Ways To Cope With The Depression Of The Dream Of Pandora Being Intangible.

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by caveman

And that's when all those bottled emotions poured out. All at once. And while I couldn't get to Pandora, I was stuck in the cold of winter with a sudden rush of "you suck" and "this wasn't supposed to happen" going through my head. I became very depressed.

Exactly what happened to me. What is still there, I guess.

Interesting, I think I get more where you are coming from now. I really don't think you've ever understood my feelings on this though, especially considering some of what you've said to me before.

Over much discussion on the depression thread, I realized a few things about the depression. First, my longing for Pandora was more... spiritual than anything. It was the emotions, the sense of freedom, the feeling of excitement and joy. The reason I italicized these words (emotion, sense, feeling, joy) is because these all heavily rely on the mind and the heart. They are internal factors.

This is where we differ. For me, it is EVERY kind. 'spiritual' is not a good description, but physically, certainly, as well as just a deep feeling that this IS my home, I've never truly belonged here and I always kind of knew it, even if I never admitted it. Even before Avatar I used to think about my home, where it is, what it would be like, but I could never find it. After Avatar for the first time, it took me a while to work out what it all means, but the answer was:
I have found my home.

I realized, if I want to be happy, I need to focus on my inside. I had deep problems inside me, I needed to fix those. Avatar was an awakening, a beginning to a spiritual journey of the self. At the time, I was a lonely, scared and weak coward; I needed to become more like a Jake Sully.

Again, we differ here... I would guess it's because I still did have the strength to face it myself, to understand it and to embrace my feelings rather than hide.

So slowly, I realized that Pandora is tangible. But not in the way you would think. In this life, we may never step foot on Pandora, but we can put Pandora in our hearts. We can change ourselves to be more passionate, compassionate, loving, caring and open-minded people.

That is not Pandora.
It's the best I can do while I'm stuck here, certainly, but that in itself isn't a reason to live, to keep going on...

The whole idea behind my approach to depression is to focus on the inside. Use Avatar as a source for inspiration, a reason to be happy. Something to celebrate and share with the world. There are so many problems out there pollution, corruption, poverty, so many bad things. But they are also opportunities for people like us to bring good into the world. And we have a great source for that kind of inspiration - Avatar.

I respect you for that. In a way, I TRY to do the same. But it's not the only thing that would make me happy. It's not enough in itself.

I still long for home. Nobody can take that from me and I wouldn't want them to.

In my opinion, you still completely misunderstand 'PAD' - you focus on that ugly little word 'depression' - which is completely inaccurate as a description for the feelings Avatar awakens.

I'm happy for you that you found something that works for you, but it is not an answer. Nobody has a true answer for this.