(no subject)

[botias]

a	Pay off debt
a	Have baby
a	Move
a	Sell house
a	Find rental
a	Move
	Find job
	Buy land
	Build house

I'm going to post this on the fridge. Thought it might help us remember that we are getting somewhere. It's funny, how we expect money to buy happiness even when we know better. I heard someone say once that shrinks for rich people have to be paid exorbitantly just so they can empathize. If a person already has what they need to live, more money really only increases your comfort, and perhaps reduces stress, and for that, not as much as one might think. I suppose it's like expecting air conditioning to improve relationships or your self-esteem, beyond making us more pleasant to be around on a hot day. I think we don't like to let go of this fallacy because it's comforting to think that X would solve most of our problems. If we know what X is, we're halfway there right? And most of us could plot a course towards making more money even if we don't run it. I personally couldn't say the same about being a better spouse or parent.
Computers are so stupid, you have to tell them everything and even then they reserve the right to wig out.

Comments

[elynne.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's like expecting air conditioning to improve relationships or your self-esteem

That right there made me laugh for about two whole minutes. It's still got me giggling. :)

I've seen the other side of the coin - the people who think that you aren't really suffering unless you're starving/poor/have a terminal illness/or whatever. And if you aren't really suffering, then you can't do Art, because you just don't understand. Once I got a handle on this whole depressive disorder thing, I think it's given me a lot of perspective on life. When the depression is acting up (like an ulcer, or an old leg injury) I'll feel like crap regardless of the shape my life is in. When the depression is in remission, even the most screwed-up circumstances of life aren't that bad.

I'll feel better about money when we've got our cushion built up again. We had one, and then last year we had to use it all. I'm very, very glad that we had one to begin with; it was there when we needed it, and it did what it was supposed to - it kept us off the street, out of dire circumstances. There's still a part of my mind that does seem to think that if I have lots of money, my problems will all magically go away or at least become much easier... but it's a fairly small part, and the rational bits of my brain know it's full of crap.

I can wait. It's more important to me that I do something for a living that makes me happy than lots of money, and now that I seem to have stumbled onto something that will do both - I can wait. I'm learning patience. :)

[botias.livejournal.com]

When the depression is acting up (like an ulcer, or an old leg injury) I'll feel like crap regardless of the shape my life is in. When the depression is in remission, even the most screwed-up circumstances of life aren't that bad.



Yup. Mood/perspective is pretty much everything. My only real experience with serious depression is when I fell for the Melatonin hype and gave it a try. All of a sudden my life, which had been pretty decent only days before, was a complete travesty. It was an amazing and instructive difference.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Isn't it amazing, the amount of difference a tiny bit of brain chemicals can make? At least now, I know what it's like to not be depressed for long stretches at a time. When I was in high school, I was pretty convinced that depression was my default state... and maybe it was, at that point. That probably explains a lot about the way I was back then. :P

[botias.livejournal.com]

I think most people in high school are depressed actually. I know I suffered from it at this time. I went to a lot of doctors trying to figure out what was wrong with me, I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning, etc. When one of them suggested depression, my mom laughed it off. When you think about the general circumstances teens are in, it's hardly surprising.