The news is killing me

[cyclonefence]

5. I second the "watch kitty videos" advice

I--and I suspect many people--have been feeling as you are feeling. It's more than a person can bear.

Do you have access to Netflix or Amazon videos? There are lots of very funny series (serieses) on both of them that have been helping me a lot. I watch them over and over, especially at night when I cannot sleep. I recommend "The Mighty Boosh" on Amazon and "Toast of London" on Netflix for starters. They're both British, and that seems to help, too, at least for me.

Getting outside is good, too, but it's so hot where I live--maybe where you live, too--that that's not an option for me.

Don't let anyone tell you to cheer up or otherwise devalue your feelings. That doesn't help at all; it makes things worse. Accept your depression--it's certainly a sane response to the world right now. But things will change, if you can hold out long enough.

What I've found about depression is that you really can't fight it head on. It will change, eventually, and usually for the better. If you can just give in to feeling helpless and watch something stupid or read a funny book (you can get the entire opus of Calvin and Hobbes at your library) and eat potato chips until you want to vomit.

It's not coincidence that Charlie Chaplin and those other classic comics of the silver screen came to prominence during the Great Depression. You can find a lot of them on Youtube Find something to make you laugh, even if it makes you feel stupid. What you're feeling is universal and timeless.

If you are alone, know that you're not really alone. There's at least one other person who's feeling as bad as you do. We need to survive this awful time, that's all. It will be better.