Ask HN: In these uncertain times, how do you handle anxiousness
by anxioustech on Hacker News.
I’m a senior freelance fullstack engineer working a day gig and an hourly side gig “just in case”, clocking around 45 hours a week for ~5$k/week in a country where the average salary is 1900$ a month. I’m paying myself a small salary compared to what I earn and I invest everything else. Given my income and my economic situation I shouldn’t feel anxious, yet I can’t relax thinking every hour spent watching netflix is in a way costing me ~110$. So when I don’t have any more work for the week, I work on my hard and soft skills through certifications so I can up even more my hourly rate. It’s a never ending race, I’ve been playing this game since 2016, finding new ways to earn more, not because I’m passionate about it, but because I’m anxious everything could come crashing down in a couple of years and I’ll need the money. 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’ve tried not caring, going to bars and restaurants and beautiful places in vacation, getting a new car, finding hobbies… but I can’t pretend, I don’t know how to cope anymore. 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…