Disappearance, detention, torture, displacement; stress, anxiety, exhaustion, despair. The trappings of counter-revolution have serious emotional and psychological ramifications that make it difficult for those living through these periods to continue to carry on their political engagement, or even daily lives. This paper continues a recent thread of research that positions affective dynamics as a driver for political mobilization in the MENA region; as hope has been examined as a mobilizing affect throughout the revolutionary uprisings, this research seeks to explore the demobilizing affects that have been and continue to be produced by the ensuing period of counter-revolution. The paper takes an interdisciplinary approach, benefiting from the incorporation of trauma studies into a reading of the current political situation in the region, surveying the current literature on affective response to state violence, conflict, and displacement, and mapping the ways in which those who participated in revolutionary events navigate their responses to these. The research revolves around open-ended interviews with activists, both those who remain engaged in political activity and those who now avoid it, centering their feelings as well as their behaviors to understand how revolutionary and counter-revolutionary moments engender affective responses. The paper finds that counter-revolution has a deliberate goal of “breaking the spirit” of revolutionary encounters, and that in periods both revolution and of counter-revolution, activists are increasingly conceiving of practices of self-care as avenues to sustain political engagement.