we will have to confront the political-economic movement toward tyranny, oblivious to the accelerating destabilization of the entire Earth System, first, and throughout the greatest transformation of human society ever. But we do have the power to in some degree, as yet undetermined, to influence that great transformation so that some surviving humans can shape an ecological civilization, which to be viable must also be democratic.
It's hard not to spend all day listening to the news because there is just so much going on in every 24 hour period now with the U.S. government imploding and reshaping itself into a fascist style government. Then there are all of the environmental news stories from Inside Climate News that needs attention in order to prepare for the next big storm. Especially now that FEMA is all but gone. Not to mention Covid and the next big pandemic on the horizon.
I have learned to only spend a half day reading or watching the news via podcasts and articles like yours to stay abreast of things. If I spend all day, I feel wrung out and unable to sleep. So, half days for doomscrolling and the other half day working in a garden, or a home improvement project, or an IT project to round out the day. As long as I use good time management, the anxieties are manageable. Mostly.
I was sitting down to read this latest and had my summer 2025 playlist on … I Don’t Remember (Walker & Royce, VNSSA) came on and it felt on the nose to get up and dance it out. The lyrics <handshake> this post.
i doom-scroll because the news is mostly doom and gloom
I really appreciate this perspective, and find myself doing much the same without awareness… except that I will now think of doomscrolling in a more enlightened, accepting way instead of using the term pejoratively. Of course there are limits to how much scrolling is therapeutic, healthy defense mechanism versus tipping over into obsession and driving anxiety. The way you have framed it will help a lot of people emerge from each session with a chillapsed meta understanding of what they just did!
I take the long view of the heat death of the universe, our sun expanding and boiling off the oceans, the ephemeral nature of what it means to be anything much less a consciousness - at once terribly depressing that we only have this miraculous vital moment in a mostly vacuous universe, and incredibly inspiring that here we are today, luminous today. Probably tomorrow, too. 🤞
I think I'm at he same place right now. I found myself cheered after reading about the Black Death in the 1300s recently, where the article pointed out that actually ordinary people benefited after the disaster. Because so many died, the whole serfdom thing broke down and people started to be paid for their labor and it ushered in a new prosperity for all and inspired automation for tasks, etc. So I hope mankind will come out of this in the end. I may not be here to see it, but unless there is a nuclear war that destroys life on the planet, this may actually be a long-term benefit. Maybe people will revert to being cooperative because we'll need each other again.
Haha testify!
Chillapsed seems like a new word for the old term of 'acceptance'. The final stage in the stages of grief model. Accepting that yes we're in a collapse but there's nothing we can do about the macro cause. So we need to live our own lives. Accepting the inevitability of collapse and continuing to live life.
great way of describing this complex emotional space. And you're so right, that it overlaps with other kinds of trauma, in the way that you have to find a way to process the emotions. Not enough spoons to say more, just found this article really profound today.
I feel it! First, there are all of the tasks that produce the progress, without much distraction from the outside world, Maybe? And now....the view toward the weird, wild "future" that the endless barrage of info brings to my view and perception from my peculiar (?) point of view.
I work with machines, and processes, and my way of thinking is that everything, and every process, is a chain from one point of reference to the next. My human choice is to continue on the chain, step by step, or decide to begin anew. Wow! A new way of thinking about my previous lifestyle- I'd better get working on that new project. Doom? We got it sussed. Cheerio
As always, it’s a careful balance for me. Part of the day reading, part of the day scrolling, part of the day out and about in nature, and final part either writing or reading fiction. And on certain days, spending time with my family. That’s the pattern that just about keeps me sane.
I think that I've learned enough about what's going on and how to handle it (like this Substack. (Thank you, Jessica!) that I've started reading about specifics that might affect me and my family. The scope of the issues facing us is so huge that it's not humanly possible to grasp it all.
I try to read about topics that interest me that aren't about the current world, like science, humor, novels, etc. A good book (video, whatever. YMMV) can take me away for a few precious hours of peaceful, stress free entertainment. There are a few activities that I do which help as well. Distraction has its place in times like these, as long as it isn't most of what you do.