How to deal with the “toxic stress” of the current administration is on many peoples’ minds, it seems. A recent report notes that it is impossible to study the effects of our current situation as there is no control group. We are an entire nation living through emotional, financial, political and social upheaval all at the same time on a constant and daily basis.
“Toxic stress” is caused by constant anxiety due to prolonged exposure to stress. Toxic stress causes brain damage in young children and teens. In adults, prolonged stress causes hormonal imbalances and increased metabolic rates. Never before in our history has a president done all he could to undermine our government, monetary system, commerce, manufacturing and trade, health care system and social norms.
Our entire social system has broken down. The madman in the White House is covering up a crown prince’s heinous murder of a journalist who was critical of him personally. Today he ordered tear gas and rubber bullets fired across the border of a neighboring, sovereign nation into a crowd of women and children. We have officially become a pariah nation with a war criminal at the helm.
Children are terrified to go to school, the mall, to let the parents go to work. We have had more mass shootings than days in the year in just eleven months and it looks to get worse.
The real stressor of our lives is the environment. In an attempt to conceal the UN report on climate change, the administration released the report in the middle of a holiday weekend in hopes that no one would notice. But the report is too alarming to ignore. Weather catastrophes are on the rise.
These problems are so large that it overwhelms the mind. For now it seems the only thing to do is be kind to each person you meet in your day, including yourself.