Other Coping After The Us Election.

[hodge]

Whew, @KwanYingirl!!!

 

[Ronin]

If he gets Obamacare repealed, I'm sure as a state we will create our own.

^ This. I'm thinking people still focus on one figure head, but there's way more balances to keep him in check, federally & states wise, it's not like he has all the power at his disposal.

So refocusing energy & resources & different distribution? May be helpful.

 

[BearLife]

Third morning in a row that I've had morning sickness. Fortunately by now I've learned how to cope with the wake-up-vomits. But I'm having a hard time accepting this reality. It's not something I can escape. Four years at least, unless a miracle. Usually I can avoid the triggers, but this one presents itself in an eventually visceral way every morning so far... My T suggested this morning mindfulness, which I have practiced for years until developing severe PTSD (from moderate), but find very difficult when in the throes of a limbic system hyper activation. It takes over, I shake, rock myself in my desk chair or back to bed hugging a body pillow and same. "How in the world did this happen?" I just can't accept this yet. Yes, anger. I vented violently to my T this morning, thank Goodness he accepts me for me. Definitely stages of grief... Hopeful to learn thru this how to "live along side of" this disorder. And exhale ...

 

[BearLife]

^ This. I'm thinking people still focus on one figure head, but there's way more balances to keep him in c...

He can undo ObamaCare with the stroke of a pen. I have Medicaid, which he can also reign in thru budgetary actions. Reframing can almost always be a good tool when I am stressed, but there are valid concerns here, particularly when it comes to one's healthcare, mental or physical.

 

[Ronin]

I'm not saying there aren't valid concerns - at all.

I'm saying that this result, however unfortunate, is not an end to quality life possibilities of individuals, & that push back means a thing, the powerlessness isn't absolute.

 

[hodge]

Before the election I told my former favorite aunt that I was horrified by him, not least because I've been assaulted in exactly the way he bragged about doing it. She just said, "the past is the past." I said, "no, the past is present now, thanks to him." She didn't respond and still hasn't.

This is a woman who was always there for me in my younger years when my mom was so abusive and I had to seek respite at her house often. Now I feel so betrayed by her and by everyone in my family except for one other aunt and my youngest brother.

I just thank God for my other aunt who reassured me and sent me a link to Aaron Sorkin's letter to his daughter in the current Vanity Fair. It's a tear-jerker, but full of an indomitable spirit that I'll probably return to again and again.

 

[Sideways]

I mentioned to my mum that it felt like millions of people had just sanctioned sexual abuse with their vote. She agreed, then went full flight on all the other reasons why she's livid with the election results.

That was not the kind of supportive go-team-womens-rights speech I was hoping for.

In retrospect, maybe it was the most helpful response I could have got out of her. Because she's right. It's an element, a factor, a part of his total package. But the reality is that it's a big friggin package - the Trump Package.

And just like mum, maybe the sexual assault issue registered on radar of the people who voted for him. But when I do my internal reality check, did all those millions of people stand at the ballot box and, pencil in hand, say to themselves "This guy gets my vote because he's into sexually abusing women"? No. That's not why people voted for him.

It should have registered as a bigger issue in their minds. Or at least, the world would feel safer for me if everyone took this issue as seriously as I do. The fact that they don't? That they voted for this guy regardless? Makes me feel really ill.

But for me, there is a difference between voting for sexual abuse (my warped reality), and voting for a man who happens to sexually abuse women for kicks, but for completely different reasons. It's still not okay, but it's easier for me framing it like that.

It didn't register as importantly as I think it should have for these voters. But they weren't sanctioning my sexual abuse, they were simply disregarding it. And that is the reality that I already live with every day anyway. It's not as important to people as it should be - nothing new there. Sux, but it's not new.

 

[hodge]

@Ragdoll Circus, :hug:. Even though it evidently didn't have enough of an impact on many American voters, please know it had a huge (yes, I'm reclaiming that word) impact on the rest of us.

It's like this old saying: Who do you believe? Me or your lying eyes? Or, in this case, your lying ears?

Not!

 

[EveHarrington]

Thanks @Ronin

Maybe at some point I'll find humor in any of this, but not right now.

Right now I really want to kick John Oliver in the family jewels.

I'm not pleased with other comedians either.

I won't be watching news for a good long time. SNL is out too-----this crap is too damn serious to be parodied. Not now, maybe not ever. I'm ashamed for feeding into it. My whole family is, and we feel hoodwinked for believing "bad" news. (As in not accurate.) We're all trying to move on with life as best as we can.

I'm so fearful I'm going into prepper mode-------I'm the chick who used to laugh at how ridiculous they all were. Now I realize I was wrong. Being prepared is the only thing that will make me feel better.

 

[Justmehere]

In a world where everyone is yelling, when you pause and listen to them, and respond by speaking softly, people lean in and listen to you as well.

I have spent the past 14 months putting this into practice... and I just realized today that this is part of how I'm coping.

I'm very counterphobic - I tend to move closer to what I fear in an effort to deal with it, find some control.

I guess, by engaging really diverse people and listening and getting to know them as people, I'm a lot less scared than I would be if I was just watching news feeds and words on screens.

It's also been hella hard - so it's a mixed bag really,

 

[scout86]

Under the heading of 'things you can do', here's one. Link Removed

In Norway, during the Nazi occupation, people wore paperclips to indicate resistance. Apparently even the Nazis couldn't think up an excuse for arresting people for that, although people also refused to sit next to Germans on public transportation and it became a crime to stand if there was a place to sit.

 

[The ANP]

I've been offline since the election. It's been too hard. I am a sexual assault survivor. Even though I know people we not voting for sexual predation when they voted for Trump, they were voting to ignore it. It feels completely invalidating. It brings up a lot of the feelings I had when I was raped as a teenager and the behavior of the group of males involved was
normalized/condoned/ignored.
It reminds me that that power is so entrenched that you can sexually assault women and still be President (negative cognition:because sexually assaulting women has no consequences, doesn't matter, is sanctioned) I'm not sure if that is really a negative cognition or the truth?