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That's ok, I'm not 24 for 2 months yet. I was just fudging numbers for the sake of comedy.

Speedy, nobody thinks any less of you for feeling shit. That's life, and especially life when you're a teenager. No matter how far removed you get from that, it's a common thing that everyone remembers. Most of us, I'm fairly sure, are reading your posts thinking "Man, I remember when things like that mattered this much to me" with a twinge of nostalgia. Then we come to our senses and are glad that we've altered our minds in whatever way so that this doesn't happen anymore. We've been there, and we get it. Don't feel bad about wanting to express it. I'm sure that at one time or another, particularly if the internet was already a thing when we were coming of age, we've posted something similar. If it helps, more often than not I have to be reminded of your age in order to not just assume that you're also in your mid-twenties. That goes for all the teens on here. I'm happy this forum turned out that way.

Gonna agree with Pete here, especially as we share a birthday.

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Ya see, we kinda leveled up. Our concerns evolved—while you're still fighting the wussy blue jellies from the intro or whatever.

I'm attempting to max my stats!

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Man, it's hard to be sarcastic around here...

I agree. Jokes, people, jokes.

Don't worry, miffy, I got it.

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The other day I wrote a brief post about how I keep writing posts, deciding they're shit, and not posting them. Then I didn't post it because I felt that it wasn't really appropriate to the Life thread.

The irony wasn't lost on me.

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Well, I'm going to write here anyway, despite often feeling the same way. You're all really smart, so maybe you can help. Two nights ago I had a horrible panic attack about my own mortality that took about 24 hours to recover from. The annoying thing is that I thought I was over that shit. Now I'm feeling better, I know that such strong reactions and obsession with those thoughts is not a normal reaction (I've been battling feeling low off and on for many months now). Death is scary, yes, but not to the point that I should be ruining my life worrying about it. (Although I do wish I was still religious - fuck this obnoxious "religious is for idiots" movement. Le sigh.)

So thankfully I'm now feeling better I am finding it easier to not obsess about such things, and put them aside to focus on living. But I'm still partially afraid it's going to come back and bite me on the ass again (especially during my upcoming holiday to LA), and also I feel afraid to fully open _that_ box in my mind again, in case it does: I know I can't really intellectually reason my way out of it.

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I haven't experienced a panic attack and I know that this is probably not going to be helpful, but I have found a simple and very silly way to cheer myself up when I'm feeling down (due to stress or politics or economy or whatever). I just read or watch something science related (think Universe, Time, Hawkings), and it is immediately easier for me to put things into perspective. It is very much like that Hitchhiker's thing where a big arrow shows your place in the universe and you're just like "Cool, I'm okay with that!" Or to put it in another way, it feels silly to worry about a 30-minute presentation tomorrow when you are travelling in a 13.7 billion year old universe.

Some people probably have exactly the opposite reaction to this sort of thing, though.

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I don't really have any good advice for dealing with panic attacks as my usual response is a sublingual administration of 1mg of lorazepam.

However, I've also had good results with cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques (common abbreviation is CBT, but if you google that with SafeSearch off, you might get the OTHER kind of CBT) and mindfulness/meditation.

This is all for naught though because I'm still wrestling with the spectre of Future Death and therefore have no proven solutions.

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I find it quite amusing that you could be searching for centres at which to take the first part of your motorbike training only to be met with a strangulated pair of balls tied up with string or some such.

Gotta love the interwebs.

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I haven't experienced a panic attack and I know that this is probably not going to be helpful, but I have found a simple and very silly way to cheer myself up when I'm feeling down (due to stress or politics or economy or whatever). I just read or watch something science related (think Universe, Time, Hawkings), and it is immediately easier for me to put things into perspective. It is very much like that Hitchhiker's thing where a big arrow shows your place in the universe and you're just like "Cool, I'm okay with that!" Or to put it in another way, it feels silly to worry about a 30-minute presentation tomorrow when you are travelling in a 13.7 billion year old universe.

Some people probably have exactly the opposite reaction to this sort of thing, though.

This is precisely what made me depressed earlier this year. :P

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This is precisely what made me depressed earlier this year. :P

Ahh, I had the feeling that someone had mentioned this here. I find that amazing.

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I find the best thing to do to cure a panic attack is to get out of your own head and just do something, anything. Go for a walk, talk to whoever is nearby, do your grocery shopping early, watch a movie, call a friend. Anything that will stop you spiraling out of control in your own mind.

I was unlucky enough to have a panic attack in Japan, but it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I was forced by time constraints to go and do something, which completely distracted me from myself.

It's hard at the time to think straight but I can tell when one is starting because I just start becoming more and more negative and irrational, that's my cue to do anything possible to distract myself.

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Thanks, guys. I'm feeling a bit better. Thinking about the pain that the people who I leave behind, helps make me think how selfish it is to focus on your own demise. And also the fact that it's an utterly pointless and unproductive thing to worry about.

That seems to do me for today, anyway :)

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What do you guys mean by panic attack, anyway? The name implies a far more neurotic or paralytic state of mind than that of the context the word's being used in.

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I meant the classic panic attack: that bit where your heart's beating so fast you think it's going to explode out of your chest, you can't breathe except by hyperventilating, the entire pit of your stomach and length of your spine has suddenly been doused in ice-cold water, and jesus christ i am having a heart attack I am dying right here and dammit I never finished Sonic 3

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What do you guys mean by panic attack, anyway? The name implies a far more neurotic or paralytic state of mind than that of the context the word's being used in.

Be happy that you don't know. They're horrible things. If you wish to know more, use Google.

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I meant the classic panic attack: that bit where your heart's beating so fast you think it's going to explode out of your chest, you can't breathe except by hyperventilating, the entire pit of your stomach and length of your spine has suddenly been doused in ice-cold water, and jesus christ i am having a heart attack I am dying right here and dammit I never finished Sonic 3

You never finished Sonic 3?! That one had saves!

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I wanna post an excerpt from The Imperfectionists, which is an awesome book, and I feel this bit is relevant here:

"In any case, I'm not afraid of it. Not in the least. You can't dread what you can't experience. The only death we experience is that of other people. That's as bad as it gets. And that's bad enough, surely. I remember when for the first time a dear friend of mine died. Must have been, what, 1947? It was Walter – he's in the book, the one who's always wearing his waistcoat to bed, if you remember. He got sick, and I abandoned him in Vienna and he died. I had a a terror of illness. I was petrified by – by what? Not of getting sick and dying. Even then, in an elementary way, I understood what death was at its worst: something that happens to other people. And that is hard to bear; that is what I couldn't face back then with Walter, what I've never been good at.

But my point, you see, is that death is misunderstood. The loss of one's life is not the greatest loss. It is no loss at all. To others, perhaps, but not to oneself. From one's own perspective, experience simply halts. From one's own perspective, there is no loss. You see? Yet maybe this is a game of words, too, because it doesn't make it any less frightening, does it." She sips her tea. "What I really fear is time. That's the devil: whipping us on when we'd rather loll, so the present sprints by, impossible to grasp, and all is suddenly past, a past that won't hold still, that slides into these inauthentic tales. My past - it doesn't feel real in the slightest. The person who inhabited it is not me. It's as if the present me is constantly dissolving. There's that line of Heraclitus: 'No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.' That's quite right. We enjoy this illusion of continuity, and we call it memory. Which explains, perhaps, why our worst fear isn't the end of life but the end of memories. [...] Don't you find it striking? The personality is constantly dying and it feels like continuity. Meanwhile, we panic about death, which we cannot ever experience."

I find it comforting. I hope you do too.

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Going on vacation stateside again, for 9 days. Leaving wednesday! Gonna go hang out with friends. :tup: This'll be my first Halloween!

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Going on vacation stateside again, for 9 days. Leaving wednesday! Gonna go hang out with friends. :tup: This'll be my first Halloween!

Where in the states is this, Pirate?

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Lexington! Preparin' to experience sum fine Kentucky drivin'. Was gonna go to Missouri too, but alas.

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Lexington! Preparin' to experience sum fine Kentucky drivin'. Was gonna go to Missouri too, but alas.

You should dress up as Napoleon and infuriate southerners.

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You could spend about 90 minutes or less finishing Sonic 3 today.

But if you're planning on doing Sonic 3 and Knuckles, I don't know, good luck.

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