How can I not get bitter or depressed from this sick world?

Yeah, the world can be a sad place, and that sadness can seep into you. So I recommend making the world a better place and letting the joy you bring to others seep into you instead. I mean it. Be the change you want to see in the world and see how that changes you, too.

I get where you are coming from. I’m a liberal, socialist, bleeding-heart, commie faggot heretic

The thing is you can’t fix the world. But you can try to make a single persons world better. And that is really all you can do unless you are Bill Gates.

I give food to battered woman’s shelters. It isn’t much but it helps.

Yeah, like @johnpowell says, little changes are all we can accomplish. But they still make a real difference in the lives of real individuals. Even if you can’t save the world, imagine what you can do for one person.

Start focusing on what is good in your life, what your blessings are.

Every day I list three things I am grateful for. I do it even when I am not feeling particularly grateful or happy. The practice. though, reframes my viewpoint to focus on what is good in my life instead of bad in the world.

And sometimes it is just the basics: Have a place to sleep with a roof? Be grateful. Able to move unaided? Be grateful. Did you eat today? Be grateful.

And, while tragedies and tragic circumstances seem to be part of the human condition, for most of us they are not.

I found that when I needed to just take care of myself through a really bad patch, I learned to detach myself more from the news and the horrors in the rest of the world. Now that I have come through it, I can engage more with the world’s issues but I am still more detached knowing that there is much I can’t influence. I certainly still volunteer and donate to charities and try to help people around me who need help, but I try not to take on the world’s burdens.

Welcome to Fluther.

You can’t be responsible for the world. Find a piece of it that you feel like you can take some responsibility and pick up a broom. Really, it’s that simple. Do what you can, and gradually expand your sphere of influence to do more. But don’t try to think about doing all of it, and all at once. That’s what “other people” and “time” are for.

As Voltaire said in Candide, “We must all tend our own gardens.” Tend your garden.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Best to let some things go, lest you do something rash.

Turn off the news.

Think about moving to a place that has a calmer pace.

Fill your schedule with things to look forward to. Travel, meet up with friends. Go to a museum. Go to the symphony.

Really focus on happy moments. When you feel the bliss, block out everything else. Time slows down and appreciation for life grows.

If you are young, there actually are brain studies showing that our parts of the brain that feel emotional pain are more active when we are young. Through my 30’s I became much happier, calmer, and able to enjoy myself more. A lot if people have that experience I think. Women especially talk about their 40’s and feeling more themselves. My only point is I think you have a lot to look forward to if you are young. Stay the course.

I’ll just get to the point and say that ignorance is bliss. Your life is your own responsibility.

The world is a very big place that involves hundreds of countries and billions of people and there is no way you on your own can make a dent on that big picture. What you can do is to focus more on the day to day things that impact your life in the community you live in. Worrying about things you have no control over is exhausting at best….but you can devote your own energies towards helping yourself and others in your community. There is no greater reward I have experienced than volunteering in my own community. Invest your free time where you can make a difference no matter how small and you will not feel so helpless, bitter or depressed in the long run.

“How can I stop feeling sad, bitter or angry at the world? How can I handle life knowing so many horrible things are happening in the world- and I am completely useless to stop it?”

By accepting that you are completely useless to stop it. You cannot take responsibility for things that are outside of your control.

The terrible things that happen are still terrible. But look – humans have had to develop a kind of detachment to that kind of pain, because if we didn’t, we’d all just give up. We would no longer be here as a species. So, embrace your human ability to distance yourself from it enough to live your life and enjoy what you have. This is how humanity persists. It is one of our strengths.

By all means, do what you can to make others’ lives better – that is one of our strengths, too. But you have to learn to accept that there is suffering in the world that you cannot abate, and specifically that there are limits to how much you can help other people.

@Cruiser @dappled_leaves @JLeslie @CWOTUS

Thank you that’s what I really needed to hear…. You guys are right.