Being happy is a habit

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In writing this, I see that it comes across as a rant, so let's just call it that then. Here goes:

I went through ten years of deep depression almost drinking and drugging myself to death because I could not deal with feeling like an outcast.

I overdosed on different drugs many times and have come out alive in situations that should have killed me, several times.

I would be stuck in that slump if I didn't start one day to just decide to be happy. Just start to find the lowest common denominator. Every day above ground is a good day, right? You woke up today and you're alive. That's more than the folks in the grave can brag about, right? Well there you go! Everybody posting here can relate to that.
If you're posting here, chances are you've also got a roof over your head, unless you're posting from a library or something. Do you have food on your table?

With access to the internet, you literally have no excuse not to spend your time being productive. You have a gift, I know it. I know you can find within you the desire to create something. It doesn't matter if it is plagiarizing someone elses work, it is the joy of the creative process that is the purpose.
This joy is sacred. It is in fact a very basal, primal, almost sexual thing. Life is created through love to re-create love in the physical world. Art can spread love, or you can do it directly through an act of kindness.

The re-production of positivity, love, is the sacred act of repairing the broken world. This is how I have deduced the meaning of life. This is what it all boils down to.

Life is a short stop between A and B.

To the atheist. A and B are nonexistence. This makes your life invaluable

To the person believing in reincarnation, This life is a reason for incarnation after life A and will determine life B depending on the outcome. Going by this belief, there is likely a higher purpose to your existence, something that you are to figure out during this life. Some people theoreticise that people with disabilities deliberately chose that life because that soul needs the difficult experience to learn the lesson necessary to "graduate" in the spiritual realm.
This belief fosters compassion for yourself, as an autistic person, and also to any other disabled person.

To the abrahamic theist, for instance a Christian or muslim, A represents nonexistence and B represents eternity.
That means that God created this one life for you to fulfill the special purpose that you have in the grand scheme of things. Whatever religion you have, if you believe in one life and then eternity in heaven, then this one life really matters.

What we can deduce for all these possibilities is that regardless of where you go after this life, the consequences of your actions remain. In the grand scheme of things, what you don't do will also have an impact because you could be somewhere to prevent something from happening.
When you realize what power you as a person have in this world, just through interacting, through language. Then life becomes very valuable.

Depression now becomes an enemy, and you have set before yourself a new quest: to unlock the secret behind your existence. People of all faiths, or lack of faith, have had that moment of ultimate clarity, when they felt true purpose in its purest form. At that one moment, the blinders come off and everything is clear as day. There is no doubt.

I found that for me, systematically teaching myself to be appreciative and happy by starting with the fact that I am alive and breathing and then systematically moving upwards, has helped me become all the more appreciative of life.

I don't know what happens when I die, but I know that I have the power to affect this world during my lifetime. That is powerful, and it gives meaning.

Hobbies that are long-term projects also give meaning.

These can be:

Building and designing a miniature railway and gradually adding parts over the years.

Taking up painting or drawing and collecting your works, exhibiting them side by side to see a timeline of your progression.

Learning a musical instrument, or several, and building a repertoire of music.


Time spent in grief is time wasted. I wanted to write something encouraging, but my mind goes everywhere and it turned out like a rant. Maybe this can kick off a discussion somewhere. I just needed to get this off my chest as the depression threads are breaking my heart and I feel for those who are in grief.