Coping With Outside Stress

This letter was originally written the week Osama bin Ladin was killed:

Dear Tony,

I will admit that the events going on in the outside world can leave us shaken.

We build a foundation very slowly, piece by piece, around our understanding of the outside world. A surprise announcement like the one we had this week — even good news — can seriously disrupt that foundation.

Many people would admit to some of the same feelings, but I think some of our feelings are stronger.

 One of the central tenets of mental illness is an inability to handle and process our feelings appropriately. We work on building that, but sudden events can throw them out of control.

That being said, I do not a lot of advice to give. Except to be aware of it, and realize that it might affect your mood and energy for a while. You might need to make some accomodations for that.

Sometimes in the past I needed to put my own progress aside to deal with events in the outside world. I cope by reading as much as I can handle about the subject. Some people I know cope by shutting the news out as much as possible. I am not advocating either method. I am just letting you know.