A Haphazard Sense of Wisdom

For some reason, I've been deluged (again) of late by sort-of-friends and past acquaintances about their perceived shitty lives, and the current state of depression they may be in. Depression is a serious thing, but the word gets thrown around a lot. If you get laid and feel better the next morning, you were not depressed. If you stop crying once you leave the Dashboard Confessional concert, you are not depressed. Simply being a mopey son-of-a-bitch does not equal depression. It means you're a mopey son-of-a-bitch.

My advice has always been simple, since I've only found the light in the past year or so. Know yourself. The "meaning of life", nirvana, and whatever hot air philosophical jargon you'd want to use, comes down to identifying within yourself what exactly, above all other things, you should be doing. More importantly, it's not just knowing what it is, but why.

It's not fate; you define it for yourself. If someone asks you "what this thing is" that either drives you or acts a prism which you view all of life through, you should be able to tell them, yet it's not your prerogative to make sure they understand it. It's your voice, it's your "thing". Fuck anybody else who questions it.

The crux of all of this is understanding the why. I can ask any asshole off the street what they do for a living, for instance. Many don't know why they do it. They may shrug and say "it pays well", or "I like it"...but the simple fact they shrugged first tells me they have no fucking clue. There's nothing wrong with that; some people live their lives without thinking about these things. However, if you're feeling depressed, and you can't identify why you chose your line of work (again, for instance, life is more than fucking employment) without a shrug and quick look to the heavens...well, I found one of your answers.

98% of the people I've met who are "depressed" (sometimes their own diagnosis which I question) are so, in my opinion, because they just don't know why the fuck they do things. They're bound by social constructs fueled by their own insecurities, which tell them to do things because, well, "someone" (often greater society) else thinks they should.

Trust me, your relationship dissolving is not the root of the problem. Staring into space while at work because it's sucking the soul of out of you is not the root of the problem. Monetary problems can exacerbate the issue, but again are not the root.

The root of the problem is the fact you don't know who you are, and I suggest you find out quickly.