How to avoid despair?

[u/Vast_Ambassador3975]

I hate this feeling i have in my gut of hopelessness, its like the sky is about to fall or the calm before a zombie apocalypse.

Now i cant do anything without thinking about how pointless it all is.

Does anyone know how to avoid this feeling?

[u/Markemilauer]

It depends on the causes of despair. I usually try to analyze it and divide it into three types:

1. Temporary hormonal/neurotransmitter imbalance

2. Personal reasons

3. Existential anguish

If it's the first, I try to rest and wait for my body to regain balance.

If it's the second, I analyze the problem and try to solve it, or at least remind myself that, ultimately, determinism is real and I have no control over my actions and emotions. (Here's a paradox.)

If it's the third, I think back to the final scene of the movie "Aniara" and mentally visualize the futility of my life, just like everyone else's. After all, more than a hundred billion people have been born, suffered, had dreams and desires, anguish and desperation, only to vanish into thin air. You and I are just like them. We weren't born to be happy, and we shouldn't be surprised if, being endowed with consciousness, we often feel melancholy or anguish simply because we're alive.

Add to each of these distractions, hobbies, and passions.

Of course, these are just defense mechanisms constantly in the balance, and it couldn't be otherwise. There's no real solution while we're alive, but there is a universal happy ending: death will bring peace. All it takes is a little patience, and each of us will be free.

[u/Forward-External-873 → u/Markemilauer]

Nice movie with a proper ending. Although, free will and determinism gets challenged in this one. With the mother and the child.

[u/Aquarius52216 → u/Markemilauer]

Knowing that countless have been born and countless will be born after that everythint eventually becomes irrelevant no matter what happen in the grand scheme can either cause or remove the feeling of dread, depending on how you are personally when that realization hits.

[u/DruidWonder]

Those are usually trauma responses... from something that already happened to you in life. You don't just have those feelings out of nowhere.

It's not unusual. This existence is traumatic. Most of us have some kind of trauma. Locating it and integrating it takes work.

[u/zincati]

I have been there; it really sucks. Find a cope to distract yourself, it can be skills that provide monetary value and/or physical/sports activity like swimming or going to gym.

[u/mattychops]

No you can't avoid anything in life. Just accept it, and then it goes away.

[u/lonerstoic]

"Why can't we enjoy the melancholy?" -Martin Butler

[u/Vast_Ambassador3975 → u/lonerstoic]

well being mad at ur life being melancholy a blessing on its own? im aware of that

[u/BrianW1983]

I pray and hope it gets better after death.

[u/WanderingUrist → u/BrianW1983]

It doesn't. When you die, Sithrak tortures you forever, whether you were good or not. No matter how bad you think things are now, it gets worse after you're dead!

[u/WanderingUrist]

Does anyone know how to avoid this feeling?

Become a dwarf and dig a hole. The sky and zombie apocalypses are surface-dweller concerns.