[emphasis mine]
Do you actually believe that? If the facts about pot including an expose of the lying propaganda about its ill effects and an honest evaluation of its beneficial uses including hemp were shown on Fox, marijuana would become a non-issue.
And as far as LOSER’s go, look no further than yourself, IMHO.
It mostly has to do with wanting to buy stuff. Though some people seem to do it for the heck of it.
If I were you I’d leech off your parents as long as I could, then go out and get an easy job with low responsibility that pays enough to keep you in weed and video games. And I’d get a hobby as soon as possible - one besides imbibing in things, that is. Something fun. If you can’t find motivations, make 'em.
To my mind, Mr. Krebbs, the key to avoiding crippling depression (assuming the cause isn’t illness that can be treated with pills) is fourfold:
have some interests, something you are both good at doing and like to do;
form meaningful connections to other people (we are social animals and generally we are happier if we have friends and lovers about);
do stuff which generates justifiable self-pride. The easiest way of doing that is to support yourself, however painful that may be. I found when I was an adolescent that while being supported by the parents was great in some ways, it sucked in terms of self-esteem. Hard grinding work was preferable because, at the end of the day, sitting back with a drink (or a joint), I could say “I earned this”. Petty perhaps, but there it is.
Once you have recaptured some self-pride, try embracing some selflessness as well. Do some charity work, or help someone out in some other way. It is amazing how that helps [though I suppose the conundrum is that if helping others makes you feel good, it isn’t really ‘selfless’. Oh well. 
]
Make the attempt to do these things, and very soon - guess what? You’ll be too busy to smoke pot all day and feel shitty.
The point is that each and every one of these thing involves a certain amount of inauthenticity. Pursuing an interest appears pointless at start. Meeting people is awkward and often starts shallow. Hard work for money involves many compromises. Helping others can seem pretentious. And so on. But this is just a phase. The rewards are there.
C’mon man, don’t be dramatic. Suicide is the most selfish act imaginable. Think of other people’s feelings for a change, okay?
Marijuana certainly exacerbates the depressive effect of alcohol. Combine that with a psychological disorder and other unknown medications, and you have a recipe for disaster.
For some people, depression is sort of the product of worrying a lot, or thinking too much about things. Not an anxiety disorder where you can’t get yourself to leave your bedroom because you might catch ebola from your doorknob, but just a constant state of feeling self-conscious, worrying about what might happen with XYZ, or worrying that you’re worrying too much, leading to depression.
In that case, marijuana might relax you to the point where you aren’t constantly worrying about that stuff, and so the depression is mitigated. The problem is, when you’re using any substance (alcohol, weed, food, pills) to take your mind off of something, you’re most likely going to develop a problem with it. Ergo, psychological addiction.
So if you have that kind of depression and the self-control to prevent yourself from becoming dependent on it, marijuana can be beneficial.
For people whose depression is based on something else, marijuana can make things worse.
“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.”
I can only speak for myself but:
Self improvement (yes, you can find this in a job)
Kids (Kids need things as you yourself were privileged to know)
Knowledge (learn something new every day) Having a wealth of it, even if it seems pointless can never be a bad thing, can it?
I have no idea what this means, but I’m going to address your remark in the pm.
I am trying to tell you that in some people, marijuana IS the cause of bad things and bad feelings in the same way that alcohol can play that role. It is not a reason to make it illegal in the same way that alcohol is not illegal.
If you spend all day smoking weed and playing video games, that behavior might likely be the symptom of something like depression, or it may be that you have a reaction to the drug that makes you feel all of these things you’re complaining about. It is possible that the marijuana does that to you. People have all sorts of differing reactions not just to marijuana itself, but to the different strains and strengths that are available.
What I want from you is an admittance that this might be the case. If you don’t do that, you have lost all credibility with me. Whether or not I find you credible probably makes no difference to you, and that’s fine, but I would like to see some more responsible thinking on your part. When I want you to stop advocating for legalization, I mean that it’s because the people who are against that happening think EVERYTHING is the cause of the devil weed. When you live your life like a loser, it makes no difference to an oppositionist that your main problem might be depression. All they see is that the devil weed is ruining you and your life and therefore it needs to be taken away from you quickly and with extreme prejudice.
Well guess what? Some people don’t ruin their lives with it. Some people smoke a spliff every day three times a day and are still productive members of society. Why is it that because YOU can’t handle it, that I can’t? Because the squeaky wheels in this country that don’t want anyone to have it cannot see the difference. You saying that your life is shit, “but hey, there’s weed!” Is exactly the kind of thing that makes it into the anti-marijuana rhetoric. There can be no other reason in their eyes for your life to suck.
Is that clear?
This may sound hard and cold, but I will say it anyway. Your parents will not be there forever. You have to be able to fend for yourself when that happens. If you are suffering from depression, you need to take the steps to deal with it. You may have to let your doctor try different prescriptions, until you find the right combination and the right amount that work for you (everyone is different). You will have to ease up on the pot, because it will cloud your thinking and may also will “confuse” whatever signs and symptoms your doctor is looking for. And, you will have to find some sort of employment. You are a grown man. There will come a time when you must be able to take care of yourself, because there will be no other choice.
It’s your life and your choice. Life is good, but only if you give it a chance. Don’t piss it away.
Even without putting the drug into it, just sitting around doing nothing productive (where productive is defined not by me but by the person doing the sitting around) seems able to cause or worsen depression. The less you (general you) do the less you feel like doing so you do less so you feel like doing less so you do less and on and on.
Damn skippy.
Mr. Krebbs, you could be my son. Are you? I don’t want to know. Bottom line is this: A lot of us would like to sit around and smoke pot all day. Seriously. But after a while it just gets bone-crushingly boring. So boring it’s depressing except you can’t imagine how bad it would be without the pot so you just keep on smoking. One of the great joys in live is accomplishing something, reaching a goal (other than defeating WoW or Halo) and looking back on the struggle. I’m sorry to say, pot doesn’t help in that regard.
My son was exactly where you are now. He sat around smoking dope all day and we were afraid to cut him off because it was so obvious he couldn’t support himself. He pleaded depression and claimed the pot was the only thing that made him feel better. Of course, he wasn’t willing to try anything else either, maybe some E. We finally had to cut him off, and you know what? He feels a whole lot better about himself now that he is working at a crappy job. Sure the job sucks but he is awake during the daytime, he goes out into the world and meets people. Take a chance Mr. Krebbs.
Mr. Krebbs, as someone who has come from an extremely neglectful childhood, someone who was very ill-equipped to go into the Real World, and as someone who very few people thought would make it successfully on his own, I say this: GO FUCK YOURSELF.
I don’t give a shit how depressed you are. I’ve been there, in spades. So has most of this board. What you are is lazy. You’ve ridden the gravy train your entire life by high-income parents who have done nothing but enabled their widdle boi. They’re as much to blame as you.
Furthermore, you continue to easily deflect every single suggestion given to you in this thread. Of course you’d rather sit at home, smoke yourself stupid, and play Xbox all day. Not having to work yet having all your needs met is a dream for most people.
Everyone can blast Clothahump all they want for his reply, but I am in 100% agreement. Those of you who are having the pity party for the OP are doing exactly what his parents are guilty of.
You are not a character in an Albert Camus novel. You live in Earth 2009 where you are expected to pull your weight in society. But that’s unfair! Too bad… that’s the way to world works. Tell your sob story to the North Korean farmer who gets up at 4am and works 18 hours to feed his family of 5 on two dollars a day.
You may not agree with the rules, but that doesn’t mean they don’t apply to you, nor does that mean that you don’t have to enforce them if that’s your job. If you don’t like them, work your way up to a decision-making position and change them.
Quit your whining, grow a pair of balls, put down the bong, and get your sedentary ass outside. By all means, continue going to therapy… explain to them that you can’t take responsibility for your own actions, and you’re not going to bother trying because the world is “unfair and stupid”.
Let the flames begin. I’m ready.
Not worth the effort. For a good scorching you can go sit on **Clothahump]b/]'s ashes.
I have. I was even Baker Acted. Since that apparently gives me some sort of moral authority, I’ll offer my agreement that the OP is indeed a loser, just like I was. He is also selfish, arrogant, lazy, spoiled and childish.
The good news is, he doesn’t have to be any of these things. But it will require effort and hard work of several different kinds. Pissing and moaning on a messageboard won’t help, and the namby-pamby “oh you poor, poor victim” treatment makes things worse. His parents already coddle him plenty. He needs to grow the fuck up.
Krebbs, you wanna smoke pot all day, that’s your business. You wanna be a leech off your parents, that’s your business and theirs. But you’re never going to have respect for yourself – nor will anyone else, for that matter – until you start doing things that deserve respect. It doesn’t need to be anything huge: holding down a job and supporting yourself despite mental illness is enough. But you have to make the choice to work towards that. If you do, you will eventually find what you’re looking for. I know, because I’ve been there.
On the other hand, if you’re not willing to make the effort and you want to just lay there and whine, well then fuck off.
He and Clothahump are right, as much as I hate to admit it. Enjoy a toke on your off-time, but get your fucking ass up and do something with your life. And do it now, before you’re old, useless, burnt out, and filled with nothing but regret about utterly wasting the only thing in this world you’re ever given.
And if you can’t do that, I have zero sympathy.
I hate to admit it, too (the agreeing with Clothahump part, anyway), but I agree as well. All I hear from the OP is a bunch of whining and excuses, coupled with a pretty shameful willingness to leech off his parents. His feelings on work are those of a spoiled toddler. There’s no way to attain any kind of self-respect at the end of the road he’s on. He needs to have his ass kicked back out into reality, not coddled.
Because I figure that I had better post back in this thread, I’d like to thank adhay for post #39 and presenting an explanation and possibilities that I will continue to consider. To those that present the opinion that not keeping oneself occupied is a component of depression, you’re certainly right. My response is that simply keeping busy in the past wasn’t a perfect solution.
No, it’s not the case. The most you’re going to get from me is that marijuana may worsen some aspects of my depression. It improves others. Whether this balances out in favor of smoking pot or not is, indeed, an issue up for debate.
No, that is very tortured logic. Fallacious rhetoric (whether regarding marijuana, gay marriage, whatever) is laughable. The only reason I can think of to fear the rhetoric you describe is if one really believes part of that rhetoric in the first place.
Self-delusion is pretty powerful, guy. If you think that being self-sufficient or having a job grants one the moral high ground or earns one self-respect, keep on drinking the kool-aid. You’re probably happier for it.
When I graduated from infantry OSUT, I was told that I became a “real man” - I think we both can agree that it being said (ETA: and believed by many, as far as I can tell) didn’t make it true.
Actually, I don’t know by what barometer being self-sufficient or having a job (when one is perfectly capable of working) doesn’t grant one the moral high ground (never said it was the only thing necessary for self-respect, just that being a leech is definitely not going to help you achieve it). If you’re just living off of others because you don’t want to work, whether it be letting your parents take care of you as an adult or you’re a god-digger marrying for money, you pretty much are on the moral “low ground”. You can use all the justifications you want, but the situation is overall negative, no matter how positive it might be for you, personally. I suffered from depression and anxiety for years (and was in the Army as well), but I worked the entire time, even though I would have much rather stayed in bed smoking dope or popping Klonopin. Sorry, but you sound spoiled more than anything.
They say things like that because if you hadn’t already known beforehand, you should have known by now that such things as duty, honor, responsibility, self sufficiency, and pride in oneself are good things. That includes being willing to do things you really don’t want to do, because they are the right thing. You are who you are. You make yourself who you are. It’s all on you, to succeed or fail.
I guess you missed that class (?). You seem to be hell bent on failure.
Meh, don’t get help. don’t get your act together. You will hurt yourself, not me. I already gave you my advice. Follow it, or don’t follow it. Whatever.
Uh, yeah. It is laughable. I’ll give you that. The part of the real world there that you’re missing, though, is that…I’m going to put this big here because I want you to get it…
PEOPLE DO BELIEVE THAT SHIT. IT IS TO BE FEARED. THE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE LOUDER YOU SHOUT IT THE MORE TRUE IT IS. THE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IT ARE MAKING POLICY IN THIS WRETCHED PLACE.
You say “tortured logic” as though it was mine. It isn’t. It’s just the reality of the country right now.
And with that, I guess I’m kind of done here. You just plain refuse to man up and deal with reality. shrug Lots of people do. Spoiled rotten children mostly.