Mental Health Awareness Month

Photo by Total Shape on Unsplash

I wanted to take a moment during Mental Health Awareness Month to address something we don’t talk about enough, and that is the toll this fight is taking on all of us.

Dictators are designed to wear us down. They thrive on chaos, distraction, fear, and exhaustion. Every day brings a new assault—on democracy, truth, and our rights. But it’s not just policies or power grabs. What makes this moment so corrosive is the psychological warfare: the gaslighting, manipulation, and erosion of reality itself. Meanwhile, the media continues to report as if nothing has fundamentally changed, failing to meet the moment with the urgency it demands.

We’re expected to keep going—posting, reacting, pushing back—because the damage is nonstop, and the stakes are existential. If we pause, we fear something terrible might slip past us. But we are human, and cannot sustain this level of outrage and vigilance without also protecting our well-being.

I know many of you are scared, angry, exhausted, and overwhelmed. I feel it too, and some days the weight of it all is crushing. That’s why it’s so important to recognize when we need to step back and take a moment to rest, grieve, breathe, or completely unplug so that we can remember what we’re fighting for.

Mental health is the foundation of sustained resistance. If we want to stay in this fight, we need clear minds, steady focus, and the ability to think strategically—not just reactively. That begins with permitting ourselves to rest because the ultimate goal isn’t just to survive the chaos—it’s to get to a place where we’re no longer constantly on the defense, but moving on the offense. We’re not just responding to attacks on democracy but building something stronger in its place.

If you’re feeling depleted, please know you’re not alone.

We often put pressure on ourselves to keep going at all costs—as if stepping back means the movement will falter. But that mindset only feeds burnout, which ultimately helps the very forces we’re fighting. When we’re depleted, we’re easier to discourage, divide, and silence.

Taking care of your mental and emotional health is part of the fight. We can’t do this alone and resistance isn’t about doing everything; it’s about taking small, sustained steps together. What makes it effective is collective effort. The road ahead requires building strong coalitions—locally and nationally—partnerships rooted in trust, clarity, and shared purpose. That means showing up for each other, and for ourselves.

Here with you always,
Olga