Tell me how wrote: » That might imply that feeling sad is linked with selfishness. That is not necessarily the case. Many might have that sense of sadness because of their empathy and awareness towards others as opposed to solely being focused inwardly.
bassy wrote: » get on with it.
Wibbs wrote: » Oh I wouldn't call it selfish T, I would suggest it's self focussed. "How is this making me feel", which IMHO is wallowing internally, rather than "those poor people, how lucky I am and how I owe it to them not to be wallowing internally" kinda thing. It's pretty undeniable that society has become more fractured, more self involved individually. There is far less of the "there but for the grace of god..." going on. Hell, things like social media positively encourage this internality, where the "selfie" isn't just in photos.
The reading was an absolute pleasure, and I left the building content, but as soon as I drove home, and for no apparent reason, the ocean of misery inside me threw up black beaky demons again to shred my peace of mind. I couldn’t explain it, or fathom the reason, but any ordinary moment of pleasure, like listening to poetry or buying an ice-cream cone at a filling station, could be suddenly flittered away by the savage presence of inner sadness.
Tacklebox wrote: » Has to be the wilderness for myself and maybe a farmer's market. Chill out the Bohemians and creative side. Borrow a dog and look after it for the day. Get stung by a nettle can be an awakening from sadness, it has that hypnotic effect of giving a shock to the system. That's only a suggestion not for everyone. That's why nettles are good in tea.
Tell me how wrote: » I agree that social media and todays world means that maybe sometimes people are thinking of what is the most appropriate hashtag for their post rather than recognising that they are not truly suffering in the text book case. But, many are suffering in a text book way (and most likely offline and out of public sight) Here is an excerpt from a Michael Harding book which really struck me when I read it. Now, it seems that h knows all too well that he should not feel a particular way given that it some cases this could come on while doing a task which he knew was pleasurable and also you would have to say that at the very least he is exploring the logic of his sadness rather than dwelling in it simply but he still experiences it. Maybe most people would not be able to articulate the experience or the hopelessness of it so succintly but many do have this experience. It is that sense which I think the OP is looking to overcome as opposed to any slight downward dip outside of the perfect life which social media tells us everyone is living. I disagree that a better approach in all cases is to think "Well I am lucky and not suffering so i can not think about others"
Succubus_ wrote: » +1 I don't think it's helpful to wallow in self-pity but likewise it's not very helpful to say "cheer up, someone else has it worse". Sure we all know that. I am immensely grateful that the lottery of life picked Ireland for me to be born in (in the 1980s) but that doesn't mean I'm not entitled to feel pain or sadness either. I have a lot to be thankful for but I also struggle with life and I also struggle with feeling selfish and ungrateful for what I do have.
Beanntraigheach wrote: » Another thing I've found helpful is taking it out on the servants. Like just the other day, I was in a foul temper, when Jeeves, silly old fool, puts three cubes of sugar in my tea instead of two! I might have let it go if I'd believed it was purely accidental on his part but I'm sure I detected an 'insolent' sort of look about him as he did it so I threw the tea straight into his face, unbuckled my belt, and gave him a thrashing he won't soon forget. After I'd calmed down I felt wonderfully reinvigourated, my pent-up anger and bitterness released. Very therapeutic.
Giselle Better Cigar wrote: » The cad! I sincerely hope you knocked such defiance entirely out of him! :mad:
Giselle Better Cigar wrote: » Oh yeah it's only advice for people who aren't dealing with terrible problems or severe depression. Just those feeling down.
Wibbs wrote: » Aye, there's a major distinction there and a major difference between depression and feeling sad as an acute phase. I have noticed down the years with folks I know with depression, perspective tends to go out the window and introspection increases to an awful degree and the worse the condition the worse those things are. Horrible to be stuck in that. IMHO there should be more of that distinction, as more and more are being diagnosed with depression and anxiety. And medicated for it, often permanently. I could pop into any number of my local GP's and after a ten minute "consult" where I dropped a couple of symptoms I'd come out with a diagnosis of "depression" and a script for SSRI's and Xanax. Please come back in three weeks. Where they'll up the dosage, or change to another type and throw in something for sleeping better, rinse and repeat. Again in my humble it's a disastrous trend. One with little actual medical science backing either. And no I don't mean SSRI type meds are "useless sugar pills pimped by Big Pharma™*". They have clear efficacy in cases of severe depression and have proven to be lifesavers in those folks(though there are very interesting studies regarding placebo. The more depressed someone is the less they respond to placebo is one). I mean stuff like "oh it's like diabetes, you've a "chemical imbalance" in your brain". Slight diff there; with diabetes you can clinically measure insulin and blood sugar levels in your body, with the neurotransmitters involved in the brain, you can't. It very much reminds me of how antibiotics were used. Obviously a totally different set of drugs and with much better clinical science behind them, but they too were lifesavers for millions, but then were doled out for every sniffle and wheeze and that didn't go too well. Consider America where the pill for every ill is endemic as an idea(ever buy an American magazine and how many drug companies advertise in them. Mad). In the US one in six are on this class of drugs(and women are three times more likely to be on them. Mother's little helper. Again). That's not good. *though they make a shit ton of money for them.
Succubus_ wrote: » So folks, as the title says. What do you do when you feel sad or lonely?
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