Tag: Delta Variant

Back to School – Covid and Anxiety

Posted on by Karac Avalron

Are you a parent? Do you have younger siblings? Are you an aunt or an uncle? Chances are you have kids in your life at some level. If you suffer from anxiety you are keenly aware of some of the debilitating issues that comes with it. You are also uniquely qualified to help those kids BECAUSE you have anxiety.

If you recall your school days (or maybe you’re still, there) there are all sorts of social pressures around your peer’s. I’m not professing to understand the modern teenager at 50, but I have kids I do know what they go through. Things are different now, kids don’t meet at the mall (hi all my Gen X friends, remember those days? See you at orange Julius) they meet online.

The digital world is cruel, people hide in anonymity with screen names and post messages to others they would never say to someone’s face. Remove the adult filter and kids are worse. On top of that teenagers are starting to experience hormonal shifts that come with puberty and these swings can amplify anxiety.

Will the poke be mandatory?

On top of that, kids today are more tapped into the real world because they are online so much. Mass shootings? Your teenager knows all about it. Opioid epidemic? Your kids have seen it online. All of this can trigger anxiety and if you have it and these are your children its likely they inherited some of their issues from you.

There is no “fix all” but there are 3 important things you can do with kids of any age that will help them navigate anxiety.

  1. Talk to them: I know every says talk to your kids. Really take the time to do this, particularly on current events. Its critical they have a venue other than their peers to talk about the issue.
  2. Invest in what they love. If your kid is a gamer, try playing some games yourself. If your kid is a soccer player, take them to the soccer field. Whatever they are into, start investing your time into it too.
  3. Listen and watch them when they are online: This is critical as so much interaction happens online now.

School is right around the corner and kids will get anxiety. Start building the foundation now so if needed you can help the child later. You can do this; they are totally worth it!

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Surviving 2020 & covid

You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Posted on by Karac Avalron

The current climate online has become more toxic than ever and I have been here since the beginning. I wanted to give you an example of an experience I witnessed a few days ago in a reddit thread. You see when you become a complete hypocrite you really only have one avenue in which to survive and that is to be extremely nasty to anyone who challenges your hypocrisy. In the end the only person harmed is you as people stop listening and dismiss your point of view completely.

I was not a participant in this back and forth but I witnessed a dog piling on someone. They asked a pro-choice (abortion) person who was pontificating about how people should be jailed for not getting the covid vaccine, how they can support “my body, my choice” in one instance and in another demand incarceration for someone advocating the same principal in another.

The responses were fascinating, it was one of the more vitriolic and sad exchanges I have seen in a long time. Essentially it boiled down to feelings, that the correlation between the two was irrelevant because of said feelings. It didn’t seem to matter how the other person (and persons, others came to the defense) felt. It was, you get the vaccine or you are a “racist, fascist, sexist” there were a few more labels thrown out it was surreal.

I’ve already left Twitter, is Reddit next?

First, anyone who calls you or anyone else a fascist likely has no idea what fascism really is. Second, this is a yes or no answer. It’s very simple, if you believe in liberty and people’s rights to do with their body whatever they want then you can’t have it both ways. As an example, I believe a woman has the right to decide what happens to her body, so abortion is fine if that is her choice. She also has the right to decide if she wants that vaccine or not by that same logic.

I read the thread a few times and then realized many of these key board warriors are typing these things under the illusion of anonymity provided by the internet. It was still both sad and fascinating to read. Maybe you, dear reader, are one of these key board warriors? Maybe you are a blatant hypocrite in this vein? I don’t know you or how you feel but I would say to you that, canceling or “jailing” someone for not agree to do what you think they should is a slippery slope, its actually fascistic… And it is all abstract until YOU are in the next group who may run afoul of the next popular theory.

Try to be kinder to be people, less hostile and if you believe someone is putting you at risk remove yourself from their ability to do so rather than attempt to silence them and shout them down. They will be quiet sure, but they will seethe and loathe you quietly. The last thing you want in life is people waiting for your weakest moment to exact some kind of revenge. It’s not worth it, your energy is better spent working on things you care about.

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