Thanks for asking, Anita. Not great actually. I found reprieve from my despair by spending time with family this weekend, but now that I’m alone with my thoughts and reading terrifying Twitter accounts, my anxiety is unbearable again. And again, the fact that NOBODY in my day to day life seems even a tiny bit worried feels so surreal. Believe me, I’ve asked. I may call a crisis line or something. Or try a guided meditation. Thank you again for being so kind.

Thank you for responding, Anita…as usual, most of what you said resonates. I’ve been reading your insightful and supportive comments for years (I used to have an old account but have lost the login info, hence the new one), and I’m so glad to see you sharing more of your personal bio. The layers of wisdom and empathy make sense to me now.

I agree with what you said about denial and being human, am of course quite adept at it myself lol. I need to be able to work and thinking about the billions of possible ways to die every single second of every day won’t allow me to do that. My anxiety has been extremely heightened by the way, however, which means I’m spending A LOT of time thinking about the perils of being a human and all the ghoulish ways I and my loved ones could perish. Trauma kids gonna trauma. I guess what is so unsettling is that literally nobody I know is talking about the nuclear brinkmanship we are now seeing play out. And most of my friends and colleagues were absolutely freaking out when COVID emerged. And the war has been going on for months. Why aren’t more people terrified??? I genuinely don’t understand and am tired of finding “support” in musty conspiratorial subreddits.