Numb

[acd]

What is this?

For the past few weeks, I've been feeling numb and apathetic and mentally lazy. It's hard for me to focus. I feel uninspired. I'm not happy and yet I'm not sad. Nothing excites me. Yet, I haven't lost my appetite or interest in sex, though. I feel I've not a creative thought in my head and I don't care to actually converse with anyone.

 

[Bt4fl]

What is this?

For the past few weeks, I've been feeling numb and apathetic and mentally lazy. It's hard for me to focus. I feel uninspired. I'm not happy and yet I'm not sad. Nothing excites me. Yet, I haven't lost my appetite or interest in sex, though. I feel I've not a creative thought in my head and I don't care to actually converse with anyone.

This is what you do... get a paintball gun and a ton of paintballs... a gallon of Yagaur (however you spell it... pronouced Yay-grr) and a bunch of redbull.

2+2=no more problems (if you don't get caught by the cops...)

 

[acd]

Jager

That sounds like a rollicking good time. Years ago, my brother and I used to shoot each other with bbs. It was so idiotic.

But I sense that after the drunken vigilante paintballing, I'd still feel the same. Maybe I just feel overwhelmed with this thing called 'living.'

 

[AUM]

What is this?

For the past few weeks, I've been feeling numb and apathetic and mentally lazy. It's hard for me to focus. I feel uninspired. I'm not happy and yet I'm not sad. Nothing excites me. Yet, I haven't lost my appetite or interest in sex, though. I feel I've not a creative thought in my head and I don't care to actually converse with anyone.

I usually take those symptoms that something is not going right with something in my life, something has to change. Finding the thing that needs changing isn't the difficult part but actually doing it. I don't know if this relates to you or not but it may be something for you to consider.

 

[bamf]

If it fits with your work schedule, I think you should take some time off and go backpacking for a few days. Take some time to reconnect with yourself while enjoying the beauty of the natural world.

Works wonders for freaks like me

 

[acd]

hmmm.

That would be great, MF. If it were feasible. But I think you're quite right about needing to reconnect with myself. Maybe that's all it is.

You know, I feel kind of stupid about it, like it's all part of some post-adolescent angst. There are so many things to know and do, so many ideas to reconcile with and make sense of the world with. It's exhausting. I'm sure most people my age have this all figured out, are already settled into their niche and all of that. I don't know if any of that makes sense.

Maybe it's because I'm not quite certain who I am and I've not spent any time trying to find out lately. I'm consumed with work and bills and social obligations etc. etc. that I'm beginning to feel drone-like.

 

[Quinlan]

You know, I feel kind of stupid about it, like it's all part of some post-adolescent angst. There are so many things to know and do, so many ideas to reconcile with and make sense of the world with. It's exhausting. I'm sure most people my age have this all figured out, are already settled into their niche and all of that. I don't know if any of that makes sense.

Hah!

This maybe? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_life_crisis

 

[acd]

Quinlan! I've been saying since I was 17 that I was having a 'quarter life crisis'! I didn't actually thing it was a legitimately discussed issue. I thought I made the term up.

Crap.. All of these apply:

Characteristics of quarter-life crisis may include:

• feeling "not good enough" because one can't find a job that is at one's academic/intellectual level
• frustration with relationships, the working world, and finding a suitable job or career
• confusion of identity
• insecurity regarding the near future
• insecurity concerning long-term plans, life goals
• insecurity regarding present accomplishments
• re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
• disappointment with one's job
• nostalgia for university, college, high school or elementary school life
• tendency to hold stronger opinions
• boredom with social interactions
• loss of closeness to high school and college friends
• financially-rooted stress (overwhelming college loans, unanticipatedly high cost of living, etc.)
• loneliness
• desire to have children
• a sense that everyone is, somehow, doing better than you

 

[gloomy-optimist]

We're expected to act a certain way, reach a certain level of success, and have a certain goal in mind at certain points in our lives. Everything in society is kind of set up around that. However, if you're not interested or at a different point mentally or emotionally, then you're stuck in a role you can't really fill, or don't want to fill....and after a while, it just kills you. If you can't do anything you want, you begin to lose interest in almost everything. The passion kind of fizzles away, slowly, until you're looking out the window and thinking of something to do, then realize that there's really nothing you actually want to do.

Reconnecting is the hard part, because usually you can't really get out of the situation you're in. Like you said: work, bills, social obligations, etc. You can't really get around that...easily. But, a change of pace does help, as does a little "me" time. Do something to put yourself on the edge a little -- splurge on something selfish if you can...if you can't, then do something you wouldn't normally. In your free time, try a different hobby. Maybe write down all the places you want to see or do or something; I like to pretend like I can do something interesting, even if I can't -- that gets your mind off it. Just little things, for a good while, can at least get you out of neutral

 

[dylan]

Man oh man, if that's a quarter life crisis, I'm gonna live to be the oldest human being on the planet.


ETA: Actually, since I want to at least try to contribute something useful, let me think on what to do about that, 'cause I have been there before too.

 

[Quinlan]

Moral of the story; society sucks and social systems aren't designed with us in mind.

 

[Madison]

We're expected to act a certain way, reach a certain level of success, and have a certain goal in mind at certain points in our lives. Everything in society is kind of set up around that. However, if you're not interested or at a different point mentally or emotionally, then you're stuck in a role you can't really fill, or don't want to fill....and after a while, it just kills you. If you can't do anything you want, you begin to lose interest in almost everything. The passion kind of fizzles away, slowly, until you're looking out the window and thinking of something to do, then realize that there's really nothing you actually want to do.

Reconnecting is the hard part, because usually you can't really get out of the situation you're in. Like you said: work, bills, social obligations, etc. You can't really get around that...easily. But, a change of pace does help, as does a little "me" time. Do something to put yourself on the edge a little -- splurge on something selfish if you can...if you can't, then do something you wouldn't normally. In your free time, try a different hobby. Maybe write down all the places you want to see or do or something; I like to pretend like I can do something interesting, even if I can't -- that gets your mind off it. Just little things, for a good while, can at least get you out of neutral

This describes me.
Often, I'm nostalgic for previous times. In fact, I'm planning a trip to a town in which I used to live couple of years ago because I had more of a niche there. Sometimes I feel as if I lost a sense of myself after graduating from college.

 

[dylan]

Do something completely random, like GO says, something you wouldn't normally do. Do something you don't even think will get you inspired. If you can approach it without any invested hope that it will do anything for you, you leave yourself open to whatever it might do for you, open to things expectations might prevent you from feeling or seeing or experiencing. Just throw a pebble, make a ripple, no matter how small.

 

[Blind Bandit]

What is this?

For the past few weeks, I've been feeling numb and apathetic and mentally lazy. It's hard for me to focus. I feel uninspired. I'm not happy and yet I'm not sad. Nothing excites me. Yet, I haven't lost my appetite or interest in sex, though. I feel I've not a creative thought in my head and I don't care to actually converse with anyone.

I've felt this way a lot before. Are you under stress? You may also be in one of the those ruts where passion levels you for a bit and comes back later.

Its different than depression.

Quinlan! I've been saying since I was 17 that I was having a 'quarter life crisis'! I didn't actually thing it was a legitimately discussed issue. I thought I made the term up.

Crap.. All of these apply:

Wow I'm not done with college but ya this fits pretty well for me too.

I feel like time is running out.

That would be great, MF. If it were feasible. But I think you're quite right about needing to reconnect with myself. Maybe that's all it is.

You know, I feel kind of stupid about it, like it's all part of some post-adolescent angst. There are so many things to know and do, so many ideas to reconcile with and make sense of the world with. It's exhausting. I'm sure most people my age have this all figured out, are already settled into their niche and all of that. I don't know if any of that makes sense.

Maybe it's because I'm not quite certain who I am and I've not spent any time trying to find out lately. I'm consumed with work and bills and social obligations etc. etc. that I'm beginning to feel drone-like.

tell me about it people my age are already settle and everything is fine.

Not so much for me.

Hopefully this feeling will go away soon.

 

[Koba]

Find something or someone that makes you feel differently. Chase it.

I think your feelings are probably the result of being busy doing nothing

 

[bamf]

Find something or someone that makes you feel differently. Chase it.

I think your feelings are probably the result of being busy doing nothing

I'd recommend the something, but not the someone. Chasing someone is great until it all blows up in your face. Then you're right back at square one.

 

[Koba]

[SIZE=Default]I'd recommend the something, but not the someone. Chasing someone is great until it all blows up in your face. Then you're right back at square one.[/SIZE]

What do you mean? Sometimes other people can be a very nice way to become more motivated about the world, to learn about others, and to learn about oneself.

 

[Puck]

As Minority Funk suggested, try spending more time communing with Nature. Just you, on your own.

 

[Faye]

I would say meditate, but I don't know if you even want to do that or not.

 

[Hinsoog]

I can relate pretty strongly with what you must be feeling. Drone-like is a great way to describe it. My own solution is to make free time in any way I can and make sure that it is alone time. Sometimes I need this alone time so badly that I will even forgo my scheduled weekly get-togethers(and these are always trying to multiply) to the chagrin of my friends(which is kind of stressful in itself, but sometimes I just have to). I call it soak time. A time where it's just me soaking in the thoughts and hobbies I have been trying to build time to dive into, and if it's taken from me in huge stretches of time and unavoidable activity, then I also begin to numb...

Some say to do something spontaneous, but, if your numbness is like mine, then that kind of activity will just feel empty. I have better luck to just start studying about something that has been on my mind. That really has been the more invigorating thing for me, far more than listening to more of the same predictable reactions from people who have made me numb in the first place.

And something just as important, of course, is healthy lifestyle habits. I mean, maybe it sounds obvious, but sometimes you just have to evaluate the physical health of your lifestyle, and from there, there just will be benefits. A little while ago I have started eating better, stopped drinking pop, and started working-out more frequently than I did, and while I am not immune to the numbness by any means, I think it helps... Of course, I think studying things that I have been thinking about(espcially things in psychology) and giving myself stetches of alone time still have a ton of weight for me. When I started studying Japanese, and having that sort of committed study experience, that had a profound impact on me...