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Doubt

Posted by Hertz , 21 December 2011 · 357 views

Have been feeling flat all day. Probably because of bad sleep and lack of exercise.

I doubt pretty much everyday the path I'm taking: still studying at 30 towards a degree I'll finish at 34 at best and that will lead me who knows where. I don't see any alternative though, nothing that motivates me more. I dropped out at 27, and went back to school after a one year hiatus. I remember pondering if I should resume or not, fighting the desire to go back and then opening the bible at a random page and reading a passage where an angel says to Abraham to not be incredulous. That was a tipping point. I dropped out a second time after a failed attempt to return, and the following fall I was able to manage because I had started treatment for depression.
I often get cues like that from passages from books, movies, tv shows. It probably sounds crazy. I've consistently believed that God advises me through experiences, "random" encounters since the beginning of my depression. Some atheists say that religion makes you schizophrenic, or is a sort of schizophrenia. It's not totally wrong. But can a human being be totally one with himself? Doesn't everyone have an unconscious that gives them clues about their state through dreams, lapsus, and missed acts? Anyhow I wish to be one with myself one day.

I see no point in starting a professional life right now, perhaps because I don't want to start a family, or because higher education was more valorized in my family hence I don't feel encouraged to get a job outside academia or something like medecine or law. My father is a doctor. After his second year in med school he studied to become a priest for seven years. He realized through therapy that getting a liberal job and earning money isn't incompatible with following Jesus, and decided to go back to medecine. My mother got a master's degree in psychology. My brother also studied until his thirties. He did a major in biology, then one in psychology, followed by the beginning of a PhD, which he interrupted when he got accepted to med school, his lifelong dream.
What are my true motives? Am I manipulated into doing something useless because of bad conditioning? If not, why can't I embrace totally the path I'm taking? Is it because I feel too old for this? Is it a symptom of depression?
I've been dragging along this doubt for a while. Does it have a purpose? Sometimes I think that if I was doing another activity I'd be nagged by other thoughts, perhaps worst ones.

So far I've done two majors and I'll have two master's degrees. It seem ridiculous.

At least I feel like I'm evolving, learning everyday new things, becoming more mature.
I also realize I'm pretty immature for my age. I think my emotional development stopped somewhere during childhood, and started again when began a full blown depression. I'd say I'm at the level of a healthy teenager.

  • Tymothi likes this



I think that your emotional development is improving greatly, because just by this entry I can tell that you are a person with a great deal of self-awareness. There are many others who I have run into in life that push through their problems, ignore them, work past it, and finally hit the age of 60 wondering what the hell they did. You are evolving.. you'll never stop evolving either. The things that you wish to improve on through self-awareness are those that you give attention to, which means in time they will evolve as well.

That's amazing that you have finished 2 majors and 2 master's degrees. Those topics of interest may have been something you really loved to do, and kept persisting on. But always ask yourself; what is it that you enjoy? And what do you need to do for yourself right now?

You're on the best journey of your life right now.
MixedBag took the words right out of my "mouth". You are evolving, becoming self-aware. I find this entry very inspiring, in spite of its doubts!

I think exercise is great great great, especially during the winter, and especially when you are already seeking distractions. It sounds like it might help you, and that you realize it too. Try it one day, just as an act of spontaneity maybe. It can be really addictive - a great substitute for antidepressants. The body has its own built-in antidepressants, of course; the key is finding out how to access them. For some, exercise is what works.

I don't know if it's right for you, but the fact that you have questions about a "professional life" (especially when comparing yourself to your family) might mean that some self-exploration is in need. Who says you have to be professional anything? I went to grad school to study archaeology and I dropped out to write books. That was ten years ago, I've still never been published, and I've also never been happier. I write every day, and it gives my life real meaning, and I don't miss school. At all.

It's never too late to find the right path, and you're never too old to find it. Never ever ever. And if you feel at the level of a healthy teenager...? Man! How many teenagers are actually healthy? You're doing great! :)
I feel sort of the same way. Haven't been through a lot of what you have (I'm back in college again on the wrong side of thirty but only have one BA to my name) and every day I ask myself if I'm doing the right thing or not. I've asked myself a lot of the same spiritual/psychological questions, too. Or ones that are similar, at least.

Hang in there.

May 2013

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