Emotional pain is difficult to evaluate. My current conceit is that if I could guarantee being free from the regret, longing, & despair that I feel for the rest of my life, I’d probably sacrifice a limb. Maybe not a whole arm, but a hand. And I’m talking hacked off with no anaesthetic, medieval style. That’s probably delusional. If someone were somehow able to really offer me that, I’m sure I would puss out. But it’s hard to quantify. When it gets bad, it seems truly awful. But it’s not like I break down crying in the middle of the street, or scream. I’m kind […]
I find myself constitutionally incapable of making the best of things. No matter how many times I remind myself to focus on doing what I can to improve things, a part of my mind will inevitably fixate on the one thing that is actually impossible for me, that I cannot change. And it’s the only thing that feels meaningful. And the weight of the regret, longing, sadness, it drags me down. And I have to ignore that. Ignore that the one thing that I really want in life is beyond my grasp. Ignore the sadness, longing, regret, despair. And try and function, try and seem […]
Things will only get better if I actively make it happen. And the truth is I don’t have it in me. I don’t have the hope, the ambition, the drive, the energy, the will. All that’s left in me is craving, regret, depression, sadness, resentment. I’m tired all the time. In low-level pain all the time. I don’t talk to anybody, rarely even leave the house or see anybody. I just do my work, eat, rot in front of the computer and occasionally sleep. And have weird mixed up dreams of people I used to know, back when I was still a person.
So nothing will […]
I’m so sick of being this. I hate being “me”. And yet I’m so attached to it, so stuck in my ways. I’m so full of hatred and resentment. I resent anyone with a happy life. Anyone who’s better than me. Anyone that gets to exist without this stuff going round and round in their head. But really, deep down, I just want to not feel this anymore. To be free of it.
But there is no freedom. Freedom would be non-existence. To let go of this self, with all its shame, fear, regret, longing, and return to the earth. And I’m not ready for that […]
I’m still so far from a life that would feel meaningful. Or even doing anything tangible to pursue such a life. Or even maintaining a stable enough mental/emotional state to be capable of planning anything tangible.
All I can bring myself to attempt right now is to reduce the frequency at which I self-destruct. To resist the urge to do something completely counterproductive, just to allow me to briefly feel something that isn’t this. For some kind of distraction from this gnawing banal emptiness where a life should be.
And I fear that may be the most I can ever manage – to slow the rate at […]
I’ve been thinking about the ways my addictive/compulsive behaviours increase my suffering, and some stuff from a video on addiction struck a chord with me. That one of the largest risk factors with addiction is a sense of meaningless in life, a lack of purpose. And I’ve felt that pretty much my entire adult life.
The idea is basically that you need something meaningful to help you deal with negative experiences, to make them seem tolerable. Otherwise you suffer far more than you would from just the experience alone, leaving you more likely to turn to addiction to “fill the gap”. An example of this for […]
My regrets, longing, & cravings wait for me at the end of each day, to remind me that everything is wrong, and sleep is for those with a clean conscience. I’ve ruined my life, over and over again, far past the point of recovery. So far beyond the bounds of morality that normalcy is alien to me. Nothing will ever be ok, ever again. How could it be, when I’ve done these things, and still think about these things.
And I’m not killing myself because I’m afraid. And the only way that fear will ever be overcome is if things get so bad that I fear […]
The evil in me constantly gnaws at my mind. It’s not that I’m afraid I’m going to act on it (even if I had the capacity to), at least not in any real way. It’s that part of me wants to, and that’s one of the few things that feels good. The evil feels good. The rest of me doesn’t. The part of me that’s more moral doesn’t feel good. It’s just sad, and tired, and full of shame. And awareness of the evil provides endless fuel for that shame & self-hatred. Every bad thing I could ever have thought about myself is proved true […]
I have this constant longing for a relationship. And I don’t think I’m capable of being in one. Not just right now, but ever. I don’t think there’s anything I can do to become someone that anyone would want to be with. And that’s the part that really sucks – the hopelessness. When I was young I could tell myself a positive narrative about the things I lacked in life. That I’d grow as a person, overcome my difficulties and get there in the end. And that puts your mind at ease. It allows you to be ok with it. Whereas now I still have […]
I’m so tired of being this. Sad, lost, full of regret and resentment. I don’t want to be this broken thing anymore. It hurts. It’s not an existence that’s worth living. I don’t have it in me to be anything better. There’s too many obstacles, and some of them just can’t be overcome.
I feel like very little focus has been given by society to the question of how to cope with having to give up on one’s deepest needs/desires/longings. The assumption always seems to be that with the right fix, the right help, everything is achievable, for everybody. And I just don’t think that’s the case.
Sometimes, there are things that feel crucially important that you just can’t pursue, without compromising other fundamental needs, or putting the wellbeing of others at risk. And acknowledging that to yourself doesn’t stop the longing for those things. It doesn’t make the pain go away.
Example – a significant part of me deeply […]
Every now and then I get an explicit reminder of what I spend my life trying to deny. That no one will ever be able to accept me, or love me, without me deceiving them about who I am on a fundamental level. That no matter whose company I spend my time in, or who I may share some level of physical intimacy with, I will always feel utterly alone, and isolated. There is no solution for this longing I feel – for acceptance, emotional intimacy, mutual connection. To be actually seen by another human being, and valued. To be able to lower my guard […]
There is nothing for me in this life. Nothing in my day to day existence that I care about enough to make it worthwhile. No future possibilities open to me that seem worth pursuing. And that feels… intolerable. Unacceptable. I don’t know how to live without any positive motivation. And that doesn’t mean I’m going to kill myself. Unless my fear of continuing to live overwhelms my fear of death, I doubt I’ll ever do it. Which means I’ll likely go on existing, growing more and more miserable, bitter, and full of pain.
And contemplating that reality makes it seem even more unbearable. So I desperately […]
I believe in the possibility of life being meaningful, worthwhile, positive. I once felt that way about my own life. I see others living the kind of life I want. Of course you can never tell from the outside, and the grass always seems greener on the other side of the tree. But they seem content. By which I mean; not caught in a constant loop of longing and despair. Not consumed by loneliness, regret, depression. Actively engaged with life, with the world. Pursuing plans, learning, growing, becoming better as people. Functioning far above the minimum necessary for survival.
What I struggle with is that, feeling […]
I spend so much of my time trying to escape from my reality. Especially at night. All I want is for the awareness to go away. The awareness that my life is meaningless, that I will live and die alone. I often take sleeping pills. They work, but they leave me feeling worse the next day, drained of energy and barely able to get out of bed. And my dreams while on them tend to be pretty weird – lots of anxiety. But the alternative is spending hours sitting with my awareness, too tired to divert my mind or focus on anything else. Hour after […]
There’s a kind of mental suffering that’s hard to put your finger on or express, but I guess I’m trying to process that. I’d say one aspect comes from the awareness that you’re not a good person. Not just in terms of your actions, but also your emotions. Your desires. What you want from the world is not good. And you can’t just stop desiring something. That’s not how that works. So you continue to feel the desire, while simultaneously being aware that it’s wrong. And I think as a result you become alienated from yourself on a fundamental level, which is deeply painful. You […]
I’ve tried to express this before, but there’s something absurd about experiencing desires that cannot be satisfied. I can recognise that yearning after these things is making me miserable – that it would be far better for me to let them go. Even that letting go of such things is a necessary condition for any human to be happy and fulfilled in the long term, that they’re ultimately superficial and unnecessary.
My life would be better in so many ways if I just didn’t want the things that I want, or if I didn’t feel the desire so intensely. But if someone were to offer to […]
I spend most of each day lying in a darkened room. I don’t see anybody, or speak to anybody. No one knows I exist. Nobody thinks about me. Apart from close family, no one cares. I feel tired all the time. Broken. I have no drive, no fight, no energy to improve things. I’m defeated.
I still eat. I suppose there’s a deeper level of depression, where you’re completely catatonic and don’t even do the basics to keep yourself alive.
Beyond my parents, who I see once a fortnight, I have nobody. I have none of the social skills you need to build new relationships, and I’m […]
I hate what I am. What I let myself become. But I suppose a part of me also loves it. Otherwise I wouldn’t still be clinging on.
There’s so many things you can do in life, so many things you can be. And I chose this. Maybe not consciously. But still.
Pretty much my entire adulthood, I haven’t really been trying to live. I’ve been too busy running from myself.
Because for all that time, it’s been clear. No matter what I do from this point on, I’ll always be a piece of shit.
So why bother? Why try? Why take care of your health and your body? Why […]
What’s stopping me? Fear of death/attachment to ideas about life. It’s hard to distinguish between the two. What’s so terrifying about an end to this life?
The finality of it? Knowing it’s something that can’t be undone? A final end to all hopes, dreams, plans, concerns. Letting go, of everything. An end to all that the self is, or thinks it is. Maybe that’s what’s terrifying.
Or is it that I’m afraid it won’t be the end? That the things I’ve done in this life will somehow torment me beyond. That the judgement I’ve been running from for so long will finally hit me. No more running, […]