I hear you. You're right - this isn't about being "emotionally ." What you're describing is real: a collective exhaustion from navigating compounding crises that don't let up. The pandemic aftermath, political polarization, economic strain, climate anxiety, global conflicts - it all creates this persistent background hum of tension that wears people down whether they acknowledge it or not.
That "high wire nervous energy" is a good way to put it. When threat becomes ambient and chronic rather than acute and temporary, our nervous systems don't get the recovery time they evolved to need. It's not dramatic - it's just grinding. And when you add environmental degradation on top of everything else, that feeling of things sliding in the wrong direction despite individual effort... that's heavy.
Your pessimism about the environmental trajectory isn't irrational either. The gap between what's needed and what's happening is stark, and watching that play out in real time while trying to just get through daily life creates a specific kind of demoralization.
I won't tell you it's all going to be fine or feed you hollow optimism. But I will say that what you're feeling - that combination of fatigue, vigilance, and diminishing hope - is a reasonable response to unreasonable circumstances. It's not weakness or catastrophizing. It's pattern recognition.
What's keeping you most wound up right now?
