Managing Stress, Anxiety, and Hopelessness in Times of Crisis
Lessons from Immigrants, Refugees, and Activists Who Have Survived the Collapse of the Familiar
We are living in times of uncertainty, rapid change, and existential threats that feel new. However, while they may feel novel here in the U.S. they are not without precedent globally. History is full of moments like these, where economies have collapsed, governments have failed, and authoritarian forces have taken hold. Immigrants and refugees who have lived through these crises before carry hard-earned wisdom on how to endure, adapt, and even thrive.
Here are 10 strategies for coping with and transforming the stress, anxiety, and despair of the present moment into resilience and action.
1. Learn from Those Who Have Lived Through Crisis Before
Immigrants and refugees from war zones, failed states, and economic collapses have had to navigate conditions that many in the U.S. are facing for the first time: food shortages, unreliable institutions, government disinformation, political persecution, and societal fractures. Instead of treating them as outsiders, we should listen to their survival strategies.
What to do:
Read refugee memoirs and oral histories to understand how people psychologically and materially adapted to crises.
Build bridges between local activist networks and immigrant-led organizations. Refugees can be powerful mentors in resilience, while the more privileged political status of many native-born activists can serve as a shield against the worst predations of an authoritarian state.
2. Control What You Can—Let Go of What You Can't
One of the greatest sources of stress is a sense of powerlessness in the face of overwhelming events. Immigrants and survivors of authoritarian rule learn to focus on what they can control; often small, daily actions that allow them to keep moving forward.
What to do:
Set small, daily goals (e.g., making a call to an elected official, organizing a meal with neighbors, getting outside for fresh air).
Focus on direct, tangible actions that improve your life or your community.
Accept uncertainty—nobody has all the answers, but collective action gives us a sense of agency.
3. Prioritize Collective Care, Not Just Self-Care
In the U.S., self-care is often individualized: meditation apps, personal therapy, gym memberships. But in moments of upheaval, self-care must be community care. In many immigrant and refugee communities, survival is only possible because of tight-knit networks that share resources, emotional support, and protection.
What to do:
Build mutual aid networks. Whether it’s food, housing, or child care, we survive together.
Create healing spaces, not just protest spaces. Organize group meals, storytelling circles, or shared rituals.
Offer skills, not just goods. Know how to sew? Cook? Speak another language? Teach and trade.
4. Maintain a Long View of History
Authoritarianism rises, but it also falls. Immigrants from authoritarian regimes often understand something many more privileged Americans don’t: no system lasts forever. The world has seen fascism before, and it has been defeated before through resistance, adaptation, and sheer human will.
What to do:
Learn about historical resistance movements (e.g., the fall of apartheid in South Africa, the overthrow of dictators in Latin America).
Study how people built underground networks when their governments became hostile.
Remember: We are not the first to face this. We won’t be the last. But history shows we can fight back.
5. Develop Mental Agility—Learn to Adapt
What you planned for might not be what happens. Be open to all possibilities. Refugees fleeing collapsing states know that rigidity kills. When the world shifts beneath you, clinging to "normal" can leave you paralyzed and unable to both react effectively to threats, and to seize upon opportunities. Those who survive are those who adapt.
What to do:
Expect unexpected shifts - economically, politically, socially.
Be flexible in your organizing. If one strategy stops working, pivot. Even if that strategy stops working because of resource deprivation, remember that the availability or not of certain resources is one of many external conditions you will have to adapt to in a rapidly changing political environment.
Develop new skills that might not seem "necessary" now but will be later (e.g., food growing, first aid, secure communications).
6. Build Stronger Local Networks—NOW
In Crisis, Your Community Is Your Safety Net. When institutions fail, local, trusted relationships are what save people. Immigrant communities, especially in the U.S., rely on word-of-mouth networks, religious groups, ethnic organizations, and underground support systems to navigate systemic failures.
What to do:
Get to know your neighbors - especially those who might not already be in activist spaces.
Develop emergency contact lists, food-sharing plans, and security protocols.
Strengthen connections with local faith communities, unions, and small businesses. They can become powerful allies.
7. Guard Against Burnout - It's a Long Fight
The struggle is a marathon, not a sprint. Many refugees describe the first wave of a crisis as overwhelming, and also the most exhausting. If you burn out now, you won’t have the energy to fight later.
What to do:
Take real breaks. Disconnect from doom-scrolling.
Protect your sleep, nutrition, and social connections.
Rotate responsibilities in activist work. Everyone needs rest.
8. Use Art, Music, and Ritual as Resistance
Survivors of dictatorship, genocide, and war often say that what kept them alive was not just resistance, but culture. Songs, dance, art, and storytelling remind people of who they are and why they fight.
What to do:
Learn songs and stories from past resistance movements.
Use art to counter fear - murals, poetry, street theater, music.
Ritualize joy. Even in hard times, celebrate wins, birthdays, milestones.
9. Find Humor in the Absurd
Authoritarian regimes fear laughter because humor makes them look weak. Immigrant communities have long used satire to cope with oppression - whether it's Cuban exiles mocking Castro or dissidents in Eastern Europe joking about the KGB.
What to do:
Follow satirists and comedians who expose authoritarian hypocrisy.
Share memes and videos that make oppression look ridiculous.
Laugh. Not because things aren’t serious, but because laughter is resistance.
10. Believe That a Better Future Is Still Possible
Hope Is a Discipline. Immigrants don’t leave their homelands because they’ve given up - they leave because they still believe somewhere, life can be better. Their belief in possibility is part of what sustains them.
What to do:
Practice radical hope. Not naive optimism, but the belief that what we do matters.
Fight for what you love - not just against what you fear.
Commit to the long haul. The road will be long, but we are not walking it alone.
Final Thought: We Are the Future’s Ancestors
In times of upheaval, the most dangerous thing we can do is believe we are powerless. The world will not be shaped by those who stand still - it will be shaped by those who move.
Immigrants and refugees have been carrying these lessons for generations. Now, we must listen, learn, and act. The future is unwritten, but if we build resilient communities, adapt to change, and refuse to surrender to despair, we will be the ones who write it.