I beg to differ. The whole point of being an astronaut is to get high.
::d&r::
If you don’t feel like making something of yourself, don’t. Go work at 7-Eleven; that ought to keep you in XBox games and reefer. If you decide there’s something else you want, go get that.
Oh, come on, man. Aren’t you one of the people who whines about our shrinking freedoms in gun control threads?
I’ve never tried it, but I’d imagine ample weed + free slurpies would be a heavenly combination.
Plus Slim Jims and those Cuban sammiches.
I’ve done meth before, never was once inclined to make a habit of it; honestly, if it weren’t cut garbage - an obvious byproduct of its prohibition - it would probably do my liver less harm than the Concerta I’m prescribed (used as a stimulant; I have never been diagnosed with ADHD).
Antidepressants and therapy predated my habitual marijuana use (I tried once when I was thirteen, did it a little after the Army, began using regularly at 22). My therapists and prescribers are well aware of all my recreational drug use, including alcohol and cigarettes.
Believe it or not, my prescriber is pursuing medical marijuana for me because she (plus the rest of my team, minus my parents) feel it is legitimately more beneficial than my other prescriptions to my state of mind. However, in its infinite wisdom, Washington state decided that depression cannot be legitimately treated with THC.
Those people may not be wrong for being annoyed; on the other hand, I don’t understand what motivates the average member of the population to keep on grinding.
With regard to marijuana, society decided that 70 years ago on the basis of downright lies perpetuated by the US government, et al. Educate yourself before imposing your morals on me OR tell me where I can ship myself so I don’t have to be bothered by your free little society’s War on Personal Freedom.
Perhaps if my parents didn’t pay for most of my education and thereby expect more of me, I might be happy with that. I wasn’t particularly dissatisfied stocking groceries for employment, at least when I didn’t have to get up at 2:45am to do so.
Go work someplace where you can make enough money to pay them back for it, then. Shouldn’t take more than a few years. Then you can go back to doing whatever it is you want to do guilt-free.
Regarding the medical marijuana thing, it seems like California is the only state with a “make up your own symptoms” set of rules. Here in Michigan, the law is very, very new but it’s strictly limited to cancer, crohns disease, AIDS, and persistent debilitating pain. Right now it’s strictly regulated, but in a few years they might get more and more lax.
I think depression is a perfectly legitimate use for it. At first, though, they probably want to limit it for people who are dying and such.
This might get me completely blasted, but what about doing volunteer work for a bit?
The majority of places you go to help at won’t drug test, and if you don’t really need the money, it will give you something that looks good on your resume while you figure out your mental health.
Plus, volunteering has been shown to help people feel better about themselves and it seems it will fit with your idealist type nature. It won’t require a 40 hour week but you will be doing something.
Ah…
Your parents want you to make something of yourself. That isn’t your priority. In an effort to have their way, they paid for your college. As a path of least resistance, you let them. Now you are stuck either telling your parents their priorities are not your priorities and they wasted their money, or getting a job and “making something of yourself.”
At some point you are either going to have to change to make your parents happy, or disappoint them. Since you seem pretty intent on disappointing them - might as well get it out of the way now. Tell them its time for them to stop enabling you - you’ll find a way to pay rent and your internet bill on your own, but that might be a job where you stock groceries. At least do them the favor of having them stop pouring money down the toilet.
I don’t know if I’m selfish or just lazy, but I often tell my shrink that I don’t want to change the world, but rather live in a changed one. That’s not to say I completely rule out volunteer work, I just can’t think of what I would be good at with regard to volunteer work. Social work, humanitarianism and working at an animal shelter would all probably just give me more reasons to be depressed.
In my defense, I have told my parents many times that I am “a hole they can throw money into.” As is more than reasonable, they are willing to pay my rent, etc. until 2010. You’re probably right that I am simply taking the path of resistance in letting that happen.
Maybe my life will get interesting after that, but my last foray into the “real world” (the Army) was disappointing on many levels for me.
I think that - honestly - you need an “interesting” life right now. I suspect that it will be disappointing, but I think the answers to a lot of the questions you posit
will be more understandable. You don’t need to buy into someone else’s politics or religion or American dream - but I think that more of the real world might give you more tolerance for other people’s point of view on these matters. And paying your own rent might just mean your have less time for navel gazing and worrying about what someone else believes in terms of faith.
Well, there’s your problem. If you want to live in a changed world, you must seize control and make the changes yourself. Do not expect anyone to “rescue” you from your situation, because that only happens in fairy tales. You basically have two choices: (1) Remain where you are, keep following the path of least resistance, and don’t expect anything to change, or (2) Take control of your life, and decide for yourself what your goals are and how to achieve them. Personally, I would recommend option #2 – it’s a harder path to walk, but in the long run, I’m confident you’ll discover a much happier situation for yourself, eventually.
And for God’s sake, STOP BLAMING YOUR PARENTS for everything!! You’re a big boy now, it’s time for you to grow up and assume responsibility for yourself. Yes, I’m familiar with toxic family dynamics and it’s likely that your “issues” were forced upon you from an early age onward…but that makes no difference now. It’s your own responsibility to deal with whatever hand the universe has given you, whether you like it or not.
Ok, man. Please do me and the rest of the weed loving world a favor. Stop talking out loud about making it legal and your personal journey with the stuff. You are the kind of guy we don’t want speaking on our side. You are everything the prohibitionists point to to keep it illegal and we don’t need your kind giving the opposition any ammo. Seriously. Shut it. Thanks.
I guess I’m confused as to how I’m being intolerant. It’s not like I can single out one thing or idea that needs to be eradicated in order to make things right. If I had to take a stab at whatever the single, biggest, worst human foible is I would say it is the tendency the average person has to believe that his way is the right (or only) way. The lack of focus for my frustration is a major component of the frustration itself.
Correct me if I’m putting words in your mouth, but “stop thinking so much” is faulty reasoning to which the appropriate response is “show me where my thinking errs.”
As far as faith, I do my best to only worry about what someone else believes when it is used as a tool to persecute others or restrict their options in life. If you attempt to argue that this is a rare occurrence with regards to Christianity or Islam, I think the evidence is against you. I have no known complaints with Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism or anything else I haven’t mentioned; maybe listing “Religion” under bullshit was too all-encompassing.
On one hand, you can view this post as a political message intended to persuade others, on the other hand, you can view this post “as an exorcism of [Mr. Krebbs’] negative feelings;” judging from your post I guess I must have left my intentions pretty vague.
And if one doesn’t like it, the only option I see is suicide. I often think my biggest problem may be that I’m too cowardly to go ahead and take it.
Judging from your (unquoted) false dichotomy, I take it that you don’t consider suicide a reasonable option. If you’d like to indulge me, why not?
…he said, lifting his leg to water the Tree of Liberty.
Man, I know everyone reacts differently, but I cannot imagine pot being helpful with depression at all. I know it makes me moody introspective and paranoid. Even if it doesn’t have this effect on you, I think over the long run it isn’t helping, especially if you’re mixing it with alcohol or other drugs.
My Dear Krebbs,
I feel your pain. Our life myths are different but we have many areas of overlap including a shared taste in smoke. I don’t see it as your problem. I see pot/drugs as an excuse to change consciousness which in my case is to a less judgmental view of things in general and, as a result, I have a less judgmental view of myself to which I’m becoming addicted.
If you grasp what I am about to say, I promise that you will save yourself the painful decades it will take you to learn it first hand.
The fact that you have no problems with eastern religion is a good start. I recommend Zen. It imposes no religious foppery and goes direct to the only task you face which is learning how to tune out that mental committee that has you convinced that it “knows” how to direct your life.
Take a good look at this committee. Always in session, always in disagreement, each member trying to shout a little louder and each attached to a particular view of the past. It is literally insane. But at bottom, you believe it is yourself. And that is true of everyone on the planet.
You cannot change the world but you can change the way you see it, You can only change what you see by changing your mind. You will not change your mind until you recognize that the outer world as it appears to you is an exact representation of the committee which is simply self-serving and chaotic.
But how to ignore the committee and see the world as it really is? Practice, my son.
While you’re on your parent’s dime, get yourself hooked up with a zen center. If it’s available to you I also recommend Tai Chi and Aikido, the latter offers great exercise and both a circle of potential friends.
It’s time to admit that a “career” is the last fucking thing you want. Finding a sub rosa (no tests, flexible hours) job that you could stomach or god forbid, even enjoy, to support yourself independently on your spiritual quest would be a good thing.
The very best, brother.
It has been known to help with mine - it actually MOTIVATES me to get shit done. On the flip side, Adderall had no effect on me whatsoever (as a matter of fact I had no problem napping while on it)… and that’s SPEED. Some people with chemical issues really DO have issues with their own internal chemicals.
That having been said, I don’t think marijuana has that effect on the OP.