Do you do this?

[Phoebe]

So there's this special mental trick that seems to happen to a lot of people I know, and I wonder if this is something that happens to you too. It goes kind of like this:
1. You're feeling like crap for various reasons.
2. You come across another person who is feeling like crap for reasons that seem astoundingly more important than your own.
3. Now you feel even more like crap because you're worried about the person in 2, and because you're embarrassed that you ever felt like crap about such trivial things in comparison.
4. The fact that other people have worse problems doesn't magically stop you from feeling like crap for the reasons you had in the first place.
5. Now everyone feels even more like crap and feels guilty about it as well.

There's got to be a way to break that cycle, and my guess is it has nothing to do with how you think or feel, but whether you are capable of taking small actions. Just taking one small positive action of any kind, one step forward. Maybe one step will lead to two steps and maybe not, but at least you have that one step for the day.

[Mike]

In my reading and experience, most people who are depressed (to whatever degree) have a tendency to downplay their own misery because there is always someone they can point to who is worse off, and therefore they feel like they have no right to complain.

There's lots of exceptions, but I believe this to be an incredibly common experience.

[Bonefish]

Mope, I do drugs. It sort of helps the whole depression thing, only not really.

[akiva]

I absolutely do it. But the difference is that for me, it's really true.

[poorpete]

Oh, that's totally part of my anxiety spiral. Why should I have been so anxious of because this person was in true danger, and I'm just worried about worrying about being in danger in some imaginary situation. But I also misdiagnose others as being like "oh that must be scary" when it certainly is not. Fun!

-Pete

(Update: you can tell I've been writing emails) Also, I've been trying to address my anxiety (which of course makes me anxious, but I get it) Reading On Being helps a bit. Here's a good one on this topic, that's easier said than done, but still is right:
https://onbeing.org/blog/sharon-salzber ... g-anxious/

[mimekiller]

nope. sounds awful tho

[Phoebe]

One small step forward each day, even if it is followed by 437 steps backward. That's okay, the one step forward was taken.

[DMDarcs]

I absolutely deal with this. When I vent to others, I often feel the need to qualify with "I know I shouldn't be complaining about this," and usually, when I do, it's because I honestly can't wait anymore to vent. I will vent, but will continue to feel guilty afterwards.

A very wise person once told me that even though your woes are smaller than others, they are still your woes. What is big for you may be small for others.

[Phoebe]

A python has eaten a woman whole in Indonesia. So, whatever shit is afflicting your day, just know, you are not in rural Indonesia. You will not risk being eaten by a reticulated python today. This snake btw weighs a few hundred lbs and has teeth along its outside length. W. T. F. Anything you do, however small, is positive today. Also, stop calling me; I'm still here, still uneaten by a snake. Ugh.

[Phoebe]

Reminder to self: even if the rest of the day turns to s***, you were not eaten by a snake. You may be a useless person living a basically meaningless, selfish life in a safe little pocket of some irrational hellscape of violence and cruelty, but you are on the outside of every snake right now.