Originally posted by CASPER
No he's genuinely fucked in the head from never leaving his apartment for a decade. I used to be his father. I had high hopes for him, but he refuses to take even the most basic steps at a healthy fulfilling life. And he wants to couch all this gay suicide talk in some kind of "philosophy". I guess now I know how everyone felt listening to me whine about being a heroin addict for 12 years.
You were never as bad as malice is now.
Originally posted by Malice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollyanna_principle
I really doubt you're particularly happy the vast majority of the time. At best people achieve a fairly mild feeling of contentedness or hygge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygge
But strong feelings tend to be rare.
Do you really generally enjoy school, work, maintaining your body, chores etc.?
It's very possible that never seeing positive role models for a fulfilling life profoundly messed me up, but what exactly do you do that makes life worth living?
I simply see no meaning in this and greatly dislike the endless striving toward happiness.
- Humans want things
- “Suffering” is when humans want what they don’t have
- Therefore, wanting creates suffering
- “Happiness” is when we get what we want
- We tend to swing back toward boredom or even pain due to the hedonic treadmill
- We’ll always want something, even after we get it
- Therefore, we can never be truly happy
I also seem to derive much less pleasure from life than normal, with my baseline state containing more suffering. The positive aspects of life are lower while the negative are amplified.
I simply see this as the world's greatest fool's errand.
It's not like my life is just awesome all the time. I just find myself able to take pleasure in the little things.
From the moment I woke up until now, I have been content all day. Inevitably, yes, I will do some things I don't want to do. But I do them and still feel content in knowing it's for a purpose, and that I have other people there who I can bond with.
Happiness is a choice, malice. You can choose to find misery in every little thing, or you can enjoy your life for what it is and try to do things to change it. I could sit around complaining all fucking day. I need more money. My girlfriend is being annoying. The car i drive is a piece of shit. My ecig broke a few days ago. I don't get enough sleep because of my hectic schedule.
But fuck all that. None of those things really, actually matter. What matters is people and hobbies and learning and exploring. That's what makes me happy. That's what I live for.
I used to not get any pleasure from any of these things. At least not to the extent I do now. I think making the decision to be more active helped. I'm never doing one thing for long. I get really antsy when I have a few days off work and just spend it at home.
I don't know. I used to be socially anxious/incredibly depressed. Sometimes suicidal. I stayed at home all day jacking off, doing drugs, and generally wasting my life. I made a decision to change. It was not easy, I wanted so back to revert in my useless hermit-hood. But I tried and kept trying and now I'm content. Completely comfortable with my life and the direction it's headed in. More than that though, I'm proud of myself.
I know you could find similar feelings if you actually put yourself out there and did something with your life. Go connect with people and find hobbies and goals that make you feel accomplished. Actively try to stop thinking so negatively. Focus on the things in your life that are enjoyable.
Right now, this couch is amazing. It's leather and cool on my skin. I sink right in. Got my bare feet stretched out onto the table, whiskey in hand, full belly, it's fucking great. I could be upset because i dont love my job, or because i have a stressful event coming up. I could bitch that im sore instead of enjoying the fulfilling physical feeling of this tiny pain. I could complain about running out of the hummus and bacon i wanted on my burger. I could feel very defeated and down right now, but I'm not, because none of that shit is worth letting it effect me.
I do still get anxious and depressed, everyone does, but it is considerably better now than it ever was. I'm actually a bit worried about my promotion. I'm being dropped in without really knowing what the fuck I'm doing. But I know it'll work out. Everything almost always works out.
