when things get too real for me_irl

Depression

You won't have superpowers, but nothing is stopping you from fighting cartoonish villains.

When I get that funny feeling I ask myself:
Who, where and when would I rather be? Some celebrity? A pesant from 1600? Some random bird? My grandpa? A hunter gatherer?
This humbles me. For a brief moment, I get to be part of the superorganism we call earth.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Thoreau, Walden

hobbies that will never fill the void

sounds like they just haven’t found their hobby yet

People who feel this way might do well to add some adventure into their lives. It doesn't need to be expensive. Walk or bike somewhere new. Try new foods. Blast some lines off a hooker's massive fake tits, and blow a load all over her face. You know, the basics of a healthy life.

Find better hobbies. Consume information, and then use that information to create. There are so many free resources if you are willing to look. Find friends who make those drab moments fly by. Talk to a professional if you legitimately cannot find the joy in anything. If you see parts of your world that could be changed for the better, then be a part of that change. Who cares if you’re just one person? What were you going to do with your time instead? Jerk off and shitpost?

No one is the secret heir to a magical legacy, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make the parts of the world we inhabit as beautiful as possible in the time we have.

Funny thing is, expectations that some cool fantasy things could exist are there because... you consumed a lot of media at some point.

Always make sure you're doing things that are known to be good for your mental and emotional wellbeing. Get out into the sunshine, do physical exercise, socialise and talk to people that you care about. And don't neglect your hobbies.

"It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis."

Are you okay OP?

I guess my baseline idea of existence is chronic pain and immobility, or not existing at all, so I've always been really happy to wake up and be able to see and hear and read and dance and talk, and fuck and love and all - I really and truly enjoy being physically embodied, and to get so much of my time without hurting too.

Also, quite honestly, every day I wake up glad to be an adult and not a child and every single day still glad I don't have to go to school. Did not like being a kid but adulthood has been mostly really good, and has involved an arc from desperately poor to ok with a family so that's been surprising and happy too.

I got into a funk like that semi-recently. I broke my ankle/leg and had to have surgery and ended up laid up at my parents' place for 3 months. I decided, while laying in a bed feeling sorry for myself, to start acting on all the things I've been wanting to do/achieve. That's how I signed up for horseback riding lessons and have a long-term goal of getting a horse. Life is too short to just dream of owning a horse again(I had horses fory entire childhood). I'm going to make that dream happen, and get back in the saddle before I get my own critter lol.

I've also started going out with friends more and treating myself to things like eating at a new restaurant, when funds permit of course. It's the little things that are also important. Like the tiny cactus I got for my desk at work. Lil dude is smaller than my thumb and it livens up my workspace. Best $5 spent recently lol. Can't wait to see if it is a flowering cactus. I have no idea what kind it actually is lmao.

I used to just go home after work and hang out inside, which was NOT fulfilling. I'm much happier now that I have fun things to look forward to and an attainable long-term goal.

Lucretius (a follower of Epicurus) pointed out that if you can't be content with just existing, getting more out of life won't actually make you happy. Yeah, being a wage slave sucks, and we need to liberate ourselves. But we also have to learn to just be happy with being, or we'll always be stuck running away from ourselves.

Real. Ngl I just do weird shit just to keep going. Drugs, alcohol, self harm, binging happy anime, porn. I wish I died. But at this point the addictions want me to live to experience another hit.

Welcome to Buddhism.

Good, embrace that feeling. You are supposed to be free, to be remembered for your contributions to us all. But having free time right now is bad. Our society wants us to work until we die, even though a lot of basic services and goods are no longer scarce. We have to work to survive because going at our own pace will upset the powers that be.

Or reject capitalism. Be free and live on your own terms with syndicalism.

Welcome to life, fucker. Enjoy it or don't basically

Thats... one way of looking at it.

so organize and unionize, comrade.

don't wallow in pity and despair, use the misery as motivation to improve things. If things are already unbearable, surely it won't hurt to make some noise about it and inspire change.

I make video games as a hobby. Ya gotta find something you really enjoy doing outside of your job.

It's all in your perspective. Look up at the stars and the amazing things space has to offer. We aren't all that's out there in the universe. The universe is much more wonderful and strange than you can ever imagine.

Obligatory Kaiji scene

Yeah... let's tear down the system and replace it with something that's soul enriching instead of soul sucking

"Man's search for meaning"

When one focuses on the meaningless, of course there's no meaning.

Life is... It's up to us as individuals to find our own meaning.

A primal one throughout history is family. The older I get, the more meaningful I find it to help family/friends, rather than focus on my own issues. It really helps us move beyond our own barriers and mundane concerns.

If I can pass on something of real meaning and value to my nieces and nephews, then I'll have accomplished something significant. It's the best one can hope for, and if we were all so fortunate to do the same, the difference it would make for mankind would be immeasurable.

Not a singular great hero, just millions of us doing seemingly small, but significant things.