# Idle Thoughts, you are everything that's wrong with America

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idle-thoughts-you-are-everything-thats-wrong-with-america/327255>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [October 21, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idle-thoughts-you-are-everything-thats-wrong-with-america/327255 "2005-10-21T14:28:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idle-thoughts-you-are-everything-thats-wrong-with-america/327255/81 "2005-10-22T22:00:49Z")

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> [@rayh](#):
>
> I suffer from depression and I am currently unemployed. It is difficult trying to find a job. If I go for a job I like and end up not getting it I only end up more depressed. If I go for a job I don’t like and get it I will only end up more depressed by doing it.
> 
> I recently tried to get on an MSc course and was accepted but I couldn’t raise the funding to finance myself on the course. I ended up feeling suicidal. Should I continually put myself through that? Whether I do or not is my decision. If you think I am lazy or not trying that is your problem, you deal with it.
> 
> I have heard people talk about “living up to high standards.” I call bullshit on this. Whose standards should I live up to? Yours? I have no wish to live up to your standards whatever they are.
> 
> While it may be “noble” to work at a job you hate, not doing it because you hate it is just as “noble.”
> 
> Just because someone choses not to put themselves through the stress of a soul-destroying job and you do for someone else’s “high standards” does not make you superior to them. I have my own “high standards” and part of them is to be in a fit and healthy state so that I can enjoy the time I spend with my family. Not stressed and depressed all the time. It may mean that I cannot afford a lot of material things for them, but that is the choice I have made.

I’ve struggled with depression my whole life and I’m only getting through it now. The thing I’ve found in the last week or so is to examine my thoughts and label them whether they are positive or negative, so I can be more aware of when I am spiralling downward based upon giving myself negative reinforcement.

That being said, another thing that helped me was getting involved in art events locally. It helped me learn how better to work with people, organize them, and I’ve learned a lot of management principles along the way, I can now put my event planning skills on a resume if I were looking for a job that way. Help organize something you like to do just because you like to do it. It’s a great way to network and build a community around yourself. A community is the best way to fight depression, and also the best way to find your way into jobs that you like.

Erek

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