This is pretty close what I meant by “the absolute absurdity of all goals”; if you hold no “actual”, terminal values, than goals are silly. I identify more with myself-while-energetic than with myself-while-apathetic, even when I’m apathetic, and so I feel like I have some stable, difficult goals even when I don’t feel like a care about them.
I think I’m the reverse, I identify more with myself-while-apathetic even while energetic. I can drug myself into a state where I enjoy working on difficult projects all day, and I even enjoy it, but it still doesn’t feel like I have stable goals. Maybe that will change with time.
Then again, in this new brain-state I can bring myself to care about almost anything that’s put in front of me. Instead of caring about nothing, regardless of how important, I care about everything, regardless of how trivial. If nothing else presents itself as a task, I can easily spend the better part of an hour rewording a paragraph in hundreds of different permutations until I find the one that’s best (regardless of what that paragraph is about).
I don’t feel like my apathy is abnormal in and of itself, but combined with being more aware of the big picture, and thinking more about the future, it seems more troubling. Most people have nothing but the life in front of their noses, working at a grocery store or whatever, and so their listlessness is entirely natural. I’m different. Like you, and like many people on this site, I have vision, I can see that the world is at a crossroads and that I have the potential to change its course. And yet, I still feel nothing, while it seems like the rest of you are enthusiastic.
I’m definitely made tired by socializing with other people, but usually happier—a lot like how most people describe being tired but feeling good right after exercise. What you describe sounds like needing to work hard to spent time with people you don’t actually like, which is tiring and unpleasant in the short-term and long-term.
I do genuinely enjoy it while I’m doing it, there’s just an unpleasant aftereffect. But maybe you’re right, and I don’t actually like any of these people. If that’s the case, I’m not sure what to do, though. If I don’t actually like anyone I’ve met, what does that mean? That I have a personality disorder? That everyone else sucks?
I don’t feel like my apathy is abnormal in and of itself, but combined with being more aware of the big picture, and thinking more about the future, it seems more troubling. Most people have nothing but the life in front of their noses, working at a grocery store or whatever, and so their listlessness is entirely natural. I’m different. Like you, and like many people on this site, I have vision, I can see that the world is at a crossroads and that I have the potential to change its course. And yet, I still feel nothing, while it seems like the rest of you are enthusiastic.
I think I’m the reverse, I identify more with myself-while-apathetic even while energetic. I can drug myself into a state where I enjoy working on difficult projects all day, and I even enjoy it, but it still doesn’t feel like I have stable goals. Maybe that will change with time.
Then again, in this new brain-state I can bring myself to care about almost anything that’s put in front of me. Instead of caring about nothing, regardless of how important, I care about everything, regardless of how trivial. If nothing else presents itself as a task, I can easily spend the better part of an hour rewording a paragraph in hundreds of different permutations until I find the one that’s best (regardless of what that paragraph is about).
I don’t feel like my apathy is abnormal in and of itself, but combined with being more aware of the big picture, and thinking more about the future, it seems more troubling. Most people have nothing but the life in front of their noses, working at a grocery store or whatever, and so their listlessness is entirely natural. I’m different. Like you, and like many people on this site, I have vision, I can see that the world is at a crossroads and that I have the potential to change its course. And yet, I still feel nothing, while it seems like the rest of you are enthusiastic.
I do genuinely enjoy it while I’m doing it, there’s just an unpleasant aftereffect. But maybe you’re right, and I don’t actually like any of these people. If that’s the case, I’m not sure what to do, though. If I don’t actually like anyone I’ve met, what does that mean? That I have a personality disorder? That everyone else sucks?
Excellent. Which ones do you use? This is valuable anecdotal information.
Adderall XR, currently 40 mg per day.
This is roughly how I feel as well.