The way that I see it suffering is not a competition. Somebody else will always have it worse but that doesn't mean that our wish to die is not valid. All suffering is unnecessary anyway. Nobody should feel as though they have to stay alive for whatever reason unless that is what they want.
I do get where you're coming from. It is heart breaking reading some of the stories here. I'm in a situation similar to yours in some ways- my life isn't TERRIBLE. In fact, I fully expect if some of the people here were given my life- they would make it work... Something I would gladly do if it were possible- although I definitely don't want a swap- I just want out.
I think things can always be worse but it doesn't make your current discomfort any less real or valid. Everything is relative.
It's good to have these self analysing thoughts though and holding yourself to account is something I would whole heartedly encourage though, if you do so genuinely, it can be hard to strike a balance and you can over do it.
Thank you. I know full well and sometimes have to remind myself of things like this - it of course goes both ways in that there are people who "seem" to have things even "better" than me or other others yet still ctb, and I think "man, I could live a happy existence in such a situation"...but in the end, if you're at the end of the line, you're at the end of the line.
As part of your comment I felt fit better here
@Pluto, I have been/would love to attempt recovery but as the main things I need/know would help are irritatingly beyond my reach or sphere of influence, it's a lot of time bummin' around languishing and watching/feeling things worsen
It's practically impossible to compare our situations as there are too many variables to account for.
Interesting to consider how the average person lived 100 or 500 years ago. Horrible diseases, no electricity, slavery, etc. (Yes, these things still happen in some parts of the world.) But maybe they felt loved more than us, or more of a sense of purpose. Hence, see previous paragraph.
That said, if you feel you are on the fence, I normally advise people to attempt recovery but of course have a plan B in case it all goes pear-shaped. It's not advisable to live long-term in a no-man's-land.
I do believe people are more prone to depression and anxiety nowadays than before. I have no way of testing that hypothesis but there are several reasons I believe that.
For one thing, when so much effort and attention has to be given to eking out a meager physical existence, I feel like there isn't much room for depression (as separate from unhappiness or misery) or anxiety to develop, at least to debilitating degrees. There was terrible inequality, but for the general masses there was more homogeneity. If everything around you has the same difficult living conditions, then you probably won't feel too bad about yours. Quite the opposite nowadays where there is a lot of competition and comparison and all the negative feelings that can stem from those things. People's paths in lifes were more often paved for them from birth. Nowadays people have much more freedom, and with freedom can come depression and anxiety.
Another reason is feel that people's horizons and perspectives were much more restricted. The status quo was much more willingly taken for granted and much less often questioned. The way things were more tended to be seen as the way they should be. Nowadays that is not the case and it is plain to see how the disparity between what is ideal and what actually is in reality can contribute to depression and anxiety. Of course people's world views are much different. As is generally known before they were more constrained by the spiritual and religious beliefs of their society. Now that is not the case at all. People more often nowadays live in an existential nightmare. They can contemplate and face the world and the universe in ways that prove to cause a lot of emotional distress. This is of course hardly a novel insight.
I also feel that senses of belonging and community were much stronger back then. A feeling of isolation and alienation can easily contribute to depression and anxiety.
Anyway, if you're so chronically unhappy for whatever reasons yhat you consistently long for death then by any standards you have to deal with a bad lot.
This is something I started thinking about soon after joining here actually; when the basic requisites for living are always on the brink of not being met, and most people would have to work almost consistently just to be sure they didn't starve or get hypothermia or be eaten by something, I imagine there's just less brain space to go dark. You're living on survival instinct to a
waaay heavier degree than those living above the poverty line in an industrialized nation today. And yes, also regularly just doing stuff that is fairly engaging and mostly living and working in a more communal way - both can take one out of one's own head. Then there's the religious/spiritual aspect which likely helped in contextualizing illness/suffering/death. We also didn't have all these hyper-artificial ways of keeping people alive when nature tried to call them back; beyond rest and simple plant medicine or procedures, there wasn't much available in the way of extending time lived!
