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/lit/ - Literature

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3416904 No.3416904 [Reply] [Original]

How does one get over existential crisis and the accompanying depression?

>> No.3416911

Suicide solves problems, don't let anyone tell you different.

>> No.3416916

You're not having an existential crisis, you are just a teenager. Give it a few years, and read moar.

>> No.3416928

Time and hindsight mostly. Those are impossible to conceive of when you're in the thick of it though, unfortunately.

Just remember that depression:
- colours your perspective in a way that is impossible to detect or guard against, making everything seem far worse, more bleak, and less hopeful than it is
- can be triggered by existential angst without being related to it

I went through massive existential angst for months but only with hindsight did I realize that a lot of plain ol' meaningless depression and disillusionment over other, mundane things was riding on it and making it impossible to think straight.

Intellectually you need to give yourself time to gestate and develop your own philosophy and ideas. So really all you can do for your mandatory adolescent/twentysomething existential crisis is ride it out. The next one will go down way easier.

>> No.3416930

>>3416916
Yeah that's right. Now fuck off retard.

>> No.3416939

by constructing your own hodge-podge of eastern philosophies

>> No.3416955

>>3416904
Just become a romantic like Rousseau and it all seems fine. Just ignore his political ideas, stick to the state of nature and aesthetic beauty stuff

>> No.3416965

You watch this lecture by the genius Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. You won't comprehend it at first and possibly dismiss it based on your ignorance but if you give it a try and even watch it a second time and watch his other lectures. Its well worth the effort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwHNPMUyU

>> No.3416972

realize that the world having no inherent objective meaning or purpose to it isn't necessarily a bad thing. You're alive anyway, so try to enjoy it some times and do things that you think will make you happy. You can make your own subjective purpose for your life and who really gives a shit if it's not the most noble thing or other people disapprove? You're the only one in charge of your life.

>> No.3416977

>How does one get over existential crisis and the accompanying depression?

by getting a real job and having sex.

>> No.3416995

>>3416904
Accept jesus as your lord and saviour. Or kill yourself.

>> No.3417212

>>3416904
Quit your job and/or education, embrace a hellenistic philosophy of choice.

>> No.3417495

the problem is life, the solution is obvious.
but I refuse to die (actually it's not me, it's my survival mechanism that keeps me going), I rather embrace the absurd and live for the lulz, that means I become an outcast of society ('cause obviously going to work takes to much effort for something I don't really care about) and live as a recluse at my parents abode.

>> No.3417752

>>3417495
>not living for the lulz on your own without working
>not living in paradise

>> No.3417755

>>3416904
Kierkegaarde OP.

>> No.3417763

Read all of the Camus.

>> No.3417771

I often wonder why I do this to myself, question existence only to come to the inevitable conclusion that it's useless. I remind myself that, even though life's difficult and pointless, I still need to get laid, finish A Song of Ice And Fire, take a road trip cross country with friends, and write a good fiction novel. So there's that.

>> No.3417772

>>3416904
Ayn Rand

>> No.3417778

>>3416904
>>3416904
>How does one get over existential crisis and the accompanying depression?
By embracing it.

>> No.3417785

>>3417778
I tried that once; I went a little bit crazy. Not fun.

>> No.3417791

You honestly only have yourself to blame if you believe that an "existential crisis" and "depression" are real things that you can actually suffer from.

>> No.3417846

>>3417785
Life's tuff.

>> No.3417874 [DELETED] 

>>3416916
I'm 26

>> No.3417893 [DELETED] 

>>3417778
easy to said not that easy to do

>> No.3417900

>>3416904

You don't. You just get tired of fighting against all other idiots and you either conform or you shoot yourself.

As they say: there is only the barrel of the gun or the cross.

>> No.3417904

>>3417900
You can also withdraw and become autonomous.

>> No.3417919

>>3417904

Even if you go and live in the woods you would still have not solve the problem of determining of what you live for.

The fact is that there is no answer and cannot be an answer.

>> No.3417926

>>3417919
live for the sake of living

>> No.3417929

>>3417926

Well that's the solution, you go on and then you kill yourself when you don't feel like it anymore.

>> No.3417937

>>3416904

Drugs.

Lots and lots of em. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

>> No.3417938

>>3417937
Best post ever.

>> No.3417942

>>3417929
I don't think I would ever kill myself, when your alive you can always hope something will happen to you and you'll become not bored, but if your dead there is nothing

>> No.3417949

>>3417937
Don't forget fucking.

You gotta have a lot of fucking with a side-dish of drugs.

>> No.3417959

>>3417763
Read Camus and embrace that everything is meaningless and absurd. Pissed off by all the shallow pop culture bullshit going on around you? Fuck it. Embrace that it will always be around and accept it for it what it is and that you can't change it. Everyone around you showing signs of mental retardation? Who cares? Live how you would regardless of what people around you do or say. Some will respect you for it, some wont. It doesn't matter either way.

>> No.3417960

>>3417949
>>3417937
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3vNaca7c

>> No.3417967

>>3417942

>but if your dead there is nothing

Oh come on, we can be a little more creative than that. You don't have to follow any corny religious bullshit, but at least put a little more thought into something like your ultimate fate. Given an infinite amount of time, you'll eventually regain awareness of yourself in one form or another eventually and you won't experience the in-between because nonexistence won't register as an experience.

>> No.3417984

>>3417967
I mean I'm not going to rule it out because anything is possible, but I don't think there is any reason to assume that my consciousness will exist in any way after my body is dead, but it is a neat thought.

>> No.3417985

>>3417942

Well in limited amount. Most lives are pretty predictable. I mean once you had a hot woman, a good meal, have a puppy and did drugs that';s pretty much all of the experiences you are going to get.

All in between can be easily imagined.

The other side is that you are gonna have to work for that mediocrity. Work hard. 8 hours a day minimum. Some people work 10 or 12 hours a day. Some have multiple jobs just to get enough money to get to the end of the month.
And with time you are going to get old, you are going to get more bolder and working is going to harder, but you are still going to have to work, and there is no way out because by the time we are going to be old retirement plans will be non existant because retirement ill be an excessive cost on society.

So you will have to work still your 8 or 10 hourse a day hoping that by now you have not been substituted by someone younger, because once you are old and you get fired no one wants to hire you again. So you are still gonna have to work that time for one simple reason: if you stop working you lose your insurance and if you lose your insurance you can't afford your healthcare costs.

So you work and you work until one day you finally die.

You see, at one point it gets worthless to live.

>> No.3418039

>>3417985
yeah I get all that, I guess my hope is that I will find something that I like enough that i could do for 8 hours a day without wanting to blow my brains out

>> No.3418042

>>3417984

Likewise, there isn't any reason to assume that your consciousness won't exist after your body dies. We aren't terribly knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff, but most of the logically inclined seem to gravitate towards believing permanent nonexistence above all else for no apparent reason other than it being the most blunt, obvious answer.

If you can go through your life happily enough with this belief, then by all means continue- if there happens to be anything other than, well, nothing, you'll be pleasantly surprised on innumerable levels and I wouldn't want to cheat you out of that.

But if the idea of nonexistence leaves you as a miserable fuck who sees no value in anything because of it, then you should probably pick up something a tad more positive.

>> No.3418053

>>3418042
I don't think about it all that much really, I'm more bothered by how retarded society is and the way people act than actually thinking about how none of it means anything.

>> No.3418054

>>3418039
Or you could go outlaw lifestyle and ride the rails/backpack across Europe/squat abandoned buildings/live in a Buddhist commune/whatever. There are plenty of alternative lifestyles, it's just that most people don't consider them.

>> No.3418056

>>3418053
see
>>3417959
>>3417763

>> No.3418072

>>3418054
i think about those things but i just find it more plausible that i would end up a bum eating from soup kitchens asking for spare change than actually sustaining a living backpacking across europe

>> No.3418080

>>3418039

Well unless you are incredibly lucky or you invent your job or you have the right personality it won't happen.

Jobs that pay a lot like investment banking nobody likes them. They are mind numbing boring. Same thing with the most technical tech jobs. They are just highly specialized paper work.

More intesting jobs like being a researcher or working in show business are all about luck, connection, networking and politics. As a researcher especially a lot of it goes into getting funds for your research and a lot it depends on what is the fashion of the moment. Spent your whole life studying a field that was very popular and suddenly is out of fashion? Sucks for you, no funds for you. You have very good and well argued ideas but no one to publish them? Sucks for you. You publish them but no one reads the article or cites you because that's not something they find useful in their research? Sucks for you and you are probably gonna lose your tenure.

Everything else is just the same action repeated over and over. You just wake up, you shower, you seat on a chair, you reply to emails and you consider yourself lucky that at least you are not doing something excessively manual. You fight the boredom and you go back home. One to two hours commute. One hour for food. One hour for hygene. One hour to dress and breakfast. And all you have is four or three hours free time for youself. That's what your life will boil down to for all your existence: two to three hours a day.

>> No.3418090

>>3418054

People that live like that usually do it with daddy's money.

Usually you regret it when at 35 you start having health problems and cannot afford medical assistance What are you gonna do then? Look for a job? And when they are gonna ask you what you did till now what are you gonna say?

Some regret it even before when they realize that no woman wants to get near them and the few that do are disgusting or/and diseased.

>> No.3418095

>>3418080
well maybe ill get lucky, if not ill do something else, like my cousin never made it in music so he sold all his shit and bought a van and a sailboat and lives off of both of them only working when he wants to or needs the money

>> No.3418119

>>3418090
The thing is is that killing yourself never stops being an option. If you're thinking about suicide already then why not experience everything fully. If shit looks bleak at 35 then at least you had fun for a while.

Also, there are the Kerouac fanboys who do it on daddy's money, but you can just as easily do it on no money whatsoever. It's a matter of getting over the idea that you're 'above' doing certain things, like dumpster diving or shoplifting.

>> No.3418123

>>3416916
>Time and hindsight mostly. Those are impossible to conceive of when you're in the thick of it though, unfortunately.


I have an midlife existential crisis

>> No.3418124

>>3416904
>Depression
You'll move past that.

I'm an existential optimist.

I might get shit on for this, but I don't care. Life's like the game Minecraft. Sure, you can dick around and kill zombies for a little while, maybe wander the landscape, but it's much more fun to build something. You might start building with no idea where it's going, but eventually you'll start getting ideas and start setting goals, and once you've completed your masterpiece, be it an expansive castle, a roller coaster, or a golden phallus, it doesn't matter. You can gaze upon it and be proud of what you've done.

Of course, some would argue that because what you've done is absolutely meaningless, that it was stupid and wasteful for you to put the time and effort in, and that the only proper decision is to not play the game at all. But those people are boring and pessimistic. The truth is, it feels fulfilling to have done that. And even if it is just a feeling, you should be more than happy to indulge yourself in that feeling, because nothing matters. The fact that everything you've just done is meaningless doesn't matter, it's brought you joy.

By doing this and trying to spread the joy of whatever you've created, or whatever you've done with your life, to others, you create something absolutely beautiful. And even if it's meaningless, goddamn does it feel good.

>> No.3418129

>>3418119
not that guy but, how else could you get money and food? i don't think you could solely live off of dumpster diving and shoplifting

>> No.3418130

>>3416904
Reading Camus completely, calmly and focusing on what the author means with single facts and acts.

>> No.3418136

>>3418124
You're damn right you will get shat on for dat.

I believeth sir you are making things up.

You know in reality, meaning isn't worthless. You're just a socialist.

Furthermore, your beliefs are unfounded and are based upon slave morality.

I also believe that observations trump stupidity. Thus lulz is the meaning of life. To get a rise out of an idiot is the most supreme task of mankind. But see the person has to be an idiot, you can't imagine it.

but see your just an imaginary optimist.

I WILL MAKE IT MY LIFE MISSION TO CRUSH YOUR PASSIONS!

FEAR ME BECAUSE I AM DA BATMAN!

>> No.3418137

>>3418129
sir u r also a nihilist

BUT DONT WORRY I WILL FIGHT THE HORDES AND DEFEAT THEM SINGLE HANDEDLY FOR I AM ZARATHUSTRA!

>> No.3418144

>>3418137
what from that post would indicate to you that im a nihilist?
>I am a nihilist

>> No.3418145

>>3418136
I've no idea what the fuck you're on about.

Like, at all.

>> No.3418151

>>3418124

It's not true you don't move past that.

What I feel bad is that people like you don't see how their "little project" is fueled by the suffering of countless people

>> No.3418152

>>3418145
Oh dear sir, I am speaking about the impending Nihilistic doom.

You know the one that is the destruction of all moral values and basically the total annihilation of the world as we know it.

This moral destruction comes from optimist trying to assert their morality upon the rest of the world.

but wait it gets better, these optimistic socialists are out to make the world a flat and boring place. There is nothing more evil than a nihilistic socialist.

>> No.3418161

>>3418151
Nice try troll, admit it. You want all of us to believe in nihilism and thus kill yourselves and become an hero's just so that you can laugh at our expense.

Well that's not going to happen today sir. maybe tomorrow but not today while I can help it.

Furthermore, people suffer due to ignorance and not choice. Unless it's a child born into a poor family, but then you are causing their suffering by ignoring them and wasting your time on a message board.

>> No.3418164

>>3418144
ha u just said it again, u crazy nihilist.

>> No.3418167

>>3418164
if you aren't a nihilist youre the crazy one

>> No.3418169

>>3418167
At least I understand grammar.

>> No.3418170

>>3418167
yeah you want to trick me into killing myself just so that you can laugh at my expense. Nice try pal, not going to happen, not today.

Furthermore I think you're ad hominem is uncalled for.

>> No.3418171

>>3418151
Wrong.

You can say that you hurt other people with your project, but that's wrong depending on the project.

Aspiring to publish a poem hurts nobody. Aspiring to develop more efficient sources of energy hurts nobody.
Aspiring to do charity work hurts nobody.

Not everybody just aspires to get a 9-5 job and a wife. Of course, we don't all meet our aspirations, but the very worst thing that could happen is that we fail.

>> No.3418175
File: 44 KB, 500x415, blizzard.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3418175

>this entire thread

>> No.3418176

>>3418161

No attempt at trolling.

I'm just pointing out that that guy solution is not dissimilar from the british nobility saying that all is fine in the world while he attends his garden.

It's easy when you have a garden and a priviledged position but that does not make the world any less of a horrid place.

>> No.3418179

>>3418152
Mate, I've still no idea what the fuck you're on about.

I didn't mention morality anywhere in here.

In fact, I'm not a moral nihilist.

And your posts make no sense. Why do you keep saying I'm a socialist. I was talking about buggaring minecraft and choosing to be happy.

From where do you draw your conclusions?

>> No.3418181

>>3418171
Yes but you're obviously lieing to me. Admit it, here is what's wrong with your argument

1. a 9/5 job encourages traffic jams which encourage road rage which encourage deaths on the road

2. a 9/5 job encourages driving a car to work unless you live in the city and even then your economic plan runs on gas and if its not gas then it is oil that you're after.

Admit it, you are one crazy son of a bitch trying to get everyone killed. Don't kill yourself like that one dude in asshole topia

>> No.3418189

>>3418179
>
Hahahahaha, you fail at trolling. Oh no ,you're a moderator.

you have a purple identity thus I don't debate with you unless you retain that identity. Because purple isn't the same as green.

>> No.3418192

>>3418171
The fact that you can have what you call "a middle class life" is due to the fact that 90% of the world is slaving away to sustain our lifestyle.

If you have the time to publish poetry is because you are living on the back of slaves.

You might not really care, but going "hoh, the solution to life problems is to have your little hobby" is kinda of a silly attitude. Especially because the slavers of today may be the slaves of tomorrow.

>> No.3418197

>>3418179
also morality is only absent in an empty vacuum in space. what this means is that value judgements are every man's game unless they are non existent.

Thus I turn my head side ways to look at the computer screen and I'm like huh, what are you trying to say dear moderator?

>> No.3418199

>>3418181
I don't think you got what I was saying with my post.

I was listing a 9-5 job as a weak aspiration.

I admit, it is difficult to live without at the very least funding somebody who's hurting somebody else, but all we can do is our best to change things. We can try our hardest to become more aware as consumers, we can try our hardest to be safe drivers and avoid deaths (which by the way, don't happen in traffic jams, but more generally at low traffic intersections. Traffic jams frequently involve little fender benders, but in the end, all that's left smarting is your wallet.)

You just have to work to try and make the net good you do for the world outweigh the net bad.

To be honest, I still didn't really understand your post.

Why don't I understand what anybody in this thread is talking about. Am I just that fucking thick?

>> No.3418200

>>3418192
hahaha that's partially true and partially false. See technology is replacing stupid people so that one day we will basically have very few slaves and a class system composed of mostly stupid people with the intelligent on top.

Admit it, rhetorical materialism will never die, some people will always be slaves to their passions.

>> No.3418206

>>3418199
>anybody
oh well see a man named Siddartha Gautama once found the way to end suffering and now I am preaching it in the name of the lulz.

I am lulzburger or martin luther aidzburger.

>> No.3418212

>>3418145
admit it moderator, you have a really boring job. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh, you guys are pretty funny but pretty boring at the same time. Don't ya get it?

Only people with autism can be amused by a block of wood for hours on end.

>> No.3418218

>>3418080
hahahaha you sir are a master troll.

Do what you love, ignore the derelicts telling you otherwise. Oh no wait you are that derelict unless you aren't trolling someone for self esteem issues.

>> No.3418228

>>3418169
atleast i dont care enough to give a shit

>> No.3418250

>>3418129
>i don't think you could solely live off of dumpster diving and shoplifting
You could, but depending on how personable you are, people are willing to spend a few bucks on a meal for you once in a while. Supermarkets, especially high end ones, throw out more than enough shit to feed an African village, for no other reason than a brown spot on an apple, a dent in a can of peas, bread that didn't sell on the day it was made, or holiday cake that was still around after the holiday.

>> No.3418251

>>3418170
why would i be tricking you into killing yourself

>> No.3418253

>>3418200
I'm talking about now.

But even in the future unless you get a socialist society the economy is going to be base on producing a large number of people that are going to be excluded as useless. In the way that now poor are necessary tomorrow the vast number of useless people will be necessary for the economy.

Also, intelligence is not a good indicator of success. A good indication of success is how successful were your parents. And intelligent parents don't necessarily have intelligent children.

>> No.3418258
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3418258

"Existential crisis" is kind of a broad classification.

If you were expecting some kind of blanket remedy, I'm afraid you're out of luck.

Aspiring to a perspective that transcends self seems to a step in the right direction, though.

And, as a rule, 4chan probably isn't the best place to look for deliverance.

>> No.3418259

>>3418212
That's a pretty weak statement for a man who claims to preach Buddhism.

I'll admit to having a poor understanding of Buddhism, but it's my understanding that the idea is that all life is suffering, and that the only way to escape the suffering is to reach enlightenment.

Well, is not one way to escape the suffering to realize that everything is meaningless and learn to smile reguardless of what happens? We may all be living suffering lives, but we don't have to be miserable about it. We all have to chop wood, and carry buckets of water, but some of us can do it with a smile on our face. And some of us even go beyond, and try to lighten the loads of those around us by guiding them towards this same conclusion.

What's wrong with that?

>> No.3418260

>>3418250
im not very personable, im afraid to become homeless because i dont think i have even the motivation to beg for food

>> No.3418266

stop being a humongous faggot, that will solve the problem

>> No.3418269
File: 40 KB, 400x343, 1273791794931.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3418269

Kierkeegardian "demonic rage" will restore functioning, for a time. It may still result in suicide.

>> No.3418271

Read "Manalive" by GK. Chesterton. You can find it for free on Gutenburg.

>> No.3418277

>>3418253
>
Hey that is the most biased thing I have ever read.

>> No.3418281

>>3418260
You don't have to beg as long as you're somewhat clever. As I said, living of the excess of society is easier than it sounds.

The people you usually see begging aren't half as unfortunate as they make it seem. For instance, there's a guy who parks in the parking lot at my work, walks across the street to the intersection, and stands there begging for three hours straight everyday. This is not before he smokes a joint and drinks a coffee in his CAR. He's even got a friend that he alternates shifts with. He's not unfortunate, he's just lazy and has found out that you can make a decent amount of money by standing near a retail plaza, writing a sob story on a piece of cardboard, and putting on a depressed face. I've watched him for extended amounts of time and he gets at least two people to give him money every time there's a red light.

Did I mention they're both morbidly obese?

>> No.3418286

>>3418277
How so?

>> No.3418295

>>3418269
Kierkeegard can go take a shovel and shove it up his book's bong hole! And then he can be like wiki wiki weeeeeeeee!

Because a real KIKENGARD is a wikier

>> No.3418299

>>3418286
Admit it, I don't have to take credit for my own work because I can leech off of other people in my socialist click. Sounds very biased to me, I bet you want to become king of America too

>> No.3418316

>>3418299
That's not what I wrote. Read it again.

>> No.3418325

>>3418316
no thanks you sir, I prefer to molest my cat and rape it and then film then present that film on youtube than speak to you and feed the trolls even more.

>> No.3418330

>>3418325
link pls

>> No.3418331

>>3418316

I am so hip weeeee ooooooo weeeeeee oooo wee.lolz.

Silly troll, when will you ever learn.

>> No.3418333

>>3418299
Mate, I think you might be having a schizophrenic episode.

I know you probably don't trust or believe me, but you might want to seek some sort of therapy in the near future.

To be honest, you're speaking nonsense. Absolute nonsense. You're very incoherent, even thought it seems like there might be some ideas hiding underneath your incoherency.

That's all I'm gonna say on the subject. Best of luck.

>> No.3418339

>>3418333

Sir what the fuck are you writing? I can't read it. I am very offended by your blacking everything out.

>> No.3418358

>>3418339
The government doesn't want to know

>> No.3418385

>>3418358
lel

>> No.3418397
File: 1.07 MB, 2048x1366, 1356028527927.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3418397

we've been over this already, lit.

>> No.3418408

>>3417763
seconding this

>> No.3418411

>>3418397

Fun!

>> No.3418917

: D bi-daily existentialism thread. Good.

For you knowledge it's not the existential crisis you want to get over, only the depression.

>> No.3419148

>>3418917
Doesn't existential crisis ('crisis') per definition denote some sort of problem?

>> No.3419270

>>3419148

I see what you're saying.

From how I view it the crisis comes from ineffable nature of existence. You may call it a problem. It is a problem of sort if one thinks metaphysical questions are to be solved. What I mean by not getting over the crisis is that only way to get over it is to build a mental framework to deal with the 'problem'. By doing this you're not in search for truth in my opinion as this framework assumes things you cannot know. Take buddishm, christian existentalism or even the idea of creating subjective meaning. You simply cannot be sure in any of your assumptions.

Because of our innablity to solve the fundamental mysteries we will be always in a state of crisis unless we adpot a quietist philosophy to cure our anxieties. So it's not whether we want to get over the crisis or not. There's only one way to do it which in my opinion as said is not in acceptance with the true nature of things.

>> No.3419463

>>3419270
you are talking about resignation? accepting no matter what? or just ignore the whole thing?

for what I've seen here on /lit/ there're two kind of people who touch this absurdism theme: those who come from a sad/depression state and which make them ask self-questions and entry in a blocking state of mind and those who accept absurdism as life as it is (those are not very frequent)

there are also those who troll, they superior beings bla bla bla bla. my guess is that these class ignore the whole thing

>> No.3419537

ITT: ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas ideas

>> No.3419577

test

>> No.3419577,1 [INTERNAL] 

>>3416965
>genius
top kek b'cko