Mr. Busch, many will find this period particularly stressful: wars, government crises, in the United States Donald Trump, a man re-elected president, is seen by many as a threat to democracy. In the private sector, many people suffer from high rents and an increased cost of living. As a psychiatrist, do you still see any reason for optimism?
I have always been a confident person and I still am now. This is what I have to be professionally: as a psychiatrist, people come to me because they need trust. But of course I also worry about the world situation. But I am convinced that many things in the world are much better than people think. We are often victims of our exaggerated fears.
Using Trump as an example, one reading could obviously be: Oh God, what kind of turmoil is this man bringing to the world? I absolutely don’t want to downplay it. But this does not mean the collapse of Western culture. We have already had four years of experience with Trump, and we will do so this time too. We know what will happen and we know how to deal with it.
NO. There are studies that show that in most cases things in our lives are better than we feared. Whether it’s partnership issues, whether it’s health crises or situations that worry the world. Because we human beings are not helpless and passively exposed to what happens, but because we face things and actively shape them. Unfortunately we tend to only see future problems and not solutions. However, one of the strengths of the human species is that we can overcome problems and challenges. This is true even if we go back to Trump: we can avoid or at least mitigate many of the things we worry about now.
The first thing I always recommend is getting to the situation. When people struggle with unpleasant situations, this is a significant stressor. In Trump’s case, we need to take a breath and realize that we will have to put up with this man for four years. This form of radical acceptance also applies to personal problems, such as cancer or basement flooding. When we face the crisis with heart and brain, our stress system calms down because our mind becomes clear. Then we can be creative and find solutions.
In the second stage, I should distance myself from my fears or at least question them critically: is what I am afraid of proven? It is true? Or is someone just trying to scare me? There is often dramatization in the media and on social networks and we take on these fears. We make them ours without reflection.
So let’s try to distance ourselves first.
Exactly. Some of our fears will be confirmed in this reflection, this is also part of the truth. But this doesn’t apply to 80% of our worries in everyday life. They often weaken when we question them and realize: It probably won’t be that bad. It’s about recognizing the exaggerated hysteria unleashed by the media and normalizing fears.
I would find it a statement of helplessness to have to completely avoid the news just so I don’t get sick. It can’t be a solution. Information is something precious and freedom of the press is also a fundamental democratic principle. But we can read more critically: not just newspaper headlines, where complex issues cannot be presented. The headlines we read in three minutes at the tram stop do nothing but disturb us and then leave us alone with our emotions. Instead, you should take the time to read a good article, read it to the end and discuss it, for example, with your partner.
Don’t watch the news before going to bed. Instead, read something light, flip through a photo album, or consume something else that brings you joy and depresses you. By the way, the most useful thing is to do something creative before going to sleep: painting, crafting, knitting, things like that. When we create something with our hands in the evening and the mind is no longer so hyperactive, the negative energy flows away. That’s why we often write notes during stressful phone calls. It calms us down. As a result, you can sleep better.
NO! But we should first look at them emotionlessly. In our society today we evaluate many things: every item, every hotel, every Sanifair restroom has a evaluation station at the exit. We have trained ourselves to put an emotional stamp on everything. But this prevents us from finding solutions. If I’m convinced that we can’t stop the climate crisis and that everything is going to get really bad, I become passive. This also applies, on the contrary, to toxic optimism: if I think that the climate crisis will be solved, I too become passive. But if we are a little more careful about our emotional judgments, we can often look at things much more neutrally and begin to think in terms of possibilities.
First of all, move away from the news and people who disturb us and infect us with their fears. There are numerous techniques to slow down the body, for example deep breathing: breathing very slowly into the abdominal wall for a few minutes. The positive effect on the stress centers in our brain
In your book “Keep Your Head Up” you also describe cheerfulness as an important way to stay mentally strong. How do we do it when we really don’t feel like laughing?