Have any works of fiction helped improve your outlook?

[Handsup051]

As a shut-in, I've played a lot of story-focused games over the years. Something I've noticed as I'm approaching my breaking point, is that while a lot of them have uplifting messages about hope and faith in tomorrow, I always find them way too general to apply to my own situation as someone with physical and mental disability, and I just end up feeling hollow.
Are there any movies, books, shows, games, etc that have actually succeeded in giving you will to live? I'm interested in hearing any stories about it.

 

[gattara]

when i was in high school, reading charles bukowski's poems helped me a lot, specifically "nobody but you". i would say poetry in general can be very helpful. i think art centered around moralistic messages isn't very helpful. im more interested in something that touches my heart or makes me feel understood. i have a lot of favorite poems that i reread from time to time.

 

[temspaperflakes]

A recent movie I've seen is the Breakfast Club and I think it fits! Its main thing is that everyone goes through life with a persona that is influenced by their environment, and behind closed doors they can be very different! It can be a sad movie, but the ending left what happens next up to interpretation and more hopeful than anything.

 

[meowpuppy]

i've always liked how robert frost's poetry meshes the experiences of humans with the experience of nature itself.. it makes me feel more at peace and less alienated

 

[Set Real Goul]

A bit off-topic, but still. Six months ago, I was in a much more broken state than I am now: when I woke up, it was incredibly difficult to get out of bed, and I could lie there for five hours, anxiously thinking step-by-step about different ways of CTB, unable to switch my mind to anything else. Whenever this madness temporarily subsided each day, reading the book Daily Rod by Ukrainian writer Yevhen Pashkovsky helped me. It is a truly unique book; the author hates everyone and everything, and writes about it beautifully. It resonated with me deeply. His writing style is unlike anything else, filled with completely unique, somewhat boomer-like neologisms.

Also, this may sound a little strange, but Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature and Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus helped me cope much better with impulsive negative thoughts. If something triggered me, I used to spend 20–40 minutes hating myself, but these books helped reduce those episodes—as well as thoughts of CTB—to a minimum.

But nothing has brought back my will to live. I find myself at a crossroads

 

[Canto XIII]

Not a work of fiction, but check out Leopardi's late poem, La ginestra o Il fiore del deserto.

 

[StupiderJuniper]

it's random but the max payne trilogy. those games are really fun but the story also kinda hits hard for me, especially in the 3rd game. he's a man who lost everything and everyone that mattered to him several times over and suffers mentally yet he keeps moving on and eventually has a good ending, and ig i like to take that as inspiration to an extent lmao.

 

[Handsup051]

it's random but the max payne trilogy. those games are really fun but the story also kinda hits hard for me, especially in the 3rd game. he's a man who lost everything and everyone that mattered to him several times over and suffers mentally yet he keeps moving on and eventually has a good ending, and ig i like to take that as inspiration to an extent lmao.

I took a similar inspiration from the Yakuza games, how Kiryu and Ichiban both lost 10 years of the primes of their lives but still managed to grab life by the balls and succeed after it. Of course, Kiryu and Ichiban are superhuman juggernauts, so that inspiration didn't get me very far.

Thank you for the other suggestions as well, though I've never been a Poetry guy and I fear I'm be well past the point of it having any impact.

 

[Bootleg Astolfo]

Spice And Wolf (2024)

 

[seeyoulater26]

^Mine's something about wolves too.
Wolf Children (2012)

I watched it when I was a really troubled teen. Left a mark on me mainly because there's something about the main character "Hana" always trying her best and smiling despite it all. Like, the hard times are real, but we can persevere. I think Hana is one of the reasons why I am the way that I am.
And I loved how her and her husband became each other's home. I already gave up on my dreams of love but remembering how I used to have hope that I'd have that makes me smile right now.

(Not a big fan of her husband turning into a wolf mid-kiss tho tbh)

Wow that was a long time ago and I still have "Maternal Sky" on my playlist to this day :)

 

[CowardKnight]

I recommend these, they personally helped me with some stuff:

Memoir of a Snail - it's a movie I watched recently, it touches a lot of topics including self-hatred and mental health issues.

Soul - Also a movie, made by Pixar. It's about the meaning of life, and how we spend so much time in it chasing something that may not even make us happy, forgetting to stop for a while and appreciate the small things. It changed my perspective on life a lot. I recommend it so much. One of my fav movies.

Doom Patrol - it's a comic series, but I'm talking about the TV show adaptation. It's "what if superheroes had depression?" made into a show. The plot is about some people who after going through some accidents, got "superpowers" which actually ruined their lives/made them worse and a big part of the series is about them dealing with their powers and their traumas. It deals with mental health topics in a very interesting way. And something that I also love is how weird, absurd and ridiculous the show can get, while dealing with very serious/complex topics wonderfully. Like, if I tried describing to you the plot of an episode, you'd think I'm insane. And that's part of it's magic, yknow? Needless to say, it's one of my fav pieces of media and very special to me (hell, as you can see, my pfp is one of the main characters of that show lol). I recommend reading the comics, too.

Only Yesterday - It's a movie about a woman who travels to the countryside to visit some relatives, and there she starts remembering her childhood and what could've been. It's a lot about how our childhood can define a lot of things in our lives, and the beauty of the mundane aspects of life. All the movie is very calm and beautiful. It's a comfort movie for me.

The Sound of Magic: Annarasumanara - it's a manhwa (although it has a TV adaptation, I prefer the comic). It's about the dreams we have as kids, the reality of being an adult and society expectations. One of my fav comics.

It'll Be Okay - it's also a manhwa which just finished recently. It's an autobiography of a person who became paraplegic and her experience, how it affected her life, her family and so on. It deals with loss, uncertainty and mental health in a very personal way. It's a very interesting and heartbreaking read. Also, the author has a good sense of humor.

 

[Lucifer’s Son]

Hazbin Hotel. It became my special interest, and that's has given me motivation to keep going. Especially now, because season 3 is going to heavily feature Lucifer and so I kind of hope the side of me who wants to live in order to see it will be stronger than the side who wants to die. I've also recently begun really engaging with the fandom, and since one of my biggest issues is loneliness and isolation, being on twitter and discord to talk with people has really helped.

 

[blue-moon-miki]

Madoka Magica and Doki Doki Literature Club have been my two biggest hyperfixations lately. I already liked them, but as my mental health has been tanking, I've been drawn into them again. Neither of them are uplifting in any way. In fact, they're both incredibly depressing and hardly anything good happens in either story. But I relate so deeply to the characters, it's like looking at myself. It makes me feel seen and understood in a way that I can't get from most real people.
If you're looking for something to give you a profound feeling of life, I suggest Scavengers Reign (one season animated show). It also has some depressing stuff, but it really makes you rethink the beauty of the world around you... at least it did for me. It has huge worldbuilding for an alien planet, and watching it made me realize that to aliens, our planet would be just as scary and beautiful. There were many scenes that made me cry, and I couldn't even tell you why. It just filled my chest with something.

 

[NZkiwi]

As a shut-in, I've played a lot of story-focused games over the years. Something I've noticed as I'm approaching my breaking point, is that while a lot of them have uplifting messages about hope and faith in tomorrow, I always find them way too general to apply to my own situation as someone with physical and mental disability, and I just end up feeling hollow.
Are there any movies, books, shows, games, etc that have actually succeeded in giving you will to live? I'm interested in hearing any stories about it.

As a game I enjoyed doki doki literarue club

Yes for the anime fan service too thansk for askign cheers

When I was much younger I had a friend who self harmed and had a couple suicide attempts
While I'm numb to my own experiences, I was really hurt by theirs

And in a weird way DDLC helped heal that trauma

**

More recently, I've enjoyed reading when the coffee gets cold, short stories
Just was nice to read

Thank you for making the post