Loneliness

[SittingBull47]

I've been severely depressed for about a month. The people I used to love to hang out with seem all the more insensitive, conformist, and acidic to me lately. Everything is getting to me and I have an intense feeling of anger. I can't tolerate anything of even the slightest annoyance. There was a comment about how holding a man from panama in a Miami jail for 19 years without trial was necessary because of suspicion, so I totally flipped out. Something i've never done before. I started yelling at a friend, to the class, that it's a clear violation of human rights. This is the best example of my impatience of late. Does anyone else feel like this for extended periods? I want to know if i'm depressed or just intolerable of stupidity.

[Wenty]

This shouldn't really be in Philosophy but oh well.

Depression is actually a statistical norm yet its seen as an abnormality. The extent of your depression seems worse though but by no means unordinary. You need to talk to someone if it gets too bad though.

[Funky Monk]

Hell yeah, i can imagine a fair few people on this board will feel like it.


Think it comes with being ab-normal (don't take this the wrong way but being interested in politics and wider issues in most societies makes you a freak) :D

[Wenty]

what a load of shit.

[Funky Monk]

statistics indicate that the vast majority of people our age are completely apathetic regarding politics. It is true in most countries. Hence those who are political are abnormal and often get ostracised for this abnormallity

[Revolt!]

"You can prove anything with statistics, 40% of people know that"

[JonP]

Yea , i know exactly how you feel. I almost flipped out at some totally stupid reason today, but more than anger i feel a sense of general pointlessness.

[pandora]

Get ready for the adult world, that times a hundred. Having to be very careful with your views or face being ostracized politically and careerwise. Especially once you get the "hot potato" label, and I speak from experience, it can be very hard to get placements, or duck under the rader again.
Teachers can label you too. Counseling is important, because if you are not in control of your emotions and spout off at the wrong person, you're going to suffer, no doubt about it.
The best thing to do if politics is becoming to much is to disconnect from it for a few days, take a break, go camping or exercise, swimming. Move your body. Exercise helps but it's not an excuse for counseling. There may be some trauma or issues with authority you're suppressing. But don't drudge things up by yourself, wallowing in your past will only make you more lonely.
Try to get out of your head, but find someone to talk to get in your head, if you can't find anyone write it down and let it go.
Cheers Pandora :P Now back to the usual Sophist drivel.

[pandora]

You spoke before about working with a reservation in New York State, could you take some time there to get empowered from the Earth? Getting grounded, just laying on the mother helps a lot. I know some people have a problem with this philosophy, but Bacon saw the Earth as a woman too only one that should be raped, which has gotten us in a bit of trouble, eh?

Got a great idea for a book to take with you out of the city! :D
Thoreau's Walden or the essays one two and three of walking
they are available on line at http://eserver.org/thoreau/waldenep.html
Who says one can not be revolutionary based out of nature, it's the greatest praxis there is :P

[MiniOswald]

methinks you havent been striking out enough, let me guess you used to be quite timid and didnt bother many people but youve grown to being more renowend for coming out with good ole blunt comments and getting angry, in which case you need to randomly strike out at people verbally, its fun and character building.
nothing unusual about it you'll be more happy with life soon enough or maybe you'll slip into madness, either ones good

[SittingBull47]

I put this in philosophy because it is a section on the human condition that everyone can relate to.

Pandora, The reservation work will hopefully be done this summer and many years to come. I need to get to South Dakota, Arizona, and anywhere else that is still destroyed by manifest destiny and ignorant discrimination. As for the book you suggested, Walden; I've read it many times over. I have a certain devotion to books on society, philosophy, the human condition, social science, and above all individualism. Thoreaux was a genius. I have no interest in being a revolutionary in the sense of title, i simply think there are better things to accomplish and better things people should do for others.

Minioswald, you're somewhat right. I was a quite sort of guy but would talk to anybody. I keep a large group of soi-disant friends around me usually, but lately I've just been feeling asphyxiated by the people i surround myself with, willingly and unwillingly. I've grown increasingly louder and more acidic in thought, but not to damage another's mentality (only to refute their backward notions).

I'll be taking off without saying good-bye to friends and family this summer as soon as school's out. I'm going to head straight to Ohio to see my girlfriend, then off to spend my time on Pine Ridge and Rosebud. From there it'll be a trip down the country to various reservations and "government offices" of native american authority, then a trip to texas. This, I think, will be the best medicine for me and is something I sorely need to do for want of personal and irrefutable freedom.

[cubist]

Personally it frustrates me all the time that people don't care. It fucks me off when poeple talk about politics and tell me bush is bad and all this, bullshit, yet they fail to see that capitalism will continue to kill people and starve them and bribe them with options of work or be looked down on by others as a piece of shit, irelevant of bush being in power.

Most people don't care as long as they are safe, thats life you have to change it and the best way to change it is to argue with them and tell them the other side and open the crack in the door that litle bit more.

[SittingBull47]

yea. complacency is an evil that too many people suffer. Cubist, you know exactly what i'm talking about then.

[Palmares]

Not everyone are altruists.

I dunno what I am now. The way life has 'fucked' me has made me very confused.

I would like to look at your (Sittingbull) situation in another way.

You speaking out more loudly then usually (this is somewhat similar to what someone else said) perhaps is making you seem dogmatic. That is, someone dogmatic seems extreme in their views (well, I guess all commies/socialists maybe experience being called this). In this case, extreme to the left compared to their views. I'm not sure if my point is clear, but here is an analogy:

In my government tutorial class, there are three socialists. Me, my friend Michael, and a guy from the Socialist Alliance (though, I'm actually a member of it too technically). Myself and Michael are revisionist socialists and anarchists respectively. The SA guy is a dogmatic socialist. He always says the answer is socialism. Sometimes he says specific things, but he is mostly quite blunt and rigid with his views. Michael has 'different' views, but he says them in a way that is logical.

Hmmm. Maybe my point was that your anger made you seem dogmatic? I dunno. I'm tired. Going to bed now. :D

[The Feral Underclass]

I embrace my depression..its so stupid and absurd that its funny!!!

Wenty was saying tha depression is a societal norm...I agree. Along with schizophrenia. Everyone has a level of insanity, from talking to yourself when your alone to hearing voices in your head all the time, people are schitzo...depression makes you understand why you are alive if you embrace it, instead of fighting it. Feel sad, feel angry, but make it mean something...thats what I think anyway!

[Pedro Alonso Lopez]

If it helps and it might, my group of friends gets increasingly smaller especially since I developed more left wing ideas, they people obsessed with consumerism are gone because my comments got more acidic and I have a tendency to try subvert peoples beliefs in a Socratic kind of way thinking I am doing good especially when it comes to God and politics. I found though over time people who really are your mates wont mind and will just accept you have changed somewhat. The others, well they will just stifle you.

[Funky Monk]

I find that punching walls helps. ACtually, punching doors is better to be honest, you feel you can make more of an impact.

[Pedro Alonso Lopez]

No, no depression is defeated mentally. I have never been depressed but those I know off including some family members that overcome it (it always seeps back, its very rampant, just young people think they are alone more etc.) were the ones who did it through the mind, the ones who took to physical relieve gradually get worse. Bad advice man.

[Funky Monk]

In my experience, the best way for someone to get over depression has been drugs.

[The Feral Underclass]

or booze!

[BOZG]

I like FM and TAT.

[pandora]

You ever hear the phrase "My karma ran over my dogma"

You're molting. doing the butterfly thing. You think your friends are moderates wait till you see some of the bureaucratic horror you come across.

WORD TO THE WISE< I have a beautiful half Navaho half Jewish friend who&#39;s father was a revolutionary about to be tribal leader in the South West 20 some odd years ago HE WAS MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD right before the election, and she is seriously affected by that. I&#39;ve learned a lot from her.

was going to cover the elections myself one year on the res. but didn&#39;t have the money for an all terrain vehicle, it&#39;s a thankless job.

On the res. the nail doesn&#39;t just get hammered down, he gets his head blown off. END OF STORY.

Learn to play the game wisely and work WITH THE COMMUNITY. Maybe read some Paulo Freire and Bob Moses on how to work within a community by helping them to get empowered and do it themselves, be a conduit to new ways of thinking, and hope.

WATCH YOUR BACK&#33; You don&#39;t want to seem overly argumenative going into this, but you&#39;ll find privately many people agree with you around the camp fire.
Miss New Mexico. You&#39;ll not fit in at first because you&#39;ll be seen as too loud, but if they like you they&#39;ll use you as a catalyst for change, I received cards and offers from the Navajo community on leaving NM, because they liked my revolutionary style. But at first they laughed at me for being too loud. You&#39;ll learn how to talk quietly and with great force. Many people in that community use few words, but the words they use are especially powerful. Most white people they find are too loud, speak crap all the time.Rhetoric, don&#39;t walk the walk.

Also at first I would do the NY thing and argue with people as a way of building community. That doesn&#39;t go over there. They remember if you argue with them the next day and punish you with inattention. It&#39;s a very different way of being, but just if not more revolutionary.

You&#39;ll definately change when you come back.

[karma-cola]

Your depression is beacause of absence of spiritual and religious activities.

When did you go to th church last?

Go to the church and pray to your god

He will give you strength

This is not a joke ;)

No harm in trying

Tell me what happens

[Ian]

Karmacola, no really is this a joke?

[pandora]

Karma-cola whats up with the Judeo-Christian antics and the Buddhist/Capitalist name, what&#39;s your stick?

[karma-cola]

I am neither communist or capitalist or buddhist or christian or atheist.

I am Karma-cola

The soft drink that frees you from the cycle of rebirth

[Trissy]

Has anyone read the short essay &#39;On the suffering of the world&#39; by Schopenhauer? It won&#39;t make you feel any better but it certainly presents many interesting views about suffering in the world around us. It also contains an peculiar little part about how the Hindu story of creation is more believable then the Christian one due to it saying that the creation of the worlld was an act of punishment and not the act of some &#39;benevolent&#39; God.

&#39;History shows us the life of nations and finds nothing to narrate but wars and tumults; the peaceful years appear only as occasional brief pauses and interludes. In just the same way the life of the individual is a constant struggle, and not merely a metaphorical once against want or boredom, but also an actual struggle against other people. He discovers adversaries everywhere, lives in continual conflict and dies with sword in hand&#39;

[Pedro Alonso Lopez]

Feckin hell Trissy&#33; Dont let somebody with depression read Schopenhauer&#33;

[cubist]

personally i would say any of the following may help;

1.religion, some people find religion useful and remain faith based for the rest of there lives others find no friend in it but if it helps you its worth a try.

2. drugs, a risky one but it has helped me i now have issues with stoping drugs but that beats depression for me&#33;

3. alcohol, some how this depressive drug helps depressed people i haven&#39;t understood this one and i feel its more dangerous than drugs lke cannabis.

4.smoking the one that dang bad for your health again in some people it helps.

5. TEAM games, a sport of some sort taht forces you to socialise with new people (your team mates) opens new social oppurtinities which you may enjoy which will aide the healing process,

[Cobra]

I know the feeling. Sometimes I get so uptight I just want to scream at the top of my voice.

Here’s my advice:
Don’t waste your time seeing a counselor. Forget about all that the counseling nonsense that people keep talking about. My father is a counselor and he’s an alcoholic who spends all his time in front of the television. What you need to do is take a long walk. If there is a mountain in the area, try hiking to the top of it. You could go on an adventure and play “follow the power lines to the power plant”. Or just walk without even caring where you’re going. And when you walk, don’t walk like a businessman who has just had 6 cups of coffee. Listen. Look around. Walk at your own pace.

[Trissy]

&#39;Feckin hell Trissy&#33; Dont let somebody with depression read Schopenhauer&#33;&#39;

But they might like his honesty :( It&#39;s like reading Camus, Sartre and Nietzsche with all the positive bits crossed out. Personally I tend to get down when I feel I&#39;ve got a view of life that nobody else around me can see, and it can be reassuring to read philosophers who at times saw things in a very similar way. Referring back to the title of this topic it makes me feel less alone in the midst of my melancholy.

I think many people could find Schopenhauer helpful because he is a sign post to Existentialism (he wasn&#39;t an Existentialist himself but he influenced a pre-Existentialist like Nietzsche). All in all I don&#39;t see how reading &#39;On Suicide&#39; by Schophenhauer is that more dangerous then reading &#39;The Myth of Sisyphus&#39; by Camus, or &#39;On the suffering of the world&#39; is different to reading &#39;Nausea&#39; by Sartre. We all can benefit from recongnising that we have been &#39;condemned to be free&#39;...it is the first step to admitting that we are in control of lives and that we only we can take responsibilty for our lives and actions.


&#39;There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy&#39;

[Pedro Alonso Lopez]

I was more kidding than anything else Trissy and I must say that I&#39;d rather somebody seek solace in a pessimistic philosophy than in the false hope of religion. I guess &#39;On Suicide&#39; and &#39;Essays on Pemissim&#39; are actually quite good in setting up for yourself a realistic view of the world and perhaps making you realise it is not actually abnormal to view the world in such a way.

[Funky Monk]

Hey, when i say Drugs im not just talking about the normal sort. Talk to a doctor and see what he can prescribe you, worked for my sister.

[BOZG]

Seeing as Geist is saying not to read Schopenhauer, it&#39;s best to go against his filthy absurdist ways. =D

[Comrade BNS]

It sounds like you are lonely because you are insecure with yourself...find securtiy within yourself, and be perfectly comfortable with who you are and you&#39;ll never be lonely again&#33; I&#39;ve been where you are, drugs, violence etc.. are definately not the answer, you are merely replacing one negative focus with another....it&#39;s like I don&#39;t have a headache anymore because I&#39;ve mangled my leg... find happiness in yourself and things that don&#39;t fade...for me it was music, art, literature, culture, love, and life...

Comrade BNS

[che's long lost daughter]

Depression is normal but depression that lasts for more than 6 weeks is dysfunctional. In your case, you shouted at a friend and that is already poor impulse control. That is one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder or manic-depressive disorder wherein you have alternate episodes of depression and mania. It would be helpful if you go see a psychiatrist. But that is only if you want to.

[Wenty]

you shouted at a friend and that is already poor impulse control. That is one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder

i don&#39;t agree with this. Shouting at someone is hardly mania is it. People with bipolar do really irratic things. One such example was a postman who decided to quit his job and sell fish tanks door to door.

[Funky Monk]

this looks like a good site to me
Mental Health Help (http://www.hoptechno.com/book34.htm)

Seriously, it at least helps you recognise what you may be going through

[Pedro Alonso Lopez]

Originally posted by [email protected] 8 2004, 01:33 AM
Seeing as Geist is saying not to read Schopenhauer, it&#39;s best to go against his filthy absurdist ways. =D
Damn right&#33;

[BOZG]

I agree with Wenty, there&#39;s hardly enough evidance to say SB47 is bipolar. He doesn&#39;t give a description of massively switching mood swings. Even so, you have to distinguish between both forms of bipolar disorder (I and II) because of the differences in the extremity of them. The shouting could easily be just part and parcel of depression or a form of anger management. I&#39;m not suggesting what SB has or has not because I don&#39;t know him and I don&#39;t know anything about him.

[BOZG]

Geist,

I&#39;m starting a poll calling for the banning of absurdists.

[Pedro Alonso Lopez]

Go for it.

[che's long lost daughter]

I am not saying he is bipolar, it&#39;s just that a behaviour such as that is one symptom.

[BOZG]

That behaviour is common with anyone who suffers from depression.

[pandora]

Originally posted by che&#39;s long lost [email protected] 8 2004, 10:32 AM
Depression is normal but depression that lasts for more than 6 weeks is dysfunctional. In your case, you shouted at a friend and that is already poor impulse control. That is one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder or manic-depressive disorder wherein you have alternate episodes of depression and mania.
Damn we&#39;re going to need a damn big institution to lock up New York City, by your definition the entire city is manic depressive :P
Especially the cab drivers and bike messengers
ie. Sometimes when people tell you you&#39;re crazy you may just need to move around a bit, maybe it&#39;s the society you&#39;re in, ala old man who wouldn&#39;t drink the water.

[DaCuBaN]

...just walk without even caring where you’re going. And when you walk...Listen. Look around. Walk at your own pace...

If you are into substances, try and remove these from your lifestyle for perhaps a week and follow the above guidance... Just forget about everything: life, civilization, capitalism, communism, self preservation: EVERYTHING and just walk.

I do this once every few weeks now, when things start to pile up. It&#39;s amazing how relaxed it can make me. I hope it helps.

[SittingBull47]

I took a 7 hour trip to a city I know. Walked around by myself, walked through the silt mountains. everything. did 120 on the highway. i felt great. I came back later saturday night and hung around with a motley assortment of friends. immediately i began to feel low. It&#39;s obvious i need to leave, and i plan on it. I just have to be by myself for a very long time. hopefully forever.
Geist, what you said about losing friends that don&#39;t share the same views (politically) was right.
I snapped on a friend because I had enough. since then i&#39;ve done it twice, but i&#39;m not bi-polar. I started this topic just to see who else feels (or felt) the same, and it&#39;s good to see others have. i appreciate the advice but i just gotta find what works for me, and i think i have.

[The idealist]

Well done and good luck.
I have the same problem. I once used to have a temper of volcanic proportions, but saw a psychologist who "Cured" me with the usual count to ten etc. treatment.

End of story?? NO.

For god knows how many years I kept my trap shut when I was mad. Perhaps going slightly red, but I controlled it.
Lately however I simply can&#39;t keep it in. One day I feel great, top of the world. The next everything irritates me. I have read up on it and it seems to be one of the symptoms of manic-depression, but even when I say to myself that that is the only cause it still gets worse. I am afraid that it could all pile up on me some day during a class (I am attending an IB gymnasium) and just explode.

The whole world is just piling on top of me, and I can&#39;t take all the terror I see on the news every day. I feel I am drowning in meaninglessness, and I have no light, no goal to swim for.

What can I do?

Got to stop writing this message. It is getting all too depressing.

[Rasta Sapian]

put your politics on the back burner for a while, moderation could be your key

do something new, something physically rewarding this may lead you toward peace with yourself and others

peace

oops I guess you already did, maybe i should have read your last post first ;)

[DaCuBaN]

The whole world is just piling on top of me, and I can&#39;t take all the terror I see on the news every day. I feel I am drowning in meaninglessness, and I have no light, no goal to swim for.


SELL YOUR TELEVISION&#33;

You really don&#39;t need one anyway. Turn off the brainwashing device and pick up a book :)

I promise this will help. Television wil frustrate you with both the overall pettiness of mankind and his complete and utter intolerance of anything and everything

So to counteract, I become intolerant of televisual broadcasts

They&#39;ll get switched off eventually anyway: the broadcast frequency range for television could be FAR better used for data transfer

Open-Air internet rather than open air broadcast. Personally I prefer the idea of the former: and it may yet become a reality.