S.E Cupp

Dear Commons Community,

Columnist and cable news contributor S.E Cupp had a candid heartfelt column yesterday entitled, “I am in puddle. How are you holding up?  Buffalo, Uvalde, and the American psyche.”  In it, she described her own mental problems over the past year as “I had suddenly hit a dangerous and scary place with my mental health, overwhelmed with anxiety, unable to see clearly through the fog of bad news, constant worry, inescapable triggers, and the feeling that this was all just the new normal.”

She sought help and “embarked on a mental health treatment journey that included psychotherapy, medication and a dogged attention to my limitations.”

She has made progress but she lamented:

“Whether it’s an ongoing war in Ukraine, a frightening rise in extremism and hate crimes, the anxiety of living with constant COVID uncertainty, daunting economic stresses, a bitterly divided and seemingly broken political system that appears unable to solve crucial problems — from a baby formula shortage to a gun-violence epidemic — or the everyday challenges of parenting, work and life, we are not doing well.

To make matters worse, so much of this feels out of our control and impossible to solve. And when there are potential solutions to a problem — like some common sense ways to keep 18-year-old racists and would-be child murderers from getting their hands on mass killing devices — there are too few willing partners to even try to start.”

She concluded:

“So we wait. We wait for the next punch in the gut, the next awful tragedy, praying it’s not too close to home, white-knuckling it from one hour to the next.

How could anyone function under these kinds of pressures?

It turns out that some of us can’t. I’m envious of those who can. But I’m struggling just to get my footing from one crisis to the next, while managing the challenges every parent faces — sending my kiddo to school, keeping him safe, teaching him about the world around him without terrifying him.

It is overwhelming and debilitating, but I’ll keep working at it. And I know I will recover, once again. But as much as I feel the weight, I know the victims of these tragedies — the surviving families and community — never fully will. My heart is broken for them. And I worry — how much more of this can we take?”

Important message from Ms. Cupp for all of us.

We wish her well!

Tony

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