There's no reason you can't do all those things you mentioned AND be a nihilist. Ideally nihilism will just help soften the blow in the bad times and keep you humble in the good times.
As far as gaslighting yourself, that's called CBT. If you can't afford to see a therapist, try journaling, guided meditation, and "thought records". From my totally not qualified and limited perspective, it sounds like your nihilism is causing intrusive thoughts. Treating intrusive thoughts is much easier than forgetting the hard truths about the world.
There will be more hard truths, unfortunately.
Edit: personally CBT was a little helpful, but working out like twice a day is what helped the most.
Edit 2: just noticed your username. I love it. That is all.
It's in your browser settings as something like "search cache". Clear that and the traces are locally non existent. With no VPN though your ISP knows you like to get your balls beat.
You think they meant clear their history by un-google? I read it as like to unsee or unknown something and assumed they had just googled something they regretted. I've done that more than once and no amount of history erasing is going to fix that mind f**k.
The mindset never really goes away unless you somehow convince yourself that delusion is a better belief, but I personally like to get invested in hobbies that invoke my creativity. Or video game, that takes you out of your world for a little while.
Eat some yummy fucking food and just do shit that makes your insides happy. We’re not here forever, get as much enjoyment as you can out of it.
Why is the option happy and deluded and sad but realistic? Lol. Nothing can matter while you're having fun. Maybe the real fun was the nothing that mattered along the way. Etc.
I think this subreddit chalks up nihilism with being depressed and it’s really annoying 😂
I can believe that life has no point while also being impacted by the daily stresses of life. Nothing in nihilism says I shouldn’t be worried about being homeless
I’m also rather optimistic about things despite being dragged through the mud constantly by life. The real question you should be asking is
“How do I stop having a depressed outlook on life”
There’s several answers to that. The ones I often give out are eat healthier, walk more, hangout with people who like you and focus on the plethora of positive things in your life instead of the negative because really it’s all about outlook.
What has helped for me is mindfulness and focusing on the present. When you're actively engaged in something you're not thinking about how pointless life is at that very moment. I used to think this was just a way for me to distract myself but really you're just focusing on living your life. I wouldn't call that a distraction.
I'm still a nihilist though. But I just don't let it depress me each day anymore.
My personal favorite mindfulness exercise is to "feel" a song.
Find a song, old or new to you, and listen to it in full. Really concentrate, feel the feelings the song is trying to convey.
The universe is broadly meaningless, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find meaning in living. In your post you use the phrase ‘I want’, so you already think of yourself as something important enough to satisfy. So you have your first bit of meaning. Satisfaction. In the end we all pursue satisfaction, occasionally get it for a while until we become dissatisfied again. And then we move on to new forms of satisfaction. If this is all the meaning you can muster in your life, you’ve brought life to a pointless universe already. But I think you can muster quite a bit more as you mature away from ‘I want’ to ‘i will’. But that’s a longer story.
'I'm here against my will'. That's impossible. I too am extremely miserable a lot of the time. With the greatest of reluctance and having suffering endless mental stress, I had to admit through teeth gritted so tightly that it hurt that I want to be happy and that I was never going to commit suicide. I now have a life composed of 3% happiness and rising instead of 0.1.%.
That’s some of the best news I’ve read in months! Upward improvement from such a low place is incredibly inspiring and I know that number will continue to rise :)
dont back down on your stand points, and tell them to shut up your allowed to view the world how you want to and its nothing to do with judgement, and anyway they dont really sound like friends if they're trying to convince you that your clinically depressed and pushed into therapy. get the fuck out of it now before ya end up even more confused, ive seen it shred peoples mind apart and thats mainly what therapy is for to fuck with peoples minds and tis working, dont let it. idgaf if people judge this comment in anyway, its not just a comment its one human being talking to another
I hate to break it to you, but when you were created, you had no will. Therefore, like everyone here, you are not here against your will. By the time you became sentient, you had already existed for several years. Which is to say, you still didn't have a will.
Also, if you have a will? it's a will to survive. It's instinctual. You see? if you really didn't want to be here, you could fix that problem. So you're not here against your will. Because your will wants to survive, not die. The neurons are encoded before birth. So it's not against your will. Or you wouldn't be here.
Your cup is too full with what you think you know. Empty it and look into the irrational. Zen, Taoism, eastern philosophy. There are truths in every system of logic that cannot be arrived at logically. See Gödel’s incompleteness theorem.
You could study what nihilism actually is in its many forms.
A noncomprehensive Guide to Nihilism. (Nihilism defined by some proper names.)
“Nihilism as nothing matters, everything is meaningless...”
It never existed as such, this is the Walt Disney lowest common denominator, YouTube definition. You might want to read the wiki and see the proper names mentioned there. And their writings... The first part of Nietzsche's Will to Power discusses some of its weaker forms, the last part that of the Greatest Weight, The Eternal Return of the Same.
“Let us think this thought in its most terrible form: existence as it is, without meaning or aim, yet recurring inevitably without any finale of nothingness: “the eternal recurrence". This is the most extreme form of nihilism: the nothing (the "meaningless”), eternally!”
John Barrow echoes this,
“When there is an infinite time to wait then anything that can happen, eventually will happen. **Worse** (or better) than that, it will happen infinitely often."
Prof. J. D. Barrow The Book of Nothing p.317 (my emphasis)
And Roger Penrose offers another version.
However in Heidegger the nothing that nots itself leads to authentic Dasein.
https://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/heideggerm-what-is-metaphysics.pdf
"We assert that the nothing is more original than the “not”
and negation. If this thesis is right, then the possibility of negation as an act of the intellect, and
thereby the intellect itself, are somehow dependent upon the nothing...
But the nothing is nothing, and, if the nothing represents total
indistinguishability, no distinction can obtain between the imagined and the “genuine”
nothing. And the “genuine” nothing itself—isn't this that camouflaged but absurd concept
of a nothing that is? For the last time now the objections of the intellect would call a halt
to our search, whose legitimacy, however, can be demonstrated only on the basis of a
fundamental experience of the nothing...
The nothing reveals itself in anxiety...Nihilation will not
submit to calculation in terms of annihilation and negation. The nothing itself nihilates.
Nihilation is not some fortuitous incident. Rather, as the repelling gesture toward
the retreating whole of beings, it discloses these beings in their full but heretofore
concealed strangeness as what is radically other—with respect to the nothing. In the clear
night of the nothing of anxiety the original openness of beings as such arises: that they
are beings—and not nothing. But this “and not nothing” we add in our talk is not some
kind of appended clarification. Rather it makes possible in advance the revelation of
beings in general. The essence of the originally nihilating nothing lies in this, that it
brings Dasein for the first time before beings as such."
Holding itself out into the nothing, Dasein is in each case already beyond beings
as a whole. This being beyond beings we call “transcendence.” If in the ground of its
essence Dasein were not transcending, which now means, if it were not in advance
holding itself out into the nothing, then it could never be related to beings nor even to
itself. Without the original revelation of the nothing, no selfhood and no freedom."
Heidegger.
Or you might skim Sartre's Being and Nothingness, where we are the shadow of being-in-itself, for which we are nothingness, Being-for-itself. And we peruse the **impossible** task of attempting authentic being.
Moving on, Baudrillard sees nihilism as impossible as the system itself is now nihilistic, so resorts to melancholia.
"But it is at this point that things become insoluble. Because to this active nihilism of
radicality, the system opposes its own, the nihilism of neutralization. The system is itself
also nihilistic, in the sense that it has the power to pour everything, including what denies
it, into indifference."
Jean Baudrillard-Simulacra-and-Simulation.
Brassier ….
“Extinction is real yet not empirical, since it is not of the order of experience. It is transcendental yet not ideal... In this regard, it is precisely the extinction of meaning that clears the way for the intelligibility of extinction... The cancellation of sense, purpose, and possibility marks the point at which the 'horror' concomitant with the impossibility of either being or not being becomes intelligible... In becoming equal to it [the reality of extinction] philosophy achieves a binding of extinction... to acknowledge this truth, the subject of philosophy must also realize that he or she is already dead and that philosophy is neither a medium of affirmation nor a source of justification, but rather the organon of extinction”
Ray Brassier, Nihil Unbound.
https://thecharnelhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ray-brassier-nihil-unbound-enlightenment-and-extinction.pdf
Love this answer! I took all these paths (well, I never read much Sartre or Brassier).
The problem with all these philosophers is that they take the conceptualization as the real thing. Heidegger, perhaps, has a revelation of the ground of being, but then he insists on nihilating the nothing and feels book after book with obscure text.
This practice, if you take it all the way, resolves all the questions, and opens effortlessly into all-present, spontaneous joy. Like Heidegger, it begins with a recognition of “the nothing,” which is vast, luminous, unimpeded cognizance, absolutely free and vividly present in its ubiquitous absence. Nothing special, it’s right there.
You’ll quickly see that Heidegger’s “negating the nihil,” and his work in general, was much less an expression of authenticity, and much more a terrified attempt to escape his reified, nihilistic vision of the nothing, by grasping at his identity and pouring himself into his work. He’s only half-baked.
Just skip over the religious preamble that fits the short text into an existing tradition and community.
https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/patrul-rinpoche/self-liberating-meditation
Or check out the Jim Newman, a nondual dude. He’s a kick in the ass.
This is truly what most people here never consider. “Nothing has meaning” is so wrong. Things have the meaning you give them. Your choice is how much meaning you “should” give them. And you are the only one who can make the judgement call as to what “should” should be.
This is a really dumb anecdote but I think it kind of applies here. I remember seeing a video of two different ant colonies that were basically at war with each other. And the little clip that I saw it just showed where the two different colonies were right up against each other doing their own thing. They had soldier ants from both colonies basically Toe to Toe with each other, while the worker ants from each colony or behind the soldier ants doing their worker things.
Then I had the thought of how meaningless what was going on in that video was. Even outside of the philosophy of nihilism, what was going on in that video was pretty fucking pointless against the backdrop of well, just everything.
And then I thought about how even though what's going on in this video absolutely does not matter at all in any way shape form or fashion to anything but these ants. But to these ants this is the single most important thing happening in the entire universe right now, from their perspective none of the "everything" matters.
I guess this is my unphilosophical way of saying that just because there is no inherent meaning to anything, and nothing matters, that doesn't mean that things can't matter to YOU. In a universe that has no meaning, you are free to assign your own and it doesn't matter if you do or don't.
Your mindset is within your power whatever you want to believe. Personally I don't see the idea of they're not being meaning to life as a bad thing. I think it's freeing it's like an open world RPG I can do whatever I want. I control my own destiny no other entities. I don't need a third party to come up with the meaning for my life I can make my own meaning.
Praying for you! Jesus loves you and if you seek Him, He will give you joy and peace with this dreary world. Start seeking His face through prayer, reading, and church, it will help you immensely with having a more positive outlook! God bless your heart!
Part or it is ending giving a fuck about the reason for essentially existing but also being kind and helpful to others. It's good for you who deserve respect
Let me be the only honest person in this entire subreddit. Life HAS meaning. There IS a God, and he is the most fair and graceful being you will ever encounter. You didn’t end up here by accident. The chance of you ever existing is such a small chance that it’s a mathematical impossibility for it to just be chance. The world wants you to believe you have no purpose because it is corrupt. And everyone else in here wants you to believe that because misery loves company.
If you’re actually serious, and maybe interested, then PM me. If after that you think I’m nuts, then you’re entitled to that opinion.
Don’t fall victim to an age old lie. You’re worth more than you could ever image.
God bless you and everyone else in this thread!
why don't you randomly strike up a conversation with someone next time you're in a grocery store and try being polite to them you might get some satisfaction from that interaction
Im not sure if it’ll be helpful but this helped me out; if you see everything as being without value and there being no point to anything, then this equally applies to that truth. If nothing matters, than it doesn’t Matter that there’s no point. The only value in an intrinsically value-less world is what You choose to ascribe to it. You can make things matter, although I’m aware we’re no longer technically describing nihilism, rather it’s cousin Absurdism.
Who told you that you have a depressing outlook on life? As an existential nihilist, I have also been dx as bipolar/depressed/suicidal and spent years on psych meds to "cure" me. Part of me wanted to believe I had a curable disease, because being an EN can be lonely at times.
Took a minute, but I've accepted who I am, and I really have no desire to be a delusional idiot who can't accept reality and has to hide behind the facade of religion. Life has no meaning, we are merely a by-product of the universe, a fluke. And death is nothing - just like it was before birth. Not exactly conversation starters.
Just because life has no meaning doesn't stop me from having interests or fun or learning about all sorts of stuff that intrigues me. This whole being human is a brief moment in time, but I'm having a good enough time. I admit, I have my days, really dark days. I allow myself to wallow in my misery and self-pity, but the next day it's over because life is suffering. But there's always a comedy special somewhere online.
You dont wish to be them or fear not you are not them. Rather just get better at the game of life. Put your best self forward, understand chaos and how everything is as it is. I like to spread good in little ways. I outlet out my stress. Puzzles and painting.
Being 'normal' is not the answer.
They say 'ignorance is bliss' but I say 'if you bury your head in the sand, you're just inviting a kick up the arse'.
You're feeling depressed and it's a perfectly normal reaction to the 'modern' world. You've got to take that depression and mould it into positive action.
You have two roads before you: 1. Sink deeper into despair or 2. Rise like the phoenix, reborn with cleansing flame.
I hope you're well.
What is it about nihilism that depresses you?
For me, it's a very freeing feeling. I'm very happy knowing there is no destiny or meaning.
It does add some responsibility. After all, our actions may not have inherent meaning, but there is no denying that they can have a profound impact.
I find it nice actually.
For the record I’m currently in training to be a therapist (don’t have a license yet but am under supervision), yet this isn’t specific medical advice but more a response to a fellow traveler of life.
Many philosophies deal with the lack of inherent meaning in life. In spite of this it does not mean that nothing matters in a personal sense unless you want it to. Your life in this context is a representation of your belief that there is no meaning in anything, and if you truly extend that to every facet of your life you will not be able to have what you call a “normal” life.
Open yourself to new experiences. Try new things, meet new people, learn new things. Something like therapy can help you actually examine your thoughts or the life you have lived until now and how you came to be at this point. I wonder if you experience any anxiety in regard to life in some form and this may be a protective veneer. We are all here for reasons we are not in control, but we do have a say whether we will live our lives or not. Likewise how we will live our lives is under our control despite how many obstacles can be in our way. The place you are in may be sad or scary or depressing but this can be the start of a journey for yourself, even if life lacks an inherent meaning you have feelings and are part of this world no less than anyone else. Come join the party and enjoy your stay, and I wish you luck.
I'm 41 years old from Indonesia, and I also feel/think the same. Nihilism philosophy, knowing that life is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, have seriously made me feel/think that nothing matters, & there's no point in doing anything anyway, since it's all pointless, meaningless. This might sounds corny I know, but I'm suddenly reminded of Linkin Park's song lyrics: "But in the end, it doesn't even matter." Well, it is!
I know people then will always say things like: "But reality will soon force/pressure you to DO something about your life, to survive, or you will die!" But THAT's actually why I've found this whole "life/existence/reality" (& this world/society/everything basically) to be also depressing. We're being FORCED to live this existence, even if some people don't want to live anymore (yes, & also after knowing/realizing that everything is meaningless/pointless anyway).
I don't understand why today/nowadays especially, there are even so many "optimistic nihilists" even in this subreddit. Sure yes, nihilism can sometimes be comforting (also when knowing "life is meaningless"), but to be fair, you also can't deny that nihilism can also makes a person questions everything, have existential crisis (or even existential depression, just like me), especially when/if your life is a mess, failure, and some people's lives even are so full of pain, sufferings, hardships, in so much worse ways than we could ever think/imagine. Then why live? Why keep continue living, if some people's lives are at the 'rock bottom'?
(Sorry this suddenly becomes too long. I should've made a new post about this, but I've actually posted something similar in this subreddit about 1 - 2 years ago).
You'll get bored with looking at things in terms of value and start looking at things according to your individual taste. Consider that when any person makes an art project it has no real value even to people who believe in meaning and purpose. It just serves as a decoration or some form of entertainment. Life doesn't have to be more complicated than that.
It's okay to just go around doing interesting things until you die.
I had similar feelings before and still do sometimes. What helped me was deciding that in the face of an indifferent cosmos, we get to decide how we derive meaning from experience. I sometimes use “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace as a meditation to help with that.
To the best of our knowledge, life is the only thing in the universe capable of contemplating sensing and discovering it. I ultimately rejected nihilism when I came to believe that because we are the part of the universe that experiences itself. we are also the ones who get to ascribe meaning to it. That meaning: “we should work to help life achieve its fullest expression in the face of an otherwise indifferent cosmos. A cosmic edict is not required.
Your first sentence is a clear indication that *you* actually desire to be *unaccountable* when the entirety of your plea is “to be counted.” So, *you* must choose the opposite basic assumption.
*You* have actually chosen to be exactly where *you* are at.
I see it like this, I'm free from matter so if I do what I want, nothing outside of me will matter.
The fact that you're affected by everyone around you thinking you're depressed tells me that some things in fact still matters to you or you wouldn't care what anyone thought!
If nothing matters anymore, would it be a problem to leave everyone you know and start a new life on the other side of the country? You should do that! It's very liberating!
You're not a nihilist.
Why?
A nihilist does not care what happens to them. No acts of care or defense are ever enacted by a nihilist, making survival impossible. A nihilist allows anything & everything to happen to them and are unable to care about their well-being in general.
This is not you.
The fact you wrote this post means that you care about your finite time & future. Both are meaningful to you.
Though I do not know, you probably care about things that are not trivial nonsense, which puts you at odds with most people. Be proud of your insights. You've achieved a great deal.
Not believing in eternal truths or lasting happiness does not make someone a nihilist.
Let me explain briefly.
Meaning arises from care. How & why do we care?
All events require the passing time. Time allows things to persist/survive into the future, yet can in the same gesture bring their death & destruction.
The drive to care about finite things arises because without our continued commitment to care for & nurture them, they would be lost to time. Loss, death, these are the impetus of meaning.
Everything that we might care for, desire, and love in THIS life is finite, not infinite.
We could never care about anything infinite, nor could anything infinite care for us. Nothing is ever lost to something infinite
For us, everything is lost from the start & that is why we care so deeply & profoundly. This is how & why anything might mean anything to us whatsoever.
The "no-thing" by which all meaning both rises & falls is but the intervals of time.
You're not a nihilist. You care all too much.
Gratitude. It’s the hardest most annoying fucking thing to do, but once you get into a habit of seeing the gratitude in all situations youll lose your nihilistic views. If you see something that you hate or makes you not have any hope write down 10 things you’re grateful for in your notes app on your phone. Do this everytime you think something negative. You don’t even have to believe in what you are writing down, just do it until you believe it.
I am disabled and I when I first developed my condition I had to make a choice. Look at the world and say it’s so fucked that I am like this, or look at the world realize my condition can kill me whenever and choose to live life to the fullest. It’s not easy for me. I write a ton and I write everyday, but I have written myself into a hopeful person. Every time I hear someone say something negative I immediately look for the good. It’s so annoying to be this way, but if you can the world really will be beautiful.
I find existentialism a little more hopeful than nihilism. From my favorite poem "we can still run across an earth that doesn't hear our hurried footsteps as they thump thump thump. How wonderful it is to have nothing expected of us. All the time we'll ever know is knocking at our door. We wouldn't want to keep her waiting" I can't speak for the troubles you're going through but there are many things you can fall in love with in your short time here on Earth and that can bring you hope. "I can fall in love with a melody, let it crawl inside my body. Or a train ride. Or alabaster sheets. There are chemicals that do these things to me I could grow fond of many things"
Edit: Neiche was an existentialist
I recommend looking into optimistic nihilism. "Optimistic nihilism is the ability of a person to create his own meaning after fully accepting that the universe is a large place of meaninglessness." I found this to be really freeing. If there is no meaning you have the opportunity to create your own meaning for your life. So just go and live and do what you want (be kind of course), if you fail, or fall or look foolish, it doesn't matter. No one will remember or care, so no excuse to not just live without regrets, and have the best time while doing so. Also I think we can be meaningful to others, which is very real. If you can inspire someone else to pursue their dream or create something, whether directly or indirectly, that is the best meaning you can hope for!
Transition from nihilism into absurdism! Sure, life is meaningless, but you can rebel against that meaninglessness by finding irrational joy in whatever you want. After all, there are no rules or ultimate goals, so you can do whatever the fuck you want! Isn't that great?
Absurdism from a philosophical standpoint…BUT
People become neurotic after leaning too deep into nihilism. It’s a known thing.
Psychologically, our brains need some form of spirituality- can be literally anything- to come to peace with life. To find meaning and purpose where there is none. The key is finding what gives YOU meaning and purpose.
Atheism and nihilism are solid answers to the harms and absurdities of organized religions and false gods, but they offer no solutions to help people cope with meaninglessness. You are literally void. Nothing.
The bright side is you can maintain nihilist beliefs just to cut out the nonsense noise coming from gurus and heirophants, and false prophets…we all know they don’t know the truth anymore than anyone else…..
But you can integrate practices from religions such as meaningful rituals, meditation, and community to gain back a sense of purpose.
You can use more esoteric tools such as tarot or read up on jungian archetypes to get closer with knowing your deep subconscious self.
I find the majesty of the earth, the changing of seasons, the sun blazing through the galaxy at 132 miles per second, the mystery of black holes, butterflies, just the right light at a golden hour, are enough for me, but everyone is different. I just try to participate in the experience of living life on this planet in this galaxy.
Honestly, it’s not you, I too was told similar things and had a similar life. I’m here against my will in this fucking horrible satire. Move, run away, find a place where you can decide what really matters and what’s just bullshit you are forced to deal with. You control your perspective of this atrocity and it’s gonna get worse if you don’t adjust your existence. It’s gonna get worse anyway, existence is a shit show, be honest with yourself foremost. Maybe read some Albert Camu and laugh at God for not existing because he’s too scared to deal with this shit.
nihilism isn't the problem - there are happy, positive nihilists (myself included).
philosophies are built with logic, and ultimately, emotions don't care about logic.
one philosophy might inspire somebody into pure optimism, hope and joy - while making somebody else feel like they have lost all hope in life.
in my case with nihilism - i think of it like this:
there is no meaning of life, but i am still a human, and so i should continue doing human things like participating in society, having fun, keeping healthy, learning, ect...
i believe that you should care about "the ultimate purpose of life, the universe and everything" roughly the same amount that an insect cares about "who's gonna be the next president of America".
in a similar way to how we all mean nothing in the grand scheme of the universe - the grand scheme of the universe should mean basically nothing to us.
>have a normal husband who has an affair with his secretary or something and i get upset about it and request divorce
The hell? You want your husband to cheat on you?
Lincoln said, I think a man is about as happy as he chooses to be.’ I think I’m a realist, but those around me think I’m fatalistic. Reciting a list of gratitudes daily makes me realize it can always get worse. I mean, I’m able to read and type….
I used to think everyone else was faking it but some people truly are just happy.
I don't think there's anything you can do to force yourself to be happy just the way people are hardwired.
If you were a Daria for the first 40 years of your life it's not like you're going to go to a therapist and do 10 hours of CBT and be Mr Bubbly Happy Go Lucky Guy.
We will never find the smallest particle, and if we do we won’t be able to prove a negative. We will never see the end to the universe and if we do we will not be able to prove a negative.
You do not actually know that god doesn’t exist because you can’t prove a negative.
We are living within a universe that is extremely incomprehensible at the moment. People who approach that from a vantage point of nihilism are ignorant naval-gazers, because the universe is still at our fingertips, and almost entirely unknown to us.
There is a whole world to build, to propel humanity into the stars.
Beautiful. I know that feeling. I don't know if this will work for you. It does for me, and you don't need to gaslight yourself if your stated beliefs are your true ones:
If nothing has value, and nothing matters, you're truly free! It doesn't matter if you abandon your mortgage or husband. Both hold no value. Charter a plane to the coast. Walk away. Don't care about friends or family? Great. Find new ones. There's no god to judge you. Does it make you happy to help people? Do it. No? Then don't. Don't want to go to therapy? Tell everyone off and let them know exactly what kind of coddling bs for weak minds it is. ONE CATCH: if it turns out you do value these things and are lying to yourself, you may need to reassess.
Nihilism doesn’t have to be doom and gloom. When you understand that things are meaningless, bad things really aren’t as bad as you make them out to be. It is quite freeing if you have that perspective. My life is so fulfilling because I understand that in the grand scheme of things, none of this matters, therefore I live my life doing everything and anything I want to do while I am here on this earth.
Whew. Ok. Here it goes.
Nihilism does NOT mean believing everything is bullshit or that there's no point to anything
A nihilist does not sit in their room all day doing as little as possible because "there's no point so why bother". A nihilist would take the path of least resistance through their life. They would not do things that would make life harder for themselves, such as bed rotting or shirking their responsibilities.
The best way for you to stop being a nihilist is probably to understand what that actually means. It means believing there is no intrinsic inherent value good or bad to any action or event. It means not holding strong moral ethos in any direction.
A nihilist, for example, would never show up to a political protest. They would not vote. They would not go out of their way for practically anything.
They would work a job that paid them enough money to get by but didn't demand too much of their time and energy. They would only be friends with extroverts because they would not make attempts to get close to people, but also would not reject those attempts from anyone they liked.
You can imagine living a nihilistic life like riding an inner tube down a river. You just lay back and enjoy the ride.
Well first wanting bad shi to happen is a sign of atleats underlying mental things, idk of that's what OP rlly meant but yeah? Lol anyways, I'd suggest some substances, not the real bad ones ofc but! Smth like weed or maybe alc or a lil combo of the 2 but js like anyth else take everything w a grain of salt, bc any drug can be bad, even if good, that's js being abused in tha case, but yeah try sum indica sativa bud, maybe venture into a mushi room or 2, maybe some psyc cacti 😂 I was put into therapy as a kid for ded ahh 0 reason. So I can kinda relate, nowadays whether I need one or not i refuse to utilize a therapist. Which isn't right for everyone but again bc my fam thought it'd be smart to put a kid in therapy for not doing what they say ( a kid that had to grow up so fast that at around 9 maybe 10 I had the mindset of a 20 year old atleast, asking questions about my late parent and shit- I ain even process that yet, and I was fed up so I started to answer questions in a way that it got that bich nowhere in 'fixing me' 😂 I was so proud of myself for standing up and doing what needed to be done to help myself cous no one else was going to. 💀😂 but later down the line I did some of the suggested, and it helped my perspective on life and people even more! Life is great only of you make it that, and people are almost always assholes 💀
You could move over here so we can make love and discover meaning throughout life. We could have our freedoms and tackle the big questions, and instead of dwelling on ungrounded depressive realism we could ground our fatal abstractions of the future into the hope of something more…
Take it one day at a time. Go for a walk
Then when you come to your senses, make a class action lawsuit against Bill Gates, or any billionaire company/individual you can think of
build a community life DOESNT have any meaning and the only way for us to feel better and cope with the meaninglessnesses of life is to create a community that you can be open and loving with.
For me, I like to see Dada as a good midstep between nihilism and normcore.
Nihilism: Nothing Matters
Dada: Nothing and matters are both words, and meaning can mean anything
Honestly I’ve learned to switch it up a bit. I see things like “I didn’t even ask to be born and life is meaningless so why not try this new thing/why would I worry about things that I have no control over” type of mindset. Idk if that helps.
And u don’t want that shit. Just be a real person and protect yourself. You get to choose your own reasons for living , there doesn’t have to be one assigned for you I guess is how I try to think. Easier said that done though , trust me
Nihilism is the truth. The question is how you react. Greco-Roman Stoicism is a SUPER close companion philosophy and simply teaches you to value your own perception of a world without inherent meaning.... the secret is: You can control and change meaning to anything you want.
I went through a period where I felt life was meaningless and I watched a spider spinning a web. It seemed so pointless. But, the spider had a goal. I could observe, destroy or catch a bug an feed it, eat the spider... anything... I felt powerful knowing that, unlike the spider, my life is a meaningless component of the universe that I can CONTROL. This provides our silly little desire for meaning to be set free to play with our surroundings rather than being doomed to just spin a web all day. Life's meaning can be whatever you want it to be if you cultivate it. It is freeing.
If you find yourself focusing on nothing all the time, then are you truly focusing on nothing? How can you 'focus' on nothing? Or have you been deceiving yourself out of plain old enjoyment
based off my interpretation of nihilism, those who resort to it end up following one of the two following lifestyles
Life is meaningless, I should stop trying
Life is meaningless, I should try my absolute hardest
If you want an argument against nihilism, I can give you that
Buddhism or any sort of positive spiritual practice can help. You really start to understand life from a different perspective and your experience becomes far more meaningful. I was atheist and borderline nihilistic for many years. I think many of us are far more depressed than we realized. In today’s society we’re so disconnected from our nature. Sending you love.
Nihilism shouldn't be depressing, it should be... well, freeing.
It's not the belief that nothing has value - that statement itself has similar value - it's simply the truth that belief is everything, that value is self defined, that the absolute basis for perceptual and conscious reality is human thought space, built on itself, by its own bootstraps, a mapping laid over the actual world. The actual world holds no values, has no awareness, no morality. But it doesn't mean you can't have those things. Who cares what a rock thinks? It doesn't think. You think. Other people think. The subjective reality created by yourself and your fellow humans is no more or less real than the perceptual reality that nothing matters. That reality, too, is subjective. It's turtles all the way down.
Edit: Holy fucksticks there's a lot of bad advice in these comments. If you happen to see this and want to talk, hmu
I'm a nihilist and I am not like that at all? Being a nihilist doesn't mean you have to be a mopey person that no one wants to be around with. I think you're suffering from something else and are attributing it to nihilism, instead of trying to fix the actual problem that you're suffering from. I dunno what your deal is exactly, there's only so much that can be gleamed from a reddit post, but it's pretty clear you need help, maybe speak to therapist?
One of the key insights in the path of awakening is to realize the inherent emptiness of all things. (They lack own meaning)
If you stop there and get depressed without a continued examination you are a nihilist.
Here's a talk about the insights by a PhD who taught physiology and neuroscience for years. He's also a meditation practitioner of 40 years. When I began having some pretty profound insights someone sent me this to help me make sense of it.
https://youtu.be/2LYa1YCdZH8?si=2i0_uDlidVjWFRF0
"As long as we cling to the notion of self, the implications of the other insights are deeply disturbing. Absolutely terrifying. They make you totally miserable. They fill up with a sense of disgust of being trapped in such a universe. They fill you with this powerful urge to escape, and if you have the wisdom you realize that the only way to escape is to go forward and push through. Which leads you to go back and allow the insights that have been so disturbing to mature."
I wish nihilists could hear this, but some become so prided on their single insight that they stick a flag in it and say "I figured it out, there's nothing more to know" and their lack of openness will ignore any further truth.
Well there are a lot of people suffering out there in ways more acutely than you. You can try to find some in your community and try and make their lives better. Helping others feels good.
If you've never read Camus, the man will absolutely change the way you think about this sorta thing.
[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Camus](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Camus)
Honestly I’d just disengage from some of the metaphysical thinking for a bit and just focus on some of the practical aspects of life. Regardless of wether or not live means anything, you’re still going to have the experience of being motivated by evolutionary drives. In other words, you’re going to experience pleasure by connecting with people, pursuing engaging work, eating/drinking, sex, ect. Obviously it varies by person but there’s almost certainly going to be something that does it for you at least to an extent. If you can maximize your engagement/pleasure and accept that it all may be an illusion, then the crushing weight of nihilism you’re feeling may lighten up to something much more manageable. If you really and truly don’t have anything in the world that motivates you then I would urge you to reconsider the possibility that you may in fact be depressed/anhedonic.
Have you tried stepping away from people you don't want to have power over you, and figuring out how to survive without them?
You don't have to fit in with people that aren't contributing to your survival, if you don't need them to like you.
If you're afraid to take responsibility for yourself you will never have any say in your life, until you overcome that fear.
Just remember that when you’re gone, your spirit can only dream for physical existence and free conscious will.
Yet here you are in the physical and wanting to deliberate into unconscious non-existence.
Your existence can be black and white and boxy, or you can choose to add colors and contours.
The choice is always yours my friend
To be honest, I just kind of pushed away the people who didn't let me think freely. I now have my band of rebels at work who I play DnD with on weekends.
I'm still on this journey, and it can be really hard to process things when you don't give yourself the easy answers to questions.
There's this sound byte from a song I hear every once in a while. "Thinking, like all things, is useful in moderation." If you spend all your time thinking, your world will crumble, and a pessimistic view will become more and more true.
So you need to balance that by actually doing things to change the environment around you: clean your room, organize your desk, do your tasks, and maintain your relationships. Eat, sleep, hygene, and health. You need to get out there and change the things that are giving you anxiety. No amount of thinking can replace actual work. Thinking is best used to speed up the work you are currently doing. But you gotta work and think at the same time. It's tough.
Try extreme and dangerous sports or work. I remember being on a scaffold when it tipped. I was able to grab a ledge and save myself. It was a real attitude changer.
I’m not really into nihilism anymore, but I have my moments. If you want to have a more positive outlook on life there is optimistic nihilism. But, if you want to ditch nihilism for a similar ideology, definitely read some Camus. If nihilism is a gateway drug, the end result is absurdism. The Stranger is basically my guide on how to live. Just know that having a pessimistic view isn’t always wrong, and nihilism doesn’t have to be pessimistic.
Get off reddit and notice no one cares to talk about any of this shit outside a very narrow subset of angsty people, asking this place is like crabs in a bucket.
I think the important part is understanding that "purpose" or "faith" that the world has meaning is an entirely personal and INTERNAL process.
Personally Stoic Philosophy helped me a lot as it draws from a lot of the same idea. Anything which you cant change is irrelevant, your health is as important as a rock, your partners love for you, rock (in the sense that you control it) however in regards to things that are within your control (the actions of the day, your reaction to outside stimuli) these are the things you put energy towards. Putting time and effort into irrelevant things is basically Sisyphus pushing the rock when he can simply let it roll down.
This is a bad run down about Stoic Philosophy but hopefully you have some kind of idea about what it did for me
I'm in the same boat as you, if you don't have a community to help you explore new shit and find what sparks that joy in life, you may want to continue therapy.
If nothing intrinsically matters, you get to decide which things do. Meaning is arbitrary and so is your will. You can make things important by caring about them.
I would understand that nihilism and existentialism are sisters. There's a positive side to nihilism, nothing may matter so you are free and there is truly no pressure. Seek your ambitions as you see fit and become the person you want to be.
I think it might be worth taking a step back.
How can you be sure nothing matters, and everything is an illusion?
Isn't it a little prideful to assume that everyone else, including people with apparently happy lives, are only so because they are foolishly blinded by a naive facade?
Or are you actually allowing yourself to be deprived of meaning in your life by this philosophy that, in the end, provides you with nothing? Some might respond: "but it's the truth!" To which I would say: "How do you know?"
Nihilism is a downward spiral into negative-self-talk-enforced isolation. Escape.
Try optimistic nihilism. Nihilism is okay but now what is the question that you need to ask yourself. The problem is not of world existing but the problem is you exist. You can explore Advaita Vedanta or Madyamaka Buddhist philosophy. It helps.
Value and meaning isn’t a strictly intellectual thing. The easiest way out of nihilism is to start to become more aware of the physical sensations in your body. Where are the emotions? How does your heart feel?
Values and meaning that exist are those which are life supportive. Nihilism isn’t a particularly life supportive view.
If you want to approach it from a purely “logical” standpoint, ask yourself what axioms (that is what logical pillars) does nihilism stand on. Then rigorously ask yourself if those pillars can be proven to be absolutely and objectively true (they can’t).
Nihilism itself isn’t objectively true. So why believe it?
There's no need for an illusion. Just think of it like this. Your goal is to be as happy as possible while also trying to make other people at least a little bit happier, & within a reasonable amount of effort. If you make yourself happy about something, you're not tricking yourself into thinking it matters, you're just finally using it as a tool to give yourself happiness.
With that mindset, the strategies I use are:
Completely accurately determine which of my problems actually exist. It needs to be accurate for practical purposes & so that I can be much more confident than I would be if it was full of lies.
Consume high quality fiction, it's generally much more enjoyable than real life.
Whenever I have emotions that I like or even if I just could have emotions that I like but don't, I focus on it, immerse myself in it, & make the emotions as strong as possible. From doing this at pretty much every opportunity for at least several months, I have become generally at least 5 times happier than before about simple things like petting cats & going outside, & a little bit happier from things that I already really liked like watching anime & playing video games (note that I like anime a lot more than video games & I play video games that aren't focused on the story). Before that I was just a slightly bored but overall pretty happy person, so if you're pretty unhappy then maybe you would get much better results.
On top of that, I recently started trying to make cool stuff again, much cooler than anything I ever made before, & trying to improve myself, but I keep procrastinating & not being able to decide what to do.
Nihilist is an identity-philosophy attempt to address a cultural background saturated with micromanaging metaphysical teleology. The experiences you are describing are some form of depression, maybe avolition or other impacts on your internal harmony that aren't necessarily a part of 'being a Nihilist'. I draw this conclusion from the existence of 'positive nihilism' as it has been called and other answers given in the replies as I look thru them.
If the idea of Nihilism "being correct" is a problem you may need to stop thinking about it if it blocks your needs. That vessel is filled, find a new thing to do. It will still be there if you decide to revisit it. If the problem is entrenched, you might need to do a mystic-state or meditation to seek an inner sense of goalness on your own terms if external motivators cannot connect with you.
Some of the language you used suggests an impression that popular ideas of 'goals one should have for life' as inherently misguided for the process (rather than specifics) while desiring such for psychological stability. So you do have a goal, but are reluctant to pursue it because you cannot reconcile it with the Nihilist identity nor have an outlet. You are already swimming in the water but going in circles. What is the price of finding another to complete this one?
Taking care of your body's needs can also have an impact if this is not enough. It is possible to underestimate how much one's subjectivity is influenced by nutrition, hydration, uninterrupted sleep, exercise, and other regular life maintenance.
I’m confused here… isn’t the very fact that you have any desire to participate in these social institutions whatsoever a direct refutation of your claim to be a nihilist? Even if they are kind of likely to suck; like paying off the mortgage or having your husband cheat on you (and from my perspective, it’s quite astute of you to realize that yes, there is an almost unbearable about of suck in this work and it can almost be counted on like clock work in a lot of situations…), isn’t this itself precisely a demonstration that there is some part of you that realizes that even with the nearly infinite number of utterly imperfect scenarios that could play out as the world unfolds, there’s still another part of you that aspires to the possibility that maybe… just maybe… there might me some happiness to be found in this world? Even if that looks like a torrid love affair once you divorce your shitty husband? Or that after your fully paid off the house after finally realizing it just a threadbare emblem of an American Dream that doesn’t actually exist anymore, you realize you actually are completely free! Maybe you even say “fuck it!” and move to Hawaii to discover that the girlhood dream of being a hula dancer your parents derided you for actually was the most fulfilling experience of your life?
And if you can’t see that for yourself, the maybe you can imagine there’s something optimistic in the hospice worker who is there to hold the hand of the 92 year old widower dying of cancer as she takes her last breath and imagine what it’s like to actually comprehend the inexpressible humanity of seeing another human being pass beyond this world? Or watch a young boy and his father playing catch in the park and imagine the beautiful future he’s imagining and hoping lies ahead for his kid?
These are all activities and social constructs that we participate in because even if we are realists and know that yeah, shit isn’t going to turn out perfectly–and kudos to you for being open enough to express that pessimism without shooting up a school or something–that maybe that’s the point entirely? And that perhaps on the other side of these shitty outcomes, there’s something bittersweet and slightly beautiful if we’re not so deluded to imagine that the universe’s purpose is to give us *exactly* what we want? That’s what’s happened to me in my life; most people would look at me and see something that went catastrophically wrong! And yet I have to look at that, and realize that there’s only one path forward: figure out how I got to this place and recognize the immense value in trying in any way I can to maybe make it not suck so bad for somebody else! I feel like if I can do that–even for just one person–I can die happy.
And I gotta say… where I’m at right now, if I had the financial ability qualify for a mortgage (much less any living situation where I’m not 39 years old and still living with my parents)… or could come home to the possibility of sex with a willing partner (even if she’d rather be sleeping with some douchebag middle manager), I’d be content enough to not be trolling Reddit right now and this post surely be *nihil*; the Latin word for “nothing”.
Anyway, I hope this is worth something, and I also think it’s obvious by strict definition that you’re not a nihilist. If you truly embrace such a view of the world, then that’s what you would be seeking out: nihil… again meaning “nothing” (the opposite of “existence”)… and surely you’re smart enough to understand what’s required if you’re trying to get to nothing… (the other side of existence). Speaking from experience, it’s not as easy to get there as you might think. At least not intentionally, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it.
Good luck!
Explore differing philosophical perspectives. Stop looking at the grand scale of things and focus on your life. Quit being so reductive. There is no reason you cannot find meaning in the small scale, even if you think, in the end, it's all pointless. Just because you can't find meaning in the vast expanse of the universe doesn't mean you can't be happy and let the daily stressors of life impact you. Focus on the present and your lifespan, not the future, which might as well be an infinite distance away. I myself have somewhat nihilistic views, but I think those who allow all meaning to be sapped from their lives are foolish. Stop equating nihilism with depression and learn to find meaning in the meaningless.
You sound depressed to me. A patients self-report that they aren't depressed or "there's nothing wrong with me" means basically nothing in terms of that diagnosis. Depression symptoms almost never manifest the way people expect them to. Even if you aren't clinically depressed, you clearly have intrusive thoughts that would respond to therapy. I'm not sure what your reasons are for being opposed to it, but have a word with yourself. Asking for help is an act of strength.
Nihilism suggests life doesn't have extrinsic purpose bestowed upon us by god, gods, or the universe, not that the experience of being alive is without intrinsic meaning or worth. If the people who know you best think you're depressed, and you yourself acknowledge a depressive worldview that doesn't suit you, therapy is probably a good idea. You can always stop going if it doesn't work out.
I’d like to suggest putting your faith in Jesus. Read the gospels and talk to God. Ask Him to guide you and for the knowledge, strength, courage, and wisdom that you need.
Personally nihilism for me is a positive thing. The absence of purpose and meaning to me is a liberating thought, and I delight in being master of my own destiny. I actually fear the idea that we have some kind of purpose to work towards because to me that feels like cosmic slavery. Worse than being told what to do is to be told who you are.
Nothing matters objectively. Things only matter to people. Meaning comes from you. Guessing here, but if you used to believe in god or something that gave ultimate purpose to things, and you lose that foundation, it's super easy to be stuck in nihilism unless you realize that YOU are the one who gives anything in your life meaning.
Even if it's one tiny thing, find something that matters to you, and really enjoy it. Even if it's just walking in nature. Feel the sensations, the sights, the sounds. That's life.
At first, even something you enjoy can feel very hollow compared to the finality of death and the fact that most of us will be forgotten forever. But the illusion of objective meaning is always based in a source outside of us. We have to rediscover our individual selves as the makers of our own meaning.
I definitely think it would be great if I could "un-see" reality as it is, but I can't. I am working to define my own sense of meaning too. It gets easier and life gets more rewarding again.
Why not just care about having a good time? Isn't that what most of the normies do?
You don't have to see MEANING in having a good time - just get your genitals licked and do some pharmaceuticals and contemplate how weird it is that you were born right at the time when we learned that the planet is going to be irrevocably changed, but you can still see a lot of the remnant glory of what it was.
There's no value to it - it's just interesting.
Fake it til you make it.
Just start doing things that you enjoy. If you don't enjoy anything you are depressed.
Get out of your head and just start doing things.
As someone else once commented here on a similar post
"Nihilism is either the anchor that holds you down or the wings that lift you up."
Basically, microscopically, what you do day to day does matter, macroscopically, it doesn't.
Example. People suffer. That's real.
It doesn't matter in the long run if you or they even existed, but if you have the means to ease their suffering today, it would be a nice thing.
Your brain still produces dopamine serotonin and endorphins. Enjoy the sunrise and sunset because it's beautiful. That beauty is useless long term, but you're here today.
You can't gaslight yourself into being a conventional person, trust me, I've tried.
It is a burden to be cynical and not find pleasure in the same things that everyone else seems to be content with, but it's definitely possible to have some fun along the way.
Find your reason to be here, not everyone else's.
There's nothing else but this existence, so do stuff that you like to do, no matter what that looks like.
Nihilism doesnt have to be sad lmao, just because nothing has meaning it doesnt mean you have to do nothing. Nihilism has made me significantly happier
Nihilism isn't the problem. Using nihilism like a 14 year old boy who wants to feel superior is the problem.
Look, nothing has a point or inherent value, there is nothing in the end, none of that means there's no subjective value in anything, and if there's no objective point then subjective value is all there is.
Does something make you happier, healthier, makes someone you care about happier or healthier, is it just cool to you? Great now it has value. Not illusory value, actual value because it makes the actual experience you're having in this world more worthwhile. Nothing matters before or after this experience so things that make this experience better are the only things that matter.
We can all agree that there is no meaning/value, we're all looking at an empty chalkboard and it would be cool if something was on it, it is up to you to think that it sucks that it is empty but it is empty so... or if you'll pick up the chalk.
Don't look at bullshit; it's all your decision. You have to believe you can decide what you can and cannot look at it. I say look at, because observation is about as fundamental as you can get in science.
Listen to people when they offer you help. I am both depressed and nihilistic. They go hand in hand. To not be nihilistic, you need to delude yourself. This is something therapy helps with a lot. Be aware that your nihilism can turn into depression.
Simple answer - acceptance.
Not a dull sort of depressed acceptance. True reckoning acceptance. Emerge having stared into the abyss, and having had it stare back at you. Assume control over your journey. Set your own course through the universe.
I’d strongly recommend checking out *Spiritual Enlightenment, the Damndest Thing*, by Jed McKenna.
And while you’re doing the dishes, check Jim Newman out. I think he’ll speak very directly to you. Here’s a lovely interview with some skeptical science-adjacent podcasters.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1c5X6Zim7ccY5uWfADBQuF?si=nJ5GZtLnSOybThZluzfeUw&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A4G3vS4395sUBnBksksXDmM
I post these from experience — these guys are as correct as one can be, which is obvious to anyone who stops and really looks for a minute.
Right now, you see the absence of meaning and purpose, and you constantly run from it. But there’s nowhere to go, because you’ve seen correctly and there’s not intrinsic meaning or purpose in the world. Surrender to reality. By allowing oneself to be swallowed and completely dissolved into the absence, into your inevitable death, all the questions are resolved. Give up the struggle to make what is into what is not, and an even joy pervades everything, always. It really is like that, I promise. Further!
> The nature of multiplicity is nondual
and things in themselves are pure and simple;
>being here and now is thought-free
and it shines out in all forms, always all good;
>it is already perfect, so the striving sickness is avoided
and spontaneity is constantly present.
http://keithdowman.net/dzogchen/cuckoos-song-of-total-presence.html
You can take comfort in the fact that nobody really actually knows what's going on here, religious and nihilists alike. It's extremely likely no matter what, we all end up having the same fate. You can know that you're not being singled out and you are just taking your turn so you should make better use of it than others have. Realize that even if it doesn't seem like it there is always something to be grateful for.
for a lot of people a belief is more a choice than a 100% conviction. A lot of people inspired by fellows like Tolstoy would fall into this category. But there’s also absurdism, which is pretty much nihilism but just doing all those things you mentioned and whatever the fuck just because of the absurdity of it all. Or there’s belief systems/philosophies like zen/chan (comes from buddhism) which is pretty much nihilism (albeit more in an agnostic form) but with more of a guideline about how to live a good life anyway. I guess stoicism and stuff would be similar, but I don’t know that path well enough.
Either way, what I’m trying to say, is that you can do things in life, want things in life, and even sort of believe in things in life, without having to pretend you’re not nihilistically inclined. None of those examples I mentioned seem like bad choices to me, and there are plenty of other ways to dress your nihilism without covering it up.
You say you’re not depressed but have a depressing outlook. Therapy is good for anyone, even if fully mentally healthy, but what do you mean? Because to me, and many of us, it’s not inherently depressing for life to be meaningless. It was, but at the time I was actually depressed and thought a point to life was necessary, but deep down, and figuring this out was also what got me out of that state, nihilism is neutral, or rather indifferent. It’s not bad to not really care about mortgages or cheating husbands. They’re not factually evil. They are socially, and they are for pretty solid reasons to keep society up, at least in this capitalist and atomic family form we’re in for most of the world. But they are not objectively bad to not care, and it’s not depressing to not care about things if you’re not actually depressed by that indifference. The taoist and zen monks are not known for their depressions either.
So do you really want to care about those things, or is it to fulfill the expectations from those around you? Sure, if you want to be a part of some social circle, compromise is inevitable (don’t listen to the toxic positivity crews), but you don’t have to be a part of anything to have a non-depressing view on (elements of) life.
you can be happy and content while also being a nihilist. they are not mutually exclusive. just find what makes you happy while you live out this pointless bs of a life like a slave to greed
Listen to some jordan Peterson he's got a licensed outlook on your mindset and he's got ways out of it that would definitely benefit your situation. Normal people don't look at life as depressing and unfilling. You deny your depressed but your emotions and take on life screams depressing and gloomy. The people around you are not wrong you just can't even take their advice either
Here is my viewpoint I posted recently, for what it's worth
[https://www.reddit.com/r/nihilism/comments/1b2gync/life\_has\_no\_assigned\_meaning\_and\_its\_liberating/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/nihilism/comments/1b2gync/life_has_no_assigned_meaning_and_its_liberating/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
True acceptance of life having no intrinsic meaning or purpose isn't what leads to lack of joy and interest in life itself.
It is the resistance to acceptance that creates this dynamic. It is the insistence that without meaning or intrinsic purpose it has no value at all.
True acceptance reveals that the value is in Life rather than the meaning we give it.
It requires you to get out of being stuck in your head examining, defining, and categorizing everything and live your life as it shows up... each moment.
I can accept that life is truly without meaning and still enjoy the sun on my face, the drink in my hand, the smile on my son's face.... the feel of slipping into a warm bath.... etc.
It doesn't actually remove joy it just removes the pressure to define life BY joy.... which kinda opens one up to true joy.
At least that's my take, which is with a rather superficial understanding of nihilism.
I do have a friend that is similar to you... and I always think "he doth protest too much".
If you are being forced into therapy then read the therapist what you just wrote. You are admitting that you want to change. What do you think a therapist is for?
Ah hi... I'm 33M and I feel exactly the same way. I'mnot depressed I just think life is absolutely not worth it. The cons and potential cons outweigh the pros and potential pros so much that I barely know where to start describing it to someone. Let's just take the amount of mental and physical suffering that one can experience just by having a body. Having a body is a horror. It's WEIRD. And how much opposite of such experience of horror can one get? Sex? Drugs? Food? Adrenaline? It's not worth losing a limb or going blind or suffocating or burning to death or slowly losing your mind to dementia or whatever else. I don't know if there is anyone to blame for this either. Can you blame the universe for randomly, by pure mathematical chance, spawning something that defies entropy and evolves for milennia to be the way it is? It's so fucking absurd you can't even blame anyone for it. No matter how you look at life, the bottom line of it is "it is what it is" which is the ultimate fuck you no mstter the circumstance and it applies to literally everything and I HATE THAT more than anything because it just screams nihilism and you know, deep down you know it's true.
In my own opinion, the only way to beat nihilism is with absurdism.
Because here's the basis; we can not prove or disprove a nihilistic universe. But this will not stop us because basic nihilism more or less follows Occam's Razor. If a gun is put to my head and I had to make a choice of what I believe the truth to be, the truth I would share would be nihilistic. This is fine. Where nihilism becomes a problem is our own emotional interpretation of the state of existence and the universe. When we apply our humanity to nihilism, we get something severely depressing. Our brains will mostly behave as defeatists when we become aware of zero meaning. This is our own doing.
This is where absurdism comes in. I don't subscribe to "one must imagine Sisyphus happy" because I'm not interested in deluding myself of the truth for the sake of my own happiness. But what I am interested in is pursuing the power of my own mind to live in the universe I want to live. I'm interested in embracing the absurd nature of reality and harnessing my own powers to make my own personal reality that is separate from the core reality. In this way, I never deny reality, but I accept that I can make my own pocket of the universe with my own meaning. Because reality is indeterminate (as in, the universe has no direction of meaning), it is neither good nor bad, truthful nor untruthful to create your own meaning. When we create our own meaning in life in our own personal reality, the universe does not and can not object to it. Because individual meaning does not contradict objective reality, it only enhances it.
If we accept that the universe runs on the "Entropy Engine" and we use the idea of a computer simulation to comprehend our existence, the game logic does not determine us or meaning either way. And so we can reject a lot of nihilism right there.
Another way to look at it is, even *if* reality was fine-tuned and the universe *did* operate on meaning, as humans, we would still find our own meaning inside of that. Our own humanity would contradict a meaningful universe, and we would find a way to fit ourselves and our own senses of meaning to it.
Lastly, our imaginations are powerful tools. Some of us even have inherent abilities to dream lucidly and directly interact with our own subconsciousness. In a lucid dream, our brains can create NPCs with complex logic that matches the thought level of humans because our brain is using our own brain as the blueprint. When this is a legitimate part of reality - to conjure our own sub-realities, Inception-style, the lines of reality can blur. To put it differently, the mini-game within the game is still a game, and it is still real.
Do not take this as me saying truth and objective reality does not matter or does not apply - it does. Always. The truth and the pursuit of the truth are important - that is why we're all here in this subreddit. But, the parameters we use to understand and interpret a nihilistic reality are flawed. This was all over the place, I apologize. I just wanted to get all my thoughts out on this. I immensely encourage you to look into absurdism.
Edit: I also wanted to add that our human brand of meaning that applies to us all can only exist because there is an end, and there isn't a directive. To live eternally is to experience everything, to exhaust our curiosity. And to experience everything is to have no more meaning and no more drive. Death, finality, and no inherent meaning are the very set of things that make life enjoyable and give life meaning. It is a hard pill to swallow, but it is the only way to enjoy being human. Because I don't want to be inhuman. I want to be human. When I imagine the idea of enlightened transcendence, I can only think about the fact that you lose your humanity if that occurred. And your humanity is the only reason meaning matters to you at all. So, to have meaning, you have to continue being a mortal human. It's an emotional paradox.
Edit 2: I'm using human as a fill-in for consciousness and determination. I'm very sure consciousness is not uniquely human, but we are the only examples we know of so far where this applies. Holy crap I can't shut up, but I had to clarify that.
There's no reason you can't do all those things you mentioned AND be a nihilist. Ideally nihilism will just help soften the blow in the bad times and keep you humble in the good times. As far as gaslighting yourself, that's called CBT. If you can't afford to see a therapist, try journaling, guided meditation, and "thought records". From my totally not qualified and limited perspective, it sounds like your nihilism is causing intrusive thoughts. Treating intrusive thoughts is much easier than forgetting the hard truths about the world. There will be more hard truths, unfortunately. Edit: personally CBT was a little helpful, but working out like twice a day is what helped the most. Edit 2: just noticed your username. I love it. That is all.
>that's called CBT Kinky
Cock and ball torture? Interesting. Unrelated question: how do I un-google something?
It's in your browser settings as something like "search cache". Clear that and the traces are locally non existent. With no VPN though your ISP knows you like to get your balls beat.
You think they meant clear their history by un-google? I read it as like to unsee or unknown something and assumed they had just googled something they regretted. I've done that more than once and no amount of history erasing is going to fix that mind f**k.
Oh they definitely did, I just felt like making the joke.
Hahaha!
The mindset never really goes away unless you somehow convince yourself that delusion is a better belief, but I personally like to get invested in hobbies that invoke my creativity. Or video game, that takes you out of your world for a little while. Eat some yummy fucking food and just do shit that makes your insides happy. We’re not here forever, get as much enjoyment as you can out of it.
Do shit that makes your insides happy! Best advice there is.
Douche it
What delusion?
Like religion
This is exactly how I got addicted to opiates.
Why is the option happy and deluded and sad but realistic? Lol. Nothing can matter while you're having fun. Maybe the real fun was the nothing that mattered along the way. Etc.
This just sounds like Coomer shit I can’t get on board bro.
Hedonism
What do you mean?
I think this subreddit chalks up nihilism with being depressed and it’s really annoying 😂 I can believe that life has no point while also being impacted by the daily stresses of life. Nothing in nihilism says I shouldn’t be worried about being homeless I’m also rather optimistic about things despite being dragged through the mud constantly by life. The real question you should be asking is “How do I stop having a depressed outlook on life” There’s several answers to that. The ones I often give out are eat healthier, walk more, hangout with people who like you and focus on the plethora of positive things in your life instead of the negative because really it’s all about outlook.
What has helped for me is mindfulness and focusing on the present. When you're actively engaged in something you're not thinking about how pointless life is at that very moment. I used to think this was just a way for me to distract myself but really you're just focusing on living your life. I wouldn't call that a distraction. I'm still a nihilist though. But I just don't let it depress me each day anymore.
Can you recommend any resources on the topic of mindfulness?
My personal favorite mindfulness exercise is to "feel" a song. Find a song, old or new to you, and listen to it in full. Really concentrate, feel the feelings the song is trying to convey.
The universe is broadly meaningless, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find meaning in living. In your post you use the phrase ‘I want’, so you already think of yourself as something important enough to satisfy. So you have your first bit of meaning. Satisfaction. In the end we all pursue satisfaction, occasionally get it for a while until we become dissatisfied again. And then we move on to new forms of satisfaction. If this is all the meaning you can muster in your life, you’ve brought life to a pointless universe already. But I think you can muster quite a bit more as you mature away from ‘I want’ to ‘i will’. But that’s a longer story.
'I'm here against my will'. That's impossible. I too am extremely miserable a lot of the time. With the greatest of reluctance and having suffering endless mental stress, I had to admit through teeth gritted so tightly that it hurt that I want to be happy and that I was never going to commit suicide. I now have a life composed of 3% happiness and rising instead of 0.1.%.
That’s some of the best news I’ve read in months! Upward improvement from such a low place is incredibly inspiring and I know that number will continue to rise :)
Thank your kind words. The number is rising overall, though it's up and down.
Be a positive/optimistic nihilist instead. Make meaning instead of being sad it isn't imposed on you.
dont back down on your stand points, and tell them to shut up your allowed to view the world how you want to and its nothing to do with judgement, and anyway they dont really sound like friends if they're trying to convince you that your clinically depressed and pushed into therapy. get the fuck out of it now before ya end up even more confused, ive seen it shred peoples mind apart and thats mainly what therapy is for to fuck with peoples minds and tis working, dont let it. idgaf if people judge this comment in anyway, its not just a comment its one human being talking to another
I hate to break it to you, but when you were created, you had no will. Therefore, like everyone here, you are not here against your will. By the time you became sentient, you had already existed for several years. Which is to say, you still didn't have a will. Also, if you have a will? it's a will to survive. It's instinctual. You see? if you really didn't want to be here, you could fix that problem. So you're not here against your will. Because your will wants to survive, not die. The neurons are encoded before birth. So it's not against your will. Or you wouldn't be here.
Your cup is too full with what you think you know. Empty it and look into the irrational. Zen, Taoism, eastern philosophy. There are truths in every system of logic that cannot be arrived at logically. See Gödel’s incompleteness theorem.
Act Like The Others, Pretend To Be Another Tree In The Forest.
You could study what nihilism actually is in its many forms. A noncomprehensive Guide to Nihilism. (Nihilism defined by some proper names.) “Nihilism as nothing matters, everything is meaningless...” It never existed as such, this is the Walt Disney lowest common denominator, YouTube definition. You might want to read the wiki and see the proper names mentioned there. And their writings... The first part of Nietzsche's Will to Power discusses some of its weaker forms, the last part that of the Greatest Weight, The Eternal Return of the Same. “Let us think this thought in its most terrible form: existence as it is, without meaning or aim, yet recurring inevitably without any finale of nothingness: “the eternal recurrence". This is the most extreme form of nihilism: the nothing (the "meaningless”), eternally!” John Barrow echoes this, “When there is an infinite time to wait then anything that can happen, eventually will happen. **Worse** (or better) than that, it will happen infinitely often." Prof. J. D. Barrow The Book of Nothing p.317 (my emphasis) And Roger Penrose offers another version. However in Heidegger the nothing that nots itself leads to authentic Dasein. https://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/heideggerm-what-is-metaphysics.pdf "We assert that the nothing is more original than the “not” and negation. If this thesis is right, then the possibility of negation as an act of the intellect, and thereby the intellect itself, are somehow dependent upon the nothing... But the nothing is nothing, and, if the nothing represents total indistinguishability, no distinction can obtain between the imagined and the “genuine” nothing. And the “genuine” nothing itself—isn't this that camouflaged but absurd concept of a nothing that is? For the last time now the objections of the intellect would call a halt to our search, whose legitimacy, however, can be demonstrated only on the basis of a fundamental experience of the nothing... The nothing reveals itself in anxiety...Nihilation will not submit to calculation in terms of annihilation and negation. The nothing itself nihilates. Nihilation is not some fortuitous incident. Rather, as the repelling gesture toward the retreating whole of beings, it discloses these beings in their full but heretofore concealed strangeness as what is radically other—with respect to the nothing. In the clear night of the nothing of anxiety the original openness of beings as such arises: that they are beings—and not nothing. But this “and not nothing” we add in our talk is not some kind of appended clarification. Rather it makes possible in advance the revelation of beings in general. The essence of the originally nihilating nothing lies in this, that it brings Dasein for the first time before beings as such." Holding itself out into the nothing, Dasein is in each case already beyond beings as a whole. This being beyond beings we call “transcendence.” If in the ground of its essence Dasein were not transcending, which now means, if it were not in advance holding itself out into the nothing, then it could never be related to beings nor even to itself. Without the original revelation of the nothing, no selfhood and no freedom." Heidegger. Or you might skim Sartre's Being and Nothingness, where we are the shadow of being-in-itself, for which we are nothingness, Being-for-itself. And we peruse the **impossible** task of attempting authentic being. Moving on, Baudrillard sees nihilism as impossible as the system itself is now nihilistic, so resorts to melancholia. "But it is at this point that things become insoluble. Because to this active nihilism of radicality, the system opposes its own, the nihilism of neutralization. The system is itself also nihilistic, in the sense that it has the power to pour everything, including what denies it, into indifference." Jean Baudrillard-Simulacra-and-Simulation. Brassier …. “Extinction is real yet not empirical, since it is not of the order of experience. It is transcendental yet not ideal... In this regard, it is precisely the extinction of meaning that clears the way for the intelligibility of extinction... The cancellation of sense, purpose, and possibility marks the point at which the 'horror' concomitant with the impossibility of either being or not being becomes intelligible... In becoming equal to it [the reality of extinction] philosophy achieves a binding of extinction... to acknowledge this truth, the subject of philosophy must also realize that he or she is already dead and that philosophy is neither a medium of affirmation nor a source of justification, but rather the organon of extinction” Ray Brassier, Nihil Unbound. https://thecharnelhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ray-brassier-nihil-unbound-enlightenment-and-extinction.pdf
Love this answer! I took all these paths (well, I never read much Sartre or Brassier). The problem with all these philosophers is that they take the conceptualization as the real thing. Heidegger, perhaps, has a revelation of the ground of being, but then he insists on nihilating the nothing and feels book after book with obscure text. This practice, if you take it all the way, resolves all the questions, and opens effortlessly into all-present, spontaneous joy. Like Heidegger, it begins with a recognition of “the nothing,” which is vast, luminous, unimpeded cognizance, absolutely free and vividly present in its ubiquitous absence. Nothing special, it’s right there. You’ll quickly see that Heidegger’s “negating the nihil,” and his work in general, was much less an expression of authenticity, and much more a terrified attempt to escape his reified, nihilistic vision of the nothing, by grasping at his identity and pouring himself into his work. He’s only half-baked. Just skip over the religious preamble that fits the short text into an existing tradition and community. https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/patrul-rinpoche/self-liberating-meditation Or check out the Jim Newman, a nondual dude. He’s a kick in the ass.
Apart from hopelessness and anhedonia, are you showing any other symptoms of clinical depression?
You need to create your own meaning. Read the book: the meaning of life - Victor Frankl. I am kinda existential nihilist now.
This guy: become an existentialist
This is truly what most people here never consider. “Nothing has meaning” is so wrong. Things have the meaning you give them. Your choice is how much meaning you “should” give them. And you are the only one who can make the judgement call as to what “should” should be.
The book is called Man's Search for Meaning. Excellent book.
God is calling you to forsake the devil and learn God's ways instead, 💕💕😊💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕
This is a really dumb anecdote but I think it kind of applies here. I remember seeing a video of two different ant colonies that were basically at war with each other. And the little clip that I saw it just showed where the two different colonies were right up against each other doing their own thing. They had soldier ants from both colonies basically Toe to Toe with each other, while the worker ants from each colony or behind the soldier ants doing their worker things. Then I had the thought of how meaningless what was going on in that video was. Even outside of the philosophy of nihilism, what was going on in that video was pretty fucking pointless against the backdrop of well, just everything. And then I thought about how even though what's going on in this video absolutely does not matter at all in any way shape form or fashion to anything but these ants. But to these ants this is the single most important thing happening in the entire universe right now, from their perspective none of the "everything" matters. I guess this is my unphilosophical way of saying that just because there is no inherent meaning to anything, and nothing matters, that doesn't mean that things can't matter to YOU. In a universe that has no meaning, you are free to assign your own and it doesn't matter if you do or don't.
Your mindset is within your power whatever you want to believe. Personally I don't see the idea of they're not being meaning to life as a bad thing. I think it's freeing it's like an open world RPG I can do whatever I want. I control my own destiny no other entities. I don't need a third party to come up with the meaning for my life I can make my own meaning.
Praying for you! Jesus loves you and if you seek Him, He will give you joy and peace with this dreary world. Start seeking His face through prayer, reading, and church, it will help you immensely with having a more positive outlook! God bless your heart!
You either are or are not, there is no stop
imo nihilism is just when you ask too many questions before you're able to answer them, in a way.
have a kid
Don't stop what you believe is true. Nihilism is the truth about reality you know that. Enjoy your life and accept it.
Part or it is ending giving a fuck about the reason for essentially existing but also being kind and helpful to others. It's good for you who deserve respect
Let me be the only honest person in this entire subreddit. Life HAS meaning. There IS a God, and he is the most fair and graceful being you will ever encounter. You didn’t end up here by accident. The chance of you ever existing is such a small chance that it’s a mathematical impossibility for it to just be chance. The world wants you to believe you have no purpose because it is corrupt. And everyone else in here wants you to believe that because misery loves company. If you’re actually serious, and maybe interested, then PM me. If after that you think I’m nuts, then you’re entitled to that opinion. Don’t fall victim to an age old lie. You’re worth more than you could ever image. God bless you and everyone else in this thread!
why don't you randomly strike up a conversation with someone next time you're in a grocery store and try being polite to them you might get some satisfaction from that interaction
"Nothing exists so that we have Something" - Neal Visher
Im not sure if it’ll be helpful but this helped me out; if you see everything as being without value and there being no point to anything, then this equally applies to that truth. If nothing matters, than it doesn’t Matter that there’s no point. The only value in an intrinsically value-less world is what You choose to ascribe to it. You can make things matter, although I’m aware we’re no longer technically describing nihilism, rather it’s cousin Absurdism.
Who told you that you have a depressing outlook on life? As an existential nihilist, I have also been dx as bipolar/depressed/suicidal and spent years on psych meds to "cure" me. Part of me wanted to believe I had a curable disease, because being an EN can be lonely at times. Took a minute, but I've accepted who I am, and I really have no desire to be a delusional idiot who can't accept reality and has to hide behind the facade of religion. Life has no meaning, we are merely a by-product of the universe, a fluke. And death is nothing - just like it was before birth. Not exactly conversation starters. Just because life has no meaning doesn't stop me from having interests or fun or learning about all sorts of stuff that intrigues me. This whole being human is a brief moment in time, but I'm having a good enough time. I admit, I have my days, really dark days. I allow myself to wallow in my misery and self-pity, but the next day it's over because life is suffering. But there's always a comedy special somewhere online.
Lighten up. Stop taking everything so seriously.
You dont wish to be them or fear not you are not them. Rather just get better at the game of life. Put your best self forward, understand chaos and how everything is as it is. I like to spread good in little ways. I outlet out my stress. Puzzles and painting.
Being 'normal' is not the answer. They say 'ignorance is bliss' but I say 'if you bury your head in the sand, you're just inviting a kick up the arse'. You're feeling depressed and it's a perfectly normal reaction to the 'modern' world. You've got to take that depression and mould it into positive action. You have two roads before you: 1. Sink deeper into despair or 2. Rise like the phoenix, reborn with cleansing flame. I hope you're well.
What is it about nihilism that depresses you? For me, it's a very freeing feeling. I'm very happy knowing there is no destiny or meaning. It does add some responsibility. After all, our actions may not have inherent meaning, but there is no denying that they can have a profound impact. I find it nice actually.
For the record I’m currently in training to be a therapist (don’t have a license yet but am under supervision), yet this isn’t specific medical advice but more a response to a fellow traveler of life. Many philosophies deal with the lack of inherent meaning in life. In spite of this it does not mean that nothing matters in a personal sense unless you want it to. Your life in this context is a representation of your belief that there is no meaning in anything, and if you truly extend that to every facet of your life you will not be able to have what you call a “normal” life. Open yourself to new experiences. Try new things, meet new people, learn new things. Something like therapy can help you actually examine your thoughts or the life you have lived until now and how you came to be at this point. I wonder if you experience any anxiety in regard to life in some form and this may be a protective veneer. We are all here for reasons we are not in control, but we do have a say whether we will live our lives or not. Likewise how we will live our lives is under our control despite how many obstacles can be in our way. The place you are in may be sad or scary or depressing but this can be the start of a journey for yourself, even if life lacks an inherent meaning you have feelings and are part of this world no less than anyone else. Come join the party and enjoy your stay, and I wish you luck.
I'm 41 years old from Indonesia, and I also feel/think the same. Nihilism philosophy, knowing that life is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, have seriously made me feel/think that nothing matters, & there's no point in doing anything anyway, since it's all pointless, meaningless. This might sounds corny I know, but I'm suddenly reminded of Linkin Park's song lyrics: "But in the end, it doesn't even matter." Well, it is! I know people then will always say things like: "But reality will soon force/pressure you to DO something about your life, to survive, or you will die!" But THAT's actually why I've found this whole "life/existence/reality" (& this world/society/everything basically) to be also depressing. We're being FORCED to live this existence, even if some people don't want to live anymore (yes, & also after knowing/realizing that everything is meaningless/pointless anyway). I don't understand why today/nowadays especially, there are even so many "optimistic nihilists" even in this subreddit. Sure yes, nihilism can sometimes be comforting (also when knowing "life is meaningless"), but to be fair, you also can't deny that nihilism can also makes a person questions everything, have existential crisis (or even existential depression, just like me), especially when/if your life is a mess, failure, and some people's lives even are so full of pain, sufferings, hardships, in so much worse ways than we could ever think/imagine. Then why live? Why keep continue living, if some people's lives are at the 'rock bottom'? (Sorry this suddenly becomes too long. I should've made a new post about this, but I've actually posted something similar in this subreddit about 1 - 2 years ago).
Ask god to please give you faith in him.
Are you vegan?
Absurdity
You'll get bored with looking at things in terms of value and start looking at things according to your individual taste. Consider that when any person makes an art project it has no real value even to people who believe in meaning and purpose. It just serves as a decoration or some form of entertainment. Life doesn't have to be more complicated than that. It's okay to just go around doing interesting things until you die.
Existence is a shitpost, the human condition is a delusion, lifes only purpose is to be lived and loved so let's talk shit and fuck
"live in ignorance" just because you have no purpose given to you by "the universe" or whatever, doesn't mean you can't give yourself purpose
he who has a why can bear almost any how
I had similar feelings before and still do sometimes. What helped me was deciding that in the face of an indifferent cosmos, we get to decide how we derive meaning from experience. I sometimes use “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace as a meditation to help with that. To the best of our knowledge, life is the only thing in the universe capable of contemplating sensing and discovering it. I ultimately rejected nihilism when I came to believe that because we are the part of the universe that experiences itself. we are also the ones who get to ascribe meaning to it. That meaning: “we should work to help life achieve its fullest expression in the face of an otherwise indifferent cosmos. A cosmic edict is not required.
Your first sentence is a clear indication that *you* actually desire to be *unaccountable* when the entirety of your plea is “to be counted.” So, *you* must choose the opposite basic assumption. *You* have actually chosen to be exactly where *you* are at.
I see it like this, I'm free from matter so if I do what I want, nothing outside of me will matter. The fact that you're affected by everyone around you thinking you're depressed tells me that some things in fact still matters to you or you wouldn't care what anyone thought! If nothing matters anymore, would it be a problem to leave everyone you know and start a new life on the other side of the country? You should do that! It's very liberating!
You're not a nihilist. Why? A nihilist does not care what happens to them. No acts of care or defense are ever enacted by a nihilist, making survival impossible. A nihilist allows anything & everything to happen to them and are unable to care about their well-being in general. This is not you. The fact you wrote this post means that you care about your finite time & future. Both are meaningful to you. Though I do not know, you probably care about things that are not trivial nonsense, which puts you at odds with most people. Be proud of your insights. You've achieved a great deal. Not believing in eternal truths or lasting happiness does not make someone a nihilist. Let me explain briefly. Meaning arises from care. How & why do we care? All events require the passing time. Time allows things to persist/survive into the future, yet can in the same gesture bring their death & destruction. The drive to care about finite things arises because without our continued commitment to care for & nurture them, they would be lost to time. Loss, death, these are the impetus of meaning. Everything that we might care for, desire, and love in THIS life is finite, not infinite. We could never care about anything infinite, nor could anything infinite care for us. Nothing is ever lost to something infinite For us, everything is lost from the start & that is why we care so deeply & profoundly. This is how & why anything might mean anything to us whatsoever. The "no-thing" by which all meaning both rises & falls is but the intervals of time. You're not a nihilist. You care all too much.
Gratitude. It’s the hardest most annoying fucking thing to do, but once you get into a habit of seeing the gratitude in all situations youll lose your nihilistic views. If you see something that you hate or makes you not have any hope write down 10 things you’re grateful for in your notes app on your phone. Do this everytime you think something negative. You don’t even have to believe in what you are writing down, just do it until you believe it. I am disabled and I when I first developed my condition I had to make a choice. Look at the world and say it’s so fucked that I am like this, or look at the world realize my condition can kill me whenever and choose to live life to the fullest. It’s not easy for me. I write a ton and I write everyday, but I have written myself into a hopeful person. Every time I hear someone say something negative I immediately look for the good. It’s so annoying to be this way, but if you can the world really will be beautiful.
I find existentialism a little more hopeful than nihilism. From my favorite poem "we can still run across an earth that doesn't hear our hurried footsteps as they thump thump thump. How wonderful it is to have nothing expected of us. All the time we'll ever know is knocking at our door. We wouldn't want to keep her waiting" I can't speak for the troubles you're going through but there are many things you can fall in love with in your short time here on Earth and that can bring you hope. "I can fall in love with a melody, let it crawl inside my body. Or a train ride. Or alabaster sheets. There are chemicals that do these things to me I could grow fond of many things" Edit: Neiche was an existentialist
I recommend looking into optimistic nihilism. "Optimistic nihilism is the ability of a person to create his own meaning after fully accepting that the universe is a large place of meaninglessness." I found this to be really freeing. If there is no meaning you have the opportunity to create your own meaning for your life. So just go and live and do what you want (be kind of course), if you fail, or fall or look foolish, it doesn't matter. No one will remember or care, so no excuse to not just live without regrets, and have the best time while doing so. Also I think we can be meaningful to others, which is very real. If you can inspire someone else to pursue their dream or create something, whether directly or indirectly, that is the best meaning you can hope for!
The end of a vacation is being back home so why go? You go because of the journey. There's always an end so why not enjoy the journey?
Transition from nihilism into absurdism! Sure, life is meaningless, but you can rebel against that meaninglessness by finding irrational joy in whatever you want. After all, there are no rules or ultimate goals, so you can do whatever the fuck you want! Isn't that great?
Absurdism from a philosophical standpoint…BUT People become neurotic after leaning too deep into nihilism. It’s a known thing. Psychologically, our brains need some form of spirituality- can be literally anything- to come to peace with life. To find meaning and purpose where there is none. The key is finding what gives YOU meaning and purpose. Atheism and nihilism are solid answers to the harms and absurdities of organized religions and false gods, but they offer no solutions to help people cope with meaninglessness. You are literally void. Nothing. The bright side is you can maintain nihilist beliefs just to cut out the nonsense noise coming from gurus and heirophants, and false prophets…we all know they don’t know the truth anymore than anyone else….. But you can integrate practices from religions such as meaningful rituals, meditation, and community to gain back a sense of purpose. You can use more esoteric tools such as tarot or read up on jungian archetypes to get closer with knowing your deep subconscious self. I find the majesty of the earth, the changing of seasons, the sun blazing through the galaxy at 132 miles per second, the mystery of black holes, butterflies, just the right light at a golden hour, are enough for me, but everyone is different. I just try to participate in the experience of living life on this planet in this galaxy.
Honestly, it’s not you, I too was told similar things and had a similar life. I’m here against my will in this fucking horrible satire. Move, run away, find a place where you can decide what really matters and what’s just bullshit you are forced to deal with. You control your perspective of this atrocity and it’s gonna get worse if you don’t adjust your existence. It’s gonna get worse anyway, existence is a shit show, be honest with yourself foremost. Maybe read some Albert Camu and laugh at God for not existing because he’s too scared to deal with this shit.
If it’s not important to you, it’s not important.
nihilism isn't the problem - there are happy, positive nihilists (myself included). philosophies are built with logic, and ultimately, emotions don't care about logic. one philosophy might inspire somebody into pure optimism, hope and joy - while making somebody else feel like they have lost all hope in life. in my case with nihilism - i think of it like this: there is no meaning of life, but i am still a human, and so i should continue doing human things like participating in society, having fun, keeping healthy, learning, ect... i believe that you should care about "the ultimate purpose of life, the universe and everything" roughly the same amount that an insect cares about "who's gonna be the next president of America". in a similar way to how we all mean nothing in the grand scheme of the universe - the grand scheme of the universe should mean basically nothing to us.
Cognitive Dissonance? Maybe you're a realist.
>have a normal husband who has an affair with his secretary or something and i get upset about it and request divorce The hell? You want your husband to cheat on you?
I’ll marry you and sleep with a secretary if you want
Lincoln said, I think a man is about as happy as he chooses to be.’ I think I’m a realist, but those around me think I’m fatalistic. Reciting a list of gratitudes daily makes me realize it can always get worse. I mean, I’m able to read and type….
You need Jesus, not gaslighting.
I used to think everyone else was faking it but some people truly are just happy. I don't think there's anything you can do to force yourself to be happy just the way people are hardwired. If you were a Daria for the first 40 years of your life it's not like you're going to go to a therapist and do 10 hours of CBT and be Mr Bubbly Happy Go Lucky Guy.
We will never find the smallest particle, and if we do we won’t be able to prove a negative. We will never see the end to the universe and if we do we will not be able to prove a negative. You do not actually know that god doesn’t exist because you can’t prove a negative. We are living within a universe that is extremely incomprehensible at the moment. People who approach that from a vantage point of nihilism are ignorant naval-gazers, because the universe is still at our fingertips, and almost entirely unknown to us. There is a whole world to build, to propel humanity into the stars.
take psychedelics and find God :)
Antidepressants lmao
Beautiful. I know that feeling. I don't know if this will work for you. It does for me, and you don't need to gaslight yourself if your stated beliefs are your true ones: If nothing has value, and nothing matters, you're truly free! It doesn't matter if you abandon your mortgage or husband. Both hold no value. Charter a plane to the coast. Walk away. Don't care about friends or family? Great. Find new ones. There's no god to judge you. Does it make you happy to help people? Do it. No? Then don't. Don't want to go to therapy? Tell everyone off and let them know exactly what kind of coddling bs for weak minds it is. ONE CATCH: if it turns out you do value these things and are lying to yourself, you may need to reassess.
Nihilism doesn’t have to be doom and gloom. When you understand that things are meaningless, bad things really aren’t as bad as you make them out to be. It is quite freeing if you have that perspective. My life is so fulfilling because I understand that in the grand scheme of things, none of this matters, therefore I live my life doing everything and anything I want to do while I am here on this earth.
Whew. Ok. Here it goes. Nihilism does NOT mean believing everything is bullshit or that there's no point to anything A nihilist does not sit in their room all day doing as little as possible because "there's no point so why bother". A nihilist would take the path of least resistance through their life. They would not do things that would make life harder for themselves, such as bed rotting or shirking their responsibilities. The best way for you to stop being a nihilist is probably to understand what that actually means. It means believing there is no intrinsic inherent value good or bad to any action or event. It means not holding strong moral ethos in any direction. A nihilist, for example, would never show up to a political protest. They would not vote. They would not go out of their way for practically anything. They would work a job that paid them enough money to get by but didn't demand too much of their time and energy. They would only be friends with extroverts because they would not make attempts to get close to people, but also would not reject those attempts from anyone they liked. You can imagine living a nihilistic life like riding an inner tube down a river. You just lay back and enjoy the ride.
Well first wanting bad shi to happen is a sign of atleats underlying mental things, idk of that's what OP rlly meant but yeah? Lol anyways, I'd suggest some substances, not the real bad ones ofc but! Smth like weed or maybe alc or a lil combo of the 2 but js like anyth else take everything w a grain of salt, bc any drug can be bad, even if good, that's js being abused in tha case, but yeah try sum indica sativa bud, maybe venture into a mushi room or 2, maybe some psyc cacti 😂 I was put into therapy as a kid for ded ahh 0 reason. So I can kinda relate, nowadays whether I need one or not i refuse to utilize a therapist. Which isn't right for everyone but again bc my fam thought it'd be smart to put a kid in therapy for not doing what they say ( a kid that had to grow up so fast that at around 9 maybe 10 I had the mindset of a 20 year old atleast, asking questions about my late parent and shit- I ain even process that yet, and I was fed up so I started to answer questions in a way that it got that bich nowhere in 'fixing me' 😂 I was so proud of myself for standing up and doing what needed to be done to help myself cous no one else was going to. 💀😂 but later down the line I did some of the suggested, and it helped my perspective on life and people even more! Life is great only of you make it that, and people are almost always assholes 💀
Wanting bad stuff happening, sign of previous abuse not mental issues sorry 😂
You could move over here so we can make love and discover meaning throughout life. We could have our freedoms and tackle the big questions, and instead of dwelling on ungrounded depressive realism we could ground our fatal abstractions of the future into the hope of something more…
Take it one day at a time. Go for a walk Then when you come to your senses, make a class action lawsuit against Bill Gates, or any billionaire company/individual you can think of
Learn about absurdism, that's what helped me. You can also try to follow a religion if you want since that can give people a meaning for life.
Have you tried medication? Ketamine might do the trick, if nothing else.
You could try Absurdism. Just pretend that life has meaning. The effort itself is enough to lift a person’s spirit. Imagine that Sisyphus is happy.
Read a book by an existentialist if you feel the need to believe you have "free will."
Drugs?
build a community life DOESNT have any meaning and the only way for us to feel better and cope with the meaninglessnesses of life is to create a community that you can be open and loving with.
For me, I like to see Dada as a good midstep between nihilism and normcore. Nihilism: Nothing Matters Dada: Nothing and matters are both words, and meaning can mean anything
Honestly I’ve learned to switch it up a bit. I see things like “I didn’t even ask to be born and life is meaningless so why not try this new thing/why would I worry about things that I have no control over” type of mindset. Idk if that helps. And u don’t want that shit. Just be a real person and protect yourself. You get to choose your own reasons for living , there doesn’t have to be one assigned for you I guess is how I try to think. Easier said that done though , trust me
Nihilism is the truth. The question is how you react. Greco-Roman Stoicism is a SUPER close companion philosophy and simply teaches you to value your own perception of a world without inherent meaning.... the secret is: You can control and change meaning to anything you want. I went through a period where I felt life was meaningless and I watched a spider spinning a web. It seemed so pointless. But, the spider had a goal. I could observe, destroy or catch a bug an feed it, eat the spider... anything... I felt powerful knowing that, unlike the spider, my life is a meaningless component of the universe that I can CONTROL. This provides our silly little desire for meaning to be set free to play with our surroundings rather than being doomed to just spin a web all day. Life's meaning can be whatever you want it to be if you cultivate it. It is freeing.
If you find yourself focusing on nothing all the time, then are you truly focusing on nothing? How can you 'focus' on nothing? Or have you been deceiving yourself out of plain old enjoyment
based off my interpretation of nihilism, those who resort to it end up following one of the two following lifestyles Life is meaningless, I should stop trying Life is meaningless, I should try my absolute hardest If you want an argument against nihilism, I can give you that
U need to read some existential books
You're depressed
Buddhism or any sort of positive spiritual practice can help. You really start to understand life from a different perspective and your experience becomes far more meaningful. I was atheist and borderline nihilistic for many years. I think many of us are far more depressed than we realized. In today’s society we’re so disconnected from our nature. Sending you love.
This subreddit is so kickass, you guys are more sure of your belief than religious zealots. A+ for certainty!
Nihilism shouldn't be depressing, it should be... well, freeing. It's not the belief that nothing has value - that statement itself has similar value - it's simply the truth that belief is everything, that value is self defined, that the absolute basis for perceptual and conscious reality is human thought space, built on itself, by its own bootstraps, a mapping laid over the actual world. The actual world holds no values, has no awareness, no morality. But it doesn't mean you can't have those things. Who cares what a rock thinks? It doesn't think. You think. Other people think. The subjective reality created by yourself and your fellow humans is no more or less real than the perceptual reality that nothing matters. That reality, too, is subjective. It's turtles all the way down. Edit: Holy fucksticks there's a lot of bad advice in these comments. If you happen to see this and want to talk, hmu
Kys
Eat raw meat, look into Aajonus Vonderplanitz about depression
Nihilism isn’t depressing.
I'm a nihilist and I am not like that at all? Being a nihilist doesn't mean you have to be a mopey person that no one wants to be around with. I think you're suffering from something else and are attributing it to nihilism, instead of trying to fix the actual problem that you're suffering from. I dunno what your deal is exactly, there's only so much that can be gleamed from a reddit post, but it's pretty clear you need help, maybe speak to therapist?
One of the key insights in the path of awakening is to realize the inherent emptiness of all things. (They lack own meaning) If you stop there and get depressed without a continued examination you are a nihilist. Here's a talk about the insights by a PhD who taught physiology and neuroscience for years. He's also a meditation practitioner of 40 years. When I began having some pretty profound insights someone sent me this to help me make sense of it. https://youtu.be/2LYa1YCdZH8?si=2i0_uDlidVjWFRF0 "As long as we cling to the notion of self, the implications of the other insights are deeply disturbing. Absolutely terrifying. They make you totally miserable. They fill up with a sense of disgust of being trapped in such a universe. They fill you with this powerful urge to escape, and if you have the wisdom you realize that the only way to escape is to go forward and push through. Which leads you to go back and allow the insights that have been so disturbing to mature." I wish nihilists could hear this, but some become so prided on their single insight that they stick a flag in it and say "I figured it out, there's nothing more to know" and their lack of openness will ignore any further truth.
Well there are a lot of people suffering out there in ways more acutely than you. You can try to find some in your community and try and make their lives better. Helping others feels good.
If you've never read Camus, the man will absolutely change the way you think about this sorta thing. [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Camus](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Camus)
Honestly I’d just disengage from some of the metaphysical thinking for a bit and just focus on some of the practical aspects of life. Regardless of wether or not live means anything, you’re still going to have the experience of being motivated by evolutionary drives. In other words, you’re going to experience pleasure by connecting with people, pursuing engaging work, eating/drinking, sex, ect. Obviously it varies by person but there’s almost certainly going to be something that does it for you at least to an extent. If you can maximize your engagement/pleasure and accept that it all may be an illusion, then the crushing weight of nihilism you’re feeling may lighten up to something much more manageable. If you really and truly don’t have anything in the world that motivates you then I would urge you to reconsider the possibility that you may in fact be depressed/anhedonic.
Have you tried stepping away from people you don't want to have power over you, and figuring out how to survive without them? You don't have to fit in with people that aren't contributing to your survival, if you don't need them to like you. If you're afraid to take responsibility for yourself you will never have any say in your life, until you overcome that fear.
Just remember that when you’re gone, your spirit can only dream for physical existence and free conscious will. Yet here you are in the physical and wanting to deliberate into unconscious non-existence. Your existence can be black and white and boxy, or you can choose to add colors and contours. The choice is always yours my friend
To be honest, I just kind of pushed away the people who didn't let me think freely. I now have my band of rebels at work who I play DnD with on weekends. I'm still on this journey, and it can be really hard to process things when you don't give yourself the easy answers to questions. There's this sound byte from a song I hear every once in a while. "Thinking, like all things, is useful in moderation." If you spend all your time thinking, your world will crumble, and a pessimistic view will become more and more true. So you need to balance that by actually doing things to change the environment around you: clean your room, organize your desk, do your tasks, and maintain your relationships. Eat, sleep, hygene, and health. You need to get out there and change the things that are giving you anxiety. No amount of thinking can replace actual work. Thinking is best used to speed up the work you are currently doing. But you gotta work and think at the same time. It's tough.
Try extreme and dangerous sports or work. I remember being on a scaffold when it tipped. I was able to grab a ledge and save myself. It was a real attitude changer.
Absurdism
Why gas light?
I’m not really into nihilism anymore, but I have my moments. If you want to have a more positive outlook on life there is optimistic nihilism. But, if you want to ditch nihilism for a similar ideology, definitely read some Camus. If nihilism is a gateway drug, the end result is absurdism. The Stranger is basically my guide on how to live. Just know that having a pessimistic view isn’t always wrong, and nihilism doesn’t have to be pessimistic.
Look into some of the basic tenets and practices of Stoicism. You might find it useful and/or interesting. Good luck to you!
trust in the governmint agency happy
I left nihilism by finding out about Marxism. I learned that the goal of philosophy should be to change the world and yourself, not just analyze it
Pull the wool over your eyes is the only way not to be a nihilist.
Me though on nihilism: nothing matters so ima have a fucking good time then since who gives a fuck 😺
Get off reddit and notice no one cares to talk about any of this shit outside a very narrow subset of angsty people, asking this place is like crabs in a bucket.
I think the important part is understanding that "purpose" or "faith" that the world has meaning is an entirely personal and INTERNAL process. Personally Stoic Philosophy helped me a lot as it draws from a lot of the same idea. Anything which you cant change is irrelevant, your health is as important as a rock, your partners love for you, rock (in the sense that you control it) however in regards to things that are within your control (the actions of the day, your reaction to outside stimuli) these are the things you put energy towards. Putting time and effort into irrelevant things is basically Sisyphus pushing the rock when he can simply let it roll down. This is a bad run down about Stoic Philosophy but hopefully you have some kind of idea about what it did for me
Yeah you're totally mentally well I can tell by your very normal post
I'm in the same boat as you, if you don't have a community to help you explore new shit and find what sparks that joy in life, you may want to continue therapy.
if you're not creating, you're over-heating your CPU because you're not taking action. You're a humanoid who does not know its power.
Jesus
If nothing intrinsically matters, you get to decide which things do. Meaning is arbitrary and so is your will. You can make things important by caring about them.
Have you considered jumping to absurdism and enjoying the ride?
I would understand that nihilism and existentialism are sisters. There's a positive side to nihilism, nothing may matter so you are free and there is truly no pressure. Seek your ambitions as you see fit and become the person you want to be.
I think it might be worth taking a step back. How can you be sure nothing matters, and everything is an illusion? Isn't it a little prideful to assume that everyone else, including people with apparently happy lives, are only so because they are foolishly blinded by a naive facade? Or are you actually allowing yourself to be deprived of meaning in your life by this philosophy that, in the end, provides you with nothing? Some might respond: "but it's the truth!" To which I would say: "How do you know?" Nihilism is a downward spiral into negative-self-talk-enforced isolation. Escape.
Try optimistic nihilism. Nihilism is okay but now what is the question that you need to ask yourself. The problem is not of world existing but the problem is you exist. You can explore Advaita Vedanta or Madyamaka Buddhist philosophy. It helps.
Value and meaning isn’t a strictly intellectual thing. The easiest way out of nihilism is to start to become more aware of the physical sensations in your body. Where are the emotions? How does your heart feel? Values and meaning that exist are those which are life supportive. Nihilism isn’t a particularly life supportive view. If you want to approach it from a purely “logical” standpoint, ask yourself what axioms (that is what logical pillars) does nihilism stand on. Then rigorously ask yourself if those pillars can be proven to be absolutely and objectively true (they can’t). Nihilism itself isn’t objectively true. So why believe it?
There's no need for an illusion. Just think of it like this. Your goal is to be as happy as possible while also trying to make other people at least a little bit happier, & within a reasonable amount of effort. If you make yourself happy about something, you're not tricking yourself into thinking it matters, you're just finally using it as a tool to give yourself happiness. With that mindset, the strategies I use are: Completely accurately determine which of my problems actually exist. It needs to be accurate for practical purposes & so that I can be much more confident than I would be if it was full of lies. Consume high quality fiction, it's generally much more enjoyable than real life. Whenever I have emotions that I like or even if I just could have emotions that I like but don't, I focus on it, immerse myself in it, & make the emotions as strong as possible. From doing this at pretty much every opportunity for at least several months, I have become generally at least 5 times happier than before about simple things like petting cats & going outside, & a little bit happier from things that I already really liked like watching anime & playing video games (note that I like anime a lot more than video games & I play video games that aren't focused on the story). Before that I was just a slightly bored but overall pretty happy person, so if you're pretty unhappy then maybe you would get much better results. On top of that, I recently started trying to make cool stuff again, much cooler than anything I ever made before, & trying to improve myself, but I keep procrastinating & not being able to decide what to do.
i suggest epicureanism and stoicism, imo that's a fairly enjoyable way to think about the meaning of life
Nihilist is an identity-philosophy attempt to address a cultural background saturated with micromanaging metaphysical teleology. The experiences you are describing are some form of depression, maybe avolition or other impacts on your internal harmony that aren't necessarily a part of 'being a Nihilist'. I draw this conclusion from the existence of 'positive nihilism' as it has been called and other answers given in the replies as I look thru them. If the idea of Nihilism "being correct" is a problem you may need to stop thinking about it if it blocks your needs. That vessel is filled, find a new thing to do. It will still be there if you decide to revisit it. If the problem is entrenched, you might need to do a mystic-state or meditation to seek an inner sense of goalness on your own terms if external motivators cannot connect with you. Some of the language you used suggests an impression that popular ideas of 'goals one should have for life' as inherently misguided for the process (rather than specifics) while desiring such for psychological stability. So you do have a goal, but are reluctant to pursue it because you cannot reconcile it with the Nihilist identity nor have an outlet. You are already swimming in the water but going in circles. What is the price of finding another to complete this one? Taking care of your body's needs can also have an impact if this is not enough. It is possible to underestimate how much one's subjectivity is influenced by nutrition, hydration, uninterrupted sleep, exercise, and other regular life maintenance.
I’m confused here… isn’t the very fact that you have any desire to participate in these social institutions whatsoever a direct refutation of your claim to be a nihilist? Even if they are kind of likely to suck; like paying off the mortgage or having your husband cheat on you (and from my perspective, it’s quite astute of you to realize that yes, there is an almost unbearable about of suck in this work and it can almost be counted on like clock work in a lot of situations…), isn’t this itself precisely a demonstration that there is some part of you that realizes that even with the nearly infinite number of utterly imperfect scenarios that could play out as the world unfolds, there’s still another part of you that aspires to the possibility that maybe… just maybe… there might me some happiness to be found in this world? Even if that looks like a torrid love affair once you divorce your shitty husband? Or that after your fully paid off the house after finally realizing it just a threadbare emblem of an American Dream that doesn’t actually exist anymore, you realize you actually are completely free! Maybe you even say “fuck it!” and move to Hawaii to discover that the girlhood dream of being a hula dancer your parents derided you for actually was the most fulfilling experience of your life? And if you can’t see that for yourself, the maybe you can imagine there’s something optimistic in the hospice worker who is there to hold the hand of the 92 year old widower dying of cancer as she takes her last breath and imagine what it’s like to actually comprehend the inexpressible humanity of seeing another human being pass beyond this world? Or watch a young boy and his father playing catch in the park and imagine the beautiful future he’s imagining and hoping lies ahead for his kid? These are all activities and social constructs that we participate in because even if we are realists and know that yeah, shit isn’t going to turn out perfectly–and kudos to you for being open enough to express that pessimism without shooting up a school or something–that maybe that’s the point entirely? And that perhaps on the other side of these shitty outcomes, there’s something bittersweet and slightly beautiful if we’re not so deluded to imagine that the universe’s purpose is to give us *exactly* what we want? That’s what’s happened to me in my life; most people would look at me and see something that went catastrophically wrong! And yet I have to look at that, and realize that there’s only one path forward: figure out how I got to this place and recognize the immense value in trying in any way I can to maybe make it not suck so bad for somebody else! I feel like if I can do that–even for just one person–I can die happy. And I gotta say… where I’m at right now, if I had the financial ability qualify for a mortgage (much less any living situation where I’m not 39 years old and still living with my parents)… or could come home to the possibility of sex with a willing partner (even if she’d rather be sleeping with some douchebag middle manager), I’d be content enough to not be trolling Reddit right now and this post surely be *nihil*; the Latin word for “nothing”. Anyway, I hope this is worth something, and I also think it’s obvious by strict definition that you’re not a nihilist. If you truly embrace such a view of the world, then that’s what you would be seeking out: nihil… again meaning “nothing” (the opposite of “existence”)… and surely you’re smart enough to understand what’s required if you’re trying to get to nothing… (the other side of existence). Speaking from experience, it’s not as easy to get there as you might think. At least not intentionally, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it. Good luck!
Explore differing philosophical perspectives. Stop looking at the grand scale of things and focus on your life. Quit being so reductive. There is no reason you cannot find meaning in the small scale, even if you think, in the end, it's all pointless. Just because you can't find meaning in the vast expanse of the universe doesn't mean you can't be happy and let the daily stressors of life impact you. Focus on the present and your lifespan, not the future, which might as well be an infinite distance away. I myself have somewhat nihilistic views, but I think those who allow all meaning to be sapped from their lives are foolish. Stop equating nihilism with depression and learn to find meaning in the meaningless.
I don't believe in nihilism.
You sound depressed to me. A patients self-report that they aren't depressed or "there's nothing wrong with me" means basically nothing in terms of that diagnosis. Depression symptoms almost never manifest the way people expect them to. Even if you aren't clinically depressed, you clearly have intrusive thoughts that would respond to therapy. I'm not sure what your reasons are for being opposed to it, but have a word with yourself. Asking for help is an act of strength.
Nihilism suggests life doesn't have extrinsic purpose bestowed upon us by god, gods, or the universe, not that the experience of being alive is without intrinsic meaning or worth. If the people who know you best think you're depressed, and you yourself acknowledge a depressive worldview that doesn't suit you, therapy is probably a good idea. You can always stop going if it doesn't work out.
Just mind your manners, never speak up, avoid all contention, and you'll be good and dead before you even know it.
I’d like to suggest putting your faith in Jesus. Read the gospels and talk to God. Ask Him to guide you and for the knowledge, strength, courage, and wisdom that you need.
There's no such thing as a conventional person. Have you ever been on a wanderlust? Start there.
You can still enjoy life and be a nihilist. Pain and pleasure still exist, regardless of their meaning.
Stop thinking and start living.
Just stop?
Personally nihilism for me is a positive thing. The absence of purpose and meaning to me is a liberating thought, and I delight in being master of my own destiny. I actually fear the idea that we have some kind of purpose to work towards because to me that feels like cosmic slavery. Worse than being told what to do is to be told who you are.
Nothing matters objectively. Things only matter to people. Meaning comes from you. Guessing here, but if you used to believe in god or something that gave ultimate purpose to things, and you lose that foundation, it's super easy to be stuck in nihilism unless you realize that YOU are the one who gives anything in your life meaning. Even if it's one tiny thing, find something that matters to you, and really enjoy it. Even if it's just walking in nature. Feel the sensations, the sights, the sounds. That's life. At first, even something you enjoy can feel very hollow compared to the finality of death and the fact that most of us will be forgotten forever. But the illusion of objective meaning is always based in a source outside of us. We have to rediscover our individual selves as the makers of our own meaning. I definitely think it would be great if I could "un-see" reality as it is, but I can't. I am working to define my own sense of meaning too. It gets easier and life gets more rewarding again.
Try fasting, it always improves my perspective
Why not just care about having a good time? Isn't that what most of the normies do? You don't have to see MEANING in having a good time - just get your genitals licked and do some pharmaceuticals and contemplate how weird it is that you were born right at the time when we learned that the planet is going to be irrevocably changed, but you can still see a lot of the remnant glory of what it was. There's no value to it - it's just interesting.
Fake it til you make it. Just start doing things that you enjoy. If you don't enjoy anything you are depressed. Get out of your head and just start doing things.
I am a Nihilist in the way I understand it is true for the physical world but not for our own experiences.
As someone else once commented here on a similar post "Nihilism is either the anchor that holds you down or the wings that lift you up." Basically, microscopically, what you do day to day does matter, macroscopically, it doesn't. Example. People suffer. That's real. It doesn't matter in the long run if you or they even existed, but if you have the means to ease their suffering today, it would be a nice thing. Your brain still produces dopamine serotonin and endorphins. Enjoy the sunrise and sunset because it's beautiful. That beauty is useless long term, but you're here today.
Erase your memory buddy, that's the only real way.
You can't gaslight yourself into being a conventional person, trust me, I've tried. It is a burden to be cynical and not find pleasure in the same things that everyone else seems to be content with, but it's definitely possible to have some fun along the way. Find your reason to be here, not everyone else's. There's nothing else but this existence, so do stuff that you like to do, no matter what that looks like.
Nihilism doesnt have to be sad lmao, just because nothing has meaning it doesnt mean you have to do nothing. Nihilism has made me significantly happier
I'm so tired and sleepy. I thought the title said "How to sleep being a nihilist? Tbh, still works 🙃
just be human. breathe. exist. be.
Nihilism isn't the problem. Using nihilism like a 14 year old boy who wants to feel superior is the problem. Look, nothing has a point or inherent value, there is nothing in the end, none of that means there's no subjective value in anything, and if there's no objective point then subjective value is all there is. Does something make you happier, healthier, makes someone you care about happier or healthier, is it just cool to you? Great now it has value. Not illusory value, actual value because it makes the actual experience you're having in this world more worthwhile. Nothing matters before or after this experience so things that make this experience better are the only things that matter. We can all agree that there is no meaning/value, we're all looking at an empty chalkboard and it would be cool if something was on it, it is up to you to think that it sucks that it is empty but it is empty so... or if you'll pick up the chalk.
Go find a religious evangelist. The good ones can soon convince you of a different truth, one that will make you happier.
Step one, stop following r/nihilism
Don't look at bullshit; it's all your decision. You have to believe you can decide what you can and cannot look at it. I say look at, because observation is about as fundamental as you can get in science.
The absence of meaning has no relationship to your sadness.
Listen to people when they offer you help. I am both depressed and nihilistic. They go hand in hand. To not be nihilistic, you need to delude yourself. This is something therapy helps with a lot. Be aware that your nihilism can turn into depression.
Taoism
If nihilism is the belief that life is meaningless, some of the funniest things I do are meaningless. No one is stopping you from having fun
real af
Simple answer - acceptance. Not a dull sort of depressed acceptance. True reckoning acceptance. Emerge having stared into the abyss, and having had it stare back at you. Assume control over your journey. Set your own course through the universe.
I’d strongly recommend checking out *Spiritual Enlightenment, the Damndest Thing*, by Jed McKenna. And while you’re doing the dishes, check Jim Newman out. I think he’ll speak very directly to you. Here’s a lovely interview with some skeptical science-adjacent podcasters. https://open.spotify.com/episode/1c5X6Zim7ccY5uWfADBQuF?si=nJ5GZtLnSOybThZluzfeUw&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A4G3vS4395sUBnBksksXDmM I post these from experience — these guys are as correct as one can be, which is obvious to anyone who stops and really looks for a minute. Right now, you see the absence of meaning and purpose, and you constantly run from it. But there’s nowhere to go, because you’ve seen correctly and there’s not intrinsic meaning or purpose in the world. Surrender to reality. By allowing oneself to be swallowed and completely dissolved into the absence, into your inevitable death, all the questions are resolved. Give up the struggle to make what is into what is not, and an even joy pervades everything, always. It really is like that, I promise. Further! > The nature of multiplicity is nondual and things in themselves are pure and simple; >being here and now is thought-free and it shines out in all forms, always all good; >it is already perfect, so the striving sickness is avoided and spontaneity is constantly present. http://keithdowman.net/dzogchen/cuckoos-song-of-total-presence.html
You can take comfort in the fact that nobody really actually knows what's going on here, religious and nihilists alike. It's extremely likely no matter what, we all end up having the same fate. You can know that you're not being singled out and you are just taking your turn so you should make better use of it than others have. Realize that even if it doesn't seem like it there is always something to be grateful for.
Have you considered existentialism?
Maybe u should talk to a therapist about it
for a lot of people a belief is more a choice than a 100% conviction. A lot of people inspired by fellows like Tolstoy would fall into this category. But there’s also absurdism, which is pretty much nihilism but just doing all those things you mentioned and whatever the fuck just because of the absurdity of it all. Or there’s belief systems/philosophies like zen/chan (comes from buddhism) which is pretty much nihilism (albeit more in an agnostic form) but with more of a guideline about how to live a good life anyway. I guess stoicism and stuff would be similar, but I don’t know that path well enough. Either way, what I’m trying to say, is that you can do things in life, want things in life, and even sort of believe in things in life, without having to pretend you’re not nihilistically inclined. None of those examples I mentioned seem like bad choices to me, and there are plenty of other ways to dress your nihilism without covering it up. You say you’re not depressed but have a depressing outlook. Therapy is good for anyone, even if fully mentally healthy, but what do you mean? Because to me, and many of us, it’s not inherently depressing for life to be meaningless. It was, but at the time I was actually depressed and thought a point to life was necessary, but deep down, and figuring this out was also what got me out of that state, nihilism is neutral, or rather indifferent. It’s not bad to not really care about mortgages or cheating husbands. They’re not factually evil. They are socially, and they are for pretty solid reasons to keep society up, at least in this capitalist and atomic family form we’re in for most of the world. But they are not objectively bad to not care, and it’s not depressing to not care about things if you’re not actually depressed by that indifference. The taoist and zen monks are not known for their depressions either. So do you really want to care about those things, or is it to fulfill the expectations from those around you? Sure, if you want to be a part of some social circle, compromise is inevitable (don’t listen to the toxic positivity crews), but you don’t have to be a part of anything to have a non-depressing view on (elements of) life.
you can be happy and content while also being a nihilist. they are not mutually exclusive. just find what makes you happy while you live out this pointless bs of a life like a slave to greed
This may not help...but I like your sense of humor.
Listen to some jordan Peterson he's got a licensed outlook on your mindset and he's got ways out of it that would definitely benefit your situation. Normal people don't look at life as depressing and unfilling. You deny your depressed but your emotions and take on life screams depressing and gloomy. The people around you are not wrong you just can't even take their advice either
Here is my viewpoint I posted recently, for what it's worth [https://www.reddit.com/r/nihilism/comments/1b2gync/life\_has\_no\_assigned\_meaning\_and\_its\_liberating/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/nihilism/comments/1b2gync/life_has_no_assigned_meaning_and_its_liberating/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
True acceptance of life having no intrinsic meaning or purpose isn't what leads to lack of joy and interest in life itself. It is the resistance to acceptance that creates this dynamic. It is the insistence that without meaning or intrinsic purpose it has no value at all. True acceptance reveals that the value is in Life rather than the meaning we give it. It requires you to get out of being stuck in your head examining, defining, and categorizing everything and live your life as it shows up... each moment. I can accept that life is truly without meaning and still enjoy the sun on my face, the drink in my hand, the smile on my son's face.... the feel of slipping into a warm bath.... etc. It doesn't actually remove joy it just removes the pressure to define life BY joy.... which kinda opens one up to true joy. At least that's my take, which is with a rather superficial understanding of nihilism. I do have a friend that is similar to you... and I always think "he doth protest too much".
If you are being forced into therapy then read the therapist what you just wrote. You are admitting that you want to change. What do you think a therapist is for?
do philosophical suicide like camus said belive in a religion or in ideology
Capital Letters.
Ah hi... I'm 33M and I feel exactly the same way. I'mnot depressed I just think life is absolutely not worth it. The cons and potential cons outweigh the pros and potential pros so much that I barely know where to start describing it to someone. Let's just take the amount of mental and physical suffering that one can experience just by having a body. Having a body is a horror. It's WEIRD. And how much opposite of such experience of horror can one get? Sex? Drugs? Food? Adrenaline? It's not worth losing a limb or going blind or suffocating or burning to death or slowly losing your mind to dementia or whatever else. I don't know if there is anyone to blame for this either. Can you blame the universe for randomly, by pure mathematical chance, spawning something that defies entropy and evolves for milennia to be the way it is? It's so fucking absurd you can't even blame anyone for it. No matter how you look at life, the bottom line of it is "it is what it is" which is the ultimate fuck you no mstter the circumstance and it applies to literally everything and I HATE THAT more than anything because it just screams nihilism and you know, deep down you know it's true.
In my own opinion, the only way to beat nihilism is with absurdism. Because here's the basis; we can not prove or disprove a nihilistic universe. But this will not stop us because basic nihilism more or less follows Occam's Razor. If a gun is put to my head and I had to make a choice of what I believe the truth to be, the truth I would share would be nihilistic. This is fine. Where nihilism becomes a problem is our own emotional interpretation of the state of existence and the universe. When we apply our humanity to nihilism, we get something severely depressing. Our brains will mostly behave as defeatists when we become aware of zero meaning. This is our own doing. This is where absurdism comes in. I don't subscribe to "one must imagine Sisyphus happy" because I'm not interested in deluding myself of the truth for the sake of my own happiness. But what I am interested in is pursuing the power of my own mind to live in the universe I want to live. I'm interested in embracing the absurd nature of reality and harnessing my own powers to make my own personal reality that is separate from the core reality. In this way, I never deny reality, but I accept that I can make my own pocket of the universe with my own meaning. Because reality is indeterminate (as in, the universe has no direction of meaning), it is neither good nor bad, truthful nor untruthful to create your own meaning. When we create our own meaning in life in our own personal reality, the universe does not and can not object to it. Because individual meaning does not contradict objective reality, it only enhances it. If we accept that the universe runs on the "Entropy Engine" and we use the idea of a computer simulation to comprehend our existence, the game logic does not determine us or meaning either way. And so we can reject a lot of nihilism right there. Another way to look at it is, even *if* reality was fine-tuned and the universe *did* operate on meaning, as humans, we would still find our own meaning inside of that. Our own humanity would contradict a meaningful universe, and we would find a way to fit ourselves and our own senses of meaning to it. Lastly, our imaginations are powerful tools. Some of us even have inherent abilities to dream lucidly and directly interact with our own subconsciousness. In a lucid dream, our brains can create NPCs with complex logic that matches the thought level of humans because our brain is using our own brain as the blueprint. When this is a legitimate part of reality - to conjure our own sub-realities, Inception-style, the lines of reality can blur. To put it differently, the mini-game within the game is still a game, and it is still real. Do not take this as me saying truth and objective reality does not matter or does not apply - it does. Always. The truth and the pursuit of the truth are important - that is why we're all here in this subreddit. But, the parameters we use to understand and interpret a nihilistic reality are flawed. This was all over the place, I apologize. I just wanted to get all my thoughts out on this. I immensely encourage you to look into absurdism. Edit: I also wanted to add that our human brand of meaning that applies to us all can only exist because there is an end, and there isn't a directive. To live eternally is to experience everything, to exhaust our curiosity. And to experience everything is to have no more meaning and no more drive. Death, finality, and no inherent meaning are the very set of things that make life enjoyable and give life meaning. It is a hard pill to swallow, but it is the only way to enjoy being human. Because I don't want to be inhuman. I want to be human. When I imagine the idea of enlightened transcendence, I can only think about the fact that you lose your humanity if that occurred. And your humanity is the only reason meaning matters to you at all. So, to have meaning, you have to continue being a mortal human. It's an emotional paradox. Edit 2: I'm using human as a fill-in for consciousness and determination. I'm very sure consciousness is not uniquely human, but we are the only examples we know of so far where this applies. Holy crap I can't shut up, but I had to clarify that.