Submitted 3 weeks ago by someacnt@sh.itjust.works to [deleted]
I fear that nuclear war could be happening soon…
Global tensions seem to be rising, and superpowers are allowed to be more and more reckless. It feels like the third world war is imminent, a nuclear war which would end everything.
I am so scared… I am so paralyzed to do anything now. Am I overreacting? Also, what should I be doing?
I was born in 1975, and during the eighties a nuclear war was always just about to happen. I can't tell you what you should be doing, for the most we just lived with it. What helped was there was no 24/7 news cycle back then, so maybe try to block out the news to maintain a healthy consumption level?
From what I understand, global nuclear war was an ongoing concern by the mid-50’s, when the nuclear arms race got in to full swing. Along the timeline of the ensuing Cold War, there have evidently been a shocking number of close calls, with global war being averted by a single individual in some cases.
Now one note of interest might be that the USSR’s cache of nuclear arms may not have been well-maintained over the years, so modern Russia might be sitting on a far more limited amount of live weapons than exists on paper. FWIW… which of course probably isn’t much, in the end.
Most of the problems and anxiety of the USA in 2025 comes down to the FACT that POTUS has more singular power than any king of any nation. No one is even hinting at changing that for the future.
What does an 80 year old man with dementia and one foot in the grave care about launching nukes? No one in a nation of pussies will stop him.
This article may help: positivepsychology.com/circles-of-influence/
And a graphic that sums it up:
I’m just another internet rando, but looking at the same events everyone else is, I do think the masses will turn this around through solidarity. I believe: It will be before any nukes are used. It will be after long lasting climate change. But it will prevent the downfall of humanity. There will be human and natural healing. Most people will be okay.
What do I have power over to make this happen? Mostly numerous, small, interpersonal interactions.
Well said. Focus on what you can influence and realize most things are outside of your control.
You step outside and touch some grass. If Lemmy is starting to affect your mental health, you need to put it down.
Think about it this way, if nuclear does happen then you ain’t gonna have much time to worry about it.
A lot of other people have posted some really good stuff in terms of coping, and I think most of them are completely correct; it’s not something you can control, so it’s out of your hands and not really worth worrying about. That said, knowing that has never helped me stop worrying about something before, so I figured I’d type this up in case it helps. 🙂
Nuclear weapons have been a particular interest of mine for years. I’ve read most of the books out there on them, and I’m very familiar with the strategy involved in how they would be deployed in a conflict. I’ve also been to Trinity Site at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico twice, where the first nuclear weapon was tested, so I’ve seen their impact in person (I also have plans to visit Japan, and also the testing sites in Nevada, but haven’t been able to make those work out yet).
If a nuclear war happens, it won’t be the end of everything. They are big, scary, and should an actual full-scale exchange take place hundreds of millions (perhaps even billions) of people will die. It would be an absolutely cataclysmic event.
But that wouldn’t end everything.
A lot of people talk about how we have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world, which is hyperbolic. The Earth has seen much worse than a nuclear exchange, and it’ll be fine. Overall life will also be fine; plenty of plants and animals would get wiped out, because it would be a mass extinction event, but a huge amount of life would survive and be just fine.
What people mean is that human life would be destroyed, and yeah, fair enough, we’d definitely have a major regression in civilization. But it wouldn’t kill everyone (probably nowhere even close to everyone), and humanity would continue to exist. The impacts of the dust kicked up by the bombs would probably cause some global cooling temporarily, similarly to a couple huge volcanic eruptions at the same time would, and life would become pretty difficult, but it won’t wipe us out.
If you live in a major city in the United States, Europe, Russia, or China, none of this really matters to you. If a nuclear war happens, you might get 10-15 minutes notice, but probably the first you’ll know about it is when an intensely bright flash happens. If you’re close enough, you won’t even have a chance to understand what it is. If you’re a bit further away, you might survive the initial flash of radiation, but be killed by the blast wave, or by burns caused either by the intense amount of heat released or by the radiation itself. The exact radius for this is going to vary based on exactly what type of warheads are detonated in your area, but we’ll say if you’re within a couple miles you’ll likely be killed within a few days because of that.
If you’re outside that second zone, you’re going to probably be okay, at least for a while. You might have some burns you can recover from, your lifetime risk of cancer might be a lot higher depending on where you were, and you may have other injuries related to the bombing, but you’ll probably survive long enough to help with recovery. Congrats!
You asked what you can do to prepare. Well, honestly, not a lot. I’d recommend preparing the same way you should for basically any other large-scale disaster. Ignoring radiation (I’ll get to it in a minute), a nuclear bomb’s aftermath is going to be similar to an earthquake or large fire. Keep a few days or a week of bottled water on hand for each person in your household (and maybe a way to purify water longer-term), have food supplies, some basic medical gear, and emergency lighting/communications equipment. If you’re really concerned about nuclear war specifically, add in some iodine tablets for each member of the household. If you do this, you’ll be prepped not just for nuclear war, but also any of the other much more likely disasters that may occur in your lifetime.
Now, as for the radiation question. Most nuclear weapons are not made to spread large amounts of radiation around. They absolutely will release radiation, but it makes the reaction less efficient, reduces yield, and massively increases cost per bomb. I’m not saying here that it’s not something to worry about or be aware of, but it’s a smaller problem than Hollywood and mass media would have you believe it is. Avoid eating or drinking things that are from directly downwind of an explosion, and try to not let any ash or particles stay on you/breath them in, and you’ve done what you can. Most of radiation exposure management comes down to keeping particles out of your body, particularly the lungs. The longer you’re exposed to radiation, the more likely it is that it’ll do something bad to you. The best remedy is to keep it out of your body as much as you can, and put distance between it and you so the inverse-square law can help.
I hope this helps a bit. Overall, even with global tensions rising, I think the chance of nuclear war is very very low. We’ve been very very close to at least a limited exchange before, and pulled through, and despite everything going on I think the chances of an actual nuclear exchange remains incredibly slim. If you want to prepare, pretend it’s like another large-scale (and much likelier) disaster, and prep for that.
I’ve skipped over some things that weren’t really pertinent, like actual nuclear war theory, and simplified other things, so if you want me to expand on any of this let me know! Nuclear history has been one of my special interests for years and years, and I enjoy talking about it.
I’ll also add about the radiation thing - the vast majority of the radiation from a nuclear explosion will be gone in just a few days. Even if you’re close enough to be affected, staying indoors (turn off air conditioning/heating though) and on the lowest floor possible of the building you’re in will protect you from most of the actual radiation. Again, the big issue is breathing it so sealing windows if you’re able could also help.
Media definitely overestimates the area of effect and timeline of destruction. Make sure you get a crank radio (they usually also double as flashlights and can charge your phone) and info will flow about response, even if it flows slowly and clunky at first. The good news is this applies to other disasters that are far far more likely to affect you, like severe winter weather, hurricanes, or wildfires.
If it really is paralyzing you and affecting your day-to-day decisions, you should see a therapist to help you put things in context and develop good coping mechanisms.
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 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.
yeh I’ve been doing just this a lot as of late… and Lemmy tell ya, there’s a lot of natural beauty in his world, from clouds to the fractal shapes of plant life (ferns esp). best not to worry about impending doom and things you cannot change.
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.
That definitely helps putting my mind off of the fear of radiation. Thanks.
Read some history.
There was much more saber rattling going on in the Cold War than there is now.
The 0.01% aren’t going to risk their life style to prove a point.
The chance of that happening is insanely low. Superpowers have been threatening it since the 80’s and no one has any intention to do shit about it.
All, everyone know it’s a lose-lose situation/ but no one will admit it. They all want everyone to believe they’ll be the only victors…
Did you forget about that dementia ridden, sociopathic, egomaniacal moron in the whitehouse? Man would fire a nuke by accident, let alone if someone had the audacity to criticize him in any way.
Am I overreacting?
No.
Could you please elaborate your fears? Like are you scared of dying in a nuclear blast, having the planet and consequently humanity devastated by the nuclear winter, changes that precede the nuclear war, or are you afraid of living in the post nuclear war, dealing with the consequences of it?
having the planet and consequently humanity devastated
We don't need nuclear war for that, we're already well on our way there just by continuing to use fossil fuels and raping the earth and demonizing any kind of environmental / climate protections. Conventional war is a huge contributor to emissions, and political instability also doesn't need nuclear war to affect you negatively.
Does that help? On one hand, everything is going to shit already even without nukes flying. On the other hand maybe it helps if the things you fear are not that one huge spectre of nuclear hellfire that seems impossible to prevent for an individual, but many smaller things where normal people can make a difference through their actions.
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 both within and 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.
I disagree. Someone who really prepares by storing food, having a place underground to survive for a period, and takes sufficient precautions could live. It would be expensive and difficult to prepare, and even then may not work, but I don’t think it’s true that people can’t try to prepare at all.
It’s certainly plausible to survive the initial bombings by taking adequate shelter, you may even be able to stock up enough provisions to survive for several months. The problem is what follows.
Nuclear winter is hypothesized to change the climate to the point where growing food is impossible, potentially for several years. Any animals you can hunt before they eventually succumb to starvation will have been poisoned by the fallout, their meat contaminated.
The fallout will spread across the globe, making the air you breathe toxic, either by radiation poisoning or by any number of harmful construction materials such as asbestos which is now particleized and floating freely.
If by some miracle you do still cling to life by this point, you will either be completely alone or surrounded by people just as desperate to survive as you are. Only in fiction do either of those situations end well.
Control the controllable. This axiom also applies to most things in life.
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.
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.
Buy potassium iodide tablets. If it happens and it’s too close, you won’t even know. If it isn’t too close, take the pills and become a wasteland raider.
Otherwise just live your life because nothing you do really matters concerning nuclear war. That’s like worrying about an asteroid impact.
Iodide only protects from iodine isotopes.
Frankly it doesn’t matter because if you’re close enough to need anti radiation meds, the lack of food, water, power, and shelter will be a much more pressing issue. The gist of my comment was supposed to be “go buy these pills for peace of mind because that’s about the only ‘preperation’ you can do for nuclear war. Really you should just relax and live your life”.
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
Just to be a devil’s advocate: fear is an evolutionary response and is there for a reason and is sometimes highly rational. Talking yourself out of fear to conform to society’s expectations is not always smart.
A global, world-ending nuclear war is still unlikely at this point.
There’s a fair few steps in between filled with horrors that we get to pass first. Such as when superpowers realise that since nobody can realistically use nukes, conventional warfare is back on the table (e.g. if China invades Taiwan and the US intervenes, will either side nuke the other’s population centers? Probably not).
Then follows the realisation that superpowers can use nuclear weapons in a conventional war, but in a more tactical way (as a little treat). Don’t bomb a city, bomb a navy, or an airfield or army base instead.
Global nuclear war would only happen if a nuclear state is threatened with total destruction. But fully destroying a state hasn’t been the playbook for some time now. Instead, take whatever peripheral stuff you want, and strategically weaken the enemy state in key areas (e.g. take out an important figurehead, like the US did with Maduro, or fund/arm insurgencies like in Syria). Let civil unrest then do the rest and topple the government for you. Then use diplomatic/economic/military pressure to sway the fledgling new government into your sphere of influence. With a bit of luck the country itself isn’t totally ravaged and can become profitable fairly soon.
I suggest playing around with this.
https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
it’s a nuclear weapons detonation simulator.
You need to understand that it’s profitable for the media to overly dramatize what nukes can do. Modern media profits from fear. In reality the destruction is very localized. Think of an area you are knowledgeable. Does the media portray anything you do correctly? As long as you are not in major target city or military base you will be fine. I had a 20 minute commute to the base I worked on. Turns out my house was outside the blast radius if the base was nuked. It wouldn’t even break the windows.
FYI: I use to work for the army, I was on the peripheral of their prep for nuclear war. When you actually dig into the effects, it just a big boom. Meanwhile you have trucks and rail cars full of toxic material and poisonous gas driving through your town every day and for the most part nothing ever happens.
As long as you are not in major target city … you will be fine.
That seems pretty complacent tbh.
First of all even just the top 30 cities in the US are home to about 41 million people. Which seems a lot of folk to simply write off.
Also, the destruction of the major cities would cause huge/complete economic, social, infrastructural and legal collapse for the rest of the country.
Plus, even for those outside the immediate blast radius, there’d be the massive environmental impact of pollution to land and water, not least the potential for a nuclear winter killing off crops, and then animals.
Turns out my house was outside the blast radius if the base was nuked.
Without knowing the size of the bomb, how could you know you would be outside it? Not that blast radius is all that matters anyway.
So you didn’t even look at the link I provided?
It lets you select the warhead size and whether it is an air burst or ground burst. Also since the Cold War ended, most countries, except china, have opted for smaller warheads and better precision. Most rogue states can only manage a fission bomb not a fusion devices, the same goes for India and Pakistan. And a fission device is what is used as a tactical nuke by the major powers. It is what Russia is threatening Ukraine with.
So the most likely device to go off now, is about the same yield of one of the original ones used on Japan.
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 do not want to live in a post nuclear war society. JFC, people lost their shit locking down for few weeks.
Your go bag concept is completely ignorant. A Swiss army knife? Might as well download episodes of FALLOUT.
It’s good to stay informed but try not to let it impact your day to day mental health. Consider that we’ve been under threat of mass nuclear war for about 80+ years now and haven’t been in a full scale one yet.
There’s little that you’re able to actually influence so as ignorant as it may sound, try to avoid worrying about it. If it happens, it happens, you won’t feel better for having worried about it and there isn’t much you could plan for anyway.
Focus on the things and people that matter to you and take each day as it comes on the basis that nuclear war is not happening.
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, 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.
You better change that water every now and then though.
I looked up the advice I had blindly followed and apparently milk jugs are biodegradable. That’s good for the environmentalists, but not for water storage. That said, stored water won’t “go bad”. It won’t even acidize like a glass of water on your countertop.
It’s great advice about storing water for an emergency.
Nukes won’t burn the world to a cinder, but they will end the world’s infrastructure.
Say good bye for probably a longer period to clean water, electricity, healthcare, etc. There is a point to say that the dead will be lucky.
Having said that, there will likely be pockets of livable arras where humanity will survive, but life for the survivors likely will be shitty for a number of decades until things stabilize again
Touch some grass, go to therapy and stop watching the news.
Move to Washington D.C. or Cheyenne Wyoming, if you’re inside the blast radius then you won’t have to live to see the world end.
At this point, Florida should also be on that list.
Yeah but then you’re living in Florida. Nukes or not, it ain’t worth it.
You don’t control geopolitics but you do control your own outlook. If you can’t accept a someday threat but continue living today, then you are losing the battle before you even know if you have to fight. Yes, losing the ability to get through the day is overreacting, even in light of the threat potential. I could give you 6 other things to worry yourself into paralysis about if I wanted to. But you control your own outlook.
Step 0:
Take 3, intentional, deep breaths.
Inhale for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, slowly exhale for seconds.
Do three of em.
Step 1:
Accept that one day, maybe soon, maybe in the fairly distant future:
You Will Die.
No avoiding it. None of us make it out of here alive.
… really try to actually come to grips with that.
There’s no reward or punishment at the end, its not a judged competition… it just stops, everything goes away, and you go away.
Game over.
Its not fair or unfair. It just is.
Step 2:
Understand that while you are amongst the realm of the living, some things are within your control and others are not, and precisely which things land in which of those categories could change a good deal depending on who exactly you are, what you do or don’t have access to, where exactly you are, etc.
Maybe it makes sense for you to try and build up a bit of an emergency food and water supply, a method of generating power, staying warm or cool, etc, in case shit hits the fan.
Maybe it makes more sense to establish some kind of bug out plan and procedure.
Maybe, it just makes the most sense to just accept that if you’re in a very important / very dense area…well, one day, you might just evaporate.
Unfortunately, withot knowing more about you and your situation, I can’t really say which three of those is the framework of a better approach, or if something entirely different would make more sense.
But for any of those… don’t kick yourself for … things you didn’t do or prepare fon the past, don’t expect to be able to suddenly just ‘solve’ this ‘problem.’
Beyond being terrible for your mental health and just aggrevating the panic spiral, trying to do those things is ineffective, not productive at even attempting to ‘solve’ the ‘problem’.
Break it down into bite sized chunks that are manageable, that each, on their own, put you in a generally better position than not doing them.
Don’t dive headfirst with crazy expensive shit, start with the basics, as if you were preparing for a 3 day emergency from like a tornado or flood or local/regional grid failure or earthquake or hurricane.
Yeah, nukes and war don’t play by all the same rules as those, but a lot of the basics are the same.
Basic food and water supply, basic medkit, flashlight, hand crankable emergency radio, thermal/moon blanket, solid set of clothes, two sets of undies and socks, decent backpack, decent multipurpose knife, probably some all purpose gloves, solid shoes, solid, all purpose coat that you can either open up and air out, or stuff more layers underneath to stay warm… some means of starting a fire…
… these days probably a battery bank/solar charger for a phone… if you’re a lady or gonna be with one or some: tampons…
… make sure you’ve got important ids and documents somewhere secure and ready to go, if you need to go…
… definitely doesn’t hurt to have a couple hundred in cash, smallest bills as you can, just in case some electronic payment system goes down and you need to pay for something.
Pretty much most of that shit can fit into a normal backpack, and if you can put that together, you’re doing way better than being totally and completely unprepared.
You don’t, you have no direct control over world events.
You have a choice, you can either join an activist group and maybe get some comfort that you’re doing something or take a break and focus on getting the most out of life.
Am I overreacting
Yes.
Totally understandable in the world with the dopamine fueled news cycles running on fear.
But, nuclear war is very unlikely, that’s why Putin is threatening it every other week, he knows he won’t do it, and other leaders know that too. It’s meant to terrorise people.
Help Ukraine to grind down russia so that eventually we can denuclearise them (remove the Kremlin and let the russians have another try at democracy would be nice too) is IMO the closest any regular person can do today.
fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
Get involved and build resilience in your local community. It’s super beneficial for your mental health, social health and you can do something tangible that does make a difference. This resilience will help build and maintain and more importantly sustain the structural and social support for things like general strikes. People need to eat.
web.archive.org/web/20240105073255/…/zine/
adhd_traco@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
More in the same vein:
https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/115832508196201635
fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
Their linked guide is a great summary. The archive.org link above is partially a workbook to help people figure out where to start with these things… There are so many options!! !citizenscience@mander.xyz too, is a form of praxis.