I'm feeling pretty... Blackpilled, at the moment. Maybe even worse than that. Things are bad. Things keep getting worse. Not just politically, but... As a human being. All the failed relationships, all the lost friendships, all the... Shit, that has happened in my life, is sort of getting to me pretty bad.
But more than that, it feels like we're losing. Like things... Are spiralling out of control (in Aus, but also outside it). I literally can't look at ANY popular media, or any sort of news, without being utterly bombarded by it.
So... If you've got a good "whitepill", or just... Something that counteracts all this... Existential angst, and feelings of sheer... Doom, I would appreciate hearing it, I guess. Thanks. While it lasts, and while I last.
You need to cultivate a more stoic mindset. Stop caring about things you have no control over. Acknowledge them, move on. Do something constructive and physical - maybe build something with your hands. Your emotional state should not control you. Your emotional state should not be completely dependent on outside stimuli. Take responsibility for your life, your future. Identify a goal. Make a positive step towards achieving that goal today.
This is incredibly difficult when those things directly affect my life (at least for me). For example, my employer was weeks ahead of Biden on the vaccine/testing mandate. I've thus far managed to avoid any direct changes as I've been working from home since they announced the requirement, but I've probably only got another couple weeks before the issue is forced.
I have a 'goal' to alleviate the issues this is causing, but actually making steps toward that goal is difficult because due to how drained I've become I'm having difficulty even working up motivation to come up with a proper plan (something which I didn't use to find difficult, even when under significant stress/depression.) I could just quit to alleviate most of the stress, but that leaves me without an income and as yet no other reliable means of getting one.
I know that my emotions shouldn't control me, but I've come to a point where I feel there are few acceptable logical solutions remaining and until I have a specific plan to achieve those I can't even force myself through the steps I find distasteful. My old methods of withdrawing inward until I find a solution hasn't worked for a while, and no one else has, as yet, been able to give me a path that doesn't involve waiting out my current situation (or requires something of me that I've lost the drive to do on my own.)
I guess that's enough venting. I hope that most of you are faring better than me (at least emotionally).
There are versions of this for as inexpensive as $1.50. It has loads of material from the best classical minds of stoicism. Benjamin Franklin's autobiography is amazing.
Really reading and contemplation of what these people said has been a huge help for me. I recommend against any modern interpretations. I only started one, because the English is easy to read, but they butcher all meaning, especially when they work so painstakingly to remove any reference to God from the original works.