if someone gets upset it is certainly upsetting too -
I think if it's compassion and empathy kicking in -
or fear for your own well being -
discord for me is a big unsettling thing.
You seem to have a big picture fear for the nation -
I would say you're definitely not alone in that -
there's so much to worry about!
Sorry if I am seeming disjointed and detached
someone just unloaded on me and now
I have to be constructive and get on with the day..

xx ((hugs))

you are sorry?
i'm happy dancing that markus questionarious is sharing his gentle and insightful wisdom with the world. about friggin time, ya wimp! ! ! being honest about the after effects of someone unloading on you? ? ? i might have to quit calling you, "wimp."

and? ? ? did your unloading on a sib-in-healing help you detach far enough to get on with your day. on my own therapy, feeling disjointed is part of my mental illness, regardless of its source. the honest and open unloading helps me detach from that cauldron far enough to be constructive and get on with my day. it is not necessary to go to the extremes of detachment which severe enough to cause yet another round of catatonic dissociation. just far enough that the bubbling cauldrons don't stop the show. balance in all things.

in my own mental health measures, controlled doses of detachment are the strongest drug in my walk-in medicine chest.

No it is not contagious. We are just bombarded with bad news after bad news. The 24/7 news cycle and social media are the problems. I do not watch the news and I only use social media for health and wellness content these days.

Look up 'therapy in a nutshell' on youtube. She explains anxiety really well in her anxiety course playlist.

thank you for your officious sounding summary, blue.

i believe that the media bombardment is one of the anxiety pathogens. media fasting helps me considerable, whatever the theory behind the benny.

i surely wish i had the hearing to let me listen to your youtube guru. looking her up would only remind me of what a freakazoid i am. not too many youtubers provide closed captioning.

Yes, anxiety is contagious for people who "feel" it from others around them. I have taken on another person's anxiety when they are emoting or upset and anxious. I notice if I am anxious, say we are leaving to go to the airport to fly somewhere -- well my husband then gets very anxious. He doesn't recognize his own feelings until I point them out.

The typical news TV stations are aimed at causing fear and anxiety so I avoid them. I dislike the hate the other side mentality. If we all hate each other, it will be no good.

The border crisis is terrible. I live where it is obvious big time, and creating problems, and the whole thing, all sides, makes me pretty angry. I won't comment more because I understand governmental policy and can go on and on. LOL.

thank you, hasty.

my psych pros were pretty quick to steer me away from my massive media intake, and this was pre-internet. dropping the mainstream media intake was a HUGE step toward calming the radical ranting i was famous for. can i put bigger speakers and flashier lights on my soapbox? which tall social injustice can i leap in a single bound today?

fast forward to the era of internet information overload and? ? ? i am grateful i learned about media fasting before it included my phonebook. walking past newspaper stands was a whole heap easier than avoiding the pop-up ads while i'm trying to book a doctor's appointment. today's printed phone books are no longer equal to the comprehensive task of providing phone numbers.

i have been working humanitarian relief in the rio grande valley for enough years to believe i understood immigration policy, but the belief has proven far from sustainable. i understand it less and less with each immigration reform.

the piece of the current crisis which is eating holes in my soul is the rise of unaccompanied minors. my bleeding heart urge is to run down there and find homes for each and every one of them. you're safer with the bill sikes of your own beggar gang than the believers in urban myth flooding the borders of "el dorado." this foster mother doesn't believe a single one of those desperate dreamers knows that the u.s. foster care system was already broken long before it suffered the weight of the covidic wisdom.

rocking myself gently and crying with alone. . . nobody else seems to care. not even the charmers who want my wrinkled hand in visa marriage. i have no doubt you are god's gift to older woman, sweetie. thanks but no thanks. i'm a bit shy of romantic

It is contagious to empathetic, caring people.
When my youngest still lived at home we would “ catch “ each others moods. I would try so hard to not be anxious or in a bad mood around him because he would become anxious within 24 hours. And he struggled with anxiety and depression. So if he was doing ok, I didn’t want to be the reason he became not ok and it went vice- versa.
It hurts to care so much

thank you, light. i've wondered about the empathy angle and most definitely catch a loved one's anxiety quicker than the human biting its tongue at the next gas pump over, but the contagion from the next pump over still affects me tremendously.

for what it's worth
a channel i've found that seems to have helped tremendously is to bring a smile to those anxiety carriers. a smile is worth far more than it costs.

I get energy from people. I don't get anxiety from others but I used to be somewhat co-dependant on my best friend who was very self-destructive. I had to break away from her twice. Do you wear hearing aids arfie? I watch a lot of police interrogations on YouTube and they usually have everything typed out. Not exactly closed captioning. Do you use airport? They are great!

For me, I think anxiety is contagious the same way being around calm happy people makes me feel calmer and happier.

I’ve mentioned this before but sometimes I need to step away from this group every now and then because I find some posts ignite my anxiety. The energy can at times just fuel my own disordered thinking.

thank you from the depths of my broken heart, rmb. those were the very words i was looking for. in my broken brain, clear and concise verbage remains a hunt for a proverbial lifeline.

thank you, greeneyes. your expertise is as admirable as ever.

Love it! when I try to ignore my highly anxious coworkers they just stand around until I acknowledge them. so I eventually take my headphones off and "pretend" I'm listening. I keep telling you arfie to turn the music sky high ((hug))

since the covidic anxiety has morphed into the anxiety over paying proverbial pipers, i've been contemplating maskly intervention of evading the anxiety contagion, but. . . pathogen control is easier to investigate after you've identified the pathogen. at least in my lab. medical pipers charge considerable more than musical pipers with considerably higher price tags on their instruments. nobody's declared an end to the global shutdown yet, but i'm hunkering down for a long haul on the inflation anxiety.

yup, mel, you keep telling me to turn up the music. have i mentioned my hearing weirds? but singing and strumming louder is the volume knob which works for me. do i give an FF what the critics think of my hearing impaired vocals? it's my therapy far more than my opportunity to win critic and/or youtube awards.

did you know even the hearing gifted can't hear their own voice? they hear the vibrations of their skull bones, etc. even **i** can hear those vibrations. they bypass my damaged ear gear. for this deaf freak, i'm managing air flows and cadences. the days i can keep a steady beat and even air flows are often my most peaceful days.

I think in May 2023 the World Health Org (WHO) announced COVID19 to no longer be a global health emergency. BUT that doesn't keep my anxiety from jumping over the moon when my coworker A laps in my personal space. SIX FT SIX FT!!!

i ;am so broken that i was familiar with the term, "social distancing" long before the covidic yaddah blah. child prostitutes have an uncommonly well developed instinct for the nature of social distancing. when this beaten crazy bitch wolf needs to socially distance, 6 feet is nowhere near enough social distance unless it is 6 feet under. i have the more pragmatic survival skills to live off grid and i ain't afraid to use them. i have survived pathogen exposures far meaner than a a freshly showered and perfumed office co-worker. has to offer. it is the remaining maskites who set my anxiety to moon jumping. this socially distant layman is fairly certain anxiety pathogens are not airborne pathogens. MORE THAN 6 FT. . . MORE THAN 6 FT. . .

thank you for the update on our wise leaders of WHO. i missed that tidbit in the media overload. i can relax now. . .i am fine. how are you?