It could be over a few months, like a new job where one day you feel like actually going to work thinking, hey I actually like these people and don’t mind working here.
Or when your friends have been super busy for months and suddenly you get matched on dating apps, old friends reach out and people want to buy your old junk on Craigslist in a single day.
Yeah definitely. In the span of a month my wife suddenly left me to date women, my job laid me off, and my dog got sick and needed surgery. Everything I’d relied on for ten years just fell apart real fast and without a whole lot of warning. It’s been quite the year trying to recover from all that. Dog survived, divorce finalized, still no job.
What part of the world are you in? What industry? Maybe the Fediverse can hook you up?
Warms my heart to see somebody concerned, though I imagine I’ll have to figure it out myself. I’m in Seattle and used to work in management/IT consulting. I’ve got a weird background though, cause I’ve got a PhD in philosophy and spent the ten years before that teaching a bunch of logic. It’s a pretty tough combination to find a job with.
When I was living at my parents home, and covid started… before that j never had to leave. I felt fine loving at my parents. But when they became covid deniers, and I was a journalist at the time, I suddenly had the very strong urge to get up and get out.
After I moved out by sheer luck, (finding a place was hard), I noticed a switch flicked and that I no longer needed approval of my parents. For anything I did. At all.
That switch flipped a few years ago. Unfortunately it only did so after my mother passed away, but I suddenly realised that I don’t need my dad’s approval in my life. And that he’s a toxic narcissist which I don’t have to like or have in my life. Understanding that, I could unravel a lot of crap from my childhood, which helps understanding some things that are wrong with me today. I guess the switch that flips when you understand that your parents don’t necessarily need to be good for you is a really important one.
I probably saved my life with ecstasy because it took one night with it to get me out of my depression. I tried a few times afterwards but it was never as good as the first time so I stopped but my depression never came back, the colour stayed in my life.
I’m not saying drugs are good but at the right time at the right place with the right amount it can help.
MDMA can have that affect. So can psylocybin. Science Vs. did an excellent podcast on both these drugs that explains the whys and how’s of it.
That sounds super interesting. Do you have a link to that episode by any chance?
I know what you mean, and yes. At 20 years old, I turned down a job in my field to take one outside that I wanted to do for a few years just to see where it led and get it out of my system. I almost physically heard a door close and wondered if I’d done the right thing. Almost forty years later, I’m still not sure.
That is so interesting. If you’re willing to say, I’m curious about which fields they were?
I had a similar experience with radically switching majors (zoology to engineering). I just needed to know. However, in my case I sensed the door closing and dashed back in. Would’ve liked that engineering money though…
My field was and is now languages. I knew that I had a couple of other interests that needed to work themselves out, so I took a job in broadcasting and audio production, turning down a job in languages. Life would’ve been much different if I hadn’t.
Oh, quite a big change for sure. And you’d be having the exact same thoughts on the other side if you’d taken that language job. That’d definitely be sitting in my thoughts.
May 27th, 2022 I got off work and bought a 750ml bottle of Captain Morgan. This was more or less a nightly occurence. I woke up the following morning, finished off the bottle (less than a single shot thanks to the previous night), and thought “I’m done”.
Excluding the single glass of champagne and a little sip of margarita at a loved one’s wedding last month, that thought has proven correct. It makes no sense to anyone who’s dealt with addiction. Every day I felt myself being pulled toward the bottle, then all of a sudden that feeling was gone. The cravings are gone. Hell, I once got nauseous from friends even talking about alcohol too much.
It was like I had tried for a while to escape from a prison and eventually accepted that I’d die there. Then I woke up in an open field with no explanation. It’s bizarre. I can’t explain it. But you won’t hear me complain.
