How do people balance their mental health and empathy in times like these?

I’ve got friends who are immigrants concerned that “illegal immigrant” will turn into “any immigrant” and friends in LGBT+ community who are in the cross hairs of Trump’s Administration.

I reach out to help when I can even if it’s just someone to talk to, rant at, or watch a movie with.

I’m plugged in a lot, but know for my mental health I need to unplug… but unplugging sometimes feels like ignoring the problems. And I think about back during COVID when a therapist said to focus less on what you can’t control and on what you can control.

I know I’m not going to be able to stop the Supreme Court from overturning the gay marriage case. I know I’m going to be consoling gay friends who are in red states that they can’t adopt or one of them will lose custody for not being the bio-dad. I know I’m going to be talking with coworkers afraid they are going to get deported.

I had a coworker stuck in Iran because of the travel ban in the first Trump administration. (He had a family member’s funeral to go to)

And we already can see it’s getting a lot worse… so mental health? What do we do?