The best way to cope with the news is to ignore it. There is no reason to read about and obsess over things you have no power to change. Focus on your own life and the people around you, learn mindfulness and deeply ponder the structure of trees, the intricate shapes of the clouds, whatever nature is around you, and breathe.

The closer you are to the blast, the better. This ensures a quick and painless death. If your’e really frightened of nuclear weapons, rest easy in a flat in a major city. You won’t have to suffer any of the scary mutations or side effects of rural folk.

Yeah, the heightened potential for nuclear annihilation is terrifying but there’s frankly nothing you can do to survive it. Even if you somehow lived though the bombings, there’s no corner of the globe where starvation nor irradiation would not reach. The Earth would be uninhabitable and death would be certain for most land animals.

It’s a tragic way to die and for the human race to cease to be. But it’s only death and that’s certain to happen one way or another. There are countless other ways you could die that are either within or beyond your control. Many are far more likely to happen than nuclear war. Do you fret about being killed in an accident every time you step into a car?

I know it’s a lot easier said than done but try to live in the now rather than the future. Plan for tomorrow but recognize that, unlike the present, the future is not guaranteed. Don’t take the present for granted, go do things that bring you fulfillment now because ultimately that is the only time that you have control over.

People will probably not agree with me, but I think:

1. You are not overreacting, although AI sometimes tells me that risks of nuclear disaster aren’t that high and I’m over-estimating.

2. You can control things somewhat by preparing as much as you can to survive such a situation

But… preparing to try to survive nuclear war will require radical action possibly, especially if you live in a risky area that is more likely to be impacted.

What is preparation? It means getting the Potassium Iodine tablets, it means having food stored, it means having solar backups, ideally it means having a place where you can survive underground, and it means not living anywhere near a likely target. It requires major changes, expenses, and enduring hardship if you are wrong or right, but also feeling exasperated you spent money and wasted time if nothing happens.

I feel like there are two competing ways to look at this situation. 1) The elite control society, and they would not want to make society unlivable for them and their children, therefore nuclear war is an idea primarily to scare us and control us. The other option is 2) no one is steering the ship, the elite are greedy psychopaths and who knows what the hell will happen, and eventually conflict likely is going to happen and it will be ugly.

In World War 2, before Hitler came into power, some Jews in Europe were like “I’m worried about this situation, the political situation here is generally iffy, I’m getting the fuck out of here” and left and went to America… and then didn’t die as a result. Fear sometimes is what saves people, even if it seems crazy. I realize immigration to a new place is much harder in today’s world (especially to the USA, but in a global conflict, the USA probably wouldn’t be a great place to be).

Some advice about moving away from a major city may not be enough. Don’t be near a major city, military base, critical infrastructure… and then, that actually will only save you in a limited strike situation. In a worst case situation, everyone near the strikes is dead, and only people far far away survive (not near the countries in conflict), and even those people would struggle with food shortages, radioactive fallout spreading across the globe. Just being in rural America not near bases or cities may not be enough.

You either use that fear to prepare, or you accept that there is a possibility death could happen from a lack of preparation, as can death happen at any time, and take up Buddhism or meditation or religion or ways to carry on and accept that death is sometimes a part of life.

There is a YouTube personality, who also shills products and is sort of an alarmist, called Canadian Prepper. He’s worth checking out, but I would shop around and not just buy from him. Many of his videos are informative but also alarmist, but could also one day prove prescient.

Give away everything you own. Get 3 part time minimum wage jobs. You will then be excited for your pain to end.

Nuclear War in films, like most aspects of life, is extremely over-dramatized. IF, and that’s a big If, a country launched a nuke at another, it would not mean an end to the world, or the nations involved.

Nukes are not reality-destroying devices. They will destroy a part of a city. They would destabilize life in that area, but one bomb is far from a global crisis. Your life would remain the same unless you are near the impact site.

Here is one key disaster preparation step you can take, relevant in a nuclear attack as well as storms and civil unrest: Stock up on water. Keep a few milk jugs large containers, clean them out well, and fill them with tap water; Then shut them and put them somewhere cool and out of the way. That’s the most essential disaster prep step you can do.

Edit: Milk jugs will biodegrade and may begin leaking within months. A large office cooler-type bottle is a better solution. You’ll have to buy it, but it’s a relatively small investment.

Ask the folks that we’re alive during the cold war. They got the good tips.

Well, I had the realisation that the human race is a cancer to the planet, nukes might just be the chemotherapy the planet needs to survive. I was getting really distraught about the environmental crisis and concluded that nuking everything might be a way out. It gave me an odd sense of peace

I actually think the threat of nuclear war is pretty low compared to other points in history.

Now the entire world turning into a Nazi state on the other hand

The billionaires don’t want all-out nuclear war, what they want is world domination by a few, over a literal slave class mix of humans and robots.

However, in case of imminent attack in an outbreak of a nuclear WWIII, the best plan is to drive toward the biggest city in your region, or stay put if you currently live in a big city.

I’ll take instant vaporization over whatever the survivors are going to need to deal with in the aftermath.

The danger of nuclear war wouldn’t be the radiation but poisoned water, food, air, due to the vaporized stuff thrown high into the athmosphere.

Hope that helps.

Exposure therapy: nuke yourself a few times. Your anxiety will vanish.

A weird thing I’ve found somewhat calming is to prepare for the worst. If you think that might calm you down, look up how to make a go-bag, so that if you were to find yourself in a situation where you’d have to evacuate, be it running to a bomb shelter for a few hours or permanently leaving your area, you’d have a bag with basic survival supplies (flashlight, first aid supplies, non-perishable food, drinking water, swiss army knife if you can get one, clothing) ready to grab. I find the thought that if the worst case scenario happens, I wouldn’t be completely unprepared. Of course, this doesn’t work for everyone.

Then there’s the general things people do to cope with these feelings: talk to someone, preferably a professional, find something to give you hope. That something can be a game, a craft, a friend, good news, etc.

You can die any number of ways at any time for any reason. Why fixate on one? Probably more likely to die in an automobile accident or some mundane bullshit than nuclear war.

if you find you have constant anxiety or are having intrusive thoughts or are obsessed with something and are unable to control it then please please please see a doctor or therapist if you can

there are lots of approaches and therapies you can use to train your brain to cope with anything better and have more agency and feel a happier life