5 ms·

I'm really sorry. I can relate a little about the work anxiety, but a lot about the existential dread. While I don't have any pat answers for you, I'd like to

I'm really sorry. I can relate a little about the work anxiety, but a lot about the existential dread. While I don't have any pat answers for you, I'd like to encourage you about the existential anxiety you feel. If my personal experience is anything to by, you have a few reasons for hope on that front. First, unless you've thoroughly explored a lot of world views, you can hold out hope that you'll find one that you conclude is true and which gives ultimate meaning to your time on earth. Second, in my experience the acuteness of existential dread doesn't stay in the foreground forever. At the very least you might find relief by distracting yourself with video games, good movies, etc. But with some effort you can develop friendships that buoy your spirits and take your focus away from yourself. I hope you play the long game on this. Having been in a similar place as you, I found that life can indeed get much better.

hntemp190912 7y ago
I've already put the effort into developing friendships... I moved back to my childhood home where I'm close to family and many of my life-long best friends. I see them all the time now. It doesn't matter. None of it is making me think life is worth it at this point. So what, so I get to see family and friends? Then what? I go back to bed and want to die again. My world view is mostly rooted in Camus's writing on the myth of Sisyphus. There's no point to any of it, life is absurd, but the daily struggles I go through are supposed to be enough to fill my heart. Until they aren't any more, and any way out seems better than repeating the same shit day in, day out, where days blur together and I'm treading water until I die. My thoughts aren't on my existential dread 100% of the time, but they seem to be my baseline. They're what I return to when things get quiet and I'm trying to sleep. When I fail at a project and I have to start over. When the weed wears off. When I wake up. When I'm not actively distracting myself.
- DoofusOfDeath 7y ago
  I'm sorry. I hope you can take comfort in my experience that this unhappiness doesn't necessarily last.
- sah2ed 7y ago
  I strongly recommend you seek out therapy in some form. Heck, even something like using this free service [0] where you could offload to a stranger could help lift the enormous burden you are feeling and help reset your currently gloomy perspective about life. Take care of yourself. 0: https://www.7cups.com/ https://www.7cups.com/
- carapace 7y ago
  Two things: This too shall pass. You can be happy for no reason at all. HTH
  - DoofusOfDeath 7y ago
    > You can be happy for no reason at all. I can't presume to speak for the OP, but a statement like that might not help. (I don't mean you shouldn't have posted it; just that it may not have the positive effect on the OP that you're hoping for.) For some people with existential dread, the "no reason at all" aspect is the exact basis of their unhappiness. It's the sadness of nothing, ultimately, mattering in any satisfying sense. I'm not sure everybody can relate to this kind of sadness. It's definitely near the pinnacle of Lazlo's hierarchy of needs; I'm guessing it figures into his "transcendence" category.
- mikelyons 7y ago
  One must imagine Sisyphus happy in his toil.

hntemp190912 7y ago

I've already put the effort into developing friendships... I moved back to my childhood home where I'm close to family and many of my life-long best friends. I see them all the time now. It doesn't matter. None of it is making me think life is worth it at this point. So what, so I get to see family and friends? Then what? I go back to bed and want to die again. My world view is mostly rooted in Camus's writing on the myth of Sisyphus. There's no point to any of it, life is absurd, but the daily struggles I go through are supposed to be enough to fill my heart. Until they aren't any more, and any way out seems better than repeating the same shit day in, day out, where days blur together and I'm treading water until I die. My thoughts aren't on my existential dread 100% of the time, but they seem to be my baseline. They're what I return to when things get quiet and I'm trying to sleep. When I fail at a project and I have to start over. When the weed wears off. When I wake up. When I'm not actively distracting myself.

DoofusOfDeath 7y ago
I'm sorry. I hope you can take comfort in my experience that this unhappiness doesn't necessarily last.
sah2ed 7y ago
I strongly recommend you seek out therapy in some form. Heck, even something like using this free service [0] where you could offload to a stranger could help lift the enormous burden you are feeling and help reset your currently gloomy perspective about life. Take care of yourself. 0: https://www.7cups.com/ https://www.7cups.com/
carapace 7y ago
Two things: This too shall pass. You can be happy for no reason at all. HTH
- DoofusOfDeath 7y ago
  > You can be happy for no reason at all. I can't presume to speak for the OP, but a statement like that might not help. (I don't mean you shouldn't have posted it; just that it may not have the positive effect on the OP that you're hoping for.) For some people with existential dread, the "no reason at all" aspect is the exact basis of their unhappiness. It's the sadness of nothing, ultimately, mattering in any satisfying sense. I'm not sure everybody can relate to this kind of sadness. It's definitely near the pinnacle of Lazlo's hierarchy of needs; I'm guessing it figures into his "transcendence" category.
mikelyons 7y ago
One must imagine Sisyphus happy in his toil.