A week ago, I was contemplating writing this post, but did not get around to it until today when I got Robert Reich’s most recent newsletter in my Inbox. The word dysphoria is akin to the word euphoria; they are terms that describe extremes on the spectrum of human mood. Mood is a dimension of mental health, and itself has several dimensions – happiness is one of them; anxiety is another, and depression yet another.
Dysphoria is more than unhappiness. It is inquietude often associated with a mixture of anxiety and depression. Earlier in this century, young people described dysphoria as being in a funk. I’ve spent a good bit of my life in various degrees of dysphoria. It is bearable yet unpleasant emotional state. Alas!
Imagine how gratifying it was for me to read Professor Reich’s newsletter when I had been planning to write about my disaffection with the society that brought us Donald Trump, resurgent White Supremacy, a pandemic with a million American death toll, multiple mass shootings related to racist hate, and a robber baron economy. I think that Professor Reich’s newsletter hit all the right points.
I also agree with Professor Reich that all we can do when we experience dysphoria as a response to events and circumstances beyond our control is to exercise whatever control we do have. Write a letter to our congresspersons. Make an affordable contribution to a cause – a relief organization, a political group or perhaps some non-profit whose works might reverse or minimize whatever is feeding our dysphoria. Maybe volunteer work with the same intent. I’ve been doing some of these things for the last six years. Even writing here is such an action. As I have written in past posts, the act of writing is about Doing Something, taking action, and thus a form of self-therapy.