It’s a fact: over the past decade, and especially the past five years, many Americans’ mental health has sharply deteriorated. Study after study confirms this sad reality, and affirms what many of us already sense or observe: some of our fellow Americans are gradually — or sometimes rapidly — ‘losing it.’
I’ve always found this phrase ‘losing it’ fascinating. We all assume we know what it means, and what folks actually mean when they describe themselves or someone else as ‘losing it.’
But in these fractured, perilous times, perhaps we need to look more deeply into this concept of ‘losing it’ — and (hopefully) gain some insight into what we feel we’re losing, as well as what we’re actually losing.
For in this case, feelings and reality may be very, very different — yet both are vital, and important to investigate and understand … especially in how they interact with and influence each other.
A vast litany of problems and issues
On the most basic level, ‘losing it’ implies that a person is losing their cool or their composure — or their sanity — and is no longer ‘in control’ of his/her feelings or actions.
Often people combine this idea of ‘losing it’ with other similar ideas like ‘cracking up’ or ‘going crazy.’ The central idea, though, is always that one’s ego is somehow shattered, weakened, or undone, so one’s precious ‘self-image’ suffers and seems to be ‘falling apart.’
Worse, it can feel like one’s entire life is falling apart.
The essential element here seems to be the loss of ‘control’ — another fascinating (often illusory) idea, which I’ve explored in another essay.
What’s usually happening, on the inside, is that our rigid, controlling egos are challenged or overwhelmed by something unfamiliar, threatening, or potentially dangerous — and then we start to freak out. If our inner freak out gets intense enough, or lasts long enough, then we may start feeling like we’re ‘losing it’ altogether.
Question: So, what the hell is happening in our world when large swathes of society and ever-larger groups of people seem to be freaking out and ‘losing it’?
Clearly, many people are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and deeply upset about all the challenging and frightening trends in our society and the larger world around us:
- Spreading hate and misogyny.
- Accelerating climate disruption.
- Intense partisan divisiveness and rage.
- The loneliness epidemic.
- The collapse of the middle class.
- Living through a global pandemic.
- Rising fascism.
- ‘Backsliding’ democracy.
- Mounting FEAR.
Just WHO is really freaking out?
Before going any further, I want to clarify something important: in reality, most people are NOT freaking out or ‘losing it’ (yet). It just seems that way because a very vocal, loud, and aggressive right-wing minority is acting out, freaking out, sometimes getting violent — and dominating the headlines and the media.
Sure, lots of us — maybe the majority — are anxious and fearful about our collective future … but only a small minority is actively trying to destabilize our government, topple our society, reinvigorate racism and misogyny, and support fascism and tyranny.
Unfortunately, it only takes a small minority of loud, committed social arsonists to undermine and eventually ruin life in society for everyone else. And that’s exactly what’s been happening in the U.S., more and more, under the influence of far-right media, Donald Trump, and MAGA.
The problem is, we’ve got millions of people, now, who believe total, fabricated nonsense — lies, in other words — about our world and our society, and simultaneously disbelieve and distrust ‘mainstream’ news, science, election results, and many other once-accepted facts about life and reality.
These folks — and there are millions of them, despite being in the minority — are truly living in a paranoid, fact-free, ‘upside-down’ reality, and their intense partisan lies and BS have been deeply infecting our body politic, and literally driving many of us to despair and utter frustration.
To be clear: this loud, aggressive minority comprises the primary group that’s freaking out and even ‘losing it’ in the U.S. Yet the horrible irony is that these committed ‘true believers’ often don’t feel like they’re ‘losing it’ — rather, they feel strong and powerful because they’re in possession of the truth (they believe), and are eager to undermine, destroy, and replace our current society.
Such ‘true believers’ are, and have always been, among the most dangerous human beings on the planet. They are often incredibly destructive — yet, of course, they always believe that they’re doing good and beneficial things.
They are utterly self-deluded — and they’re also, increasingly, ‘losing it.’
Coping with a vicious ‘upside-down’ reality
Where does this leave the rest of us — the relatively sane majority? The answer isn’t pretty, or comforting.
It leaves us stuck in a vicious ‘upside-down’ reality, where decent, compassionate folks are spiraling down into fear and dread — while a violence-prone minority of bad actors and ‘true believers’ works feverishly to destroy any remaining social stability, take down our society … and replace it with their long-desired Christo-fascist tyranny. All, of course, in the name of ‘truth’ and ‘freedom’!
These folks are totally convinced of their ‘rightness’ and righteousness — while the rest of us are sinking under the awful weight of their lies and betrayal.
As I said, they’re utterly self-deluded. But that doesn’t diminish the danger — rather, it ramps up the danger and ‘anxiety factor’ big-time, because these deluded folks are neither rational nor trustworthy.
Despite all their ‘patriotic’ rhetoric, they do NOT have good intentions towards our society or our semi-democracy, and can NOT be trusted with any aspect of our government. Yet this crazed minority has been gaining ground and growing, over the past decade, and is now firmly entrenched in American life.
These folks have gained so much ground, in fact, that they’ve been winning elections, especially in ‘red’ states, and starting to take over and dismantle our society and government from within.
All of this adds up to mounting chaos, instability, and social insanity — and it’s propelling the relatively sane majority into intensifying fear and anxiety. It’s propelling a massive national ‘freak out,’ and creating a swelling tsunami of ordinary people ‘losing it.’
It’s creating a vast surge of pain and fear — but the truth is, in this case it’s totally justified, rational fear.
Remember: the ones who are really ‘losing it’ today — and simultaneously losing their morality and social conscience — are the deluded far-right ‘true believers’ who are setting up this whole, escalating disaster.
The autocrat’s and dictator’s playbook
This last statement needs some additional fleshing out. One thing I’ve noticed, again and again over the past decade, is that far-right media, along with Trump and MAGA, have been steadily and purposely fomenting rage, social hysteria, and intense partisan hatred.
They are acting in bad faith, and willfully undermining our society and our semi-democracy — and this, in turn, has led to a vast increase in Americans’ overall anxiety level, and a corresponding vast decrease in our mental health.
Some psychologists and therapists might dispute what I’m saying here, but I think the evidence is staring us right in the face: far-right media, MAGA, and Trump ( and much of today’s Trump-’owned’ GOP) constantly try — very successfully — to gin up White rage, racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, misogyny, and hatred of Democrats and the ‘libtards.’
Scarily, their anti-democratic, often antisocial efforts have been paying off, big time, and have set off a vast societal chain reaction throughout our society. It’s a horrendous chain reaction of mounting social hysteria, fear, and rage — and like any chain reaction, it builds on itself, and spreads and multiplies.
And that’s exactly what these far-right bad actors, and Trump himself, always depend on. They want and need this chain reaction to grow, spread, and get totally out of control — because this furthers their despotic, tyrannical agenda.
Creating the perfect brainwashed ‘dupe’: unhinged, fearful, and hysterical
That is, they want people to become increasingly unhinged, fearful, and hysterical — and to then seek comfort and ‘order’ in the eager embrace of Trump and other wannabe dictators.
It’s all quite intentional — shockingly so. It’s perverse and endlessly bizarre, yet it’s sold as the only real truth and the only true picture of American society.
In reality, though — it’s just the tyrant’s and dictator’s playbook in action. It’s the real-life playbook of every wannabe dictator.
It’s quite simple, really: undermine society, feed people’s fears, keep undermining and challenging everything — and watch peoples’ fear, anxiety, and anger spin out of control.
Then, just sit back and watch the fireworks, as ever-growing numbers of people ‘lose it,’ take to the streets or our online ‘public square,’ and start spreading hate, vitriol, and violence-inciting rhetoric.
Soon, they’re busily and ‘patriotically’ doing all your work for you — and your work is nearly done.
The only thing left, then, is for widespread civil war to break out, and for society and the government to collapse into total dysfunction.
This final stage of social collapse will then — or so the thinking and planning goes — allow the triumphant far-right and Christo-fascist hordes to swoop in, take over, and finish the job of remaking the U.S. in their own (hateful) image.
Endless denial and avoidance eventually lead to ‘losing it’
One last thought about social collapse and people ‘losing it’:
Due to the many pressing, seemingly insoluble issues listed above — and others I didn’t even mention — an always-popular coping mechanism has now become even more popular, and has been spreading like wildfire. I’m talking about denial.
Denial is a primitive and simplistic coping mechanism — but it works … temporarily. It can help us ‘cope,’ get through our daily lives, and even experience small bursts of happiness. But, naturally … there’s a giant problem with all this. Or more than one problem, really.
First, when we’re busy avoiding or denying social or ecological realities we need to deal with … well, nothing ever changes, nothing gets done, and the same patterns or problems just get worse. It’s basic escapism and avoidance — but in the long run, it’s incredibly damaging and destructive.
Second, all the pressing social, ecological, and political realities we’re so busily denying and avoiding get shoved into dark, semi-conscious corners of our minds — but they’re always lurking there and never go away. Rather, they’re like nasty, vicious little gremlins, hiding out in the shadows and occasionally leaping out to gnaw at us and devour us.
Sure, our denial and avoidance let us ‘enjoy life’ — temporarily — but all those nasty gremlins are just waiting for a moment of pain, exhaustion, or weakness to pounce and rev up our deep fear and anxiety again.
In truth, denial and avoidance are crappy, destructive coping mechanisms — ones that are guaranteed to lead to even more pain, fear, and anxiety down the road. And that’s yet another reason many Americans’ mental health is either in the toilet — or is already ‘lost’ and spiraling down the drain.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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