Spring 2026: Our Nervous Systems Are Shot to Shit - and It’s Ok to Name It

By Samantha Newport, BSc (Hons), MBACP, Dip. Psych. Couns. | Founder and Editor.

As a professional in the psychology, health, and well-being space – and simply, just another fellow human being – I have found it very hard the last couple of months to muster much energy and enthusiasm for my work in the face of recent global events.

Sharing articles and Instagram posts about mindfulness and positive mental shifts felt simply shallow and misplaced amongst the horrors that have come out in the recently exposed Epstein files, and the seeming lack of legal action against these crimes against humanity's most vulnerable. War, death, displacement. Growing and evolving religious and cultural tensions. Severely corrupt politicians and “activist groups” that pop up in their support with mysterious, unnamed funding sources. Seedy policies, Acts, and technologies are being passed and utilised for mass surveillance, the sale of personal data for unknown agendas, and control. AI’s horrific use of water, contributing to us plunging into what’s being understood as a state of impending ‘water bankruptcy’, amidst the already understood climate crisis. Increasing and expanding poverty. Reform UK. Racism. Fearmongering. Misinformation. Violence.

Violence.

Such violence against one another.

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Can you see why our social media has been quiet?

Part of me wants to spin this season’s letter into a peppy turn-around, motivational, “let's have collective hope, and do what we can together on a micro level, to hopefully influence the macro” type-spiel.

Part of me feels that it’s important and ok to demonstrate that sometimes the light of hope and change can feel dim, and to have the courage and honesty to name that things just feel grim right now.

So, I’m going with the latter. Because, as a business owner, someone who is set to become a Mum this year, a counsellor, and an average person who likes to zonk out at the end of a hard day or take myself off somewhere pretty and “naturey” at the weekend – this is just where I’m at. And where I am sure many of you are at too:

Overwhelmed, a bit scared, and really sad about the state of things, and where we might possibly be going next.

Is it any wonder that the rate of those connecting back to their religious faith has increased in recent years? I have been seeing everywhere how so many young people, in particular, have been turning to Jesus for the very first time. That there is a deep pull away from living life as a corporate drone. To ditch “things” and social media, in favour of a quieter, more naturalistic life, away from consumption, vanity, fallacy, and “buzz”.

Our nervous systems are shot to shit and we’re looking for an escape - and it’s ok to name it.

There is a common bone of contention in online spaces, that one must be “informed” to be a good citizen, and that if you are not, or choose not to, you are a bad person because you are utilising “privilege” not to know, find out, advocate, and care.

And sure. It makes sense. “Knowing” so that such can lead to “doing” is important. Too many monsters seep out from cracks to take advantage otherwise, when our gaze is turned, and subtle, covert propaganda is powerful. However, we are also allowed to protect ourselves, and in fact, that is necessary too.

Take the Epstein files, for example. The conspiracy theorists weren’t crazy after all. Trauma by proxy. Details and mental images that may likely last a lifetime. Exposure to information that the average person is not built for.

As a counsellor, and someone who has also worked in various roles in homelessness settings, directly supporting those involved in County Lines exploitation (ex and current), addiction, severe abuse, psychosis, the care system, and much more. The information I consistently and deeply absorbed and was immersed in – just like other similar professionals to me – was, and is not easy. However, as a trained professional, you know how to keep safe and manage this appropriately. There is a huge amount of work and training that you go through, whilst qualifying and after, to be able to step into such arenas and be that effective support, as well as remain safe and ok within yourself. But sometimes, every now and again, the odd story, image, or sentence can haunt you. It just does because such professionals are humans too.

Supervision, reflective practice, or personal therapy helps in such instances.

But what about your average person, who hasn’t developed that level of hardiness through their profession, or doesn’t have the kind of resources accessible to them to process and release?

What use – what purpose is exposure to such horrors, then?

Knowledge and awareness for the purpose of widening conversation and acting, are good and important. We get that. But the existence of a boundary within such is also important, as it keeps us safe. Those who didn’t opt to train and know about criminal underworlds, who might not have the capacity or personal history that can cope with the depravity of the extreme, especially when it is so oversaturated (and seemingly prolific) across every media device and resource we own, don’t and should not have to be continuously exposed to it. And certainly not be morally guilted to do just that.

It is ok and necessary to protect our peace. To not be harmed by content, moral, and emotional responsibilities that are not the average person’s job to consume, challenge, and fix, because they are not equipped or simply do not have the routes or resources to enforce such change.

What can 58-year-old disabled Wendy*, mother of 2 from Hebden Bridge do about elites cannibalising infants? What about 13-year-old Abdul*, from Durrington, opening up his Instagram in the morning before school to be faced with a reel of a little girl’s flesh peeling off from her thigh bone, covered in dust from the blast of a missile?

We’ve seen and read these exact types of things, at the bare minimum, likely once a week within the last couple of years.

The average person who has exposure to such content is not equipped to consume such messages and images – let alone be in an assumed position to do anything meaningful about it, other than feel terrible and deeply impacted.

This is not privilege. This is reality.

Such change, and such handling of events, are up to those in charge of, and within, such specific professional roles. Governments, small town police, FBI, CIA, therapists, Social Workers, military, Heads of Service etc. That’s why such are paid, trained, or voted in. To do the job that others can’t or aren’t, and to have integrity and courage when doing so, with the right support.

If you want to “be in the know”, then go forth. There is value clearly in that. However, if moments come along, where doing so is deeply impacting you – as many feel – then do what you need to do to protect yourself, and take care of the mini patch of “land” you do have control over.

Follow joy. Spend time in quiet. Close off access routes to [mis]information that oversaturates your mind with negativity and fear. Root yourself down in what reinforces personal safety and peace. Gently challenge situations where you feel able, whilst keeping yourself safe. Go touch grass.

It’s ok to choose, it’s ok to pull up the drawbridge sometimes, and it's ok to not always feel hopeful, motivated, altruistic, positive, or willing to have “hard conversations”.

Give yourself permission to sometimes say “this is too much, and I need space for a while”, and go find community, real relationships, and meaning in those gaps.

Healing, peace, and growth begin with us – not what is constantly pumped in front of our eyeballs. Get off the screens, and live outside in the real world, where there’s colour - if you are lucky enough to live in a space where such colour exists. And given that for some, that doesn’t exist, or it's fleeting.

However, it remains that we can’t be herded or frightened into paralysis or perceived helplessness/destabilisation if we choose to rip our blinkers off, placed on us by real-world traumas or fear narratives; moulding our mentality, perceptions, belief systems, sense of security, and mental health in a direction that suits whoever is manufacturing the playing field. If we remember that we are all active participants in our own lives, too, the little influences can become big. And hopefully, we can shake off the shit.

With that, I wonder, what is one thing you could change, alter, shift, or add so as to step towards just that? That being said, balance, equilibrium, and a more stable nervous system amongst the chaos?

Hmm. Maybe this was a micro-to-macro focused letter after all.

With hope and permission to close off,