Thanks for having the discussion with me! I didn't mean to offend you, either. I just wanted to take the great things you said and add that medications have their place in getting better, too. I hope you'll stick around in our little community!
No problem, thanks for the correction as well.
I'll stick around, for sure. I navigate the forum through subscribed threads anyway so I'm always bound to return here and see how you guys are doing.
Working a better job doesn't always up and fix you. It's necessary for long term happiness I think, but at worst it can shine a bunch of lights on your problems and become very destructive. Wanting money and sustainability does not fix mental problems, because the actual want isn't real. It's just shit you have to do to not be on the street. Or to satisfy someone else. Or [insert problem here].
The desire comes from within. If people tell me to get a job - I don't end up getting it. If people tell me to socialize - I don't end up doing it. We can't do it for others.
EDIT: By the way, I've been on the street. It's not the death we think it is whatsoever.
Regarding work, it's important and it makes you whole with society (just like school before it, really) it makes it so that you have to get along with people you wouldn't and in some cases get close to them (or not and in that case, since they're weird you'll memorize it and recollect it, never useless), it's a good earth ground connection and it does keeps you busy.
I'm effectively going mad from all of a sudden not having classmates or co-workers, I mean you get to friday and not much happened; but because of that I tend to have an agenda of things to do. This year my resolutions were down to seeing mainstream movies I missed along the years (I never go to the cinema, baring super hero popcorn movies aside), getting to know french cinema/famous french movies and retro hollywood (gotta see Casablanca!), I also plan on reading the Hobbit, Nietzsche, Salinger and Hemingway, oh, and read Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) for sure. I haven't got to do most of it but I'm progressing through it, having that lined out though makes it so that if I'm having a conversation I can say that... that I'm trying to get to those, or that I've seen one of those recently. Having objectives and goals make a human being shine through, being passionate, opinative and/or knowledgeable too, that's what makes us interesting, we're cultural beings after all.
And deep down everyone feels hollow (that's why everyone looks for "other halfs") but we specifically look for people that lead not follow, nobody wants a girl that wants a guy "just so her life is not so boring" (that assumption alone puts you in a position where you have to try quite hard most of the time, instead of being in a position of confort/be yourself). In the end, the truth of the universe is nobody really thinks he's really interesting (unless you're Charly Sheen and you're biwinning), girls certainly don't, but you can make it so you are more satisfied with what you achieved lately, look up for what you still have to do and just generally come across as interesting; anyway, and this is important: nobody is interesting without trying, so you can't stay still... nobody can, but if you're passionate about the things you believe in you can talk about enemas and get attention (that's what nurses do, they talk about poo too, and having to wash morbidly obese people) and it still totally counts (in fact they have quite a legion of fans). Getting there, is a process of work, polish and shining through, but everyone can do it.
Living for work, is useless, the whole point of going there is saving up for other things, making plans to spend that on weekends or vacations, that sort of thing; so one ought to look for the job that feels most fulfilling (or adequate for the goal), but even then, somedays or some tasks will still be a chore, just more doable, but regardless of the pay there are a few things one should never get down to, which is being and feeling abused all the time, not on a corporative way but by your superiors and say nothing back in return (no job is worth being dragged about and used as a scapegoat), and I believe everyone needs to stand up against that, talk it out, fight for respect instead of showing those psychopaths your back.
Also doing work that has no ending in sight can be disastrous for morale and happiness, one thing is something that starts here, ends there; completely different thing is 6 months from now you're still doing the very same thing, like a robot sorting things; and it just get's worse if there's big responsibility involved when you fail, because the more repetitive stuff is, the most prone to uncheckered mistakes it is.
I rather be paid less and had some quality of life; that includes having some time for myself, than having a high paying job that is eating me up inside.
Yes, you can't do it for others, but then again we do everything for ourselves, even the act of crying, most often we're not crying for others, we're crying for what it means to us, it's really human to do so, we're egoistical, and we might as well embrace it. Even when we're doing nothing, we're doing it for ourselves (fear of being hurt, not being accepted, coming across strange, being out of the area of confort), we're just not channeling it properly.
I've never been on the street, but I trust it's an experience like any other. I mean a friend of mine was telling us some other day that he got mugged a few years back and he pissed his pants. He's the popular type and he's coming out with that like he doesn't care. It's all about how you tell it/go about it, if he was ashamed of it he'd never tell, and if someone did know about that word would get about and he'd be hurt. It's all about channeling.
Everything that isn't necessarily good can probably make up a good story, it's experience nonetheless, you just need to use it wether it is to relate with someone later on, to crack some jokes or throw it's weight around. Just try to be positive about it.
I almost lost my driver's licence a few months back, I was pretty shaken up at first... couldn't sleep, had a very accelerated heart rate, stressed out in a major way (being able to drive around is my independence after all; without it I'll refrain to the essential things since public transportation takes so long to get from A to B), towards the end of that vendetta I was already trying to channel it to "well, since I'm going back to learning the whole thing again I have some doubts regarding this and that". The process of going through it again would be nightmare, but one has to look at the brightside; I've decided I never want to go to the gutter again, so being really positive has helped; that's a personality trait though, I try to stray from negative people on my day life, you know the kind that answers the "how you going" into the "the end is nigh, it's all coming down, the government! no jobs, crysis, etc". Lately I don't even enjoy seeing the news if all they're gonna do is be negative.
I wish I could see things that way but the past is a good indicator of the future. The last 9 years were bad the next 9 will be too. Wish I take heart what everyone says here but I still sit here alone feeling like an old loser. I don't see any potential on living this life for another 9 years.
I think I'm tired of everything tired of hoping. I want to sleep and never wake up.
I can relate to that.
I was never in such a deep state, but I remember people trying to confort me and making me snap out of me and me thinking that they simply didn't know what I was going through, they were kinda right, in the sense of "look, at least you have this and that" and trying to channel me up right, but they were going about it the wrong way, which was trying to make me see I didn't have a reason to be like that; having or not is inconsequent, fact is you are going through that, and are going through that alone, because depression is about that. Like every human being you have convictions, the weight of build up too, and we follow them both like a straight line unless we disrupt it; we have to disrupt it sometimes though, because everyone finds some dead ends, or some places to be that are really damaging; so of course nobody can sort you out via a conversation and this whole it gets better might be hard to believe, but you have to change it yourself and I know you can do it.
You are asking yourself why are you alive if nothing fulfills you right now, so think about what you need to snap out of it and keep busy, work on getting better, go out, be nice to strangers (when people look or stare at you try to smile back, people smiling back at you really helps), watch something you've seen years ago that signals some happy memory (I rewatch Disney movies, heh), put on some loud music you like and sing to it out loud, catch some sun on the local park while feeding some pidgeons, it's a process, granted, but even going out at night for a walk and crying in the rain can help (been there, done that, felt stupidly good for some odd reason).
Just make it so that your end goal is feeling better, not going deeper; the road has ups and downs, but a slope is totally worth it if you manage to get out of it; this is like saying there's two ways to go about a scar, "damnit, it's gonna scar" or "hell yeah, scars!", it's a scar, it's never going to go away completely because now you know yourself better and will never forget how it is to despair, but you can conquer it and live to wear it proudly, this is war.
Me and my groups we're doing a difficult energy problem in our lab. And I'm so disappointed in myself because I didn't do anything to help because I was brain dead. I didn't even try since I didn't know where to begin. I'm so useless and dumb, idk why I'm still learning Physics if I can't grasp my instructor's teachings. Even though my group members told me that they felt the same way, they really understand the concept. I'm such burden and I bring them down a lot because of my stupidity. Where do I see myself in 5 years? No where because I can't learn for s***.
What attracted you to physics?
A friend of mine chose a course like that (by like that, I mean that feeling of it being too much to tackle), and it nearly killed him. He tried too hard to keep up, ended up with irritated colon syndrome and a dislocated retina (one condition shielded the other, so where unchecked for quite a while his eyesight was in danger). Sadly irritated colon is for life and has a pretty real impact on your quality of life.
I don't know, but ever since that I look at situations like that as not being worth it, if you feel like you're at disadvantage there can't you try and change courses?
I realize I've been lucky in my life, but I first went to sciences (I was really good at biology) learned I hate how theoric and useless physics and chemistry felt (I enjoy the theorectical part, I can read books about that shit; memorizing formulas not so much)... and so, not being able to go around them I changed to arts.
Consider a career change if you can afford it, you'll lose a year, but you'll never look back.
Also, take pride on that, we're all nothing but a pulp while being brought up, I'm sure you can do other things just fine, just keep looking.
I'll leave this here, because the whole "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" reminds me of
this:
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life.
The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives.
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQlJ3vOp6nI
And that song is very, very good anti-depressant; it's positive and a complete run-through of your possibilities and how the world works/which road blocks you'll find along the way, it's happy though, doesn't judge, gives you the pat in the back to go on, be yourself, make decisions, priorize yourself. Very feel good in a being reborn from the ashes like phoenix kind of way; we're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars! Do dare to look up.

(I gotta tone down the one liners, but I'm trying to make it tongue in cheek here, like a running gag, bear with me)
Well, late-evening entry, but I have to. I'm annoying to pretty much everyone I know. Wish I wasn't, but I am.
What happened, can you elaborate?