Mr. Brightside...

[Count of Cutesy]

*Sigh* Just recently, I've been trying to help one of my best friends cope with depression. But this morning, I found many of her accounts deactivated. While she's done this before, I am worried that, this time, she's done it for good. Now, I'm praying for her life.

But in my depression, I start to realize something... I feel like I've been lying through my teeth the whole time. I've always told her that good people exist and to always look on the bright side of things. And yet I wonder... What is the bright side of life? It might be today where I finally realized: There is NO bright side of life. The world is as bleak and hopeless as it appears, and I feel like such a liar trying to tell her otherwise. The environment will continue to be destroyed, ecconomy will continue to plumit, wars will continue to rage, and the human race may not realize its own flaws until it's too late.

...I wish I knew what to think in life. I feel really depressed.

[anoni]

If there was no "bright side" to life, then why can people be happy?

If life wasn't good, even for a bit, if we had no reward system to say "Life is worth living" than we'd all die out, self preservation wouldn't be a factor and our species would of certainly not evolved for millions of years to this point today. What is the "bright side", well I believe in relative perceptions, in this regard I believe what is "good" and what is "bad" is dependent on the observer, not the object. For example, a song, without a living observer the song is nothing, uninterpreted and doesn't exist of any form of significance, however to an observer who likes the song the song is beautiful, and to an observer who hates the song the song is terrible. This is true for all forms of [things], including whether something is good or bad, the universe doesn't have a list of "this is going to be bad, this is going to be good", no HUMANS determine what is bad and what is good, and thus literally humans determine the bright side of life.

  Essentially, is there no bright side? Depends who you ask. I believe, that in all logical equivalence there must, theoretically, be a bright side but my bright side is a bit more scientifically rigorous. The bright side of life, is the part in which you feel good, the part in which your body releases feel good hormones which make you happy. Your body releases these hormones in many circumstances, listening to a good song, being with the person you love, achieving a goal, etc. Your body releases these feel good chemicals so you can have a way of doing what is best for your body, including not hurting yourself which gives feel bad hormones and pain. I don't think it'd be theoretically possible for a species to exist without this sort of reward system that's put in place, or without a reward system at all, I think if there was no reward system and there was no consequence system than we'd all of died out thousands and thousands of years ago.

    So, yeah, there is a good side to life. If you define it metaphorically than you determine what the good side is, if you define it scientifically than it's determined by your body.

[Count of Cutesy]

If HUMANS determine whether there's a bright side or not, then maybe humans can create one. All I ever hear about is war, crumbling economy, animals going extinct, environment being destroyed, people being bullied, nothing done about it, people committing suicide thanks to heartless individuals, basically nothing but bad things. How can I look at a bright side if there isn't one. The only things to look forward to are games, drawing characters, and personal hobbies. But outside my little world, everything seems bleak. What exactly is there to look forward to?

(NOTe: I'm not trying to talk in a misanthropic manner, incase anyone sees it that way, I'm just saying that there's not much to look forward too outside "My Own Little World.")

[anoni]

Well lets look up some statistics from around the world.

~182,000 people a year die in a war currently (WikiAnswers src)
~3,000,000 people are saved each year from vaccinations (World Health Organisation Src)

That means that for every one person who has died by other humans, 15 people were saved by them.

That's just one example of how humanity tends to be a lot nicer than you think, the media likes to publicize bad things in humanity because it generally sells more and gets peoples attention. People care more when humanity is threatened rather than when humanity is not, so if a news caster puts out a news story about problems with humanity, more people will watch, hence they show more things about how humanity is bad rather than how it is good.

Another thing to point out is that humanity today is much better than it was a few decades ago. Life expectancy is at an all time high, crime rates at an all time low (you can google all these), infant mortality rates are at an all time low and standard of living is steadily rising globally. Step back just 70 years ago and a holocaust was occurring, step back 100 years ago and people were dying from simple infections, step back 200 years ago and society was still warped by increasing amounts of superstition. Medicine, well-being and progress towards knowledge has been at an all time high, it's not a perfect world by all means, but today we have it better than probably any other day in human history.

All the things the media tells you about "the world is going to get destroyed", by war, global warming and so forth, were all present before. Before they believed god would destroy the world, than nuclear bombs were the big hitter, even the superstition like the 2012 or Y2K fiasco was believed to destroy the world. The worlds still here, and probably will be here for quite some time. Although any effort to predict more than a year into the future is futile.

[Armalite_]

You're an outside thinker. You will always put the bigger picture before the task in front of you and see all of it's imperfections that you'll feel helpless to do anything about.

A lot of people who concern themselves with the day-in-day-out routine of their lives who stress about things like work, family, money, and personal relationships will always have an easier time being ignorant and carefree about world issues, social problems, and things that have very little direct impact on their lives because they're keeping busy with things that they don't enjoy doing like work and finding problems they need to fix. This allows them to fully appreciate anything that differs from a chaotic lifestyle and will keep themselves concerned mostly with what's in front of them. When a chance to be social or have special events comes along, this is exciting for people usually because they don't get to do it very often. Adding stress to things that don't directly effect one's life doesn't sound like fun, so a lot of people don't by not caring. Aside from being carefree, people also like to use mind-altering substances to "numb" or "curb" this stressed feeling, even if it's for a short time. People who need this feeling constantly become alcoholics and drug addicts.

I wouldn't take a person deleting their account to mean anything, really. Suicidal people tend to not waste much time deleting things online as they do killing themselves. Deleting their accounts online leaving people to wonder where they've gone or what happened sounds more like attention-grabbing to me to be honest. I've experienced this first hand. I still see social media accounts of suicide victims on Facebook too. Reading the posts on a deceased person's wall like they're still alive seems incredibly eerie to me, but it's usually family members thanking friends for their online condolences. It's extremely possible your friend took some time off from the internet for personal reasons. I can't imagine being glued to a screen day and night is much help to one's depression either. You have every right to be worried, but I wouldn't over think it. It really doesn't seem like something that someone would do if they planned to die, literally nothing matters at that point. Nothing.

Best I can say for you to do is to try doing things that release more dopamine in your brain. This is the chemical that makes you feel rewarded and positive throughout the day. If you don't get enough of it or aren't producing any you'll feel lethargic, unmotivated, unhappy, and tired. Doing things like working out or simple exercises (even sex) are what release a huge rush of dopamine into your head, giving you a happy-high. Bettering yourself at something either mentally, physically, or emotionally with productive activity is what will help do this and slowly change your perspective.

It is often people who are depressed, don't work, don't have hobbies and don't like exercising who use prescription drugs (even illegal ones like crack), to produce this dopamine rush for them. They then become dependent on external sources of happy chemicals making them more depressed later on than when they started. Their brains close up the little pores used to absorb naturally produced dopamine and a HUGE come-down of depression is unleashed.

So really, it's not enough just to convince yourself happy by reading stats online. You need to go out and have good experiences that make you feel motivated and positive. You only feel like there's nothing out there for you because that's what you tell yourself. If world issues bother you that much then do something about it and join the army or something. Volunteer somewhere like the suicide hotline (that'll show you some real experience). You'll never get better just sitting around reading about other problems going on elsewhere, you should be out dealing with your own.

[Count of Cutesy]

Well lets look up some statistics from around the world.

~182,000 people a year die in a war currently (WikiAnswers src)
~3,000,000 people are saved each year from vaccinations (World Health Organisation Src)

That means that for every one person who has died by other humans, 15 people were saved by them.

That's just one example of how humanity tends to be a lot nicer than you think, the media likes to publicize bad things in humanity because it generally sells more and gets peoples attention. People care more when humanity is threatened rather than when humanity is not, so if a news caster puts out a news story about problems with humanity, more people will watch, hence they show more things about how humanity is bad rather than how it is good.

Another thing to point out is that humanity today is much better than it was a few decades ago. Life expectancy is at an all time high, crime rates at an all time low (you can google all these), infant mortality rates are at an all time low and standard of living is steadily rising globally. Step back just 70 years ago and a holocaust was occurring, step back 100 years ago and people were dying from simple infections, step back 200 years ago and society was still warped by increasing amounts of superstition. Medicine, well-being and progress towards knowledge has been at an all time high, it's not a perfect world by all means, but today we have it better than probably any other day in human history.

All the things the media tells you about "the world is going to get destroyed", by war, global warming and so forth, were all present before. Before they believed god would destroy the world, than nuclear bombs were the big hitter, even the superstition like the 2012 or Y2K fiasco was believed to destroy the world. The worlds still here, and probably will be here for quite some time. Although any effort to predict more than a year into the future is futile.

Oh, I am so glad that things are looking up for humans (A species that can actually afford to lose a good chunk of its population), but animals and the environment (a lot of which is going extinct due to our actions) continue to be put through Hades. That makes me feel MUUUUUCH better.



Also, the person said it had to do with family issues that was why she deactivated.

[anoni]

That's good that she isn't hurt

Well Spike had some excellent suggestions in his post, if you feel bad about an issue and you feel nothings being done you can always try help the cause directly yourself. Join an volunteering group! They have lots and LOTS of groups that will help you be able to take care of the environment, issues with animals and issues with humans, if you really feel dedicated to fixing the issue they even have groups that will let you go overseas to help things

Here are some examples for volunteering groups in north America

http://www.volunteermatch.org/search?l=USA&k=Environment (This has a whole bunch of opportunities for you to help out)
http://www.nature.org/about-us/volunteer/index.htm (For more information about volunteering opportunities)

It will make you feel better, make you feel as if you're contributing to society and so forth! I agree with Spike, I think it's a great idea

[Count of Cutesy]

Sure, but that doesn't shed any light on the current situation involving animals and the environment. Has ANYTHING even remotely good happened that can some-how cancel out at least even 5% of the bad?

[anoni]

There's a whole list of things that people have done for the environment to help the cause.

  This includes Advancing and already established environmental technology such as renewable energy, environmental remediation, recycling and various other methods to improve our environmental impact using technology. There is an army of Animal well fair groups that actively try and protect animal safety by doing many things and there is a new "green" outlook on things in most of society, with china doubling their budget for environmental protection and generally how government and politicians treat the environment is seen as an issue by the public, with definite increased awareness.

  By no means is the way we treat the environment and animals a non-issue even with all these things, but you must understand Cutesy, this is a big problem. This won't be solved with a quick 1-2 punch, it takes a very long time to solve and indeed solving the problem may be quite difficult, but we are moving further and further to a more green oriented society and with advancing technologies, who knows how the future will turn out.

  But again, you should definitely consider a volunteering opportunity. I see a lot of posts by you about environmental issues and animal issues but I haven't actually heard what you've done about the problem, I'm sure you've done lots of active work towards a solution though, I just think if you feel like not enough work is being done, there are hundreds of opportunities to help you

[Count of Cutesy]

There's a whole list of things that people have done for the environment to help the cause.

  This includes Advancing and already established environmental technology such as renewable energy, environmental remediation, recycling and various other methods to improve our environmental impact using technology. There is an army of Animal well fair groups that actively try and protect animal safety by doing many things and there is a new "green" outlook on things in most of society, with china doubling their budget for environmental protection and generally how government and politicians treat the environment is seen as an issue by the public, with definite increased awareness.

  By no means is the way we treat the environment and animals a non-issue even with all these things, but you must understand Cutesy, this is a big problem. This won't be solved with a quick 1-2 punch, it takes a very long time to solve and indeed solving the problem may be quite difficult, but we are moving further and further to a more green oriented society and with advancing technologies, who knows how the future will turn out.

  But again, you should definitely consider a volunteering opportunity. I see a lot of posts by you about environmental issues and animal issues but I haven't actually heard what you've done about the problem, I'm sure you've done lots of active work towards a solution though, I just think if you feel like not enough work is being done, there are hundreds of opportunities to help you

First off: Animal Rights, not Animal Welfare. Animal Rights is the actual care and consideration for animals. Animal Welfare, on the other hand, is the use of excuses to have animals killed and slaughtered for whatever reason while trying to derive some form of justification of saying "Look, we care about animals, hur dur."

Second: I've been around a lot of places, and a lot of people actually discourage helping animals and the environment, as if it's some crime. Like the life of a criminal is worth more than that of an endangered animal. And a lot of this is fueled by the right-wing "Animal Welfare Supporters" who find it's more important for us to have animals to hunt and more humans than the planet can hold and such than to actually help our fellow beasts.

As for volunteering, I have no real way of doing so. I'm 22 and cemented to my home. My parents seem to think that since I have Aspergers that means I can't be trusted in the outside world. Still, I do what I can. I clean litter off the streets and sign petitions daily, but outside I have little power.

[anoni]

Of course a lot of people do not support the caring of animals, I mean if it was universally supported there wouldn't be a problem. But there are luckily a lot of people who DO support animal rights as well

  Talk to your parents about the volunteering thing, tell them it's a really good way to learn new skills in the world and become more independent. The programs are safe, supervised, low-responsibility and will help you learn how to work in a job environment and gain independence. Give an example maybe of a good place you're thinking of volunteering, like a local pound or something and show them that it's safe and supervised, I'm sure your parents would understand

[Count of Cutesy]

I don't know if it helps, but I want to buy a National Wildlife plush for my mom for Christmas. I know the animals she likes, but... there are ones I'd like too. I'd really like a Tapir or a Bat, or even an otter. ...Except buying them costs 50 bucks. ...Yes, I know a lot of that is for charity and you get other things besides the plushie, but... That's not very cheap and we aren't made of money. I'd pay for one, but I wouldn't have my parents pay for one for me.

[Armalite_]

Sponsor a tiger or polar bear It's like sponsoring kids with food in Africa, cept it's animals that are endangered that you keep from being hunted.

[Trigahex]

Sure, but that doesn't shed any light on the current situation involving animals and the environment. Has ANYTHING even remotely good happened that can some-how cancel out at least even 5% of the bad?

--------
Really there is no point in looking for reasons to hate the world. You live and you die.

I don't imagine you to be the religious type so its not like you have anything to look forward to in death.

[Count of Cutesy]

Sure, but that doesn't shed any light on the current situation involving animals and the environment. Has ANYTHING even remotely good happened that can some-how cancel out at least even 5% of the bad?

--------
Really there is no point in looking for reasons to hate the world. You live and you die.

I don't imagine you to be the religious type so its not like you have anything to look forward to in death.

Would it count if I did say I believed in reincarnation to an extent?


Alright I talked it over with my mom, but she refuses to allow me to get her a plushie, even though I told her I'd be willing to pay 50 bucks for charity. Maybe I should just buy a bat/tapir plush for myself. ...Or take the advice and get a polar bear one and help polar bears. I just wish there was more I could do.