How to torment yourself: Repeat phrases like

[Jodes]

"Life is what you make it".

 

[Dead beat dad]

"Life is what you make it".

Carpe Diem... More like Crappy Diem

 

[Jodes]

It's supposed to help say stuff like this to yourself repeatedly.

"You're a good person. Only the present matters".

You've got to be careful where you practice self-help

 

[Redt2go]

"Everything happens for a reason/ all according to plan" fucked me up for a good 6 months lol I didn't chill tf out until I let that go

 

[Jodes]

"Everything happens for a reason/ all according to plan" fucked me up for a good 6 months lol I didn't chill tf out until I let that go

For about 3 months I thought I had MI5 gaslighting me. My phrasebook out went out the window and it was just "You fucking cunts" probably hundreds of times a day. That's what being in a traumatic NHS mental health ward DOES TO YOU! So anyway where were we!!!

 

[Misanthrope]

There are many phrases that piss me off I call them fortune cookie phrases because that is where they belong in how disposable, empty, forgettable and far removed from reality they are. I guess it depends on the context of how it is said.

Let's take your example.

'Life is what you make it.'

This would only be true if we lived in a vacuum where all efforts were not impeded by external forces. But they are, there is also the subtle insinuation that it is your fault if you are not making it. As if how well you are doing solely rests on you. Sure you are an important aspect of quality of life and if you do nothing, unsurprisingly nothing happens. However, at the same time, you share your existence with other people who may well be toxic and busy unmaking you in various ways. Or destroying you because for them to make the life they want means the need for others to be casualties of lost competition. A lot of people's desires to have what they want in life are chronically suppressed or inhibited by accident of geography and social demographic. Or simply chasing a wage and keeping lights on and food on the table.

Sometimes you are just too busy surviving to make life anything and the next thing you know you have chronic arthritis and your dreams of scuba diving in the barrier reef go to die as your boss informs you they can no longer keep you on. Then your insurance denies you access to effective pain relief because of a government initiative you never voted for or have the power to change wants to keep you from being a potential junkie. The pain though makes you depressed and you can't even enjoy crotchet any more. All the while you eat into your life savings only to find your boiler just broke and you made the mistake of letting in a cowboy outfit to fix it that cause more problems and likely robbed you of your mother's jewellery. You go to the police but they have external targets to reduce knife crime not chase jewellery as the main priority as someone prominent was fatally stabbed recently and the media lens is on their performance.

What you are often left with is a demand to change your perception of your life as if it is faulty.

You also only have to look at social mobility statistics to know what an anomaly it is to escape deprived conditions and how much more of an uphill battle it is. Not at all saying it is impossible. But I can't help but laugh at youtube videos that talk about 'easy or lazy money' or tell you, you are the only thing holding you back. It does not help you have various self-help gurus pushing this idea as if it is easy and they are the poster child of success because of a can-do attitude of just believe in yourself... It is easy though to get wealthy via selling quick fixes and hope to the desperate. My disdain magnifies tenfold when this idea is pushed into the realms of the magical. Where your thoughts apparently manifest reality! Guess that person raped by their uncle just did not have enough positive vibes put out into the universe that day...

Life is also what others make it and what landmines they leave behind that may already have been stepped on or need to be avoided. Add in various societal forces beyond your capacity to control and how at the mercy of them you are. Then how much is life solely what you make it? Throw in some ravaging illness atop that then life gets further reduced to limiting factors and base survival. Wind up in an abusive situation or be born into one and life is then what someone else makes it. Long after you escape what they made of your mind can still live with you. On a psychological level we are also shaped by the people most in our lives and hell sometimes is most definitely other people. Some of those people we don't even see us only existing as numbers on a spreadsheet to them.

Life is what you make it. It is such a shit phrase, sounds wise but is ultimately empty.

Another fortune cookie phrase that aggravates me to the extreme that I will rail against at some point is.

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

It is such a trite phrase for so many reasons I am sure I would break the word limit in an attempt to cover why it is so painfully flawed and ultimately dismissive. It makes me want to shatter people's spines in 47 places leaving them in chronic pain for the remainder of their soon to be miserable lives. Then point out the pain is temporary because eventually you will age and die… Is that the temporary you meant? Fuck I am so bitter these days...

There you go Jodes you got your rant from me. ;) I am sad to read you are in so much pain lately drop me a conversation if you like.

Peace

 

[brighter]

@Misanthrope I just love the way you put words together. I could probably read pages of the above at ease and not be tired. Thank you for sharing that with us.

 

[JJ-NOHOPE]

"When one door closes, another opens."

People use this when you lose your job or someone dies. Like you are stupid to grieve or be upset about what just happened.
Infuriates me.

 

[Jodes]

There are many phrases that piss me off I call them fortune cookie phrases because that is where they belong in how disposable, empty, forgettable and far removed from reality they are. I guess it depends on the context of how it is said.

Let's take your example.

This would only be true if we lived in a vacuum where all efforts were not impeded by external forces. But they are, there is also the subtle insinuation that it is your fault if you are not making it. As if how well you are doing solely rests on you. Sure you are an important aspect of quality of life and if you do nothing, unsurprisingly nothing happens. However, at the same time, you share your existence with other people who may well be toxic and busy unmaking you in various ways. Or destroying you because for them to make the life they want means the need for others to be casualties of lost competition. A lot of people's desires to have what they want in life are chronically suppressed or inhibited by accident of geography and social demographic. Or simply chasing a wage and keeping lights on and food on the table.

Sometimes you are just too busy surviving to make life anything and the next thing you know you have chronic arthritis and your dreams of scuba diving in the barrier reef go to die as your boss informs you they can no longer keep you on. Then your insurance denies you access to effective pain relief because of a government initiative you never voted for or have the power to change wants to keep you from being a potential junkie. The pain though makes you depressed and you can't even enjoy crotchet any more. All the while you eat into your life savings only to find your boiler just broke and you made the mistake of letting in a cowboy outfit to fix it that cause more problems and likely robbed you of your mother's jewellery. You go to the police but they have external targets to reduce knife crime not chase jewellery as the main priority as someone prominent was fatally stabbed recently and the media lens is on their performance.

What you are often left with is a demand to change your perception of your life as if it is faulty.

You also only have to look at social mobility statistics to know what an anomaly it is to escape deprived conditions and how much more of an uphill battle it is. Not at all saying it is impossible. But I can't help but laugh at youtube videos that talk about 'easy or lazy money' or tell you, you are the only thing holding you back. It does not help you have various self-help gurus pushing this idea as if it is easy and they are the poster child of success because of a can-do attitude of just believe in yourself... It is easy though to get wealthy via selling quick fixes and hope to the desperate. My disdain magnifies tenfold when this idea is pushed into the realms of the magical. Where your thoughts apparently manifest reality! Guess that person raped by their uncle just did not have enough positive vibes put out into the universe that day...

Life is also what others make it and what landmines they leave behind that may already have been stepped on or need to be avoided. Add in various societal forces beyond your capacity to control and how at the mercy of them you are. Then how much is life solely what you make it? Throw in some ravaging illness atop that then life gets further reduced to limiting factors and base survival. Wind up in an abusive situation or be born into one and life is then what someone else makes it. Long after you escape what they made of your mind can still live with you. On a psychological level we are also shaped by the people most in our lives and hell sometimes is most definitely other people. Some of those people we don't even see us only existing as numbers on a spreadsheet to them.

Life is what you make it. It is such a shit phrase, sounds wise but is ultimately empty.

Another fortune cookie phrase that aggravates me to the extreme that I will rail against at some point is.



It is such a trite phrase for so many reasons I am sure I would break the word limit in an attempt to cover why it is so painfully flawed and ultimately dismissive. It makes me want to shatter people's spines in 47 places leaving them in chronic pain for the remainder of their soon to be miserable lives. Then point out the pain is temporary because eventually you will age and die… Is that the temporary you meant? Fuck I am so bitter these days...

There you go Jodes you got your rant from me. ;) I am sad to read you are in so much pain lately drop me a conversation if you like.

Peace

I would love for Neil deGrasse Tyson to read that out in his positive, pedantic, patronising tone. I would die of asphyxiation!!!! Thanks for the "rant"… funny how it often cheers me up, ha! I'm impressed with your tenacity, sounds like you remember a bit too much of it all tho

 

[time2go]

"Everything happens for a reason"

I don't see any silver lining behind tearing my life apart and becoming totally miserable

 

[Roberto]

"Life is what you make it".

 

[InkBlot]

"Look, youre so blessed. God blesses us. Everything good comes from God."

Religion in general just pisses me off.

 

[Roberto]

"You are very lucky you didn't die" a psychiatrist in the hospital.

 

[Norest4thewicked]

Tomorrow is a new day! Yes it is! Filled with the same shit

 

[Roberto]

Don't compare to others

I will the day when in a job interview they don't compare me to other job seekers.

 

[Jodes]

Don't compare to others

It's the only good advice I've ever had!!! But fuck this one: just be yourself. It's fine at home. Or if you're a troll. But not IRL

 

[Roberto]

It's the only good advice I've ever had!!! But fuck this one: just be yourself. It's fine at home. Or if you're a troll. But not IRL

I've got low self-steem and I always compare to others.
I don't think I'm a troll. I try to be nice to people and I try to be sincere.

 

[ShadowOfTheDay]

It's not a phrase, but a quote by G. K. Chesterton. I recently heard this BS parroted by some self-righteous piece of shit CNN reporter.

"The man who kills a man kills a man.

The man who kills himself kills all men.

As far as he is concerned, he wipes out the world."

What a shitty thing to say; to imply that choosing to end one's own pain is morally equivalent to genocide.

 

[Strumgewehr]

"You are very lucky you didn't die" a psychiatrist in the hospital.

Is it just me or the cunts love to declare their patients are on verge of death even if they aren't really. Doctors told my family I will most probably not make it and guess what? I'm still alive and well!

 

[puppy9]

You are what you think

 

[SinisterKid]

Hurt people, hurt people.

WTF?? can someone please explain that to me in terminology I can understand. The first time I heard it about 18 months ago I thought it was bollocks and I still do.

 

[been_there]

G. K. Chesterton

Had intelligent views on society, but religion got in the way.

 

[Pupuce]

You could've done better

 

[Ruffian]

1. God doesn't give you more than you can handle. Really?
2. Calm down (I then proceed to throw every book I own across the room.)
3. If you can dream it, you can be it.
4. Anything I've heard in an AA or NA meeting. Literally almost every word.

 

[been_there]

calm dowbn never sees the state of yr place.

 

[Morphinekiss]

Every principal at every school I've taught at ends the morning announcements with "make it a great day or not, the choice is yours!" SHOOT ME

 

[been_there]

yeh, i like that its-in-yr-hands thing. but they neveer talk about... whats that expression for never being able tp move up from where u started?

Damn these meds & booze

 

[Ruffian]

Every principal at every school I've taught at ends the morning announcements with "make it a great day or not, the choice is yours!" SHOOT ME

Ugh. Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right. Reminded me of that. Principals are horrible human beings who's sole existence is to catch a teacher, child, office worker, or counselor doing something wrong. I was an administrator at a school, but not at the top and got cc'd on an email I shouldn't have been. It was literally an Excel workbook of every thing he wanted to catch certain people he didn't like doing wrong so he could fire them. The only reason I wasn't on his list was because their student files were totally out of compliance and I was fixing them for a state audit.

 

[Severen]

Constantly beat yourself up mentally for failing to live up to society's unrealistic standards for most people.

 

[21Neberg]

1. God doesn't give you more than you can handle. Really?
2. Calm down (I then proceed to throw every book I own across the room.)
3. If you can dream it, you can be it.
4. Anything I've heard in an AA or NA meeting. Literally almost every word.

That 3rd one is super motivating to attempt again lol