When I started looking for wisdom, I found that often times I didn't like it at first, because it showed that I was missing something.
Maybe my wording was poor, but it's a simple fact that you can make your own problems worse, no matter what they are. Therefore, the opposite must be true. No matter what you problems have, you can improve them.
I just found that after having people around me destroy themselves and other people I had to start looking at why. All of them talked about themselves and their own problems. All of them. There was no exception.
I think that if you are truly honest with yourself, and in the midst of your deepest depression you analyze "what am I thinking about right now", you find it's yourself.
When I put a gun in my mouth, it wasn't to end my friends pain, it was end my own.
I was getting straight F's in school, so I was dragged into my school's counseler's office for evaluation. And the advice this trained counseler gave me was "You need to be more selfish." Even in the depths of despair, with no hope in front of me, as a kid, that advice seemed worthless and stupid.
It took me decades to work out of depression (where my answer in some part in my head was suicide) and anyone who tells you they have a quick answer is either selling surgery or pharmaceuticals. And the entire time I had to tell myself things like "don't go down, there's nothing there that's good." Even if I didn't want to believe it, and I wanted everything end, I kept repeating it because it was true. I had been at the end multiple times, and there was nothing good on the other side.
So, yes, my statement was simplified, but it's true. Find the thing you can tell yourself that you will believe, even in the darkest times, that will remind you of where you need to go. For me, it was to stop thinking about myself. Because it only made things worse. And I think that on some level, thinking about other people, and not focusing on yourself, has a usefulness for everyone.
Maybe my wording was poor, but it's a simple fact that you can make your own problems worse, no matter what they are. Therefore, the opposite must be true. No matter what you problems have, you can improve them.
I just found that after having people around me destroy themselves and other people I had to start looking at why. All of them talked about themselves and their own problems. All of them. There was no exception.
I think that if you are truly honest with yourself, and in the midst of your deepest depression you analyze "what am I thinking about right now", you find it's yourself.
When I put a gun in my mouth, it wasn't to end my friends pain, it was end my own.
I was getting straight F's in school, so I was dragged into my school's counseler's office for evaluation. And the advice this trained counseler gave me was "You need to be more selfish." Even in the depths of despair, with no hope in front of me, as a kid, that advice seemed worthless and stupid.
It took me decades to work out of depression (where my answer in some part in my head was suicide) and anyone who tells you they have a quick answer is either selling surgery or pharmaceuticals. And the entire time I had to tell myself things like "don't go down, there's nothing there that's good." Even if I didn't want to believe it, and I wanted everything end, I kept repeating it because it was true. I had been at the end multiple times, and there was nothing good on the other side.
So, yes, my statement was simplified, but it's true. Find the thing you can tell yourself that you will believe, even in the darkest times, that will remind you of where you need to go. For me, it was to stop thinking about myself. Because it only made things worse. And I think that on some level, thinking about other people, and not focusing on yourself, has a usefulness for everyone.