To all my friends with Moral OCD/Scrupulosity: people do not mean βinundate yourself with the most graphic news videos you can find for all hours of the dayβ when they say βdonβt look awayβ in the context of issues like war, genocide, and disasters, but rather βbe aware of whatβs going on and do what you can, even if itβs something smallβ. βBeing awareβ means checking in on an issue and potential ways that people can help those affected, not forcing yourself to compulsively watch as many videos of people dying as you can. Doing this is, in fact, a compulsion, and your brain will keep pushing you to watch more graphic death videos. Digital self-harm helps no one, and you donβt have to absorb every instance of individual suffering to have an awareness of it being an ongoing problem. Hell, you can take a break from checking the news for a bit if you find yourself spiraling and you can always catch up on it again once you are in the headspace to do so. Understanding how dire a situation is can be very important, but you canβt remove suffering and death from the world by compulsively looking at it. Your brain is lying to you, and it is much more productive to look for little ways that you can help people.
If you donate money to NGOs, know that every cent counts. If you are not financially well off and can only donate a small amount, that is still a wonderful thing. Forcing yourself into a place of financial risk (like risking eviction or forgoing food or medical care) to feel like youβre βreallyβ donating βenoughβ is an OCD compulsion. OCD is taking advantage of the discomfort and sorrow that we feel when something big and horrific is happening and there is little that we can do, and we have to sit with some of that discomfort and avoid falling into patterns of self-harm like what I described above in an attempt to escape from it. If youβre feeling hopeless and not caring for yourself, then you canβt help people at all! No one can single-handedly save the world, but we can do little things to make it that much less unpleasant.
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romaincrisis
