Existential Crisis

[Bruce7]

My ongoing depression and anxiety is under control however the ongoing existential crisis is not. I'm no good at self delusion and this is essentially what is suggested I do... nearly everyone starts with the statement 'live is worth living', where as I start with 'is life worth living'.... The outcomes to these 2 questions are vastly different. I know for me the only answer is to walk away from all convention, and attempt to find stillness....... life is futile... life lived in the mind is futile

[white knight]

Hi Bruce, welcome

"Life is futile". Boy, that one struck me right between the eyes as to how we can see life being so...useless to us.

It's true that we humans, due to our intelligence level, know we are going to one day be at the end of our lives. Animals do grieve for their lost love ones, but have no knowledge of the advances we have made.

So that brings us to a choice. Many humans get joy from traditional things...fun, adventure, children, partner, family and achievements. This can come by the way of work, volunteering, holidays, way of life, hobbies, sports and interests. If however, you find all of this mundane then there is a serious flaw that must be tackled. Such a problem needs professional medical help.

I'm not like that. Yes, I have difficulties for your average bipolar 2, depression customer. But I get thrills from my vintage car, making it more comfortable or fixing a small oil leak. I feel a sense of achievement...to a point whereby it is part of my existence. My wife is a large part of the same and my kids are priceless. For years I've strived to get a proper perspective on life because with that, with the priorities in the right order and stimulation present, I'll be ok, satisfied and more relaxed.

Please google the following thread to read about a mans single mindedness for success. Since I met that man in 1982 I've attended motivation lectures and "feel good" movies to keep my positivity in check.

Sometimes we need to identify we have a problem, accept it, then challenge ourselves to get through it, to change. Once we've done that its like a snowball so to continue with more and more challenges we end up more content, more confident and more full of life.

Topic: 30 minutes can change your life- beyondblue

Also google "Maharaji the perfect instrument" and many more youtube videos of his.

Tony WK

[Bruce7]

I appreciate your attempt Tony.

You come from the mainstream perspective that 'life is good and I must therefore find a way to convince myself I'm enjoying life'.

The question ...'Is life good'.... is an entirely different proposal to 'Life is good'.

I doubt this will go much further, but, this organisation (as do many other well intentioned services) supports a cliche and not a philosophy... It's well intentioned and out-dated..... In some ways it reminds of last century church support provided for gay men... 'you may think your gay but your just ill....Read and follow gods word and you'll get better'.

Not me mate.. if I see reality staring me in the face, I no longer indulge in prescription drugs, counselling or morning-tea... I confront reality head-on, and accept the consequences.....

[white knight]

Bruce,

Mainstream? Life wasn't good for most of my life and then I got a jolt from a motivation lecture. It fully changed my life hence my reply and the thread link.

As I said, I think some professional help is needed here.

Sorry I couldn't help. What was your desired reply from this thread?

Tony

[Dorian_Gray]

Hi Bruce7

Is life Good - is a relative question, it depends on the perspective of the individual being asked it. Now in a broad sense if you’re asking are the biological process that constitutes life
(cell replication etc.) relative to non-living things good, the answer is basically no, life is a chemical process, it is neither good nor bad. You sound like a deep thinking person, so I’m
sure you understand that good and bad are relative for different people, and do not likely exist independent of a sentient being that classifies things as good and bad.



I think I get where you’re coming from, it’s one thing to control depression/anxiety, another to answer why even bother with doing that in the first place. I would say life has essentially no meaning, to be good, from my view is to enable me to experience pleasure/happiness in a way that I find fulfilling – essentially a kind of hedonism. Alas I cannot obtain said enjoyment, hence a depressive state which is really frustrated desire, something that counsellors etc. fail to account for, spruiking instead lines about finding contentment with what I already have. At some point due to ageing I will not be able to obtain said enjoyment
at all, so at that point it ceases to be possible for life to be good for me, what I’ll do when that happens I’m not sure, but have a fairly solid guess.

Essentially so long as life is not the way I want it to be it is not good and like you I will not be convinced by other or try to deceive myself it is.

I doubt this will help much, but hopefully it at least offers a brief perspective form someone else who asks the same questions as you.

[Nebulous]

You're not alone in looking around you and wondering why daily existence should be worth anything.

Logically speaking, you may never decide that purpose exists. In my experience, at least, trying to argue with the universe is often a futile endeavor and the best strategy for dispelling an existential crisis is usually disengaging with logic altogether. Either that, or adopting a new philosophy, ie hedonism as mentioned above, idealism, psychicalism, even theism, etc (which I haven't done). If you are uncomfortable with your current state of mind, why not consider reassessing the values which seem to underpin it in the first place?

Another way to disengage is just to overload your mind with pleasant sensations; in other words to throw yourself in with hedonism without examining it beforehand. The mind tends to find itself at rest when it is constantly undergoing experiences that make it happy. Exercise, join groups, take walks in the park, do sports, read - even find a philosophy club and raise the issue of existentialism, if it would be of any interest. The key is to find something which is enjoyable to you - everyone has hobbies - and rewarding your mind until it wanders away from the subject at hand and quits arguing about meaning and purpose and every other dead-end philosophical question that plagues us.

I hope this helps at all. Existentialism seems like a neglected topic in the conversation on depression, and it is worth asking how our understanding of the world and god etc. impacts our mood since, with you and I at least, it seems to have such a great effect.

[c_]

I read as mainstream also. Heterosexual male with wife and kids provides a certain perspective.

When your life doesn’t look like that it affords you much more time to ruminate about the futility of it all. There are less forces motivating you to keep moving forward.

I could easily vanish for a month and other than my mundane workplace wondering where I was, nobody would notice. How meaningful and existence is that...

[Peppermintbach]

Hi Bruce7 and all,

I know that I’m very late to this thred (probably too late). But I wanted to say that I have personally really enjoyed following this conversation.

In particular, some of Nebulous’ words struck a chord with me.

Nebulous said:

Logically speaking, you may never decide that purpose exists. In my experience, at least, trying to argue with the universe is often a futile endeavor and the best strategy for dispelling an existential crisis is usually disengaging with logic altogether. Either that, or adopting a new philosophy, ie hedonism as mentioned above, idealism, psychicalism, even theism, etc (which I haven't done). If you are uncomfortable with your current state of mind, why not consider reassessing the values which seem to underpin it in the first place?

Nebulous also said:

Existentialism seems like a neglected topic in the conversation on depression, and it is worth asking how our understanding of the world and god etc. impacts our mood since, with you and I at least, it seems to have such a great effect.

Great food for thought in my opinion.

Thank you so much to all for sharing your thoughts. I have gained from this thread.

Pepper