Does anyone else have a bit of an existential crisis about the fact that one life time isnt long enough to do all the things which life has to offer?
Does anyone else have a bit of an existential crisis about the fact that one life time isnt long enough to do all the things which life has to offer?
I definitely did, during college. Learning to be more mindful of (and therefore, content in) the present has snapped me out of the crisis.
As problems go, I think wanting to do all the things is a relatively good one to have, so long as one doesn't let it reduce them into a "everything can't be done, so nothing is worthwhile"-esque puddle of nihilist inaction.
I think that's a good definition of depression, the last definition of depression I read was that it was not unhappiness or total devitalisation and I see how not being able to deal with that sort of existential crisis could prompt that kind of thing.
I don't really consider what I went through as 'depression' at all, though I believe many others would think to label it that. The main reason I say this is that existential crises like mine really aren't very uncommon (at least, not in modern westernized/industrialized societies), and are characterized by generalized anxiety rather than a depression-esque 'perpetual feeling of non-feeling'. If anything, our vernacular notion of depression has undergone flux: many competing theories for what, exactly constitutes it (at least, among the general and/or affected populace), and whether we can even refer to the 'common cold of psychology' as depression anymore at all, considering we used to think of it as something far rarer and more alarming than it appears to be thought of these days.
Having said all that, I also believe that chronic (or genetic) depression is really the only 'true' kind of depression there is. All else is temporary, mostly surmountable with the proper treatment--and possibly even beneficial to the person experiencing it, assuming they can learn and come out of it not harmed to an irreversible degree. I do think genetic depression serves a functional role to the species overall, if distributed in the optimal proportions, but that's a subject for another time and/or place.
This has been happening to me the older I get. When younger it seemed as if I had all the time in the world. I have many many things I want to learn about and I realize I dont have nearly enough time for it all.
This has been happening to me the older I get. When younger it seemed as if I had all the time in the world. I have many many things I want to learn about and I realize I dont have nearly enough time for it all.