I find my life has no point currently.

[Coxhere]

I don't know any specifics but I have read that suicide rates are higher in northern latitudes. Alaska has a high substance abuse problem but so does the USA in general. I don't know about drug use in Norway but there are a couple of people from or currently living in Norway who are members of this forum.

Those in the northern latitudes who can afford it go to southern latitudes for vacation when there's little sunlight in the winter's north. Doing this has to keep suicides lower than not traveling south to places like Spain, Italy, northern Africa, the Middle East, the southern U. S., Mexico, Central and South America.

 

[tree]

Five Questions to Ask When You Need Help Finding Your Purpose

"If you're feeling stuck, these questions can help."

​

 

[Coxhere]

Life having no point is a point. Life's point of no point is merely being and experiencing.

 

[Metalhead]

I think I need to spend a lot less time online and a lot more time being productive in my hobbies. Looking at gay porn manga does not qualify as a hobby. My therapist thinks I have developed an "autistic hyper focus" on that kind of content, she might be correct. I need to send that hyper focus to better things, only I can change that.

 

[Coxhere]

I think I need to spend a lot less time online and a lot more time being productive in my hobbies. Looking at gay porn manga does not qualify as a hobby. My therapist thinks I have developed an "autistic hyper focus" on that kind of content, she might be correct. I need to send that hyper focus to better things, only I can change that.

I'd never thought of Gay porn watching as a hobby not that I watch it all that often anymore. . . .

You are on a positive path, Metalhead, and we all support what you are thinking, feeling, and doing. You are a good man.

 

[Tiffany Kate]

I think I need to spend a lot less time online and a lot more time being productive in my hobbies. Looking at gay porn manga does not qualify as a hobby. My therapist thinks I have developed an "autistic hyper focus" on that kind of content, she might be correct. I need to send that hyper focus to better things, only I can change that.

The first step to solving any problem is to acknowledge it exists!

Second step is to define it correctly. What does gay porn manga give you? And can you get that elsewhere?

Sometimes a person does need something that's just mind candy, to function as something to make your mind do, to stop it spinning and stressing over stuff. A hobby that requires you to do more thinking doesn't do that - it just gives you more stuff to spin and stress over.

But in that case, the question is not "what do I do instead of gay porn", it's "how do I change the thing that is stressing me out so much that I need to keep my mind off it/escape from it/rest my mind by looking at gay porn?"

I, personally, do not look at gay porn manga (or any kind of manga). I do, however, read trashy romances. They probably perform a similar function for me: they are so low-stress and low-emotional-and-intellectual-input that they help my mind rest.

 

[Coxhere]

The first step to solving any problem is to acknowledge it exists!

Second step is to define it correctly. What does gay porn manga give you? And can you get that elsewhere?

Sometimes a person does need something that's just mind candy, to function as something to make your mind do, to stop it spinning and stressing over stuff. A hobby that requires you to do more thinking doesn't do that - it just gives you more stuff to spin and stress over.

But in that case, the question is not "what do I do instead of gay porn", it's "how do I change the thing that is stressing me out so much that I need to keep my mind off it/escape from it/rest my mind by looking at gay porn?"

I, personally, do not look at gay porn manga (or any kind of manga). I do, however, read trashy romances. They probably perform a similar function for me: they are so low-stress and low-emotional-and-intellectual-input that they help my mind rest.

Excellent points! "Trashy romance" novels are like porn, aren't they? Aren't they fantasy also?

 

[Judge]

I don't know any specifics but I have read that suicide rates are higher in northern latitudes. Alaska has a high substance abuse problem but so does the USA in general. I don't know about drug use in Norway but there are a couple of people from or currently living in Norway who are members of this forum.

You referring to Seasonal Affective Disorder?

 

[Judge]

Excellent points! "Trashy romance" novels are like porn, aren't they? Aren't they fantasy also?

Indeed. Before there was Bob Guccione there was Mickey Spillane.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same".

 

[Coxhere]

You referring to Seasonal Affective Disorder?

I am.

 

[Tiffany Kate]

Excellent points! "Trashy romance" novels are like porn, aren't they? Aren't they fantasy also?

Some of them definitely are!

Sometimes, you just need something that takes you out of your life and all its crapness, that isn't demanding anything from you, even rational thought!

 

[Mary Terry]

You referring to Seasonal Affective Disorder?

Maybe. SAD is a newly minted "medical" term to explain why some people struggle with lack of sunlight.

 

[Judge]

Maybe. SAD is a newly minted "medical" term to explain why some people struggle with lack of sunlight.

Up until when I first moved here, it wasn't anything I thought I ever experienced. Until moving into an apartment where it had only a couple of windows that all faced north against the wall of another apartment building. Perpetually limiting whatever natural sunlight I ever got.

It got to me over the course of four years, along with walls and floors simply too thin to tolerate all the unwanted sounds of neighbors aside and below me.

 

[tree]

SAD is a newly minted "medical" term to explain why some people struggle with lack of sunlight.

The Recent History of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) | The History of Modern Biomedicine

"The variation of mood with the seasons has been acknowledged for a long time. It was in 1984 that the term Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) was first used in a paper by Norman Rosenthal and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD."

 

[Mary Terry]

Up until when I first moved here, it wasn't anything I thought I ever experienced. Until moving into an apartment where it had only a couple of windows that all faced north against the wall of another apartment building. Perpetually limiting whatever natural sunlight I ever got.

It got to me over the course of four years, along with walls and floors simply too thin to tolerate all the unwanted sounds of neighbors aside and below me.

I'd go nuts in that environment. I love having bright, natural light in our house with windows on all four sides.

 

[Judge]

I'd go nuts in that environment. I love having bright, natural light in our house with windows on all four sides.

It was a strange experience as I just never lived in such a dim environment where time of day didn't matter much. Eventually moving to where I have been since 2012 with plenty of Northern light which I prefer.

Unfortunately living in one-bedroom apartments here most often means having windows on only a single side of a unit.

 

[GHA]

I do not necessarily want to die but I have found ways to flirt with self destruction that I need to stop.

I feel like I have no aim, no purpose, no use to anybody. I want to feel like I am a part of something larger than myself. I want a sense of direction. I want to feel like I am helping others in one way or another.

Limited transportation makes this difficult.

I feel like there is more to life than my TV and the Internet, with all of its porn and its drama. I know I have just been coasting through life for a long while.

I understand what you’re feeling, and I’ll say this with kindness but also with conviction:


Don’t sit back hoping the world will count you. Make the world count you.





I’ve seen this in someone very close to me — also neurodiverse — who carried the same doubts. What changed things was the decision to believe that there were hidden strengths inside, waiting to be uncovered. That belief didn’t come from other people’s approval. It came from within.





You may not see them yet, but you have abilities, perspectives, and insights that no one else can replicate. Even one small action each day — learning something new, creating something, helping in a tiny way — starts to prove to yourself that you matter in ways the world hasn’t measured yet.





The world can overlook people. That’s reality. But it cannot ignore someone who keeps showing up with something only they can bring.