Sick of struggling
I’m just sick of struggling through life. The inefficiencies all around me are staggering and overwhelming. Why do we limit ourselves so much when our possibilities are endless? This forums seems like the closest place I’ve come to finding the best of humanity. That being said, curious how many have contemplated suicide at one point or another? I know I have which makes me think it to be a prevalent consideration among a group such as this.
I did about eight years ago. The me of that time is mostly gone now, so I guess in a way she ended up dying. But the me of now is glad to be alive and very much wants immortality, regardless of how shitty the world is. Apparently this is a really common experience, although I doubt most people take it to the immortality extreme.
The inefficiencies are staggering and mind-boggling, yes, but I think my reaction is very different from yours. To me, they’re just obstacles to be worked around, not something worth getting angry over. It’s just how the world is. Railing against it would be like yelling at gravity because life would be way easier if only you could fly.
This is an evil existence, and possibly a majority of thinking people contemplate suicide at some point, even if only a minority do it.
Celia Green says people limit themselves in order to avoid the pain of trying and failing.
It sounds like you’re fed up with how the world is.
One way of getting better strategies for dealing with that is to talk to a professional. It’s something I’d highly recommend if you’re having suicidal thoughts. If you’re in the US, the national suicide prevention line can connect you immediately with a counselor: 1-800-273-8255.
If you’re in a different country, there are likely free resources for that country as well.
Your mileage will vary, but a train of thought that helped me change my perspective on this (and I fully endorse this shift) was to realize that my emotions were ill-calibrated:
When I considered the state of the world, my emotional reaction was mostly negative, but when I tried to compare this reaction to a world in which earth is replaced by a lifeless rock I realized that this would clearly not be an improvement. After contemplating this, I decided that my emotions were missing a huge chunk: The immense value of life on earth which makes it reasonable to be pained by all the inadequacies in the first place. Since then, my emotional estimation of our world’s value has climbed a lot which makes seeing all the problems much more bearable. (this change in perspective was largely influenced by the Sequences and HPMOR, but I am not sure whether this train of thought was mentioned explicitly)
I recommend creating an anonymous survey. (If you’re only looking for data.)
Throwing your life away sounds a lot like throwing away a lot of possibility.
our possibilities are endless
Who told you that? If the answer involves science fiction authors, politicians, or religious leaders, then you might want to think about their credibility.
Air molecules can do impressive things (mostly destructive things) when enough of them start moving in the same direction, but mostly they just bounce off each other and collectively don’t do much. People are much the same.
We’re only human. A solid 49.9% of us are below-average humans. Most people are trying pretty hard, in our limited way, to accomplish goals that may or may not have been good ideas in the first place. Don’t be too hard on them, or on yourself.