Any one else here just extremely nihilistic? I wonder which came first. Did my nihilism make me depressed, or did my depression make me nihilistic. Of course when you have both they just feed off each other and make everything worse. The more depressed you are, the more meaningless and empty the world seems. The more you think about how meaningless everything is the more depressed you get.
How do you get out of that though. Especially when you are convinced it is the absolute true, and anyone that believes differently is simply self deluded. I mean I could stand in front of the mirror and tell myself all day that this has meaning, or that is important. I don’t believe it though so I just feel like I am lying to myself or trying to trick myself. Which is just frustrating and annoying. Its like standing there telling myself over and over 2+2=7 no matter how many times I repeat it I will still “know” its wrong. It just seems like that such a basic unquestionable truth that there is no meaning or purpose and nothing matters.
13 comments
It’s a difficult question to answer really. Intellectually, I know that I am sick. I know that my thoughts are just a result of a sickness. The we’re experiencing reality makes it difficult to distinguish that though. Which thoughts are real, and which thoughts are a result of the sickness.
Yea, i guess the question is just because the mind is sick. Does that make the thoughts wrong or false. I mean it just seems completely logical. Just normal happy people never need to take the time to think aboug it or question. They just go through life without havinv to worry or care about it.
Exactly. Part of me thinks that nihilism actually contributes to a cycle. At least for me, my mind is in knots. It has been difficult to make sense of anything really
Yea it definitely contributes to a cycle. It is a very toxic and destructive mindset. It erodes your motivation and desire by stripping away your belief in the value of anything. I would not want to encourage anyone down that path. Even if I believe it is the truth. It is a cold brutal destructive truth.
There is no meaning to life but what we give it. We each live life through our own perspectives.
There is no good or bad. Only perspective. What is good to one is bad to another so which is it really?
There is what we call ‘good’ in everything, there like a diamond waiting for it to be crushed into existence, if only for us to see it.
Yea i do believe that people are capable of creating their own meaning for their own life. Or like with religion you can trick people into believing in the meaning that someone else created. Its just not an absolute meaning. I see it more like a mental trick, you convinced yourself to believe in something that is not real. The trick is better than the reality though and makes life a lot easier.
Let me explain more directly.
Right now the meaning of my existence is to help those who are suffering. The meaning of my existence a few years ago was merely to survive for my daughters sake.
“In the eyes of the beholder…”
I believe there are always questions, even in answers there are more questions. When you stop questioning and accept that one answer given, it’s when you close your world. A closed world is like North Korea, backwards and deteriorating.
Believing that you “know” anything as “truth” in itself is a delusion. We all have blind-spots in our perceptions and our mental library called knowledge. You think you’ve got all the books but there are a few shelves behind that’s collecting dust.
Always question yourself and your feelings, once you stop, ignorance will strangle you.
I couldn’t agree more!
I think meaning/purpose is felt, rather than existing independently of us. But yes, it’s difficult when it fades out. In my case I try to cling on to the parts of me that do find significance in life, even when they’re not as felt. But if they weren’t there at all…well, I guess I wouldn’t be here typing.
The desire to reduce your own suffering is itself a form of purpose. Does it matter to the universe that I’m in psychological or physical pain? No. But it matters to me, necessarily. There are times when the suffering of others matters to me, and times when it doesn’t, and that may provide different purposes. And sometimes positive aspects of life feel meaningful to me, and sometimes they don’t. All I can do is try to balance my actions to respond to the sum of these shifting perceptions of meaning.
I think of this often. I wonder on the origin of life but truth of the matter is your parents procreated and that is why we are alive. I don’t know if your parents know the meaning or origin of life but they were probably like “this feels good” and that’s where you are left off. And baby boomers are your parents probably and they are from men of war who are like “my cock ain’t been touched in years or months, I don’t feel like wearing a condom” and that is how your parents life began.
I’m sorry this is vulgar.
Meaning of life is short to none.
An interesting question is that why humans need meaning? I don’t know the answer. Other animals don’t seem to need it like us.
Evolution.
We’ve already conquered all our basic survival needs so our attention switches focus to a less essential matter. Our species have either become spoiled or we’re on our way to the next stage in evolution: Spiritual awareness.