Firstly a short announcement: can I point out to you all that social thread talk that involves tripping, casual talk about psychedelics etc, we have a new special social thread that kind of talk is appropriate for! Post any questions you have about it in that thread: http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads...pping-Thread-NEW!-Gather-here-for-swirly-talk
@ Thorns have Roses
Really sorry to hear that, buddy

I don't suppose there is something like a sorrow puddle, but yeah it appears that a lot of us, probably most have gone are going through major ordeals... which doesn't demean you have a bitter mental state at all. To start with I think it is good to still commune here like we always do (as for me I would love to keep doing that even if I lose interest in drugs), see how our lives go. I don't often feel better venting my sorrow with sharing, like being cathartic on a regular basis and all that, but generally just knowing that you guys are going though your stuff, that reminds me of a connection.. A really important connection, which while only existing in our minds seems very important.
Yesterday I took phenazepam to have the afaik longest half-life wean me off the withdrawal support, and that is supposed to be the last.. also stopped drinking a few days ago and plan to keep it up for at least another week cause I know that when you royally fucked up like I did, you need to go through a clean period to get your bearings back. Or stand to lose sight of where your life is going. Anyway that applies to me, but I do recommend periodically being clean, clearminded and lucid.
Do you have 'tangible' reasons for being bitter? You must know that for every person there are things that are for like 50+% determined by genetics, apparently baseline happiness level is one (probably relates to treatment resistent depression), but also genetics determine when you feel full after a meal. e.g. Obesity is not directly genetic afaik (via metabolism say), but rather via rogue appetite not to mention vicious cycles of comfort eating.
One of my very best and longest friends has dysthymia so he always feels low. Besides that genetic determination of perhaps neurotransmitter levels there are very complicated ways that makes him keep enabling himself seeing the bad in everything, or possible doom. That can control your life, such fear keeps you from actually living. Plus, when you are sick like that it is terrifying to face being healthy and the apparently supermassive responsibility of what you are going to make of your life then. The profit of disease is that there seems to be an illusory feeling of consolation from maintaining the status quo.
Maybe I digress but the main point is first I would like to know if you (thorn-focuser

) have legitimate reasons to be bitter like repeated violation of trust, or that you don't have confidence that the world or your own life will lead to something you want? Disappointed with the world (I know I am.. dealing with handicap type shit for most of my adult life, my talents wasted more often than not, having to deal with shit which prevents me from exercising my drive to be creative and experimental).. cause it matters if we are talking about clinical depression or if you have something particular on your mind.. so please expand. It would be put way to simplistic to say that real problems can be either dealt with accordingly or if not possible, acceptation, while irrational problems can be solved by things like cognitive behavioral exercises. But still, let me throw it out there.
Xorky you asked about my woman, I don't feel like I would do her a favor sharing the most personal stuff, but she has compulsions which are classically based on irrational fears, she is hypersensitive to a lot of things (half of that is probably psychosomatic, but that doesn't change anything about it) and besides that her body is often in malaise. She quit SSRI's cause she had been on them since she was 17 and it seems like her GP just kept her on it and not many questions were asked until I came along. She also smokes and drinks. Perfectly functionally but not healthily of course, it bothers her a lot. Maybe it is not weird that she is having a rough time being on no meds besides the occasional xanax (I warn her).. hopefully she can find an increasingly abstinent homeostasis that she can live with, I'd recommend Lyrica for her perhaps but other than that I am running out of ideas. I don't treat her of course, I only "consult"

keeping roles clear and separate is paramount.
Today I feel tired, no real trace of the hypomania from the previous 2 days.. but anyway it will certainly do. I have so much work cut out for me, arranging a place to live, building my life again from the ground up..
But I almost forgot to share that last night after I got high on weed (evening before that as well, but other than that no), I was laying in bed and I started to let go. Watching The Holy Mountain again this time with my father whom has very limited patience for metaphysical insights, watching that probably prepared me. I felt like letting go of everything I have been holding on to, my fears and desires, my self, and even living or not. That was so welcome because I long to be okay with whatever is, and though I have huge issues with suffering, I have no quarrel with looking death in the face. Too much has happened. Makes me feel unburdened, featherly. It's strange caring so much while also being prepared to let go. Dualism has no place there anymore.
Yes, I think the world is nasty. I think there is every reason to be bitter, and many life experiences promote that. But as long as I live I will refuse or attempt to refuse becoming like the world and adapting to that extent. Something akin to a Braveheart platitude sentiment like you can take my life but you can never take my blahdibla. I want to walk among you and love you all, but I want nothing to do with the way most people live, caught up entirely in things that truly do not matter... sorry if that sounds arrogant. I don't mean to rate myself, just to be left alone in peaceful coexistence with a rotten system.
I am really exalted though, that a number of people have indeed gotten over their pettiness and selves and that so many are to be found on this forum. I have also occasionally found special people in real life whom I will never forget.
Not sure how my limited faith in the majority population rhymes with the fact that I still feel that everyone deserves to be treated with the respect they deserve (notwithstanding the possibility of being in such a way that makes you lose all credit). Can you combine misanthropy with compassion? I'm at somewhat of a crossroad. I believe in acting with all compassion that you can muster, but feel betrayed, made a joke or fool of cosmically to have been created gifted and then cursed also. That is the source of my bitterness... my zen-buddhism flavored soulsearching of years ago plus tripping is the source of my hope and compassion.
Are they at odds in you? Please see the urgency of finding a constitently positive direction on your soul compass so to speak. It is the only way forward that will leave us with the feeling that whatever happens, we have done our best. Completely despite things we might regret in the past. That would be about the sorriest thing to determine your compass' direction. Align your senses, see what it is you need, never mind what you may want... and go step by step. Over time that mindset pays off and reinforces itself.
But making short term choices that combined have long term consequences is one of the biggest challenges, at least for me.. It is so hard to see the point in putting in effort if things still feel like they are 99% shit. Ignore it, and realize that humans make countless errors in their thinking, how amazing our thinking abilities may appear to ourselves. Keep reassuring yourself that missing that payoff is misleading, keep at it and build neuronal connections like a muscle. Ones that link your reward center with activities related to working on your life, finding out doing what makes you happy. Get your kicks from that and be saved.
You are not alone

not ever