Do we ever put things in perspective? And does it matter?

[All an illusion]

I know that in this "world/illusion" there are about 8 billion people. And i know that i currently have it better than a least 2 or 3 billion of them....shelter, food, clothes....yet i can't get over the feeling inside of me that this is all nonsense....i always try and put things in perspective because i know that there are tons of people out there suffering more than myself, but to what end...... i can only smh.

 

[Dreamcolleger]

To be honest if they are relatively healthy and have good family and social interaction with others, they may not have it as bad as you think. I think environment also matters a lot, if they're living in a place where most people deal with the same struggles, it has a different impact than if you're in the first world and can't acquire clothing that's in wearable condition.

 

[Donewith_]

Yeah, I'm more confused now than ever. There are many scales to measure.. depends on what things you compare.
My mother always provided everything for me.. all I needed. But, I was mentally crap. I was suppressed a lot in childhood, emotionally abandoned, I literally grew up feeling like crap. always trying to be someone else..coz i was not accepted the way i have been. I can't agree .. if some one says i'm more privileged than some people with no food.. I had faced problems too.. but, they were not visible. mental issues are always not visible.

The thing is.. people see things which are more visible physically . I hear people say.. 'they have lots of money.. what more do they want?' it would be solved.. if the only problem is money. if the problem is something else.. then that money is just sheets of paper, serves no purpose.
Before a while.. I used to think, if i ever decide to ctb, I would join in army.. atleast my body would be of some use .. even though if i'm mentally not perfectly healthy.
I was wrong. You can think of many things.. but when you are in depressed state of mind , you'll know that you can't do all those things.

 

[BeenDoneForSoLong]

It's all relative. And to compare yourself to the human race as a whole is an awful way to do things. Are you going to tell a mother who's lost their child, "oh somewhere someone lost TWO kids". It doesn't work like that, and I don't think it should.

Just because my life might be 'better' than 3 million other people. Doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to end it.

 

[All an illusion]

It's all relative. And to compare yourself to the human race as a whole is an awful way to do things. Are you going to tell a mother who's lost their child, "oh somewhere someone lost TWO kids". It doesn't work like that, and I don't think it should.

Just because my life might be 'better' than 3 million other people. Doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to end it.

I can't disagree with you. Everything is subjective for the most part....at the end of the day we're all individuals trying to get by and survive or not, in this rigged society.

 

[262653]

And i know that i currently have it better than a least 2 or 3 billion of them....shelter, food, clothes....yet i can't get over the feeling inside of me that this is all nonsense....i always try and put things in perspective because i know that there are tons of people out there suffering more than myself, but to what end...... i can only smh.

Or it could be put another way. Those who have it worse than you should also feel bad about their lives because you do. (You haven't said that you feel bad about your life; I assumed so.)

 

[oopswronglife]

"Better than" doesn't diminish your own pain. having perspective is useful for being able to not turn things that aren't real problems in life into real problems in your head. But perspective doesn't cure your actual physical/mental illness, repair your losses, make things somehow objectively "good". It's often used as another sort of victim blaming and shaming and those two things never result in anything positive. There is no objective score sheet whereupon one has to prove their suffering adequate to qualify. Only shitty and unempathetic people imagine that.

 

[Partial-Elf]

I know that in this "world/illusion" there are about 8 billion people. And i know that i currently have it better than a least 2 or 3 billion of them....shelter, food, clothes....yet i can't get over the feeling inside of me that this is all nonsense....i always try and put things in perspective because i know that there are tons of people out there suffering more than myself, but to what end...... i can only smh.

I think the whole "other people have it worse than I do so I don't gave any right to complain" thing is complete bullshit. When people tell me this, I feel that:

1. They've delegitimized my pain
2. They've made me feel MORE pain because I'm now thinking about starving children in Africa or whatever they're comparing me to and I feel powerless to help them
3. I start to hate life more because if I'm in the top 15% globally, this world is shit
4. I feel this added burden of being somehow ungrateful by experiencing any negative feelings at all

All these things combine to make me hate the person saying it and make want to CTB that much worse... and that much sooner.

 

[All an illusion]

I think the whole "other people have it worse than I do so I don't gave any right to complain" thing is complete bullshit. When people tell me this, I feel that:

1. They've delegitimized my pain
2. They've made me feel MORE pain because I'm now thinking about starving children in Africa or whatever they're comparing me to and I feel powerless to help them
3. I start to hate life more because if I'm in the top 15% globally, this world is shit
4. I feel this added burden of being somehow ungrateful by experiencing any negative feelings at all

All these things combine to make me hate the person saying it and make want to CTB that much worse... and that much sooner.

I get what you're saying and agree with you for the most part, we all have our own demons and problems so by no means do i mean to diminish them. That being said, every minute of this world there are thousands of people being...killed, tortured, raped, traumatized mentally, so on and so forth....i'm grateful not being one of them....that's all i'm saying...it could be better but far worse for some and this is coming from a person who no longer wishes to be alive.

 

[Unlucked]

I feel like suffering is relative to our experience, I feel like from the get-go people in Africa or war-torn countries adapt mentally at a very young age to go through trauma and some have very strong mental coping mechanisms because they have never known stability. Even if they are suffering alot of them seem to have a yearning to cling onto life which many of us on here obviously dont feel. I am both envious and sad because I dont have their resilience and strength, and because if they were me they could definitely do it better. Sometimes I just wish I can switch with a person who is dying of cancer or starving to death in Africa and be like "here, take over for me, I know you can do better".