Genocide and Fears of War - How to Deal with the Biggest Atrocities in the World

The world is again in times of great uncertainties. Many people even fear that another world war could break out. Images of war (between Ukraine and Russia, for example), assassinations (like Charlie Kirk's), genocide (especially since 2023 from Gaza), and unlawfully and brutally detained or deported citizens (like in the US) flood the news and social media bringing overwhelming information of atrocities to our homes through our phones at the tip of our fingers.

The Islamic Regime in Iran has just committed what could possibly be declared the greatest human loss in close combat within just 2 days in the entire human history. The killings have not stopped but changed the scenery. Only investigations and time will tell in hindsight how many exactly have been killed by the Islamic Regime, if the world does not let them destroy the evidence in advance.

Besides many people being directly affected by these atrocities, seeing these images still has an impact on every person's mental health.

Those who feel deep and empathise a lot with others' feelings will get more overwhelmed than usually. They might get caught between the need to detach from these subjects and feeling guilty about looking away from geopolitical issues.

The ones that can bear the look of these atrocities might feel drained quickly, isolated by lack of support, crushed under the weight of the overwhelming despair, helpless due to missing action taking from important institutions or complexity of the issue or tackling of the issue by different sub groups with different (conflicting) interest, and overwhelmed by the never-ending demand from peers who seem to be drowning in issues that are greater than our mind can handle.

This article is probably not read by the third group that simply does not get involved in the depth of these issues for various reasons (lack of empathy, interest, skills to relate to the issue or access the issue), which is why I will disregard them in the following.

A great example is Iran and the Iranian diaspora. We can see in real time how despair caused by a political issue directly causes a collective mental health disaster.

Since the protests started in December 2025, the Islamic Regime geared up to crack those down like they usually do. The terrorist organisations they fund were brought back into the country, military arsenal, vehicles, and infrastructure were activated and during the nights of the 8th and 9th of January 2026 tens of thousands of civilians were massacred.

While internal documentation and reporting is reliable and managed by doctors and nurses from hospitals where wounded and dead protestors were brought to and by human rights lawyers and groups on the ground, the public response in the media is slow, inappropriately subtle or nonexistent.

From a psychological perspective this is not surprising. The human mind does not really desire to confront itself with overwhelming and highly threatening information. It might even detach from the subject matter instead, some to a degree that they act like nothing had happened at all. Superficial parameters like "physical distance to the threat" play a role while, in reality, in case of a war the number of kilometers wouldn't matter so much. Geopolitical issues show how deeply connected we are globally and the rising prices in Europe with the start of the Ukraine war proved that. In the UK people are still struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. But the Islamic Regime takes full advantage of this desire to want to look the other way. They shut down the Internet and telecommunication system to make it much harder for local sources to report to foreign countries about what is exactly going on in Iran. To throw even more mud into the water, they use civilian deaths to their advantage by forcing the families of the deceased to sign papers that their loved one was working for the government. This way the regime increases their own number of deaths and announces to foreign news outlets that their practices of detaining innocent civilians is for security reasons to avoid further attacks of members of the government. The news reporting on Iran is far from neutral or reflecting the reality inside Iran, which is why many Iranians rely on directly sending information to the Iranian diaspora who spreads the information all over social media.

Even providers in the wellbeing industry do not respond a lot to what is going on inside Iran right now. Though they made it their "mission" to help people feel better, support humanity to higher levels of consciousness, support women specifically to be in their power and speak their truth, there is not much coverage in over a month of countless killings. Tens of thousands of people are still missing in Iran.

Some wellness providers do mention an abstract form of support without mentioning Iran specifically ever.

This is not sheltering or helping humanity. This is not helpful or healthy. This directly speaks about the integrity of a wellbeing business and how they truly practice what they preach.

1. Helping people to feel better does not come from a place of detachment from real-life happenings. Many people are calling out certain self-declared "gurus" and coaches for ignoring the detentions and deportations happening in the US right now. There are people who are truly saddened by what they are witnessing. If something happens to humanity a supporter's role is not to stand by and act like nothing is happening. It means to be even more present, care, witness, and show how a real interaction with these challenging circumstances looks like. It does not mean to deny anger (and surely does not rebrand it as "hate"), nor sadness or frustration. It means to acknowledge justified emotions and support healthy processing of those.

2. How many celebrated coaches are now completely silent in the face of the most heinous, gender-based violence to Iranian women and girls? But they still post about how confidence is important, how they help girls and women to find their voice, how they can learn to live with past experience of sexualised violence or narcissistic abuse. All of this seems superficial and fake if in real-life scenarios no action is taken, not even a statement is being made. Doctors Without Borders is campaigning the past month with the slogan "Stand with us" and they have not replied once to my critisim about their silence about the nurses and doctors who have already been killed or detained by the Islamic Republic. There was not even words of condolences.

3. Higher levels of consciousness for humanity are not achieved by dividing populations. Showing solidarity from one people towards another, is the very first step for international friendships, paths of diplomacy and sharing collective values. Depriving a group of your compassion or solidarity is depriving it from ever achieving higher levels of consciousness. Anyone claiming to be spiritually awakened would understand this principle. Teachings are not theories. They are not accomplished by thinking them. They exist to come into real existence by our actions. Teaching about collective consciousness but not taking any actual actions to achieve higher levels of it means that you are not ready to be a teacher. You still need to learn yourself but you play the role of a teacher in the meantime to earn money with what you do not fully understand yourself yet.

The Iranian diaspora is very active and yet very on edge. They feel isolated, left alone to the wolves of the Islamic Regime that operate inside and outside Iran, and yet they keep on going, which drains their energy further. Acting from a place of emotional need depleats energy quicker and harsher.

The Islamic Regime understands psychological warfare and used their funds and influence online frequently in the past. It is an oppressive system that had almost half a century to strengthen its infrastructure. It is allegedly working with Huawei right now to establish a permanent Internet blackout for all civilians inside Iran. Their influence is far-reaching and their never-ending funds are in the 3-digit billions. Iranians like Masih Alinejad (an activist who lives in the US) was targeted by Islamic Regime assassins three times. They were trialled and admitted publicly to who hired them. But often times these incidents seems too much like material from an action spy movie for people to find it believable. The Islamic Regime has created atrocities so great that the human mind doubts its existence altogher.

Taking full advantage of this disbelief, the propaganda machine does the rest. Social media is flooded with conspiracies around Mossad and CIA involvement. Conspiracy theories increase when people experience a greater level of loss of control. The conspiracy theory helps them to feel more control of what is happening. In reality, we do not know everything and the human mind finds this lack of clarity uncomfortable or even unbearable.

For some individuals the level of isolation, lack of support, confrontation with own and others' despair is unbearable to a degree that they harm themselves. For Martin Khademi, a student in Turin, any help comes too late and he committed suicide last month. Another publicly known suicide was committed by Pouria Hamidi inside Iran after finding out about negotiations between the US and the Islamic Regime. Just to be clear: The declining mental health of Iranians globally is directly caused by the atrocities of the Islamic Regime. Pouria was allegedly afraid of any detention and torture by the Islamic Regime. Besides the political situation, he was living a healthy life with a healthy diet, a social network with family and friends. He respected himself and his appearance. He even got a new winter coat for the snow he would never get to see. He asked in his last message if the people receiving it could avoid any deal to be made between the US and the Islamic Regime.

The obvious questions is: Why should we stand up and be vocal about political happenings?

1. Societal wellbeing is a vital basis for any other type of wellbeing (such as financial wellbeing, physical wellbeing, etc.). Politics are the basis of societal wellbeing. Geopolitical circumstances directly influence our life and the quality of our life. Being politically active and voice what your needs are influences how well those needs will be met by your government.

2. Showing solidarity towards another population is not just "nice to do" but actually an expression of what you bring into existence or into reality. If you never stand up for anyone else, you likely do not stand up for yourself. Someone who is clear on what they want, what they want to see in the world, and how this should be accomplished, does not simply achieve this for themselves. It becomes a part of what they are, hence they want this for existence itself, hence they will want that for everyone.

3. Detachment from an issue for others is in fact a detachment from yourself. In the US some people thought initially that certain issues (like immigration policies) were limited to other human beings (like immigrants) until American citizens were not only part of deportations (like Kilmar Abrego Garcia) as well but victims to murder on the streets of Minnesota at daylight (like Renee Nicole Good, a mother, or a Alex Pretti, a nurse from Minneapolis). Accepting injustices in others means that you have accepted injustices in the first place. Denying this principle means that you have detached from a universal truth that includes you as well.

4. Confidence builds itself (better) from a track record. The more "good" you do, the more proof you have about what you defined as "good". On the other hand, you will struggle to experience yourself as "good" if you have no actual evidence to claim that. Geopolitical issues confront us and our character to the maximum.

5. Ignoring geopolitical issues mostly comes from a place of fear. People find excuses like, "I don't have time," but the underlying fear is the driver to find excuses like that in the first place. Becoming active has a lot of positive effects in that regard. Once you break through the fears of "What would my colleagues think?" and "What if I don't get it 100% right?", you feel liberated. Fear is an illusion and acting from a place of faith is energising (while acting from a place of fear is draining).

6. Connecting to other people and showing support is a deeply fulfilling, purposeful, wholesome experience. Depriving yourself of being the hero in someone else's story means to not fully experience your noble core. You don't know how great you are if you don't allow yourself be in situations where you can show your warmhearted, compassionate, heroic self.

7. Depriving yourself of causing and seeing the joy in others is staying on a low level of the happiness range. I work with lots of clients who are blessed with a wonderful, privileged life. This, however, does not mean that they necessarily feel priviledged or happy. Happiness comes in many shades. In my experience, those who connect more and show solidarity, reach the highest levels of happiness, contentment, and satisfactions. Our emotions are not fully isolated from others.

And here you have it, plenty of reason as to why to act. What will you do now? Get in touch below if you need inspiration for any specific steps.