Has anyone ever recovered from full-blown nihilism and become happy (or at least content with their life without being a completely emotionless automaton) again?
I'm larger than ever but the more shredded and older I get, the more cynical I become, and the naivete and joy I once felt are left further and further in the distant past. Nothing ever really excites me anymore. I feel dead while being physically alive.
Is this really what adulthood is all about? I'm "only" 25 years old but I can't imagine living the rest of my life (potentially 60 more years) in this state. It's a nightmare.
It's obvious from my own experiences and from whiners online that happiness isn't really to be found in other people. At least forcing yourself to be with people doesn't. People aren't reliable at all, you'd have to be a nihilist to be unscathed after being disappointed by people time and time again.
At this point the gym is just a chore like brushing your teeth, and it's not like other people recognize all the time you spend doing it. Though of course you gotta keep doing it or you'll feel like you're not improving in at least some way anymore.
I think we need to escape into creative hobbies or something. Living grounded and making nothing is just being a machine.
Andrew Foster
>Is this really what adulthood is all about? Yes it is litter about absolutely nothing so find some hobbies, get some good music and then find someone you like to fuck that is abbout all there is to adulthood.
Brayden Price
yes, I went into a deep pit of nihilism and hopelessness and cynicism and eventually recovered. I would spend nights by the traintracks in the countryside watching trains going by and wondering if I should kill myself. I couldn't really give you advice on how it happened though. it was pretty hard. I think a point of me was like fuck it I'm just gonna try and make it work. part of it was realizing how little I respected other nihilistic cynical losers and seeing how much harder it was to be sentimental and involved, especially once you have seen the other side. getting married in a year or two and probably going to have kids. bought a house.
27 now, started realizing something wasn't right around 20, full blown nihilist on verge of suicide by 22, recovered from 23-27 and I'm still recovering but it's way better than it was.
captaintheseus@gmail if you need someone to talk things thru with
William Hall
You have a career dawg, one you enjoy and can see yourself doing for the next 30 years? If not, definitely work on that. I'm about to finish my apprenticeship and it's nice to have a goal moving forward. Now, how about hobbies? I don't just mean reading, cooking, and lifting, that's shit you should be doing anyways, but a hobby that produces something. Think painting, ceramics, woodturning, hell, even knitting. Being able to produce something beautiful/useful out of raw materials can bring a lot of satisfaction, especially when you can watch your skills progress by comparing old works to new ones
I recovered from suicidal ideation and nihilism and I'm Catholic now, married and have a child, do BJJ and lift. I still hate my body and go through periods of depression but life is so much better than it was and I'm having fun and excited about the future 80% of the time. 24 btw
Justin Lewis
Almost killed myself a while ago, nihilist af mode.
I started doing a lot of things that were largely considered amoral and for some reason that helped a lot. I fucked gross girls, got into fights, drank to much and did stupid petty crimes. Felt nice to cut those edges off for some reason and now I’m just pretty happily embracing nothingness.
Grayson Reyes
BJJ also helped me
Angel Anderson
cringe >af zoomer
Mason Johnson
Read Marcus Aurelius and Camus
Aaron Gutierrez
Mushrooms every 6 months. And read nonfiction or scifi a hour before bed every night. 8 hrs minimum.
Colton Russell
I had a existential crisis after seeing and understanding the sheer enormity of the Eagle Nebula. Now I've dedicated myself to God and His will. I'm still figuring out if I'm a Christian because I am following God's will or if our wills were conveniently aligned. Does it even matter? Don't know if this helps.
I did, and I'm quite happy now, even though at the moment my life in not at a high by any means.
Benjamin Martin
If its any help, just accept that everyone dies and what makes life unique is how you choose to fill it. People spend decades realizing they were obsessed with making other people happy and doing things that other people expected them to do, and they go to their grave full of regret. You are young and are at the tail end of your greatest existential crisis that you will face in your life, and you only need to find acceptance in yourself and focus on making yourself happy.
I was 25 when i tried to kill myself. I started working full time again at 27, and now im going back to school at 29. I also abandoned the people around me that made me miserable and expected me to stay the same. I do this in spite of everyone telling me that abandoning your family is bad and im too old to return to school. I want to do this because it will make me a better person and they need to accept it or live without me in their life.
You too can be happy.
Ayden Cooper
>I do this in spite of everyone telling me that abandoning your family is bad and im too old to return to school That's because abandoning family IS really bad and should never be done unless you have an incredibly dire reason to do so. Family are some of the few people in this world who will love you and care about you unconditionally and go out of their way to make sure you're safe and abandoning family is like abandoning part of yourself. Vast majority of people will never give a fuck, and most friends are merely party buddies who will abandon you the moment you need any real help. Even long term close friends will still chose their own family over you. Good on you for going back to school, though. It's never too late for that. The rest of what you said I completely agree with.
Jason Sanchez
>tfw 27 and been a loser my entire life that caused me to be a miserable, cynical, nihilistic shut-in incel >desperately wish people liked me and wanted to do things with me, but at the same time constantly annoyed by everyone and every thing >even though i easily make people laugh, entire aura exudes annoyance, unfriendliness and misery that pushes people away >have coworkers i have known for years i get along with at work but they rarely/never contact me outside of work but do with each other
Vitamin D my lad. It will solve all your problems. Also get your head out of your ass and find a hobby.
Kevin Mitchell
Yes Started browsing this place at 12 Suicide attempt at 16 Completely convinced I'd be alone and a virgin forever I'm happier than I ever was and my life is amazing even though I'm a Jow Forumsfag
Parker Smith
28 yo boomer here. I initially wrote a long thought out reply that mirrored others in this thread, but decided that it added nothing. Bros, I feel you.
I've read many philisophical, psychological, and religious texts in an attempt to cure my nihilism. I feel I can only come up with this: after you take care of the basics (wash your penis, etc.), pick one thing about yourself you'd like to see improve, and improve it to the nth degree. Don't do it for anyone else, do it for yourself.
Not saying it will cure my nihilism, but maybe it's something I will be able to be proud of that is totally mine. What do you guys thing? Is it worth a shot?
I dunno. The way I read it a surrogate activity is shit you do to pass time between the cradle and the grave and that you kid yourself that it matters when in reality your every basic need is catered for. What if you acknowledge this and go ahead and become absurdly skilled at something anyway, just of your own free will?
Robert Johnson
kinda the same for me, massive depression in college starting at 19, dropped out at 22(even took a year break to sort my shit out), suicidal at this point. 6 months therapy, reconnected with some friends. At this point I was okayish, but not THAT great. Found a way to make homemade ayahuasca(psychedelic) about a year and a half ago. 2 intense trips in 2 days and it changed my life. Since that day, I haven't had one bad day. I swear there's nothing that can happen(outside of massive tragedy, car crash, etc) that can even dent my happiness. I'm not saying ayahuasca is an instant fix, I still had to work hella hard for it, and tripped numerous times since then to solve some more issues(not dependent on it, have gone 6 months without it because I was too busy and no dip in mood, no craving. You actually have reverse cravings, it's harder to take the longer you haven't taken it because it's so scary) Still, for a hardcore nihilist, it's probably the best thing out there, if you can bear the fear and actually realising how much of you is basically dead wood, the change of perspective this shit can give you will change your life. My social anxiety, my constant sense of dread/impending doom, depression, all completely gone in two 4 hours trips. The first one was 100% ecstasy, the 2nd was 50% pure terror, the likes of which I have never experienced, and 50% nirvana, basically the state the budists describe as ascension(unity with everything, complete peace, unending gratitude for everything that exists and knowing that it is perfect just the way it is). I have a loving gf of 1 year, tight group of friends, I'm working part time making good money and back in 3rd year of college, acing my classes with an internship at bloomberg lined up for next summer.
If you have questions about the ayahuasca just reply and I'll answer. Anyone can make it legally with plants your order off the internet, super easy, no cooking required.
Aiden Johnson
I mean, if they are holding him back and not letting him do what he wants to, especially if it is malicious, then he should abandon them
Hudson Ortiz
What apprentiship? I'm trying to get one in social media marketing rn.
Justin Mitchell
>DURRRR READ READ READ READ
Ryder Young
Mate I have a good life now, I’m not really worried if I can be categorized as some meme.
Jayden Ortiz
It would still be a surrogate activity, but you don’t have to care that it is. If you find it pleasant or it fulfills a psychological need, why not
Christian Sanders
27 here. Havent really accomplished anything important. Live at home paying down bills and going back to school to try and make my life less unbearable. Had a wonderful girl who loved me but I let my depression drive her away. Can't seem to get happy, but I push myself to try and better my mental and physical abilities everyday. Just feel like I'm in a rut, but I know there's something better out there. I know life is worth living, and I know I can love life, but right now I don't want to see anyone. People have always disappointed me, so I just gave up on trying to be kind and supportive for others who just shit on you in the end.
Anthony Barnes
Interested in how you made ayahuasca. I've never done psychedelics, but really want that experience.
Aiden Scott
How to have sex when you're deathly afraid of intimacy after a life of solitude and long bouts of friendlesness?
Asking for a friend.
Hudson Hughes
look up syrian rue + mimosa hostilis. there are plenty of sites you can find information on it. I recommend psychonautwiki.org They have recipes and everything. If you can stomach eating ground seeds and root bark outright yyou can just swallow them with some water, if not the best option I've found is getting some empty pills and putting the ground up plants in pills
Gabriel Ross
oh and forgot to say, having also tried both acid and shrooms, I think aya is both the best in terms of least scary, and the best at channeling introspection and long lasting change. Godspeed user
Jason Edwards
I feel the same OP. There is two things that keeps me going and motivates me to live.
1. Knowing that one day I will be the father of 4-6 kids and hopefully have a stable marriage.
2. God
If for exmaple i were to figure out that I could not have children, I would go full neet mode and not care about anything.
Brandon Mitchell
Go visit some escorts to remove atleast some of your fears. I was nervous AF when i went to my first escort, but the last one I was fine.
Joseph Carter
>1. Knowing that one day I will be the father of 4-6 kids and hopefully have a stable marriage. who wants to tell him
Adam Bennett
First off is to stop being a cumbrain. Second off, go somewhere to do something enjoyable and beneficial, and there will probably be women there. Their fucked up women senses can tell if you're actually trying to better yourself or if you're just thirsty.
Nathan Sanchez
I will. Good luck in your pursuits user. I'd like to have a good loving family and some land to practice permaculture on to pass down through the generations myself.
Caleb Kelly
Nietzsche literally gave us his antidote to nihilism.
Chase Ward
Word of advice: Going on to religion won't help shit. It'll just make you a depressed cultist. Just accept nihilism and then move on. Stop thinking about it. Have your little existential crisis and then just continue on with life as if it were normal. There's no need to keep thinking about what will happen after death. Death is something that we will never know about, just like the pre-big bang universe; It's fun to speculate about but there's a reason there aren't scientists looking to figure out about it. Think, instead, about what you're going to do in your life. How you'll make money and how you'll enjoy yourself. I personally have gotten into minifigurine painting. Not the actual game, though, that's just never been for me. Learn a hobby, do something you love. and if you're out of options, take a long bike ride without bringing a map and see where you go. Explore, figure out this universe. There's plenty to learn, plenty to see, plenty to do. Just enjoy yourself and forget about death. Unless you're actually depressed. In which case, see a doctor and get yourself some meds.
Honestly, yes. >be me >17/18 y/0 >fat af, let myself go due to 'national exam stress' aka lies >lost in life >bad relationship with parents >no friends >no contact with other people at all >used to drink 2L of beer alone when my parents were away Now I'm 20, finished high school, got out of my parent's house, started my degree and successfully finished my second year, taken up lifting and got Jow Forums, much more confidence, difference in looks is like night and day. No more drinking and other stupid shit, now I have a (albeit relatively small) very tight group of good friends I talk to daily, fixed my relationship with my parents, smile more, got myself a internship and started talking to a girl which goes to the same uni. It can be done brother.
Angel Jones
>I would spend nights by the traintracks in the countryside watching trains going by and wondering if I should kill myself. Sounds weirdly comfy.
Alexander King
I disagree, religion can be very helpful for finding purpose.
Dont beat people up if you dont know what its like on the other side
Brandon Phillips
dont be this guy,just live for yourself its that simple,other people will never care about you as much as you can care about yourself
Jack Martinez
If you're a double digit IQ retard, maybe. >inb4 fedora tipping images
Colton Gray
>There's no need to keep thinking about what will happen after death. Death is something that we will never know about Is that what nihlism is about ? I never was depressed about death, only about life and how meaningless it is.
Levi Hernandez
I would become a bloomer if I didn't see the states become more browner and third world every single year. Personal stuff I can work on, but my culture and people are being destroyed because low IQ goblins are infesting every inch of this nation.
Oh nevermind, don't even want to argue with you given your impressive rhetorical abilities
Elijah Brooks
The voice of experience in my mind agrees with you.
Jeremiah Bailey
>go somewhere to do something enjoyable and beneficial, That's where my friend struggles tBh. He wants to meet people but doesn't know how.
Hudson Barnes
quite the cycle isnt it >have no friends >your loneliness turns you bitter/miserable and pushes more people away >can't meet other people including girls >scared of intimacy because you have no idea how to do it so you dont try >stay isolated which makes you even more bitter and miserable >etc >etc >etc
Noah Hill
The meaning of life is to have as much as happiness as possible. It's that simple.
Adam Jones
What if happiness itself doesn't seem that enjoyable anymore ?
Blake Clark
Then you must be a woman.
Anthony Adams
Fuck off
Cameron Fisher
As other anons said, Vitamin D pills and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations help a lot.
After that, read the Book of Pook if you wish to have a successful love life at some point in the future.
Caleb Long
That's a contradiction. Happiness is enjoyable by definition. If you do not enjoy your life then you have no happiness and must seek to change this situation.
Anthony Powell
I wouldn't say I've totally dug myself out of nihilism, but I have developed a set of strategies that improve life considerably.
A huge part of it was fixing my broken-ass reward system. Getting the fuck off the internet as much as possible, only using it for work/utility and limited recreational browsing AFTER completing what I need to do that day. Social media for a few minutes every 1-2 days. No porn, almost no vidya.
Another thing that's easy to miss out on in the internet age is real-life human social contact. Spending too much time alone is incredibly destructive. Go out and interact with real people even if it's awkward/forced. If you can force yourself through a brutal leg day workout you can do 1x30min conversations.
Jacob Hill
>a 30 minute conversation
im terrified at the thought
Asher Bennett
Seeking happiness is your goal, not humanity's one. Let's rather say that the idea of happiness is unappealing. Even when I have my moments of joy, I don't crave them or miss them once they're gone.
Wyatt Hughes
>Has anyone ever recovered from full-blown nihilism and become happy Yes I have >the more shredded and older I get, the more cynical I become, and the naivete and joy I once felt are left further and further in the distant past. Naivete and joy are mutually exclusive. >Nothing ever really excites me anymore. I feel dead while being physically alive. Look at the 3 major fuckers for your mental: setting/environment (which is city, home, access to nature, etc.), people (friends, family, coworkers), and acts (job/career, hobbies, clubs, casual hang-outs, etc.) Learn the difference between Joy and Pleasure. I'll give you a fast track: one makes you feel good and one makes you feel better. Figure out why your lifting doesn't bring you joy and why it no longer brings you pleasure. Go through the 3 fuckers and figure out why they are fuckers aka why they don't bring you joy or pleasure.
I'm a true bloomer, being someone that can stare into the abyss and feel joy.
Many people confuse joy and even happiness with childishness. The child feels joy and happiness, but it isn't due to him being a child. Spending time around children roaming on their own with an open mind brings some of the greatest insight into your own problems. Watch the mood of the child change so dramatically when the overbearing parent intervenes for example. How are you different from the child before vs during the intervention, and ask yourself why. If a child comes to ask you something, understand the basis of his question as you reply.
>Is this really what adulthood is all about? Only if you allow it to be. The more you act like the true bloomer, the more people will hate you, they hate seeing joy because they cannot have it themselves. My favorite meme is Gondola for reasons that should be obvious.
I wish for you to feel joy. Please, anyone, reach out if you have any questions, I'll be here for a while, my character limit is fast approaching.
Brody Harris
I do not enjoy life but neither do I feel the need to seek changement.
Josiah Wright
Same bro.
Grayson Nelson
It depends on how you define happiness. I'd say that if you do not miss the feeling you describe then it shouldn't be called true happiness at all.
Deep inside you probably do. If I genuinly felt no happiness and also no desire to change that I'd just kill myself instantly.
Isaac Wright
I was close. I wasn't full blown nihilistic, but I was starting to become very blah about everything. then i had a brain tumor and subsequent surgical resection, and realized just how beautiful and fragile life truly is. Enjoy it; if not for you, but for those who long to, but are unable. Try to find some spiritual sense of belonging as well. It actually does help.
Blake Bailey
cum
he was jerking off under his desk
Landon Thompson
Everything is shit and always will be. Just learn to swerve what doesn’t matter (everything), and bring the panache.
yeah desu im Autistic and I found a save haven with playing my guitar and singing. just find something, anything you enjoy and do this all day long. Well except masturbation.
When youre closer to 30, never hanging with friends for years and years and years is the Norm
Fuck the summer, we need babysitters for these fags
Hunter Lee
What do even people with friends do?
Jordan Phillips
as someone who briefly had a friend, >hang out at one of our houses and drink, talk, watch sports >go out to bars >go tailgating at sporting events >and other things like as if you are niko and your friend is roman in gta iv, but not the illegal stuff.
Landon Jones
hang out at someones house, play smth together, go to events together
Easton Ward
Read Aristotle.
Jackson King
>complete physical wreck due to being born three months early, and also fracturing my spine last year >almost 22, no full-time job >don't even really want to work but want enough money to get by >working 40 hours a week for the best years of my life would likely drive me to suicide >can't run, do martial arts or any exercises involving the spine for fitness >constantly feel tensed up and haven't chilled out for years >heart rate always slightly above average, asthma and partially undeveloped lungs don't help this >don't find myself genuinely caring about what other people are talking about since it's always TV bullshit >at the same time want their approval and to be happy and chilled out >I don't genuinely know what this feels like What the FUCK do I do
I was a looser all my life in highschool and worker hard to try to make it got a gf that i obsesed over and ofc she cheated and then everything hit me, everything from the past came back all those years of making myslefe better didit matter cuz i was same as before started cutting but was really planing to off myselfe with a knife through the neck arterry Then just kinda picked myselfe up and its miles better now but i still have days that i feel like im back in highschool im kinda mad at myselfe for not trying harder and still worrying what others will think of me
Yeah all that shit was me in middle school >lock myself away at 14 >never lose all the weight I wanted to. >get plenty of dates always think of the worst. Just dont lie to yourself and apply yourself. You can get that job interview. She does like you for you. You better hold onto your friends and make memories now because they arent coming back later. Do now be now, get money fuck bitches
Josiah Bailey
Take the Christ pill and stop being a pathetic nihilist.
Evan Miller
My family is garbage and only help themselves.
Adam Jackson
I’m ending it all, bros. Thank you for everything
Adrian White
That picture describes me 90% atm. The most legit criticism I heard so far is that our generation (people between 25-30) got a bit too spoiled and have trouble transcending in the "adult life". Keep strong and think about yourself a bit more maturely. I myself thinking of going a bit into Cognitive-behavioral psychology, see if it helps. Talk a bit more with old folk. Take everything with a grain of salt but try to find some patterns on their experiences and advice to get some truth that will help you move in a better way. tl;dr life get worse the more you grow older work smart and hard while you still can
Gabriel Barnes
If by ending you mean ending your life please reconsider. I almost ended my life too one night out of seer sadness in a kind of a "drunk state" after waking up in the middle of the night. I cant say if it was good or bad that I didnt but if I did I wouldnt be here and I wouldnt exist. Believe it or not you are here for a reason and until you find that reason you must live and fight. Worst case scenario take a backpack and start walking, see where you end up. Starve to death or something. But please do not actively and willingly end your life. Your consciousness will move on in a low energy state and the pain will continue. Please fight. Do whatever. But don not just end it.
Angel Miller
in my opinion the problem with millennials is that they were brought up expecting the same kind of life the boomers had and that is simply not possible anymore, the boomers existed at a unique point in history and basically had the world given to them millennials have it way better than plenty of other generations, but are fucked up because they're doing boomer shit in a time when that's not possible. also a lot of millennials are basically neo-hippy whiny losers. but yea I mean the property market caught up with the rest of the world. wages stagnated. all that shit. but that's how life was forever, and if you look at hong kong or shanghai or something you can see that property prices can go up a lot more and that the usa for example is eactually insanely cheap and easy to make it.
Ryder Morris
That is not true. Ive seen doomer and bloomers including myself that had numerous chances to have the same or better quality of life. We threw these chances because we all aim higher. We grew up overachievers. The skillsets we get will yield results in a fucking decade of hard work or so but until then we get psychologically rekt and we end up giving up or settling for lower. Either settle for something good (ie grow up) or keep fighting until you win or you sink ( high risk high reward dream) If you chose the latter do not get depressed otherwise you are destined to fail. It s tough for me and I bet it s at least as tough for the rest of the doomers
Colton Nguyen
Most people (male non-normies) go through a nihilistic phase through some part of their tweens-early adulthood. We need to reach our lowest lows in order to truly hit our new heights. You have nowhere to go but up, friendo.
Andrew Barnes
I’m 24. It’s pretty much the same for me. Nothing excites me anymore and I don’t really feel any anticipation, ever. I do feel content though. I think the most important part is finding shit you like doing by yourself and being okay with being alone. Having supportive friends who ask you if you wanna hang out helps a lot too, and you should invite them as well sometimes.
Jackson Fisher
Just realized life is like a MMO with no real endgame content and even if it’s shitty sometimes, leveling turns out being the most fun part. It’s no wonder so many people hate life, if a game was designed like that, it’d get shit ratings by players.
Jaxon Bailey
how exactly did you understand the size of the nebula? im all about fucking up my brain by trying to comprehend the insane vastness of space, so i'd like to know more
Hunter Campbell
You have to find something in life that gives you fulfillment and meaning.
That's it, that's all there is to it.
James Garcia
I’m a 19 year old girl, you would think I would have something better to do than browse Jow Forums, but I honestly don’t. I find it very hard to get excited about things nowadays. I don’t know if it’s stress or if I’m just lazy. I completely stopped hanging out with my friends, I don’t leave my apartment, except for work and the gym, I have no life. I’ve been reading that it’s normal for younger people though, maybe it’s just a phase we’ll grow out of.
