I’ve been on a slow but steady decline for the past several years. I don’t move at all, barely leaving my room let alone the house; I’ve taken to eating shit I order out instead of cooking meals myself; I don’t get involved with any local orgs besides sending dues every month; I haven’t read a book in months; I regularly fail to perform bare minimum hygiene. The only reason I’m able to keep alive at all is because I haven’t moved out of my parents’ house, burdening them with helping me. It would be understandable if I was living hand to mouth and had barely any free time, but I am one of the small percent of burgers who isn’t a month away from destitution and I have more than enough free time. Not to mention I receive no shortage of help.
Since I can’t blame my material circumstances, I can only conclude that I am this way because I always refuse to take personal responsibility. I know that changing myself so that I can be, at bare minimum, not a drain on society is going to take a lot of work, work that I always put off due to cowardice. Idealist as it is, I feel like I have some innate metaphysical trait that makes me this way, and the entirety of my failure to pick myself up is due to a moral failing on my part and nothing more.
How do I force myself to unfuck myself so that I can actually be useful for revolution instead of yet another useless first world lotus eater?
You’re being extremely hard on yourself here; I say so because I struggle with the same thoughts and the same issues. Have you considered that you might have some mental health issues going on that could use therapy or treatment? Or that you might be neurodivergent? I’m autistic with bipolar disorder, and perhaps adhd. I believe that if it was a moral failing on your part. You wouldn’t actually be so disturbed by the difficulty you have in applying yourself. People who don’t care, just don’t care imo.
I have an extremely hard time due to these things. My executive functioning is pretty fucked. Motivation is something I just don’t possess, to the point of not even being able to leave the house even if it’s to do things I normally like to do. I’ll stand up to get ready to do it, and sit right back down, it’s a constant fight. It’s also extremely hard to keep routines, and some regular hygiene stuff has become extremely taxing or hard to remember. Doesn’t help that we are living in a hellscape, that just exacerbates things.
I’m in a period of pretty severe burnout, and it fucking sucks. But I think since I recognized that I do suffer from cognitive difficulties that other people don’t, it’s helped me to be a little bit kinder to myself. When I’m kinder to myself, I beat myself up less and I think that helps me to do more than I would otherwise.
Regarding neurodivergence, I am suspecting more and more that I am autistic. I talked to my mother about my early childhood and I had a lot of sensory issues and coordination issues that took a lot of extra care and occupational therapy to get to a point I could function somewhat normally.
It’s definitely worth looking into. I never in a million years would’ve thought I was autistic until my psychologist put it on the table. Then I started looking into it and it really resonated a lot.
If you’d like to chat a little bit about it I’m really happy to share my experience and some resources, either here or through dm or whatever. It really could help reframe things for you, and maybe help to figure out workarounds and strategies to be able to function a but better than constantly trying to fight against it
As most others said, this is definitely clinical depression.
I’ve experienced extremely similar things, and am just now coming out of it (and it may be too early to declare victory). I see you’ve been getting help and it is ineffective. That is pretty common, sadly. Psychology is still in the dark ages.
I don’t have any perfect silver bullets for you. What I will say is that you are NOT broken, you’re not undisciplined, you’re not a piece of shit. We love you, and you’re worthwhile.
It can start off very small. Literally just get out of bed for the day and shower. If that’s all you can do, so be it. The notion that it’s all or nothing, fail or success, is not true when it comes to mental health. Brushing your teeth for 30 seconds once a day is far better than not at all. Rinsing off in the shower is miles better than not even attempting. 10 push ups is a step toward truly working out.
These are all very small things, intentionally. You literally cannot just pull yourself out of it in one swoop. It’s not possible for people like us (or anyone in this situation), and so you shouldn’t be down on yourself because of it or expect to be able to.
This was really ranty and probably all shit you’ve heard before and I apologize for that. These things might not even work for you. I just want you to know that if you keep trying, it will pass. Change is constant - dialectics! You’ve got it, my friend. It may not be soon, but it will get better. And those better days are worth living for.
I can very much relate. It was like this constant depression that felt endless even though there were short breaks of feeling okay. I felt alien and very different to “normal” functioning people and basically lived exactly how you described.
Eventually I stumbled upon someone talking about CPTSD or complex post traumatic stress disorder, it’s basically like ptsd but caused by chronic repeated traumatic events. A lightbulb went off as I learned more about it and I realized that I was in deep denial about being abused and neglected as a kid. I basically internalized what I was told growing up about being lazy, ungrateful, ect. There was also a lot of physical abuse for disappointing my parents so I became obsessed with all the ways I wasn’t good enough. In a fucked up way it kept me safe as a powerless kid. Criticizing myself viscously allowed me to get ahead of what my dangerous parents wanted and put energy into heading it off before things blew up. It was a survival mechanism that was killing me in adulthood.
Obviously I don’t know if you have similar experiences but the way you talk about yourself rings a bell for me, and as lame as it sounds learning to care about and love myself somewhat has been the only way I’ve made any progress towards being happier. When you start to have empathy for yourself you start to want to do all those things to take care of yourself.
All that being said even if you don’t relate to this at all therapy or some kind of mental health assistance is probably the way. Also sorry if this makes you uncomfortable or comes off as armchair diagnosis but I’m passionate about it because I wish the info was available to me before I spent my twenties in self hatred. As it turns out most people are not this hard on themselves and I had no clue. Wishing you well ❤️
While I wasn’t neglected or abused per se, I did grow up in an environment with unusual stressors. I’ll look into CPTSD.
The feelings you described are pretty much a textbook definition of depression. I would strongly suggest seeing a psychiatrist and basically showing them this post. Not only because there are many options of effective medication that exist today, but also because depression is often comorbid with other mental conditions.
The longer you exist in this state, the harder it becomes to come out of it on your own. Mental health professionals exist specifically to help and guide you through it.
Part of what makes this difficult is that I’ve been going to therapy, seeing a shrink, and trying various different prescriptions for years now. It’s at a point where I don’t know what else to do about it.
That really sucks then, I’m sorry to hear it. Since you’ve already tried (and should keep trying) different traditional methods, have you looked into psychedelics? I personally have had good lasting results with psylocibin, and there are now avenues for MDMA and ketamine therapy for depression.
MDMA is my music festival or good time go to, just remember the 3 month rule (don’t use regularly only once every 3 months) and never go past taking a “point” if it’s pressed pill make sure you take half (I’ve done a quarter too some Euros could be very powerful but I’ve had people tell me not to do that).
I am psychonaut on psychedelics. I can highly recommend and advise anyone through trips with LSD or Shrooms. Psilocybin changed my life got me off a cocaine addiction.
DMT helped me a lot… It got me out of a state that OP is in, and I went back to community college to study my true passion, music. DMT is… It’s an experience.
I am here if anyone would like advice on anything in the psychedelics dept.
Of course to each their own that is my experience with these substances, I am not trying to shove this down anyone’s throat but if they would like my experience I would be glad to share it.
same. weed makes me not feel like shit for a while but i can’t do complex cognitive tasks while i’m high so it’s not a viable long-term solution.
they really don’t have any second-order treatments for us, do they
If you live in a legalized place - see if you can get CBG stuff. There are some concentrates and edibles, as well as more CBG-heavy strains. There’s research that shows promise with ADHD symptoms, and anecdotally it has a mood uplifting effect without fucking you up.
You’re describing clinical depression. Seek medical assistance.
Yeah it really sounds like it - OP as far as practical advice, you definitely need to see medical assistance but the easiest thing to start doing (and start it today!) is taking 30mins to an 1hr to just walk around everyday if possible. It’ll be good for you, it’s easy, it can help ease depression symptoms and it’s easier than anything to make yourself do it.
