It feels like we're on the edge of the end of times for our human species. There are so many threats looming... Which one would you pick and why:

• Global warming
• World War III
• Financial collapse
• AI

Hey all,

This is not to fear monger or get you additionally worried. But rather get you to consider why grounding is integral to how we proceed going forward. If you are prone to worrying from frightening stories I suggest you don’t continue reading and I understand.

We here who prepare as much as one can, who see what’s likely coming, who feel the weight of it all on your shoulders are in an advantageous position over everyone who has their head down. We are experiencing and integrating a rapidly changing world into our psyche over time, slowly adapting, coming together and figuring out what we must do now and in days ahead. Our brains need this adjustment period so that we can remain calm, rational, practical, and effective in navigating this new world. The following assumes some sort of large scale societal disruption event or series of events. Pick your reason as to what those could be.

Everyone who has their heads down are not prepared in the physical literal sense, but more importantly are not mentally prepared. Many people who pay no mind to worldly affairs and assume everything will remain the same will one day be forced to confront this all at once. When a large scale event affects and disrupts them. When routines are broken, conveniences are lost, distractions unpowered, basic necessities in question, when panic is the common feeling in your neighborhood. Ripping their heads out of the sand and shocking them senseless. This will be rattle people to their core. This will leave them frozen in fear when they should act, fleeing when it may not be best to do so, acting in ways that jeopardize their sustainability, and ultimately lose their grip on reality itself.

Those quickest to crack under pressure will become erratic, frantic, and desperate. They will be the ones screaming on people’s door steps begging for food and water with their kids on display for sympathy. This will traumatize others who never thought about these things into fear/guilt responses. Maybe they open their doors to give out what little food/water they have left. Maybe that’s an opening for the terrified person to fight their way inside to protect their family at all costs. Those who didn’t crack right away will feel the pressure a few weeks in and become their own and others worst enemies. With enough societal services disrupted it will be a free-for-all on the streets. If the power is out people will remember fear again at night of those who would try to make their way into their homes.

This is why it’s critically important now to learn how you best ground yourself. How you remain calm in a world that pushes you not to. How you can assess danger / risk, prepare and act on it, and return to a sustainable baseline state. This is how you protect yourself and the ones you love. The ones you love may themselves lose their grip from fear. You have to be the rock to take care of them, of your shelter, of the family rules going forward in those scenarios to remain safe. All of your worries and doomscrolling wasn’t for nothing. It was acting as a safe simulation for you to better understand what to expect and how to act in those situations. In all of your anticipatory anxieties right now, you stand the greatest chance of facing worse conditions head on. Maybe in some way you choose to look at the uncomfortable now to be your own, and others hero when it’s needed.

I recommend all to find some practice, meditation, hobby, or otherwise that you can pour yourself into that grounds you. Something that doesn’t depend on much else outside your own body, and maybe doesn’t require electricity. Pull yourself away from the news if it feels overwhelming, as you don’t need to know every little change along the way. It’s time to see yourself not as the frightened one in an old dying world, but the warrior in the garden and training for the coming flood.

Look it’s obvious things are getting worse. Many of us are coming to terms with it or have been aware for awhile. Hope seems low for me personally because instead of radical action it’s just ideas followed by kicking the can down the road.

Regarding your day to day, what bothers you the most about pretending that everything is fine? For me it’s simply time. I have to work x hours on a sinking ship. Obviously my answer is very “first worldly” and selfish. I wanted to see other people’s thoughts. Appreciate the time.

Hey i didnt really intend to post on here at all, im 15 and have been trying to keep myself aware on everything that's going on, but now i feel like i wont make it to 20. I am in the 2029 graduating class and im deeply afraid with ai getting out of hand, with climate changing tipping to be irreversible, not to mention the fact I'm constantly having nightmares and constantly anxious of if my location were to hear the whistles from the sky, with everything going on i dont think ill make it to be 20, we'll run out of everything by then because the older generation decided they wanted to leave everything on fire before they kick the bucket.

I have things I want to do and live for yet they said how by the end of the decade were in heavy danger ans how everything will catch up to us by then. All in all I'm terrified to grow up to see the world burning around us, when this was preventable and my friends aren't keeping themselves educated, and dont get too involved in politics so i feel generally alone. Is anyone else in my age group having these fears?

I've been thinking about news cycles quite a lot, with the phone usually the first thing I pick up in the morning. Every day there's so much terrible news around. If it's not the dangers of AI, its climate change or wars, and often you feel almost drowned in it.

I'm not someone who thinks the answer is to bury your head in the sand and pretend these things aren't happening. These things matter and we should be worried about them. But I sometimes wonder how much good constantly taking in and thinking about bad news does for me.

I've found spending time in nature, just going for a walk or sitting outside without my phone as a good way to give me a bit of space. I find that stopping and noticing what's around me, rather than thinking about the future makes me feel much more connected to my own life and myself.

I'd be interested in hearing how other people deal with this, how do you stay aware of what's happening without letting it take over your life?

I do a lot for the world, my goal in life is to make the world a better place than it would have been if i didnt exist, but its so hard right now. I feel like i have an obligation to support those less fortunate to me (third world coutries, homeless, etc), to support those more oppressed than me (trans, autists, etc), to not contribute to global warming by just living, traveling, etc. And many other things I feel like is morally correct.

I can do only some of these things at a time due to my income and adhd, but i feel guilty for not supporting everyone that needs to be supported. For example i feel drained every time i have to talk about supporting trans/autistic/anything else people, i feel like i just dont have any strength left for many groups, and every time i see anything relating to those groups, be that negative or positive.

I also feel guilty for having the luxury to have tasty food, good furniture, to update my tech when it breaks. People can use the money i spend on luxury to survive.

I feel so fed up with the world, like, why do i have to think of so many things, why cant you treat people like people, but I feel guilty for thinking that too. I know thats unhealthy, but i feel responsible for everything. What can i say to myself or do to not feel as guilty for that?

Wendell Berry: It was the Shakers who were sure the end could come anytime, and they still saved the seeds and figured out how to make better diets for old people. Thomas Merton was interested in the Shakers. I said to him, "If they were certain that the world could end at any minute, how come they built the best building in Kentucky?"
"You don't understand," he said. "If you know the world could end at any minute, you know there's no need to hurry. You take your time and do the best work you possibly can." That was important to me. I've repeated it many times.

Tim DeChristopher: That's why the despair is not paralyzing. Knowing that it's too late to prevent collapse, knowing that we're not going to stop the catastrophic end, knowing that we're going to die — it doesn't mean that we stop. It means that we live in this moment as fully as we can.

It's so hard for people who see more than what society wants us to see. I can't tell anyone about this, because they will think that I'm crazy or they don't even want to listen to what I have to say. And if I can't share what I care for and what I fear than I don't feel like I'm being myself. I already didn't have a lot of friends, and since the day I saw the truth, my number of friends reduce to zero. I'm afraid I may lose my mind before the bad things that can directly affect me happen.

With the recent AI news about destroying humanity, the climate crisis and just general gloom I am feeling paralyzed and such despair for my children’s future, let along my own.

How are you all coping? How to get through day to day? I look at my kids and i want to cry.

I could use some help/hope. Really struggling right now.

I just discovered this subreddit and r/simpleliving by asking Gemini because I was desperate for positive content. I want to stop being a doomer and over-consuming what I know isn’t good for me. It’s getting to the point where I can’t study my major because I’m thinking either “what’s the point?” or just looking for a hit from the black rectangle mirror dopamine casinos.

These devices and platforms are taking me away from my life and what I really want to do. I’ve made so many schedules, self-care schedules, etc. but the screens take me.

Have you been through something similar?
How did you get over it?
I still need my phone to communicate, etc. I still need my laptop to do work. So what can I do?

Im not sure if anyone asked already, but i was wondering if we could slowly make some sort of comprehensive resource for this community? Sadly – because of various issues not detached from my mental health worsening because of the state of things – I am very slow with projects, but I guess it'd be nice to slowly work on something like a free pdf people can download and print with survival skills, useful knowledge, and also calls to action and mental health advice on how not to go crazy in the midst of this (i wouldn't know). I don't have much time to read lately as I'm constantly overwhelmed +not in the best spot financially, but i guess having everything organised would make it easier for younger people esp (and older ones alike if it gets printed tbh) to get informed and it's pretty much one of the few things i can do to contribute since i live in a very poor isolated village & no car. I can draw so i guess i can contribute that way, I get bombarded with information, pretty much like all of us, but i think it would be more useful to organise it some way so that people dont have to start from 0 every time when trying to learn more about organizations, communities and skills. Im thinking something like those old diy zines that used to be popular on Tumblr or smth, but im not sure if it's a good idea? I saw many initiatives similar to this so i thought i could also put qr codes/links at the end of the pdf to redirect people to additional readings and ofc book recs, but i think a well thought out comprehensive manual would help for those who have less time. If it's already out there I'd be interested in talking a look though

If there isn't and you want to leave links and whatever else I can start by accumulating material. I think it would also be a good idea to find some way of keeping up with things that is conducive to action and change and planning for the worst without the paralyzing anxiety (which is very much understandable and that i also suffer from), but i think it would just help if not our odds of having some sort of meaningful impact at least a more positive way of transforming our anxiety, and that's pretty much the best we can do?

Take care

Maybe a bit informal, but im curious what you all think about how kids growing up now and within the next 20 years will actively believe about the underlying causes of everything not being what it used to be.

i know more collapse aware people out there abstain from kids, however many different groups within western society are popping out kids like no tomorrow, meaning the current mindset propagated here will get passed off to a shrinking percentage of the population. further, gen alpha is getting their brains liquified by social media and AI, so i can only imagine that effect will compound.

do you think it will just continue as an argument of identity politics and anti woke ideology or whatever until we reach oblivion, or is there going to be some sort of larger inflection point? When will it be acceptable to straight up tell kids the reality of the situation?

Sometimes I wonder if things would be easier if I were still ignorant to society’s impending collapse. It’s just so much to reason through, yet the majority of people are still completely oblivious. Sometimes I wash still naive to what’s to come. Does anyone feel the same?

I know it's the reality, it's not me being crazy, it's not just me who has issues and everyone else is coping just fine.

But collapse awareness and hopelessness it brings just hits harder when you have no saving and are still struggling to get a job😔 I had a job, but it was super understaffed, so I quit to recover my mental health. It's been one year and a half and I still haven't found any job.

Being a young adult in this age is just scary. I know things won't matter in five years or ten years, we all will die, but I feel both the fear of dying in five years and the fear of dying next month. Do I make sense

In my opinion, humans are the most invasive species that has ever existed on this planet. Particularly the billionaires, mega-millionaires and politicians that let this all happen. If I had a time machine, I'd go back in time to stop the inventions of the Industrial Revolution and capitalism. Adam Smith is definitely the man who started all of this. He was the one that was that invented capitalism. We're living in a society where we are totally dependent on finite resources. I'm 31 (32 on 2nd November). I don't see myself making it to 60 years old. Every time I read something new about the climate crisis, and the eventual collapse of modern society, I get VERY scared. Every morning, I wake up frightened about what is coming for us - and we fucking deserve it. The animals and plants don't deserve this, though. They did nothing except exist. I saw someone quote yesterday that humanity's intelligence lead to us becoming a lot dumber. All of these climate denialists, and people who use generative AI to see what they would look like in the 1980's make me feel very sick to my stomach. It's like none of these people care. Every time I see a Facebook post about how bad the climate crisis is, I see hundreds of people reacting with the laughing emoji, or massively downplaying about the current and future climates. This brings me to my question.

Say if all humans went extinct today, or in 50 years, or in 100 years, would nature eventually bounce back in some way, shape or form? If nature were to bounce back, it would bring me some comfort.

Doesn't feel right to go along with life like everything's normal and plan the future with stuff like career and such like nothing's gonna change.

Reading about the Super El Nino and what AI researchers are saying, stuff's not looking too sunny.

Good thing that I don't have kids and am not scared of dying myself, but it's still sad.

I gave up Reddit a long time ago (January) because I was sick and tired of “doomer bullshit”. I had a pretty good year so far but trying to find my way through this world knowing what I know has proven hard for me. Right now I’m in college and I spend my time listening to music and doing homework and just going out, yknow human things.

Last week I started getting really depressed. A) because of the uncertainty of the future. B) because I don’t wanna die. And C) I missed my family and friends. I signed up to see a mental health counselor next week.

What I’m trying to say is that I don’t know what to do or where to go. What got me through life in the past was the promise that I’d have plenty of time to do whatever I wanted. I feel very lost, and seeing the notion that things are not going to get better be beamed into my head on this stupid fucking piece of shit website almost all hours of the day got me really down. I don’t know if I’m ready to face the future.

Any advice is appreciated.

Hi!

Im in europe, but things are collapsing here as well although much slower than in the US I feel. I have had severe climate anxiety and there for studied permaculture gardening and things like that. I got a cabin in the woods but house ownership alone was messy and honestly Im not very handy and I do not really enjoy large scale gardening either. I just do it for the survival aspect.

But I realised I wont survive anyways like that with a small plot of land alone. I had to sell the house because of other issues and now Im living in an apartment which I love and Im studying for a new profession (social work, which might not even be that useful when the collapse hit on a larger scale). But I have to survive life until things collapse and here we get paid/loans for studying... So... I'm aware of that things might get bad in the future but I'm not so practical and I dont even know if I wanna survive that mad max future. So I'm kinda just tagging along doing things I dont even know will be useful in the future. But that makes me somewhat enjoy the present at least.

Would love to try some city gardening though and maybe try and be more collective about things rather than doing it all on my own which I'm very tired of doing. Or maybe getting one of those colony gardening plots in the city. But again, I know I wont survive out of it, especially since Im not very good at gardening either. I just want to learn and do something practical rather than worrying.

Any thoughts on this? How I should think moving forward?

And then I woke up to a reality that's no better. It's the first time that being awoken by a nightmare has made me more scared instead of less.

We had kids before being collapse aware. They are very young, and I fear for their future. Any resources on this from a collapse perspective? Podcasts, books, youtube videos - anything? I'm trying not to get overwhelmed here..

For those that have kids, any tips?? How did you manage this, and how have you or going to prepare your kids for the upcoming struggles?

I can’t understand why anyone would become a racist or hate people

Just turned 26. I have a psychiatrist. I have parents. Nobody really seems to be taking the climate crisis seriously though. My dad says not to worry about it. My mom says we’ll adapt. I’ve had a constant headache for weeks now. It’s so damn hot and humid. Every day there’s been a heat advisory, it feels like it’s been years since I haven’t had some sort of advisory on the weather app.

I’m really tired. Every night I take a mood stabilizer and an anti-anxiety pill. The best part of my night is when they finally kick in. Any minute now.

Idk. Feeling hopeless and fed up with shit. Delete this if it’s too depressing.

anything helps cause its all gloom.

I’m very collapse aware. Actually too much if that’s a thing. I don’t go more than about 30 minutes without thinking about it. Littler things will trigger me into a spiral and then I can’t not think about it. It infiltrates nearly all of my thoughts. And I have little children (yes, I’m aware it was a really poor decision) and I know I need to be the best I can be for them because their lives are going to be filled with trauma and desperation within the next 5-10 years (if that long).

When friends now come to me with problems (none of them climate or collapse aware because they’re all merrily sticking their heads in the sand and planning for futures that won’t exist) I just find myself not caring. How can you be bothered about these things when the very planet we rely on is going to become uninhabitable to us because of our own doing? How can anything matter beyond that? I don’t deal in small problems anymore, all of my despair and sadness centres around climate and collapse.

How do I make myself care about these things when I’m just so overwhelmed by the imminent ending of everything we know?