June 19, 2009

Question of the Day #196

Posted by: Sarah @ 1:01 pm · Filed under · Question of the Day ·

Another one from Proust (and wonderfully appropriate for how I’ve been feeling the last few days):

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

5 Comments

  1. Sarah Said:

    June 19, 2009 @ 3:21 pm

    Chronic, phobic anxiety. As in…

    …when there’s something out there that terrifies you so much, but that you know you have to face sooner or later. The anxiety clouds nearly every moment of your waking life, so that the only time you’re ever really free of it is when you’re sleeping (or very drunk).

    Every happy moment is marred by that pesky little reminder (the one you constantly try to ignore by shoving it deeper and deeper into the back of your mind) that you have this fear to face. You’re unable to ever really enjoy anything. You know that the longer you wait, and the more you avoid it, the worse it will become…but the fear is so great, so paralyzing, you worry that confronting it will cause you to lose whatever tenuous grasp on sanity you might posess.

    That’s my lowest depth of misery.

  2. GraceKathryn Said:

    June 19, 2009 @ 4:47 pm

    Holy crap. Are you having a Woody Allen moment? Do we need to talk?

    I have two answers:

    1: Witnessing or being aware of horrible injustice/cruelty/suffering, and a sense that it will never be made right. Meaninglessness. Emptiness. Nothingness. Hopelessness. All we are is dust in the wind. No justice.

    2: Corporate hell (Office Space). Corporations owning (and feasting on) your soul. Along with that… witnessing (or being the target of) blatant sexism/racism. Corporate hell kind of actually goes along with sexism/racism. Ok maybe I’m on to a different topic now.

    Both of these have led me into deep depression at varying points in my life.

  3. davidbmc Said:

    June 19, 2009 @ 10:04 pm

    although i thankfully have not had to experience it, i would think it would be watching my child suffer or maybe if they were missing or something and not knowing what had happened.

  4. Sarah Said:

    June 20, 2009 @ 11:19 am

    Ooh…I thought of another one. When you have an itchy spot in the middle of your back, and there’s no one around to scratch it for you. That’s pretty bad.

    I think the chronic anxiety is still worse, though.

  5. Stacey Said:

    June 24, 2009 @ 10:00 am

    I concur with the chronic anxiety (and the helplessness that accompanies it).