Ask HN: In these uncertain times, how do you handle anxiousness

You seem to be pretty well off. Basically, you make in a month about a years salary of your location, plus investments, plus savings.

If anything happens, you will have a way better position than anyone else.

If you want to prepare for the most likely things to happen, care about your health, because neglecting it WILL come back to you. Learn to relax, exercise, eat healthy, spend quality time with loved ones.

Any apocalyptical event is extremely unlikely. Even the pandemic is, after all, handled pretty well and did not turn out to be the end of civilization.

And remember, news site live from ad impressions these days News have to be scary to be clicked, bad news are repeated and exaggerated. Nobody wants to read "all is fine today", and a lot of news is " because of X, Y might happen", although it barely happens. Deal with it like with engineering: It's a problem, when it's a problem. Otherwise move on.

>I feel like we are destroying our planet, destroying our economy, we make poor people poorer, stir political extremes, we alienate the younger generation with social medias, there is war in Europe, everything is about politics when it should be about science and people...

I think my opinion is unpopular, but it shouldn't be, and perhaps the fact that it's unpopular is part of the reason why so many people find themselves in this situation.

It sounds like you need to speak to a professional and go to therapy. You're putting too much pressure into things that are completely outside of your control, and part of living a healthy live is accepting that you cannot control the universe and learning how to detach yourself from these issues.

Advice on this sort of thing is always contextual.

> So I work, always, because I'm anxious I won't be able to provide for the people around me, my sister won't earn enough to feed her family, my mom won't be able to retire even though her work is killing her, my dad's small business will be ruined if the economy collapses...

This indicates a great attitude. You have a massive sense of personal responsibility, not only over your own life, but of your loved ones. You are what high-performing, generous cultures are made of.

So, perhaps some appropriate advice for you, whose sense of responsibility for everything is overwhelming, is to limit your intake of news. News is becoming more extreme in order to pull attention from digital alternatives. I don't have a good news source to recommend, other than perhaps the Financial Times, that won't exacerbate this trait of yours.

And although some things are tough - we need to get on to sustainable energy and packaging; ongoing wars are still just as nightmarish as they always were - what is considered poor in the 21st century is beyond the dreams of people in the past. Every step of progress, even while it makes some people rich, enhances the lives of millions and (occasionally) billions. The great threat of Facebook is so easy to turn off we could all do it tomorrow by uninstalling it. Compare that to the pre-polio vaccine era, before dentistry and analgesics, the constant real violence of the past, both in war and domestically in pre-police times, the pre-GMO food sources that would've meant a billion starving.

Now a single violent incident can get national attention in some countries, when it was a way of life less than 200 years ago.

So it's not perfect, but if you think things are getting worse, I have to disagree with your news sources. Choose them carefully.

> I can't relax thinking every hour spent watching netflix is in a way costing me ~110$.

Sleeping 6 hours will cost you a lot more, but you're fine with that, right?

> everything could come crashing down in a couple of years and I'll need the money

If everything comes crashing down, your money will be useless. It will be inflated away. You dont really need the money though, you earn 10x what your neighbour earns and they are 10x less worried... maybe you should re-evaluate the value of money in life, you give it too much importance.

This is the real answer. Get off the news and get off the social media feeds constantly barraging us with negative narratives.