Anxiety over North Korea ruining my life!

[skleep]

I've always had bad anxiety and lately it has attached itself to the North Korea crisis.  Every news source I read says that North Korea is not able to strike the US with a nuke, and that even if they could it would be 0119 so they wouldn't do it.  Both of those things make sense but I can't get over the doubt.  To me, Kim Jong Un has made good on all his threats thus far, except for nuking people.  Isn't that the natural next step?  Obviously, nuking the US would be completely suicidal of him, but I have no idea how sane/insane he is.  I live in San Francisco and I can't make it through a day without worrying about this.  I can barely even work anymore and it's driving my boyfriend nuts.  When I ask my friends they're barely worried!  It seems like the only people who are worried, other than myself, are super right-wing conspiracy theorists online, but I'm convinced I'm right.  My boyfriend won't leave San Francisco with me, and my family wants me to stay in the city too. 

On the bright side I spoke to a Marine friend who said he couldn't tell me details but "I have nothing to worry about in terms of long range missiles."  That made me feel better for a few hours but now I'm obsessing.  my mom says I need to "stay off the internet" but that's absurd.  I deserve to read the news just like anyone else, and frankly I'm a little insulted that my mom isn't worried about me dying.  My brother is a political expert and also thinks my worries are overblown. 

Meanwhile, I'm really regretting voting for Obama because I don't have any faith in our missile defense system regardless of what the govt has said lately.

[LindaRK]

These threats have been going on for decades ... as has alot of other media-hype nonsense.  I'll be 56 this year ..... I live not too far from you in the Sierra Nevada mountains. :-)  When I was growing up in Southern CA, all the rage was that Southern CA was going to fall off into the ocean.  Everywhere you went you heard about it - can you imagine what that fear does to kids?

I have enough faith in our government and leadership that something like this wouldn't happen, or if it did, we would have something readily enabled to react to it.

[psychosammy]

I was worried about the same thing! My boyfriend has a degree in history and explained why I shouldn't be freaking out though. If I understood him correctly, then basically North Korea and South Korea are ridiculously poor. They both get money from China, and China gives North Korea a little more than South Korea. BUT it's still barely enough for people to survive on, so there's no way they have enough for long range nuclear missiles or the education they would need to build such weapons. And everyone gets the same amount so I guess there's really no incentive to work harder especially if you're starving. It's like the little kid on the playground who claims he can beat up so and so's brother. Look at it as the entertaining and crazy uncle who threatens and acts nuts but is quite harmless lol.  It made sense bc we buy stuff from China, so why would China continue to give them money if they would use it against us? We're basically just supposed to ignore N. Korea's nuke threats. SINKHOLES on the other hand...Idk how to get over that paranoia. If you have any advice on how to not freak out by just existing on an earth that eats people randomly without warning I would really appreciate it!

[Cheesus]

I was worried about the same thing! My boyfriend has a degree in history and explained why I shouldn't be freaking out though. If I understood him correctly, then basically North Korea and South Korea are ridiculously poor. They both get money from China, and China gives North Korea a little more than South Korea. BUT it's still barely enough for people to survive on, so there's no way they have enough for long range nuclear missiles or the education they would need to build such weapons. And everyone gets the same amount so I guess there's really no incentive to work harder especially if you're starving. It's like the little kid on the playground who claims he can beat up so and so's brother. Look at it as the entertaining and crazy uncle who threatens and acts nuts but is quite harmless lol.  It made sense bc we buy stuff from China, so why would China continue to give them money if they would use it against us? We're basically just supposed to ignore N. Korea's nuke threats. SINKHOLES on the other hand...Idk how to get over that paranoia. If you have any advice on how to not freak out by just existing on an earth that eats people randomly without warning I would really appreciate it!

Speaking with a degree in Politics, I can say that both your evidence and reasoning is highly flawed.

[For_the_horde]

I'm worried about this too, I have no doubts that NK wants to engulf us in nuclear fire.

[Pippy187]

This is something that scares me very much as well... I would like to think our patriot missiles can take out anything NK tries to send our way... however it still sticks in the back of my mind what sort of domino effect would this set off... I hate the politics have the ability to toy with the human race...

[cafeterrace]

YAY I'm not the only one that thinks this way! Haha. I had the 0278 homepage up today and there was something on N. Korea and my mom was like "UGH, stop worrying about that!" Even though i wasn't even reading that article.

I have been concerned about this issue. It sticks in my mind and freaks me out. I also freak out about Iran and pretty much every crisis that comes up.

The only thing I can add is that the media likes to make things really dramatic. It's how they get views on their articles, the more sinister and serious it looks, the more views they get.