How does one keep their sanity.

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Ok so I have accepted that I am different from most people and all that...but that does nothing to change that I will never be able to be happy with how society is set up. and that by their standards I'm the one with problems so what good does my opposition to it do? I mean I don't think graduating college and getting a job is going to make my life any better, especially when I know I do not want to be contributing to the way things are going. I mean why is it that society mesures success with how many people you've screwed over to get where you are, and how much wealth you have. I don't see how I can possibly play along when I disagree with everything about the way society veiws things. Does anyone else feel like this at all?

Societies change with the time, another generation another society.

I've been unhappy with things in society for years. So I am preparing to go political in a way and looking for allies in my ideas.

Graduating from college and getting a job gets income, you can't really do without.

It would be nice to think that, but just look at history the same crap has been going on for generations...and society remains the same. And I just don't like the idea that all life is about is making income so that you can have kids to go make more income and thus continuously feeding the messed system we have. the 1% on top just keeps getting more powerful and everyone else seems to be becoming more passive.

If you hate it, you can do something else. You can learn to hunt and fish and go live as a hermit in the mountains. You can save up some money and use it to fly one-way to a tropical island, and live there by fishing and eating coconuts. Lots of people drop out of society all the time in many different ways. Just complaining about it without exploring your alternatives is a bit emo (no offense meant).

Ok, let's put it this way: How do you want it to be?

I don't think I could handle the lonliness that would come from living alone isoloated from everyone. I mean if I want to escape I can always drink alcohol and maybe trip on psychedelics...and I don't think emo has any relevence to this conversation, I never fit into any highschool cliques. The trouble is I can't seem to just ignore it.

I am not even totally sure, I mean I really have nothing else to compare anything with...but I guess I think it would be good if this society and the top corporations and government officials had their power taken away. So basically things have to hit the fan before they improve.......but who's going to attemt to do anything like that.

You suggest anarchism?

Ok I took your post to mean that you wanted advice or help on how to live outside of this society which you despise. If that's correct, I can give you other examples where you would not be alone.

If you merely wanted to discuss politics, this thread probably belongs in the PPR forum. Please clarify the types of responses you were interested in, since I can't seem to tell from your post itself what your intentions were.

well maybe not permanantly, but I don't see things changing for the better anytime soon the way things are currently set up.

Well those aren't bad suggestions, I just already hate being alone to long.....so I do not think that would help my mental state. But yeah this is not just about politics it just so happens other then all the things going on internally there is the inevidable realization that I am not fit for this society and I don't really have the resources to totally abandon it either.....and yes some of why that is I guess relates to politics.

But yeah I am trying to figure out how to stay sane when I feel like this....I mean going and isolating myself might make me a little happier since I wont have to deal with all the crap, but I'll still end up just as mentally f*cked, its intresting what kinds of effects isolation can have on mental health.

I understand what you are saying here. Social interaction is when you are well adapted to an insane society. The sanest people are the ones who don't always have to say something. If the question is how to keep your sanity...well, you can't. The best thing you can do is to hold on to the things that can't be taken away from you, but you have to know what they are first. As for me, I don't want to contribute to how things are going either, but I'm much more concerned with preventing the way things are going from contributing to me. The best thing I've come up with is to write all my thoughts on the subject down, file it away, and move on. Most of this stuff is out of my control, so there is no point in worrying about it past the point of understanding. Easier said than done, sure, but it's the only way.

Most people don't have wealth. Don't know how much TV you watch, but many of the inflated expectations are presented there for commercialization. At least, avoid the commercials and news if you can. If you are fortunate you may find a niche to work in that isn't so bad. It depends on what type of job you want, but of course there aren't that many available jobs out there.

As bad as things are, we have a lot of advantages today to make our life easier, than people could have dreamed of a couple of hundred years ago. Like toilet paper, hot showers, and airconditioning. When I was young and it was freezing outside, and I was able to get warm inside and take a hot shower, I often thought about those realities, and it made my problems seem a little smaller.

As to your original question how do people keep their sanity. Life is measured in the western developed countries now as more stressful than it has been in decades. Many are suffering ill effects from it. One thing for sure is, that humans don't do well without a purpose and life has always been a game of struggle for those to succeed that found the best adaptations.

We do have some choice of how we contribute to the system. I worked a fairly low stress, low pay, and low status job many years in my life after graduating with three college degrees. It never hurt my feelings that I wasn't rich, I was just happy to be part of some game and have purpose in everyday life. Many times people asked me why I didn't have more ambition in life, but that wasn't what I valued; one of my degrees was in health and I decided that stress was not going to kill me at a very young age.

I don't want to sound too pessimistic, but in my opinion society has gotten to the point where no one is clearly in charge or understands the direction it is taking. And, in my opinion things are very possibly going to get much worse, when the sh** does hit the fan; those circumstances likely won't please anyone. About all we can do is the same thing our ancestors did for thousands of years, ride the wave of life as long as we can.

Finally, from my health background, the thing you have the most control of is your health and well being. Everything you do today in your youth will impact you years down the road. The biggest investment I every made in my life, was in making good exercise and diet choices, although as many other young people I was subject to at least one weekly outing of partial sobriety.

Humans were designed to keep moving, and our sedentary lives, keep many from doing it. The impact to health and psychology of that one factor, is something we at least have some control over. I can honestly say it was the only thing I had control of in my life, that made a difference in how I felt. Jobs and people come and go, but we are always stuck with our health.

Last edited by aghogday on 12 Jun 2011, 3:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If you don't want to feed the "system" why not devote your life to charitable causes? Just an idea.

And I do get a fair amount of excercise, taking the buses and walking around on the college campus does involve quite a bit of walking which is how I like to get excercise.....as for diet choices I have been having a lot of trouble with my appetite I get hungry, then nothing seems good, then if something does look good I go to eat it and end up nauseous. So sometimes I have to eat based on what will go down the easiest(i think it could be related to PTSD issues, as I never had trouble eating before that.)

If you kind find a niche in a charitable job, I second that it is a great idea. It could be something like working in a Thrift store taking in stuff for disadvantaged people; I'm not a good source for this, but an internet search would probably bring up hundreds of ideas. It is places like this that are more accepting of others, and in helping others it is almost impossible to stay isolated.

Also, if you don't want to go to college, and don't feel cut out for it, don't feel pressured in going; not everyone is cut out for college. The pressures escalate in finding a higher status job after college, and it doesn't sound like that is necessarily what you are looking for.

However, if you have the means and the desire, by all means go and enjoy it. I enjoyed college because, I never pressured myself into the idea of the necessity of some big career, I just wanted to learn things that would make my life better, in general, and give me a better opportunity to find a job.