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

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

I agree with the last definition of depression here - depression is a state of emotional numbness.

That is not the case... I have felt both, and the numbness is far worse than depression. It brought be close to giving up, to losing everything I had gained in the months before
I doubt it's something you'd ever be able to get an insight into just from explanation unfortunately - but I truthfully wouldn't wish it on anyone. Even without emotions, it was the worst I'd felt in my life and I'm sure the worst I ever will.

So - Avatar - when I first saw it, I felt touched, moved and I felt the sadness welling up at the destruction of hometree etc. But I was still a bit caught, also by me going there with friends. Second time I downright cried with Mo'at at the destruction of the tree and felt the horror of the war and so on, so I had strong negative emotions, but at the same time I felt a longing for Pandora and the NA'Vi for their state of beeing. Still, even thinking of Pandora made me sad, as I knew it is fiction, I cant go there, this is so sad... Of course this feeling is still there a bit, but what happened later on was, that by opening up to negative emotions, I also opened up to the positive ones. For the first time in a while I would feel surges of happiness when sitting alone at a river or in the forest. And the last time I saw Avatar I noticed the difference. I did not just cry and weep, but I also laughed out loud many times.

Don't get me wrong, I can still appreciate things here. Things do still make me smile, I can still feel happy with my true friends... It's just not the best feeling, because something is still missing. I'm far happier with myself as a person now than I was before, when I didn't even know what was missing. I have true friends now, I have something that gives me meaning, I've achieved more that matters TO ME than I ever did before.

So baseline - and basically what I think may be the misunderstanding between HMN and caveman here: True depression is a state of emotional numbness.

I've felt both. What most people call 'depression' was years ago, but I managed to solve it myself. I value that independence more than I can properly explain. The numbness, that came from other people who didn't really understand, and it took me a long time to solve that and I nearly lost it, I came close to the edge several times.

Feeling sad about not beeing on Pandora is a strong emotion that actually has the ability to break out of it. It opens the way to beeing more happy and positive.

Sorry, but I find people who have convinced themselves they are happy to be one of the most depressing things in existence. Real happiness comes form coming to terms with your feelings and acting upon them for what is right for you, not suppressing things. I tried that for a LONG time. I've had enough problems and challenges, I overcame them, but I was unaware of my true feelings and as a result, something was always missing.

But of course you cannot have only positive thoughts, there is no light without darkness, so both will be present at some time - happiness and sadness. So in a sense, to keep a longing for Pandora in your heart, also with the negative emotions attached to the realization that you cant go there, is a counterbalance for feeling happy at other times. To feel both extremes of emotions means to become one again.

This is the best thing you've said in that entire post... You just need to apply that to the rest of what you say.