Depression It's another boring day

[Hobbit]

Yet another day comes and has gone. It is mid-afternoon and I have done nothing with my day. Unfortunately, with my influenza gradually getting worse again I think I'll need to skip Evening Mass tonight. (Though, if you remember, I did go on Wednesday night.)
Chat on Discord, listen to music, play vidya, shitpost on .net and 4chan. It's all the same, all day every day. Nothing - ever - changes.
I need to continue writing my novel, but I have no motivation whatsoever.
Life as a perpetual NEET (been a NEET for 7-8 years now) is a slog. It's boring. It is not as glorified as people make it out to be. However, there is absolutely no denying that it is better than becoming a wagie.
Perhaps I will read to pass the afternoon. I am not so sure.
I ate goyslop today (Subway) and ordered shit from the local 7/11 to be delivered through Menulog. My fridge is stocked up. I have plenty of drinks and food. But all I really want is to get rid of this hollow feeling in my chest, my head, and my gut.
Do you, my fellow hikkis and NEETs, ever experience this intense feeling of boredom? Or am I completely alone in this?

 

[AccurateDud]

Day?

 

[Hobbit]

Day?

I'm in Australia. Timezones exist.

 

[AccurateDud]

I'm in Australia. Timezones exist.

Oh wow a AEST time zone, currently it's 1:55 AM (EST) here in the sunshine state.

 

[Hobbit]

Oh wow a ASET time zone, currently it's 1:55 AM (EST) here in the sunshine state.

Oh, nice. Yeah AEST is my timezone. It changes from AEST to AEDT though, depending on the time of year.

 

[fries]

My fridge is stocked up

One of the ugliest phrases possible in English, you shouldn't be eating anything if you feel bored and numb

 

[JCaesar]

One of the ugliest phrases possible in English, you shouldn't be eating anything if you feel bored and numb

Why

 

[Hobbit]

One of the ugliest phrases possible in English, you shouldn't be eating anything if you feel bored and numb

I never said I was eating. I said it's stocked up...for later.

 

[TellEmNoYellin]

Getting out of your comfort zone would help elevate boredom. As a NEET if you don't really have to struggle with much you need new experiences and/or problems to solve.

Look up free shit you can do in your local area. Find parks to walk through (without listening to music, trust me) or museums and art galleries to look at. Do anything to stimulate your brain.

 

[fries]

Why

There's a reason why most cults and religions practice fasting
It's unintuitive but ketosis does make coping easier

 

[Hobbit]

Getting out of your comfort zone would help elevate boredom. As a NEET if you don't really have to struggle with much you need new experiences and/or problems to solve.

Look up free shit you can do in your local area. Find parks to walk through (without listening to music, trust me) or museums and art galleries to look at. Do anything to stimulate your brain.

This is a good idea, hence why I've been attending Mass again.
Unfortunately the weather has been cold, drizzly, and overcast, so going for a walk is basically out of the question lest I get drenched. I guess I could probably still explore places in my town, though.

 

[TellEmNoYellin]

This is a good idea, hence why I've been attending Mass again.
Unfortunately the weather has been cold, drizzly, and overcast, so going for a walk is basically out of the question lest I get drenched. I guess I could probably still explore places in my town, though.

I don't know how big your town is but there has to be at least a few places you haven't been to yet. I also find that activities that don't require staring at a screen are the best activities.

I randomly went on a nature trail along these giant cliffs looking out into an ocean and it was pretty great. No headphones, just waves crashing onto rocks and the wind and shit.

 

[Hobbit]

I don't know how big your town is but there has to be at least a few places you haven't been to yet. I also find that activities that don't require staring at a screen are the best activities.

I would say my town is medium-sized. Not big enough to be considered a city, but not small enough to be considered "rural" (even though it's still classified as rural).
Yeah, I love the outdoors as much as I don't go outside.

I randomly went on a nature trail along these giant cliffs looking out into an ocean and it was pretty great. No headphones, just waves crashing onto rocks and the wind and shit.

That sounds lovely. I wish I lived near the ocean so I could do something like that.

 

[Maid]

Yeah, boredom is very common, especially in the long term after you've experienced most of the things you wanted to do during your extended period of NEETdom. The simplest way would be to break the ongoing loop, but as a NEET, and more so in your case as a hiki, it's easy to never break the consistent loop because you essentially don't have to, nor are there any repercussions for not following through with it. I still manage to do things, but I'm in the same boat; there really is no value in these things—I'm just doing them for the sake of doing them. I'd rather take the numbed-out boredom versus waging; it's a much better trade-off. I've been meaning to take a break from the internet for a bit to try to reset the dopamine levels a bit as well. Ten years in, I've got everything set up; now it's like, alright, now what?

 

[Lain]

Yeah, boredom is very common, especially in the long term after you've experienced most of the things you wanted to do during your extended period of NEETdom. The simplest way would be to break the ongoing loop, but as a NEET, and more so in your case as a hiki, it's easy to never break the consistent loop because you essentially don't have to, nor are there any repercussions for not following through with it. I still manage to do things, but I'm in the same boat; there really is no value in these things—I'm just doing them for the sake of doing them. I'd rather take the numbed-out boredom versus waging; it's a much better trade-off. I've been meaning to take a break from the internet for a bit to try to reset the dopamine levels a bit as well. Ten years in, I've got everything set up; now it's like, alright, now what?

Do you take any stimulants or drugs, even if it's only caffeine? A solid couple weeks off just caffeine (which most people are addicted to, myself included) will give you a higher baseline amount of dopamine. Breaking out of the daily routine can be as simple as picking up a book on a subject you know nothing about but are interested in. It's an important feeling, it makes it so you don't relive the same moments over and over again until you die.

There's a lot of good and bad ways to cope with it, what I'd consider good is exercising+cooking good meals+learning something new. Undoubtedly bad copes are narcotics, LDAR and accepting you'll spend the rest of your days numb. It's not a NEET vs wagie dilemma, everyone has this issue when they get too ingrained with their routine.

 

[Maid]

Do you take any stimulants or drugs, even if it's only caffeine? A solid couple weeks off just caffeine (which most people are addicted to, myself included) will give you a higher baseline amount of dopamine. Breaking out of the daily routine can be as simple as picking up a book on a subject you know nothing about but are interested in. It's an important feeling, it makes it so you don't relive the same moments over and over again until you die.

There's a lot of good and bad ways to cope with it, what I'd consider good is exercising+cooking good meals+learning something new. Undoubtedly bad copes are narcotics, LDAR and accepting you'll spend the rest of your days numb. It's not a NEET vs wagie dilemma, everyone has this issue when they get too ingrained with their routine.

I don't take any stimulants/caffeine or drugs, but I will say that my sympathetic nervous system is naturally always on high alert. Coming from someone who used to bump coke often, it feels like a coke high without the drug itself. I've had this feeling for years, and I'm starting to come to terms with the possibility that it may be due to long-term isolation or tied to some of the situations I've been through over the past few years. I'll start off completely fine, but then it will crank itself up, and I'll be in fight or flight mode just sitting at my PC for a good hour straight before it crashes back down.

I take no stimulants or drugs anymore because my sympathetic nervous system is so heightened naturally. It's hard for me to even smoke weed without getting extreme paranoia. I've been looking online for the best way to calm my nervous system down because traditional Western medicine just wants to throw pills at me without properly looking at the cause of the problem. My plan is to break the cycle of degeneracy very slowly. I've been doing much better, but it's been a slow process. When I was speaking of NEET vs. wagie, I was saying that the ongoing boredom is easier to deal with rather than working a job, etc. Diet routine and more natural based things is something I'm in the process of getting back into I pretty much do the same thing every day which I believe is a major factor to a lot of it really.

 

[Lain]

I take no stimulants or drugs anymore because my sympathetic nervous system is so heightened naturally. It's hard for me to even smoke weed without getting extreme paranoia. I've been looking online for the best way to calm my nervous system down because traditional Western medicine just wants to throw pills at me without properly looking at the cause of the problem. My plan is to break the cycle of degeneracy very slowly. I've been doing much better, but it's been a slow process. When I was speaking of NEET vs. wagie, I was saying that the ongoing boredom is easier to deal with rather than working a job, etc. Diet routine and more natural based things is something I'm in the process of getting back into I pretty much do the same thing every day which I believe is a major factor to a lot of it really.

Exercise + diet + quality sleep + possibly ashwaganda since it lowers stress by a great deal. Try eating more complex carbs, the steady release of glucose will help calm your nervous system down. Ashwaganda is pretty effective but if you take it too often, you become generally sedated as a result of your cortisol levels becoming too low, so you tilt it in the opposite direction instead of balanced. It's solid to use for a while to calm down and relax.

 

[Maid]

Exercise + diet + quality sleep + possibly ashwaganda since it lowers stress by a great deal. Try eating more complex carbs, the steady release of glucose will help calm your nervous system down. Ashwaganda is pretty effective but if you take it too often, you become generally sedated as a result of your cortisol levels becoming too low, so you tilt it in the opposite direction instead of balanced. It's solid to use for a while to calm down and relax.

My friend got me started on ashwagandha; now I just need to get everything else in line. Do you think there is a correlation between a heightened sympathetic nervous system and playing long-term video games? It's hard to pinpoint exactly what the cause might be, but I feel like things started to become hardwired when I began playing long-term. I had a friend that I played with competitively who went through the same thing. After about three weeks of correction, he said he was able to get his body back to normal, but he had to completely disconnect from everything, including his phone, to reset back to resting terms.

 

[Lain]

That is the problem with all medicine nearly though, there's a reason your body is causing that reaction and it's only temporarily alleviating it artificially unless you make lifestyle changes. You take stimulants, your dopamine receptors get down regulated, stims become a way to cope. Opioids down regulate your opioid receptors, benzos with your GABA receptors, whatever, all the same deal.

I tried ashwaganda out in a really stressful period in my life and took massive amounts and after several months, I became generally sluggish and a little anhedonic since I had no cortisol to really push me along. Even alternative medicine can't be taken for very long, I'd say like 2-3 months tops.

 

[Lain]

My friend got me started on ashwagandha; now I just need to get everything else in line. Do you think there is a correlation between a heightened sympathetic nervous system and playing long-term video games? It's hard to pinpoint exactly what the cause might be, but I feel like things started to become hardwired when I began playing long-term. I had a friend that I played with competitively who went through the same thing. After about three weeks of correction, he said he was able to get his body back to normal, but he had to completely disconnect from everything, including his phone, to reset back to resting terms.

I have absolutely no clue but if I had to guess it's in sync with your current lifestyle choices, that being one of them. Possibly your old stim abuse causing harm to your body but I wouldn't put too much stock in that, the body has an amazing ability to repair damage. From how you've elaborated on the way you play games, you probably are stressed out while playing them instead of relaxed. It sounds more like a full time job, which can be fun in its own right (I've put in 12k hours in Tera and I've been nolifing OW2) but it can be stressful if you get too sweaty, casuals unironically wouldn't get it.

 

[Deleted member 1325]

go for a long run

 

[Maid]

That is the problem with all medicine nearly though, there's a reason your body is causing that reaction and it's only temporarily alleviating it artificially unless you make lifestyle changes. You take stimulants, your dopamine receptors get down regulated, stims become a way to cope. Opioids down regulate your opioid receptors, benzos with your GABA receptors, whatever, all the same deal.

I tried ashwaganda out in a really stressful period in my life and took massive amounts and after several months, I became generally sluggish and a little anhedonic since I had no cortisol to really push me along. Even alternative medicine can't be taken for very long, I'd say like 2-3 months tops.

Yeah I try to do everything the most natural way possible ashwaganda has been a really good start in calming shit down but as you said I'm gonna take it for a short period of time while getting back on track with most of my other stuff.

 

[Maid]

I have absolutely no clue but if I had to guess it's in sync with your current lifestyle choices, that being one of them. Possibly your old stim abuse causing harm to your body but I wouldn't put too much stock in that, the body has an amazing ability to repair damage. From how you've elaborated on the way you play games, you probably are stressed out while playing them instead of relaxed. It sounds more like a full time job, which can be fun in its own right (I've put in 12k hours in Tera and I've been nolifing OW2) but it can be stressful if you get too sweaty, casuals unironically wouldn't get it.

Ehh, the coke could play a factor, but I think it's more about lifestyle and repetitiveness. I honestly just have that knack to keep going and going until I complete something—it's like a winner's mentality. So, between long-term gaming and the lifestyle I've lived for so long, it really just threw some things out of whack.
Yeah, that's also the thing: being super hyper-focused on something in general, especially for such a long time period. I don't think many people have that ability to be dedicated to something for that long, to begin with. Not to stroke my own ego, but even though it's a video game, that amount of effort toward something clearly shows something that isn't exactly ordinary. It's a good trait, it just needs to be channeled properly into something else.

 

[Lain]

I honestly just have that knack to keep going and going until I complete something—it's like a winner's mentality. So, between long-term gaming and the lifestyle I've lived for so long, it really just threw some things out of whack.
Yeah, that's also the thing: being super hyper-focused on something in general, especially for such a long time period. I don't think many people have that ability to be dedicated to something for that long, to begin with. Not to stroke my own ego, but even though it's a video game, that amount of effort toward something clearly shows something that isn't exactly ordinary. It's a good trait, it just needs to be channeled properly into something else.

Nah, if you get 200m all skills, you deserve to stroke your ego. It's a superhuman level ability of dedication, if you could channel that into something else, whatever it is you like, you'd become an expert. I had the goal of getting all 99s on my account and I'd only play for 2-3 weeks before hopping off for a few months, rinse and repeat. Most people with degrees still only have a shallow level understanding of a topic compared to that one guy who was autistically obsessed learning the thing 16+ hours a day. The difference in knowledge can't be compared, even if you study for a few hours a day, say 4 hours, you would rapidly pass others in whatever skill you try to learn.

That just reminds me of Lynx Titan and his AMA where he mentioned he'd do pushups, situps, squats, same meals every day, same routine, for pretty much the entirety of his OSRS grind. Some people truly thrive off routine and repetition and these are probably the kind of people who advance knowledge in specific fields.

 

[Maid]

Nah, if you get 200m all skills, you deserve to stroke your ego. It's a superhuman level ability of dedication, if you could channel that into something else, whatever it is you like, you'd become an expert. I had the goal of getting all 99s on my account and I'd only play for 2-3 weeks before hopping off for a few months, rinse and repeat. Most people with degrees still only have a shallow level understanding of a topic compared to that one guy who was autistically obsessed learning the thing 16+ hours a day. The difference in knowledge can't be compared, even if you study for a few hours a day, say 4 hours, you would rapidly pass others in whatever skill you try to learn.

That just reminds me of Lynx Titan and his AMA where he mentioned he'd do pushups, situps, squats, same meals every day, same routine, for pretty much the entirety of his OSRS grind. Some people truly thrive off routine and repetition and these are probably the kind of people who advance knowledge in specific fields.

Honestly, for me, it's just something that I did and forgot about—it's like on to the next type of deal. I think that's a good way to put it. Sure, people can tap into things periodically, but the people that can autistically keep up the same routine and just completely kill it without even thinking about it are the ones who are going to make it the farthest.

Yeah, the Lynx AMA, that shit's hilarious and honestly so common with people on the top page just planning out their days to be as hyper-efficient as possible. Some are autistic and motivated, others are normal people who just plan everything around and fully wire themselves into the routine of playing consistent hours every day while hyper-focused on completing their goals. I took after my dad, really in that. The dude literally does not stop and then just doesn't care, on to the next. 200m all is a bigger thing to other people than it was to me if that makes sense. That's just generally how I move.

 

[Overrated]

EVERY day is so boring

 

[Neet194012940]

Exercise + diet + quality sleep + possibly ashwaganda since it lowers stress by a great deal. Try eating more complex carbs, the steady release of glucose will help calm your nervous system down. Ashwaganda is pretty effective but if you take it too often, you become generally sedated as a result of your cortisol levels becoming too low, so you tilt it in the opposite direction instead of balanced. It's solid to use for a while to calm down and relax.

i suspect the main reason ashwaganda causes anhedonia is its serotonergic properties because of the thought loops i notice on it and how things that crash cortisol don't cause anhedonia. Alot of them cause increased enjoyment because cortisol antagonism of dopamine. stronger ashwaganda makes my dick numb, kinda like ssris are supposed to.

i agree with everything else you wrote

 

[Lain]

i suspect the main reason ashwaganda causes anhedonia is its serotonergic properties because of the thought loops i notice on it and how things that crash cortisol don't cause anhedonia. Alot of them cause increased enjoyment because cortisol antagonism of dopamine. stronger ashwaganda makes my dick numb, kinda like ssris are supposed to.

i agree with everything else you wrote

AFAIK, you need cortisol in sufficient amounts or you'll get anxious and not have much energy, among other things. Too little and you'll be low energy and not stimulated, too much and you'll feel shaky and anxious. I believe it's more due to the low cortisol, if your cortisol was impacting dopamine negatively, people wouldn't report anhedonia from ashwaganda most likely.

I don't believe cortisol negates dopamine. I'm sleepy though so I'll write a better reply out some other time after I researched it some more to make sure.

 

[MelaninQueen]

AFAIK, you need cortisol in sufficient amounts or you'll get anxious and not have much energy, among other things. Too little and you'll be low energy and not stimulated, too much and you'll feel shaky and anxious. I believe it's more due to the low cortisol, if your cortisol was impacting dopamine negatively, people wouldn't report anhedonia from ashwaganda most likely.

I don't believe cortisol negates dopamine. I'm sleepy though so I'll write a better reply out some other time after I researched it some more to make sure.

I think I experience cortisol spikes because of SSRI withdrawal. Supplements do not even work when taking them during early morning.

 

[Neet194012940]

AFAIK, you need cortisol in sufficient amounts or you'll get anxious and not have much energy, among other things. Too little and you'll be low energy and not stimulated, too much and you'll feel shaky and anxious. I believe it's more due to the low cortisol, if your cortisol was impacting dopamine negatively, people wouldn't report anhedonia from ashwaganda most likely.

I don't believe cortisol negates dopamine. I'm sleepy though so I'll write a better reply out some other time after I researched it some more to make sure.

to a certain extent in everyone or else no one would ever wake up from sleeping . But people have different neurochemistry, so there's a different threshold for everyone. Personally when someone is cortisol dominant so to speak i can tell, ie they sleep like 5 hours, and feel this compulsive urge to "do something" like menial tasks, do the thing where their leg shakes when they sit down and shakes the table, etc.

people with cortisol dominant systems are more likely to try ashwaganda in the first place, in that case my hunch is the best bet would be to try to add more stimulating trasmitters in place of the cortisol. but if its a stop-gap solution for some stressful circumstance that lasts for like a month, i can see how too low cortisol is likely. I would say look at blood tests but no one is gonna do that for some herbs they buy at amazon, look at dosage and the persons normal personality