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george92
Guest
i really don’t feel like anything will get me back to normal. i’m a devout catholic but every day i wake up i just get my teeth kicked in. whats the poiint?
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happy_new_conv
Guest
George! Nobody has it all figured out, man. Nobody. That’s the point of life- it’s a process. And every day until we die, we’ll be figuring it out. It’s beautiful, man. Stop fighting the process- instead, submit to it.
PM me.
HNC
PM me.
HNC
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EasterJoy
Guest
You do sound depressed, and I would strongly encourage you to seek help with that. Whether the reason is chemical or a bad spiritual habit growing in, that kind of thinking can wear a rut into your interior dialogue, and that is not the interior dialogue that is going to help you be a joyful servant of the Most High. I remember once, though, speaking with a counselor about a particular problem I was having and literally feeling as if a weight had been taken off of my shoulders and a steel band from around my chest. No guarantees, but don’t underestimate what that can do for you!
Getting your body and brain chemistry straight are your first best step towards amending your thinking. This isn’t a job for will power, IOW, but for self-care. It is almost pointless to talk theory when your body is not in the right shape to see things clearly. This is the last thing you want to do when you’re down, but it is the most important. Take care of getting regular sleep, your diet–go for protein and nutritious foods, and until you feel better shun foods that will make your blood sugar go all over the place or make you feel bloated–and your exercise. The expert also suggest pleasurable sounds, flavors, and situations–like spending time doing fun things with friends, but avoiding alcohol, which is a depressant. Ask your counselor about these.
As for the others, maybe they are as bad as you think and maybe you’re just easily annoyed right now, but at least you know the truly bragging people have no idea what tomorrow will bring. As it was put in the letter of James: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business, and make a profit’ - you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. Instead you should say, ‘If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.’ But now you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” James 4:13-16
Learning to get through dry periods in your spiritual life is part of the Christian life. The goal isn’t a “high”, but the ability to feel serene during a time without spiritual or emotional highs. Taking care of your body and mind is a good start.
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EasterJoy
Guest
What is your alternative? Your life is not your own, but belongs to Christ. Would you abandon the choice to serve for the choice to give up on the way of salvation? Of course not. Therefore, the thing to do is to figure out how to cope with this darkness that is tormenting you.
This is what we are saying: The torment is not the truth! Joy does not belong to the “successful”, but to the faithful. If you are in the hand of God, no outer defeat will defeat you, even though of course it can try your patience. If you are not in the hand of God, if you do not realize that your value is in who you are and not in what you accomplish, then there is no amount of success that can make you happy. It will all leave you feeling empty.
You have undertaken a path that will give you over to the ownership of God. Expect the evil one to resist you. That doesn’t mean God is not bringing you along. (I’ll append a Screwtape Letter to show what I mean…)
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EasterJoy
Guest
The Screwtape Letters, #8
My dear Wormwood,
So you ‘have great hopes that the patient’s religious phase is dying away’, have you? I always thought the Training College had gone to pieces since they put old Subgob at the head of it, and now I am sure. Has no one every told you about the Law of Undulation?
You affectionate uncle
Screwtape
My dear Wormwood,
So you ‘have great hopes that the patient’s religious phase is dying away’, have you? I always thought the Training College had gone to pieces since they put old Subgob at the head of it, and now I am sure. Has no one every told you about the Law of Undulation?
Code:
Humans are amphibians-- half spirit and half animal. (The Enemy's determination to produce such a revolting hybrid was one of the things that determined Our Father to withdraw his support from Him.) As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for as to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation-- the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life-- his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty. The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship; they are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good unless you make a good use of it.
To decide what the best use of it is, you must ask what use the Enemy wants to make of it, and then do the opposite. Now it may surprise you to learn that in His efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else. The reason is this. To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself-- creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because he has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in,, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.
And that is where the troughs come in. You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to override a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs-- to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot 'tempt' to virtual as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
But of course the troughs afford opportunities to our side also. Next week I will give you some hints on how to exploit them,Screwtape
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Phalanx
Guest
We’re the same age and i feel the exact same thing.
At least you have good grades and a job… I screwed myself over so hard when it comes to education, that im stuck in a bottomless pit untill i hit 23. Repeating the same boring courses that I’ve already failed :doh2: But that’s what happens when one has no sense of direction. We just have to soldier on untill we find something worth pursuing that brings passion to life, let’s hope it finds us sooner rather than later…
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Winter_Warlock_1
Guest
George,
Have you considered the military? I joined the Air Force at age 19 (was a debate between them or the Navy – both have great training). Any way the benefits are: travel, training, discipline, and confidence. You can also get collage started and maybe even completed while in.
I will pray that God grants you strength and guidance.
Winter
Have you considered the military? I joined the Air Force at age 19 (was a debate between them or the Navy – both have great training). Any way the benefits are: travel, training, discipline, and confidence. You can also get collage started and maybe even completed while in.
I will pray that God grants you strength and guidance.
Winter
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happy_new_conv
Guest
Ahh, great idea, Winter!
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EasterJoy
Guest
The military is a good option for many young people who need a more definite and admirable purpose in life, not to mention the guidance and structure they need to attain it, but I don’t know that military service is a good idea for someone who might be suffering from depression and has not previously considered serving his country by providing for its defense. Veterans who see combat during their tour of duty are also at risk for depression and stress disorders, after all. If you sign up for the military, you sign up to serve where you are needed, where you can contribute. If he’s already having stress and depression issues now, the military may not be a good fit.
Still, if his stress and depression are springing from a perceived lack of purpose, he may be very attracted to military service, once he considers it. The US military is very good at impressing the high purpose and inherent dignity of their work on their members. That could be a good solution.
LaughingBoy1503
Well-known member
Sorry you feel the way you do man. I cant diagnose depression, and there have been times in my life where I probably felt similar to you. Like my life was going nowhere and I did not know what I wanted to be. The only jobs I was working were low-paying, and I could not even afford to go to college. I was already in my mid 20s, in trouble with the law and I did not think it was even possible to go back to collage because I needed to work full time, and I did not want to get into debt to borrow money for collage. Not to mention everyone of my peers had a significant other except me. Even the ones who I know, from their own admittance, are abusive toward their significant other.
I don’t know if I was “depressed” or if you are “depressed”. Whether I was or not, I could not afford to go see a doctor about it or to hire a psychologist to talk about my feelings for 100 dollars a hour or whatever they charge. I could not afford $20 a hour frankly. In that situation, you just do your best to p(name removed by moderator)oint what it is that is bothering you. And you need to be honest with yourself. You must try to get over it. Find something to look forward to. Something that gives you hope for a change in the future. I lift weights. And I finally got into field of work that I feel I was born to be in. Still no significant other and that does make me feel sad sometimes. But I pray when I feel that way. The point is that you must do something instead of just waiting for things to get better by itself. And sometimes what we just need to do is be patient. I know this is not the best advice and it is all probably easier said than done. But I know from experience that you will get over this “rut” that you are in. I always did. God bless
I don’t know if I was “depressed” or if you are “depressed”. Whether I was or not, I could not afford to go see a doctor about it or to hire a psychologist to talk about my feelings for 100 dollars a hour or whatever they charge. I could not afford $20 a hour frankly. In that situation, you just do your best to p(name removed by moderator)oint what it is that is bothering you. And you need to be honest with yourself. You must try to get over it. Find something to look forward to. Something that gives you hope for a change in the future. I lift weights. And I finally got into field of work that I feel I was born to be in. Still no significant other and that does make me feel sad sometimes. But I pray when I feel that way. The point is that you must do something instead of just waiting for things to get better by itself. And sometimes what we just need to do is be patient. I know this is not the best advice and it is all probably easier said than done. But I know from experience that you will get over this “rut” that you are in. I always did. God bless
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CaliLobo
Guest
Yes, great idea! And you’re at the right age to do it! The timing is right, too, with Iraq over and Afghanistan winding down.
Plus women your age like men in uniform! Think about it, the chance to meet women left and right (especially true for the Marines).
I personally regret not considering the armed forces more seriously.
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