Because you're always talking about yourself, and your feelings, and your state of mind, and your worries, and your insecurities. — S

Well, I do like to wallow a lot. I'm sorry that this bothers you, as you seem always agitated at something or someone. Don't eat the friendly pig in the picture, please. But, the part of the insecurities is off mark. Worries yes, I am a quite anxious pig, hence the wallowing...

Maybe you arrived (at happiness) but you haven't realized it. — Terrapin Station

Or maybe...equanimity?

If you're really apathetic/unmotivated by anything, that could be caused by depression. — Terrapin Station

No, I should elaborate. I do know what depression feels like, and this doesn't really feel like depression. More like some kind of blissful acceptance or contentment. But, I've become so accustomed to the lure of "being happy" that this new feeling is somewhat foreign to me. Does that make sense?

In my case it was paranoid schizophrenia at your age. Go get yourself checked out. — god must be atheist

How did it manifest in? I take meds for my psychotic disorder. Do you think these are related?

Insecurity and self-obsession. — S

How so? I can throw labels too.

A wallower.

I think the goal of the testimony has been achieved. An educated electorate is perhaps the highest good that can be imparted by one's leaders.

Let's all reincarnate J. Edgar Hoover, so accountability is restored.

I don't come here to seek agreement or harmony. That would be boring — S

As for confusion, what do you think I'm confused about? — S

Then what are you here for?

Spoken like a true ignoramus. — S

A wallower.

And how much do you think you'll learn in an echo chamber? — S

I think, a lot of what goes on here is identity formation, where you seem to be constantly in dissonance or confusion that is protected/projected onto others.

Does anyone like you? If so, then they’re probably insufferable pricks as well. — Noah Te Stroete

S, has nothing to teach. I suggest, learning from someone else if dialectics is your thing.

Nobody likes to be tested. Why would anyone want to be?

And, how else can one not react with anger for being tested by a poor teacher?

But I was pointing to something more straightforward, that if one is depressed when one's experience is uplifting, then one is in some sense absent - not present with the trees and sunshine. Where are you then? — unenlightened

In my head, where else?

The phrase comes easy but what does it mean? Are not all emotions internal until expressed? — unenlightened

Well, yes, there's a fundamentally awry loop in the mind of the depressive. A sort of Hegeliian dialectical self-chastising tendency to feel bad over feeling the way they do feel. How does one remedy this seems to be what I am asking?

Are you really? It this a feeling or an idea? csalisbury tells me a story I have heard before, of layers of feeling that are not 'about' the world as it is; the weight of depression that prevents one getting out of bed is nowhere in the bedroom, nowhere within experience therefore, but is a weight of thought. One is not in the bedroom oneself, but in a world of ideation, probably trapped there because ... — unenlightened

I tend to think of reality as some dream world. One where everything, including the trees are part of the world one experiences and lives within. Where the desires and emotions are part of the scenery of the world itself. Mind you, this doesn't imply that one necessarily lives in a horror world of sorts; but, that this world is one and the same as the self projecting or protecting the self from itself. Psychological solipsism of sorts.

It all seems like some "test" if you get the flow here.

Maybe... maybe I should learn how to wallow. Yep. That's the ticket. — god must be atheist

Yes, now you see the way...

But what about internalized anger of the sort:

"I am angry over being angry all the time."

The trees don't care.

Lol, I'm waiting for the Mueller testimony. Guy is made of diamond.

No, I am not drunk. I don't drink or use street drugs. But I do drink coffee, and it has the capacity to make me giddy. — god must be atheist

Nah, you're fine. I've seen worse. Sobriety is one hell of a drug, if you can tolerate the high, and no comedown!

Could be a midlife crisis, though it seems like a long one.

Back in the old PF you seemed less savage, Hanny.

A pig...

I will definitely give it a read. Thanks.

Wow this thread is digressing pretty hard...

No. Yes. — Coben

How?

https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/3956/on-disidentification/p1

That's a disidentifcation and a cutting off of a natural flow. — Coben

Is it natural to disidentify with one's emotions? Is it even possible?

They may or may not accept emotions, but on in the sense that they watch them, rather than letting them express, and disidentify with them. — Coben

What do you mean by "disidentify with them"?

And the reason for you to never have to be truly happy is that you require the none happiness to understand happiness and if you know the dark there is no way that you would enjoy living in an all-white room. — Filipe

I see what you did there. So, you have denied the attainment of happiness, and inverted the issue to then attain equanimity with others by not trying to be happy. This is worth contemplating over for me.

I don't know what equanimity means. So I looked up the meaning. It is (more-or-less) accepting good and bad; staying calm; not getting upset; etc. — god must be atheist

I usually understand it to mean that one is living in peace with respect to other people. Yeah, there we go with "people".

I would happily replace neurotic worrying with equanimity, sure. — Coben

Amen.

But I also like things more rajasic. — Coben

But, why? Doesn't the Buddhist have a point here? I mean, there's always some bigger fish out there. Not to sound depressive or anything, just a fact of life I suppose.

Sports are unfortunately not so much an issue for me these days, but there also I enjoyed really throwing myself in in ways that do not exhibit equanimity. I don't like killem competition, but competition and striving are all fine. And certainly with love, yes, peaceful moments and times are lovely. But then I want times that do not look and are not experienced as equanimity. — Coben

I don't know. I never got the Greek and now the inherited modern obsession with the Olympics or sport or whatnot. I usually just wallow about and eat and sleep.

But in fact you are only accepting what is on the outside. — Coben

This seems backward. First, one has to understand one's self to be able to engender any sort of non-trivial change. Yes?

I should state that equanimity could be even harder to achieve than happiness itself, hence why it was a term of endearment towards the Stoic sage.

So, there are a couple things at play here that I want to mention.

Trump would have stood no chance against someone like Sanders. Just read the WikiLeaks of the DNC and their suppression of Sanders campaign.

We have a shift in demographics or a more active youth, mainly through the effects of social media on voter competency.

Sanders is just too old, but I suspect he will eventually shift his willing and able base to Warren when the time is appropriate.

And, finally fear... I don't think the cold war mentality of socialism as a dire threat to American freedom will work anymore on the current electoral base. Times are simply changing.

Oh, yes, also climate change is a HUGE topic and Democrats have enough zest to pitch this concern of most every democratic voter to further motivate them towards high turnout, which has been an Achilles heel for Democrats.

It might actually be a slight repeat of 2008, just with a new slogan... Like "REAL Change".

:party:

Don't remind me of TimeLine. It was the best of times, and the worst of times.

Hmm, were reaching peak plasma concentrations of fermented grapes, I see.

It's so sad seeing this drama play out in my second home country being Poland.

Ethno-centrists are having a wet dream in Europe.

A way of life.

@ssu, I'd be highly interested in your input in this thread.

Sorry, and thanks!

*pig nods knowingly*

Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Comes and goes for me. How about you?

Then, is all that is left is coping?

I suppose this is unimaginable to the idealist or poet?

Can one deny the reality of depression?