I want out of this madhouse..

Originally posted by WoodSpirit
reply to post by MarioOnTheFly

 

I know exactly how he feels, and the only thing that really brings me joy nowadays is being out in nature. It is good advice.

Maybe not for you.

Being out in nature is beautiful...I love it. But it solves nothing for the man's cries. It is a temporary escape.

I don't think OP is looking for a tap on the back and "everything will be ok in the morning" advice.

But of course, you are welcome to your own opinion. I was just commenting.

reply to post by MarioOnTheFly


Then what is he looking for?

You sure didn't add anything positive or helpfull at all.

You even seem offended by a helpfull suggestion.

I don't see the need for that.

reply to post by WoodSpirit


I'm sorry if it came out like that.

Wasn't looking for a fight

I hope you will read this....because I feel exactly the same way. It's been most prevelant for the past month and you articulated my thoughts exactly.

It's not exactly depression---just a feeling that the world is just so wigged out now, so foreign that we don't even recognize it. And having to live in it is just so....well, depressing.

The people who are asleep---the ones out buying TV's at Walmart on Black Friday and going about their lives as if nothing has changed--as if nothing has happened... they don't feel the way we do. They don't understand what's really going on.

But for us--people who are alive and awake--the reality is crushing, isn't it?

But we've got to soldier on. Don't give up. You are here at this time and in this place to wake the world up---even if it's just one person.

We need you to march with us and fight for freedom and liberation.

I know how you feel though. It seems like a difficult task and some days are just downright depressing.

On this one, I would shy away from clinical depression or medications although who am I to say?

Rather, I believe deeply that humans are happiest and healthiest when not crowded, crunched, and bombarded with the non-natural. They require the natural rhythms and input of that which is essentially non-human. Of course we still need each other to a degree but we have waaaaaay to much of that today.

I know there will be those ATS who require footnotes, sources, references, and a note from their Mother to accept this as a possibility but I go through very similar feelings everyday. I recently moved from DC to a rural area in the northern mid-west. After just a few weeks a sense of energy and clarity returned to my mind which I had figured was all but lost. The pace is slower. The people more friendly and far more distant between. The world around me is not screaming at me to pay attention to it. The woods, fields, lakes, and whatnot are just there. It rolls at its speed and on its terms. My mind, body, and soul have evolved for thousands of years to mesh with that speed and those terms, not the screaming.

Take it for what it is worth. It has helped me immensely. I wish you luck.

More and more people are starting to feel the same way.

The system we are living in, does not work.

I believe that soon, people will want to abandon the system. Quite simply walk away from it.

Imagine a new system, more along the lines of tribalism.

We can use technology to create a tribe and everyone can live together, helping each other. Imagine a world where you actually cared about your neighbor.

Over 28 years on this prison planet, i know and only thing keeps my going is waiting when something big comes that changes everyone life good and gives new opportunities (not that bs nibiru or some crap 21.12.12)

This is video that saved my life five years ago, i mean really saved me:

In a a rut, Got The Blues, Feeling Bummed out, depressed, Tired of this crap, burnt.
It happens so much to people there are all kinds of words for it.
Doesn't make you bad, or good, But it does make you one thing, Human!

I think recognizing that you're "in a funk" (see, there's another one) is a good start.

Maybe a good start would be to get a little Sunshine, especially this time of year. That is, if you are from the Northern Hemisphere. Get some sun, talk to someone you haven't seem in a while. Maybe get a haircut, or a new shirt. Do it for yourself. You deserve a little something every now and then.

Food? Hey, count your blessings. This time of year people eat way too much, so you've got a little jump on them.

Watch your favorite comedy shows and movies. Or, something I do when I get the blues, is find some of the crap I used to watch as a kid. It makes me laugh at myself.

Thing is, stir your own pot, just a little.

Whatever you do though, DO NOT watch that Stuart Smalley movie...'cause we already know that, you're good enough, you're smart enough, and GOSH DARNIT, people like you.

all my best.

reply to post by DataWraith


I want you to know that you may feel alone in this but other like myself are feeling the same pains.

Just yesterday I had my first outburst, tears and yelling helped release my emotions. It needed to happen.

I know now that I am not the only one feeling this way, it took a bit of recollection to realize this because in these overwhelming moments you can feel 100% alone in your feelings.

I don't know what to tell you other than you are not alone. I know how it feels to want to get away in the non-suicidal way, I said those same exact words yesterday. You have done a better job at explaining things than I did but writing them out can always help, which I did not do. It was just an outpoor of tears and feelings.

I am saddened by the way things are evolving and have high hopes that they change. I need to know in my next step what I can do for humanity to help and I might feel better.

I too, do not find movies entertaining anymore, sleeping is difficult, eating sucks( I hate chewing, constant jaw movement and just can't wait to shut my growling stomach up), I hate the repetition of using the restroom, going to school, people thinking they need a job and that I do too ........I can't stand that there are constant blockages to keep you from doing what truly makes you excited in this world. I want to learn my own things, of the subjects I want to learn about, without a ciriculum .........I just wanna get out. We are far from free and I'm not happy anymore living the way I am told to live ....this is my life and I should live it how I want and contribute my skills to humanity the way I feel fit. We shouldn't pay to live on a planet we never paid to get on .....we were born here, this is our home, why are we paying to explore and live with it? I can't wait to leave one day ......been thinking about this since I was 17. Apparently I don't believe in suicide ...I am smart enough to know I have a purpose here and taking myself out of the equation is not going to help me change anything ....

reply to post by DataWraith


I hear you my friend and feel almost exactly the same! Sometimes I wish the world would end or i had somewhere to go beyond this world! I think i would have been much happier living at any time before the 1970s! I just feel so disconnected to this time, never cared much about money, never had many friends and was much happier before money became an issue for survival "in my childhood and early teens"!
I feel as though we are living a lost cause because that which seems to be most important to the average person ends up devouring their very hearts and souls! Soon all they will be is automatons, just going through the motions but not really happy and never satisfied!
Is it any wonder how at the end of our lives most of us are grumpy old men or woman with whatever wealth we have accumulated being faught over by our family members! or how easily we are dumped into some institution! Would'nt we have been happier living in a small community where instead of material wealth we accumulate friends, instead of material goods we sit around with these friends and just talk or play some simple games! More like the simpler times of the late 19th century and even though times were tougher and life was shorter I feel it was probably more satisfying!
Even if money does bring some kind of gratification, All this does is lead down the road of material addiction!
this leads us to having higher and higher expectations for gratification and this is no message to send to our children!
I pray each day for the masses to awaken from their ideological nightmares!
As the OP has already stated, through media we have been desensitized to violence, adultry, lying, stealing and killing! Is it any wonder why nothing surprises us anymore!
Why we live our lives expecting storybook lifestyles! Why being at war with countries all over the world is the norm, how these corporate media outlets hide the horrors of war, how we let them manipulate our ideals and stimulate our emotional outlooks! Why do we expect some elected official to save us from the big bad hierarchy! Why do we feel some selfish representative will actually give a dam about any of us! How we are all a bunch of hypocrites damning others for what we ourselves do! Why so many of us are on some form of drug or alcohol to escape our depressing existance! Why so many of us are killing ourselves and others! Why we refuse to unite togeather and help ourselves by helping each other!
Yet just by refusing to be part of the material world and gravitating towards the simple little things in life would not just save us money but also allow us to spend more time with our children! Are'nt the children our purpose for working but if we are not there to guide them, teach them and love them, they will end up in the same merry-go- round of depressing existance that we all end up in! Don't let society mold you into some politically correct automaton cause happiness and love is not something that can be baught! It only exist in hearts and minds, it takes time, patience and sacrifice to be created! It is worth more then all the gold in fort knox (If there is any still in there, Probably just painted steel bars)! Well sorry for the depressing rant but at least i feel better telling it like it really is! I realize it's very hard to be honest with ourselves but it truely is the only way to deny ignorance!
Always remember Love is forever it's never lost, sold, broken or ignored!
I love you all ATS God bless this world and the next!

Society is kind of broken, and in observing how broken it is, you become depressed. The system is too easily gamed and rewards to that end are rarely fair or justified. The problem is that not everyone can see it. Medication isn't really a fix either, because you're depressed for a reason not "just because". Keep in mind you're not alone in this, just that most people thinking this find it awkward to express out in the open.

Don't let the malaise bring you down though. It's not your fault most things are screwed up. Find some way to keep on keepin' on, even if that means going for a walk out in nature for a bit. Finding some form of meditation and/or physical exercise may help as a relief. You've got to have a positive mental attitude, and strike out into the world with it. Which means if other people suck then you have to work harder to be nice to people in order to counter it. (Trust me, there are days where I'd really like to punch somebody in the face. But it's no excuse to treat some random innocent person like crap because of it.) Not an easy fight, but perhaps a worthy one.

I set you free

Does that make me a bad person? A paranoid person? A depressed person? Or simply a person?? I want off this rock, it sucks and its not going to get any better is it?

reply to post by DataWraith


I would infer that you are 'A Person of Our Times'. So many are there with you, and you definitely are not alone.

I want off this ''rock'' also, but for different reasons, to explore, learn more, gain knowledge of humanities origins maybe? Better? I think that is why we are here, to make it better,, not the other way around.

As someone who has walked the edge of the Abyss and danced with Nihilist Thoughts I have found that "If there is No Meaning to Life" Then I must GIVE it the Meaning.

Life Smells GOOD, Inhale it and Laugh because NOW IS ALL YOU HAVE kind sir.

This is humanities biggest weakness, not living in the NOW as animals in Nature do instinctively. Be present in the Now Moment you are experiencing and be Aware of it like it is the Last Moment of your life and come and tell us what you felt.

I agree with many here,, Get outside in Nature, you are Out of Balance with the World. Not the World you 'see', but the World into which you were born, which has a rhythm you wish to hear again. It is there, Listen and you will find it, and can then proceed to help Keep it ALIVE.

This Rock is more than just an Ordinary "Rock"
It is ALIVE, or You would not be here in the NOW Moment your experiencing as your read this and see this Last Period.

Originally posted by Mijamija
Maybe you should shake things up a bit...try something new or different. Challenge yourself in some way. Take on a new project, or do your daily grind differently. Something to snap you out of your funk and make you switch gears...a new perspective.

My best suggestion is, if possible, leave. Go. Take only enough money to sustain you. Drive, fly, take the first train leaving the station. Don't pick a final destination. See where it takes you. Get out walk around. Get lost. Get back on the train, bus...go further...preferably to a place where they don't speak your language....see how that goes. Try finding a restaurant, a hotel.....go to a museum. Look at the buildings around you. Speak to complete strangers. Get lost some more. Set how that goes. Go further if necessary. Do this until you are either satisfied or completely overwhelmed. Head back home.

I used to do that quite a bit, and it always made me feel better. I think getting lost is one of the best ways to find yourself

You may not need to "find yourself" but going on little(or big) adventures, or just trying something new often brings new insights. You said you traveled a lot, but traveling is not necessarily the same as having an adventure. Adventures are meant to be challenging...think along those lines.

As to how you feel, I have felt the same, and it is a terrible feeling, the only thing that snaps me out of it is friends, family or adventures. Since you seem to not be interested in friends or family right now, I suggested travel. But you could also stay where you are and do little new things as well. Try a new restaurant, drive the long way to work, go to the library and look through books, take the stairs instead of the lift, learn how to knit or volunteer somewhere, go to the movie theater alone, sit in a cafe and people watch, feed the ducks at the park. There are tons of things....just pick some and try them out, it doesn't have to be as life altering as flying to Zambia with 40 pounds in your pocket, but you know....whatever...maybe flying to Zambia with 40 pounds in your pocket might be perfect.

Regardless, I hope you find something that will make you feel better, those days when I get to feeling like that are miserable, so try and just do baby steps...one small change, even if it is getting up on the other side of the bed in the morning.

Well now I don't have to make a long response because you basically said what I was going to say.

Get out, explore, change things up! I did that 7+ years ago after leaving the USA and will never go back. Life is so much more fun and interesting when you have less "stuff" and money to burden you down.

At first when I moved to the mountainous country it was a culture shock, but now if I go to any city or back to the USA for a visit, then it is a shock to see people living like brainwashed children (my personal opinion.)

So yeah, "shock" yourself and let go. The first "leap of faith" outside of the system was the hardest for me.

You are not alone my friend.

2nd

Dear DW, I too have experienced what you've described, so perhaps there's a bit of comfort in knowing that what you're going through is not uncommon to those with thinner skins. So here are some things to consider...do you realize how LUCKY you are to be able to experience these feelings, and at that level of complexity? To be aware of all that's going on in your/our world and be able to register and describe it? Yes, LUCKY! How lucky you are to have a wife to LOVE and be loved by her, to share these experiences with? To be healthy (you are reasonably healthy, yes? If not, perhaps you should get a checkup and have your thyroid checked) I learned way too late that mine was under-active (for reasons I'm still not aware of); and getting it regulated has made literally a world of difference, especially in my outlook on the world. Are the problems still there? Yes, they are. Hmmm, what to do about them? Nothing. What? Yes, nothing, because you, I or anyone else didn't come here to fix the world. We came here for the ride itself, to see perhaps the greatest show on Earth; and what you're now going through is part of that ride, and the only way you're going to get through it (and a new lease on life) is to retrain your brain to feel greatful (misspelling intended) about everything you are and have. To say: Thank you God (or Universe), thank you for everything!!! Thank you that I'm not the sod who'd start a fight if he had a Stella, thank you for the food in front of me, and the water, the roof over my head, and my senses to experience them, my body, my soul, etc. Thank you Universe for taking the shape of ME! Because, one day, as well you know, you will no longer be here in your earthly spacesuit to enjoy the ride; and you will move on to something somewhere else; and wouldn't you want to look back that one last time and say, Wow, it was great to have been ME? What a ride that was!

So, if you are sick of the madhouse and want to change it, change yourself 1st, to paraphrase Gandhi. Try cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude, because it can all disappear in a flash. Once you start realizing how lucky you truly are, you'll see how things turn around. Depending on your disposition, it may take some time (or you can have an overnight, Scrooge-like epiphany), but it will start to radiate from you, and people will pick up on that vibe (because I'm sure the vibes you're giving off now aren't exactly attracting people to you, yes?) Perhaps people may look at you as you walk through the streets, chest out, head held high. Perhaps you can even smile at them (because you caught them noticing you) and they might return your smile. Perhaps one day you'll look back on this dark night of the soul you're going through, and laugh (or at least say WHEW!, that was a close call. Glad that's in the past and that I'm my new amazing self

BTW, you belong here as much as anyone else, because you WANTED to be here. Took me a while to wrap my mind around that concept, but once I got it, something changed...for the better. The pressure was off. I learned to "go with the flow". In fact, during one particular bad time in my life, I saw literally on the side of a bus, an advertisement for Adam Sandler's then latest film "Just Go with It". If that wasn't a sign from the Universe, I don't know what was!

So enough of my sermonizing (for now, anyway)...thank you for considering this.

All the best to you!
Senior Mysterioso

Dear DW, I too have experienced what you've described, so perhaps there's a bit of comfort in knowing that what you're going through is not uncommon to those with thinner skins. So here are some things to consider...do you realize how LUCKY you are to be able to experience these feelings, and at that level of complexity? To be aware of all that's going on in your/our world and be able to register and describe it? Yes, LUCKY! How lucky you are to have a wife to LOVE and be loved by her, to share these experiences with? To be healthy (you are reasonably healthy, yes? If not, perhaps you should get a checkup and have your thyroid checked) I learned way too late that mine was under-active (for reasons I'm still not aware of); and getting it regulated has made literally a world of difference, especially in my outlook on the world. Are the problems still there? Yes, they are. Hmmm, what to do about them? Nothing. What? Yes, nothing, because you, I or anyone else didn't come here to fix the world. We came here for the ride itself, to see perhaps the greatest show on Earth; and what you're now going through is part of that ride, and the only way you're going to get through it (and a new lease on life) is to retrain your brain to feel greatful (misspelling intended) about everything you are and have. To say: Thank you God (or Universe), thank you for everything!!! Thank you that I'm not the sod who'd start a fight if he had a Stella, thank you for the food in front of me, and the water, the roof over my head, and my senses to experience them, my body, my soul, etc. Thank you Universe for taking the shape of ME! Because, one day, as well you know, you will no longer be here in your earthly spacesuit to enjoy the ride; and you will move on to something somewhere else; and wouldn't you want to look back that one last time and say, Wow, it was great to have been ME? What a ride that was!

So, if you are sick of the madhouse and want to change it, change yourself 1st, to paraphrase Gandhi. Try cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude, because it can all disappear in a flash. Once you start realizing how lucky you truly are, you'll see how things turn around. Depending on your disposition, it may take some time (or you can have an overnight, Scrooge-like epiphany), but it will start to radiate from you, and people will pick up on that vibe (because I'm sure the vibes you're giving off now aren't exactly attracting people to you, yes?) Perhaps people may look at you as you walk through the streets, chest out, head held high. Perhaps you can even smile at them (because you caught them noticing you) and they might return your smile. Perhaps one day you'll look back on this dark night of the soul you're going through, and laugh (or at least say WHEW!, that was a close call. Glad that's in the past and that I'm my new amazing self

BTW, you belong here as much as anyone else, because you WANTED to be here. Took me a while to wrap my mind around that concept, but once I got it, something changed...for the better. The pressure was off. I learned to "go with the flow". In fact, during one particular bad time in my life, I saw literally on the side of a bus, an advertisement for Adam Sandler's then latest film "Just Go with It". If that wasn't a sign from the Universe, I don't know what was!

So enough of my sermonizing (for now, anyway)...thank you for considering this.

All the best to you!
Senior Mysterioso

reply to post by DataWraith


I have definitely felt the way you have at times, and when I was at my lowest point, I stumbled upon a book called The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy. Although I take much of it with a grain of salt... the main premise of the book is spot on in my opinion. There is a metaphor in the book about creating our reality that changed my life, and basically it is this:

Our mind is like an incredibly rich bed of soil in which any seed that is planted can easily take root. So what are the seeds? Simply, our thoughts. EVERY THOUGHT! Every thought you have whether you are consciously aware of it at the time or not is a seed you are planting into your mind which will eventually become the garden that will make up the reality of your life. The key is to increasing your skill at planting "good" seeds at will. I have by no means mastered this and quite frankly have been doing a miserable job of this lately, but the few times I've put real effort in being conscious of the seeds that I plant in my mind, it amazes me at the almost magical creative power it can have in my life. It seems beyond just "cause and effect", it's as though the universe itself is responding to your positive seeds that you've planted.

So with that said, your observations are probably valid with the side of the coin that you are looking at, but it's only one side of the coin. There is another half that is every bit as real that brings hope, not despair, and I believe every single coin has these two sides, even when the side of despair is plastered right up against your face.

Also one of the easiest ways to plant negative destructive seeds is with bad habits or mentally and emotionally draining addictions that we may think give us relief, but in reality add to the momentum of bad seeds being planted.

reply to post by DataWraith


FWP I am never bored.. that word does not exist in my vocab. WHen i was a boy I used to get bored.. then my grandmother or father would give me a project to work on. Sometimes I had to fix the fence.. other times I had to clean the windows.. as i got older things got more invovled.. oil changes, re tiling the restroom.. painting the shed... cleaning the fauctet pipes... weeding the garden.. one summer i took my fathers truck apart.... After a while the child trait of being "bored" left me. Today I do not get bored I just do stuff. IF you are a few stone overweitght how about you run some of that off...... maybe get fit?? I found dozens of things you could do based on what you wrote. YOu are just not trying hard enough and have fallen victim to having all your needs met.

reply to post by DataWraith


Maybe you are over thinking over analyzing?

Just say eff it and go with it eh?

better than spending the rest of your days being miserable?