I still struggle with this one. I feel like my life lacks meaning without having some kind of external interaction. It used to be building a small community, then a random poly disaster came flying through and revealed a lot of problems with half of my friend group, including three of the 7 saying “I’m not a transman because men and transmen are toxic” (to me, a transman). So I dropped that half of the friend group, fortunately the other half also saw that as a red flag. I feel like they’re the only external interaction I have that’s worthwhile but I don’t really ‘build’ anything anymore, and that makes me feel like I’m wasting my life.
Then I tried activism, but I hate feeling angry and sad all the time, because there’s certainly no good news and probably never will be.
I try engaging with the pre-existing queer communities around me, but they’re massively fem/enby skewed so even when there aren’t any problems with misandry (which is rare), I end up feeling like I’m a weird relic of the past that shouldn’t exist anymore. Plus they’re heavily skewed towards unstable poly so it’s just a constant ongoing orgy/disaster all the time.
It feels like regular society doesn’t want men who are anything left of far right. Conservatives don’t want you because you don’t agree with them, moderates are rare and often have their own problems, the left doesn’t want you because you’re a man and men are guilty unless proven otherwise (if there’s even a way to prove otherwise). I just don’t know.
For me: Get a decent news aggregator. Check it once a day as part of another routine to help reinforce it as “This is a thing I do once a day when I do X (eat breakfast or whatever)”. Close the news aggregator. If you want to scroll something, get a decent non-news aggregator. Bonus points if the aggregators are on totally separate websites so that you have less temptation.
I’ve seen this happen with flights in a different way - I repeatedly check the same flights over and over and have noticed the price going up across multiple views even on the same day.
Pathfinder usually goes alright, but any mention of D&D 5e and all I get is "Ugh D&D 5e is so basic, have you tried ". I’m not judging your TTRPG system taste, don’t judge mine.
I’m trying to beat Final Fantasy Tactics - I never got past Act 1 as a kid. I’m currently up through Golgarion Execution Grounds. Turns out the secret is to not bomb in all-offense and get nuked into the ground. Who knew?
It’s not that bad. For some reason, having to make a decision about what to eat for lunch was really stressful for me. Now I just do soylent and forget about it. (Now I just stress over what to eat for dinner…)
+1 for all the advice here, with one extra one: Make sure you’re getting enough protein in your diet. Your muscles are getting torn up, and that’s good - that’ll make them grow back stronger! But only if you’re getting enough protein to build them back. I boil up 6 of these guys at a time and pop two a day for breakfast for just a little extra protein: food52.com/…/35930-momofuku-s-soy-sauce-eggs