That’s really interesting… I think I understand you better now. I think that, because of this recurring anxiety and frustration, you’ve felt for a long time that your options were:
achieve in the way others want you to, but hate every minute of it, or
restrict yourself to playing games and doing things that don’t cause anxiety or frustration for you.
As per the second pill example, I think this is a false dichotomy, but a universal one; people take their emotional reactions for granted, and don’t often imagine that it could be possible to feel differently about something that persistently troubles them. (Of course, it doesn’t seem possible to just feel differently by a direct act of will, which is all that most people ever think of to try.)
Given that you’d take the second pill, though, you can now imagine a third alternative:
become able to do some difficult and long-term (but rewarding) activities without automatically feeling this anxiety and frustration, thus giving you many more interesting options for how to spend your time.
If that sounds appealing to you (and of course it doesn’t mean you’ll have to end up doing what others want you to do; it just means you’ll be able to genuinely explore some new options), then it might be time to start carefully analyzing why you get these feelings, and whether there’s something you can do to change that...
That’s really interesting… I think I understand you better now. I think that, because of this recurring anxiety and frustration, you’ve felt for a long time that your options were:
achieve in the way others want you to, but hate every minute of it, or
restrict yourself to playing games and doing things that don’t cause anxiety or frustration for you.
As per the second pill example, I think this is a false dichotomy, but a universal one; people take their emotional reactions for granted, and don’t often imagine that it could be possible to feel differently about something that persistently troubles them. (Of course, it doesn’t seem possible to just feel differently by a direct act of will, which is all that most people ever think of to try.)
Given that you’d take the second pill, though, you can now imagine a third alternative:
become able to do some difficult and long-term (but rewarding) activities without automatically feeling this anxiety and frustration, thus giving you many more interesting options for how to spend your time.
If that sounds appealing to you (and of course it doesn’t mean you’ll have to end up doing what others want you to do; it just means you’ll be able to genuinely explore some new options), then it might be time to start carefully analyzing why you get these feelings, and whether there’s something you can do to change that...
Thank you for your help. I’ll have to let this stew in my subconscious for a while, then get back to you.