Activist Depression, Burn Out, and Guilty Pleasures
Cathy Garger
To Doug Rokke, the best darn activist this world has ever known. Doug, this one's for you.
Even though I admit to being obsessed about researching, writing, and speaking about Not So Depleted Uranium weapons, I am a certified Personal Coach by training. All this means is, I spent a wad o’ cash and six months out of my life to be trained as a Life Coach. So what this boils down to is that I have a good idea how to help people make their dreams come true.
So what is your dream? What do you want to do for the rest of your life? It is quite possible you may already know what you want.
Maybe you’ve always dreamed of quitting your job as a business manager and becoming a teacher instead. For others, you might have a secret longing you’ve never mentioned to a soul, like wanting to own your own bed and breakfast or run a tea shop with scones, lace, and china in a quaint, historic section of your city. Maybe you’re itching to go back to school and get a degree in environmental law so you can fight corporate and federal polluters. Still others may have even grander dreams, like raising a child or two (a job I personally consider to be The Premier Biggie – way up there on the list of important and undeniably permanently life-changing events).
It’s easy to go after what you want once you know what you want. Any Personal Coach - or a really good, objective friend who adores you – through frequent meetings, active listening, step-by-step goal setting, and being an accountability partner can help you achieve your dream or any major goal once you’ve finally decided what you want to do or be when you grow up (regardless of how old you are).
But what about those of us who don’t want to make any big life changes, but instead want something different, something magnificent and wide-reaching … like, take for example, world peace – or perhaps seeing an end to the use of radioactive Uranium weapons of war used in Asia and inside the United States, too? (Okay, okay, so I got my plug in)!
Ah, now you see, life gets a bit more complicated when our very grandest dream is not something we can whip out on our own, but is instead a grand cause - over which we perceive we have, at best, limited control. When we want nothing more than something concrete that is actually within our grasp, such as to build a Victorian with a wrap-around porch on a lake, take a trip around the world, start a new career, or meet the soul mate of our dreams?
Now these things are tangible and something which we can reasonably expect to achieve. To meet these concrete personal objectives, we can always go back to school, switch career paths, develop a stringent savings plan, undergo a supreme makeover, or join clubs filled with people looking to become romantically linked with others who are searching for, more or less, the same thing.
It is relative easy to achieve or obtain what we want when what we desire – our ultimate goal - is something that, through hard work, personal effort and considerable sacrifice - we have reasonable expectations of achieving. When our fondest wish is for something more far-reaching, however… say, an end to wars in the Middle East, or the halting of explosions of radioactive contaminants in our open air? Now that is where things become less personally manageable, as these are not as directly under our own sphere of control and direct ability to effect desired changes, to say the least.
Judging from the many activists I know whose greatest wish in life is to help bring about a major and positive change in the nation or the world? This is a time in history like no other which presents a grand challenge – and a true need to work with other like-minded souls. Suffice it to say, those who are actually controlling our nation (and other parts of the world) are not generally prone to listening to the voices of activists when their own personal agenda is far different – and unquestionably less altruistic. And thus, in this day and age, being a catalyst for desperately needed change – be it social, environmental, economic, or humanitarian – can be, from time to time, as the saying goes, a real b*tch.
So what are activists to do on the days that seem darkest, most overwhelming or just plain daunting? How do we keep on truckin’ during those times when we have seen little real evidence of the fruits of our labor, when the road ahead looks absolutely endless, or when critically needed change is just not coming as fast and furious as we would have it?
What I am going to say might surprise you. But take it from me, someone who’s been at this for years. What you need to do when you get bummed out and too frustrated to work on helping to fix or save this troubled world… is to stop. Yes, I said, stop. Stop and take a time out. It is now an appropriate use of your time to cease doing whatever you were doing in activist mode… and simply go veg out for a while.
I don’t care if you are in the midst of the most important catalytic work that promises to create the most necessary change this world has ever known. When you’re feeling down and out, discouraged, frustrated, at wit’s end, perhaps even wondering what’s the point in trying any longer? That is precisely the moment when you need to throw in the towel right now. Yes, right now, as in immediately. For it is at moments like this when it is mandatory – not optional – but absolutely essential that you go, take some time off, and just chill.
You may be wondering, what is the best, most effective thing you should you do when you finally decide to ignore the stern voice of a too-insistent conscience that normally tells you to never let up and take a break? What do you do when you finally practice the self care necessary to agree to cut yourself some slack and take a well-deserved, grown-up’s version of a time out?
The answer, again, may surprise you. What you need to do is anything – and yes, I mean anything – your beautiful humanity-centered heart desires. Yes you heard me right.
Feeling down, discouraged? Just absolutely burned out and fried to a crisp? Don’t think you can take even one more article about how the world is going to hell or sinking like the Titanic? Have you positively just had enough with so-called public servants who instead act like mind-controlled, common criminals every blessed moment of the federal DC work week?
Then stop. Stop right now. Whatever you are doing that is related to activist work? You must put it down. You simply have to become assertive with yourself, move away from the computer, and go sit someplace else for a while.
How long is a while, you may wonder? You will know when a while is up. You will just instinctively know. For now it is your job to veg, to chill. To be as stupid or as silly as you’ve always wanted to be. It’s your job now to be as selfish and self-centered as you possibly can. You must nurture your inner child as well as your lazy bum side.
You must do nothing – nothing, that is, other than whatever the heck it is you really want to do. I can not tell you what to do. Only you will know what that is. Because the answers will vary with as many “right” answers as there are individuals.
It matters not what you do. Should you choose to go on a bird hike or shop for new shoes? Would you rather bake brownies and eat them with some children? Perhaps you would like nothing better than hunker down with a decadent pint of Ben & Jerry’s and watch the E channel, catching up on the nasty, naughty things that Hollywood celebrities are up to? Maybe you have always wanted to read Steinbeck, A Tale of Two Cities, or even the Bible. Or perhaps you would rather get lost in a romantic novel or even peruse the adult lingerie and magazine store on the outskirts of town – and actually buy something wild and totally “not you” for a change!
Some will choose to go fishing. Others will paint a room. Still others will go buy some colorful annuals and go dig in the earth. Even if you hate to go shopping, you might want to buy a new lipstick or sundress on a whim, or go see some really creepy horror flick with a huge bucket of popcorn. Or maybe you will dine at an expensive, trendy lunch spot with a friend you really miss – or enjoy a glass of wine and smooch the night away with your significant other when there is really nothing to celebrate.
You get the idea. The cure for activist burnout, depression, and despair is to leave it alone and go do whatever the heck it is that you do not even realize – yet…what you want to do. I promise you this much… When you return from your hiatus – whether you have taken an hour, a day, or two weeks off? I guarantee you will come back with renewed interest, excitement, and passion for doing this activist-related work for the benefit of humanity that you are normally so moved with commitment and compassion to do.
Go ahead. Remember always that when you are feeling down and out, like you are getting nowhere in what can truly be considered the very fight of – and for - our lives, or when you are convinced it is time to give up and throw in the towel? Never forget - the very best cure for activist burn out is to go off and do something… or nothing at all.
By getting away from your cause to which you usually work with devotion and dedication… and instead taking time out to stop and smell the roses, it’s the very best non-vacation that you can ever take.
I should know as this works so perfectly for me… as I am writing now to you – my personal creative passion I turn to when I am approaching burn out and asking myself if we will be using radioactive Uranium weapons in these unjust wars for all eternity… or until we singe ourselves into hot dust. And I assure you, I am feeling much better already!
Now it’s your turn. You need to rest, to recuperate, to go and do whatever turns you on. Sorry world. I know you can’t wait. But for an hour, a day, or a week every now and then, you’re just going to have to turn without us. So I hereby promise that when you do return? Both you – and the rest of the world, too – will be all the better for it.
In order to help create a better universe, we each need to nurture ourselves and provide the self care necessary to become refreshed and invigorated sufficiently to be able to give back in useful measure to the Universe. And so for that hour, day, or even week that it takes us to renew and rejuvenate our energy and our spirit, bringing fresh hope and enthusiasm back into the important work we do?
Believe it or not, the world can - and will wait. Go now. Away from the computer with you! Time now to go and do absolutely nothing useful at all.
