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Post by LisaRocksYourWorld, yo on Jun 24, 2002 17:40:38 GMT -5
I've noticed a trend in today's teenagers. Healthy teens who have all that they want and live with a loving family are complaining that their lives suck.
You're alive. You're healthy. Your family cares about you. You're living in a nice, warm house and getting a good education.
All over the world, people are dying of AIDS and cancer. Small children are being orphaned from their parents, millions of people are homeless, living in poverty, and going to bed hungry every night.
I find it so hard to believe that so many teenagers don't know how good they have it. I know people from great families that do nothing but complain about life. Let me tell you something... You know little about life. Yes, it's brutally honest, but at the tender ages of 14 and 15, we are just beginning our lives. We're just starting to explore the world and learn. Stop acting like a philosopher, open your eyes, and smile once in a while. You're breathing, you're walking, appreciate it.
Chances are you have not been in love. Your signifigant other may be "your everything" but most teenage relationships never last. Next time you're crying about being dumped, thinking the world is ending, I want you to think of how you would feel if you were dying of AIDS or living on the streets hungry. It all seems pretty insignifigant, doesn't it?
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Post by dorkateer on Jun 24, 2002 20:05:59 GMT -5
you make a good point, but you have to admit that while your caught up in your own sh.t its almost impossible to see clearly. everything is blurry, and you can never really see the world right.
ive found that people who seem to "have it all" are often the most miserable of the bunch. i recently moved from my old lower class neighborhood to this upper middle class one and i have to say ive never seen kids like this before. its amazing how diffrent these people are then the ones i lived with across the city. the kids in my old negihborhood were a lot happier, even though we all had a lot less, they were also more respectful and courteous.
i dunno..money has a weird affect on people, and this post got a little off topic
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Post by likeAfox on Jul 23, 2002 12:53:40 GMT -5
humans are never satisfied.
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Post by iNsAnE.cAnAdIaN on Jul 25, 2002 23:16:28 GMT -5
Yes, I must agree that your point is valid, but the source of my disapointment in my own life is exactly that. When I get depressed from something in my own healthy, welloff, sheltered life I think of how insignificant and pointless it is to be worried about myself and that is exactly the reason why I end up cutting myself. In north american cultres, it is no shock ( at least to me ) that their are so many adolesence's that are depressed. There is so much pressure put on us to be brilliant, thin, beautiful, rebellious, innocent, and just plain perfect. Also, we are being forced to grow up a lot more quickly than we should...I mean when i was in grade nine we had to do an essay in our health class about what we plan to do when we grow up, how we are going to get there and which job paths we will take to reach that goal. There was about a ten page booklet all about our future career. Also, a lot of North Americans, even though they are very well off, are connected to somebody who is dieing of Aids, Cancer or another disease, are being harrassed, or have something else going on in their lives. So even though I completely agree that most of our worries are small and pointless, that does not mean that we cannot be upset about things- it is a natural human response. Humans are selfish. But still- good point.
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Post by LisaRocksYourWorld, yo on Jul 26, 2002 0:49:50 GMT -5
Of course there are problems that we need to worry about. Life isn't perfect, which is why we have to focus on the good things. Focusing on the good things is what I was talking about-- hardly anyone is doing it. Lots of nice people I know, with good friends, and a nice lifestyle constantly complain, something along the lines of "Girls/Guys don't like me, I don't have any friends..." when it couldn't be farther from the truth. I know some people have clinical depression, which I understand, but it seems as though non-depressed teens are just looking for something to complain about.
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Post by Cassiopeia on Jul 26, 2002 20:47:46 GMT -5
Well, I'm one of those people with a so-called "perfect" life. But that's only from the outside. I hate it when people tell me I have no reason to be depressed. First of all, I have three different mental disorders, and that makes things very difficult for me. When you have depression, seemingly insignificant things can seem so terrible. Secondly, most people have no idea what kind of shit I've had to go through. Most of my time in school was horrible. People were so unbelievably cruel to me, for absolutely no reason at all. There were times when I had literally no friends. And I was in an abusive relationship for a while. However, from the outside, it's hard to see these things. So please, think before you judge people.
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Post by LisaRocksYourWorld, yo on Aug 1, 2002 13:49:23 GMT -5
I'm sorry I made a harsh generalization. I just find it hard to believe that some people find it so hard to be happy when they have some great things going for them. Everyone has their problems, and some people's problems are bigger than others, but there is at least one thing in everyone's life that should make them smile. Too many people overlook that.
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Post by julinka on Aug 1, 2002 15:19:54 GMT -5
At some point this summer I started thinking about a lot of my problems in those kind of terms. Probably after a long conversation with the barely 16-year-old girl who was staying with us for a while. In her short stay on the planet, she's been beaten, generally abused, molested, taken advantage of by pretty much everyone in her life, thrown out by her dad and step-dad, addicted to meth on and off for the past couple of years, pushed into several mental hospitals by her parents when they didn't want to deal with her, and been to rehab and detox sweating crank out of every pore. And I've never seen someone who spends less time focusing on how much the world has screwed them over, or on how their problems are all so-and-so's fault.
Everyone gets f*cked over in the world, some people more and some people less, what you're responsible for is picking up the pieces and doing as much as you can with what you've been given. Be thankful for what you have, and if there's something you want to have that you don't all you can do is find it, make it, or learn to be happy without. You can't make anyone else give it to you.
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Post by Cassiopeia on Aug 1, 2002 22:09:10 GMT -5
>>I'm sorry I made a harsh generalization. I just find it hard to believe that some people find it so hard to be happy when they have some great things going for them. Everyone has their problems, and some people's problems are bigger than others, but there is at least one thing in everyone's life that should make them smile. Too many people overlook that. <<
It's ok. I'm not angry or anything. And I do know that I complain too much sometimes. However, my life honestly hasn't always been good. Yeah, I always had my family and I'm an intelligent and all-around good person. But as I said before, there were times when I literally had no friends. That and the fact that I have three mental disorders made it very difficult for me, especially in middle school and high school. I know that other people have bad problems too, but it always seemed like they at least had friends to go to when they needed someone to support and comfort them. I didn't even have that. I'll bet that most of you couldn't imagine having no friends and having most people hate you. And unfortunately, that was how a lot of my life was.
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Post by Spazmatikal on Aug 1, 2002 22:29:25 GMT -5
^^ i definitely know what it's like to not have friends. there was at least two years in my life where i had NO ONE there for me. not to mention, at that time i was fairly overweight and got made fun of quite a bit. every friend i had backstabbed me those years and walked all over me. my mom's best friend had died as well, and seeing my mother cry every single day for a year straight, and off and on after that... is really hard. especially on a pre-teen, or a new teenager like i was.
beyond my mother and my own problems, there has always been constant drama in my house. i have an alcoholic father, and two brothers with on and off substance abuse problems. my third brother is just messed up. he's crazy, he went through high school with no friends and has absolutely no social skills. another one of my brothers had serious mental probelsm all throughout his middle school years and had to have serious treatment for them. he also got involved in gang things and people would call up my house and threaten to kill us. not to mention so many other things that seem like no one else has ever dealt with (and i know, that's a selfish and probably untrue thought.)
my dad has not had a stable job since 1994. he works in the movie industry as a truck driver... so jobs are on and off. when he's working he makes good money. but then again, he can be off work for six months and we're scrounging for money to pay bills. there have been years where i've gotten nothing for Christmas... and not that i'm materialistic, but that kind of hurts when you're eight years old (or around that age), and you hear all your friends talking about all these great presents. i couldn't care less about it now though, because i understand the situation. but the constant stress of worrying about money is straining.
since then, things haven't gotten a whole lot better. my mom is clinically depressed and has a few other mental disorders, along with panic anxiety and OCDs. this makes it very hard on me because my mom can't drive the freeway and she is prone to panic attacks when she goes out in public, so i have to go EVERYWHERE with her so that she can stay calm. i'm her crutch. seeing my mom fall into depression and watching my dad drink and the rest of my family fall apart has taken its toll on me. i'm depressed. and it's not just puberty.
wow... it feels weird to have typed all of that.
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Post by Spazmatikal on Aug 11, 2002 22:00:30 GMT -5
^^ heh. i feel like i scared everyone away from this thread with my above post. oh well...
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Post by Ich Liebe Rammstein on Aug 12, 2002 19:56:50 GMT -5
<<<< Your signifigant other may be "your everything" but most teenage relationships never last. >>>>
Wow,thanks for "cheering me up" *rolls eyes*
Then again,you said "most" ...so nevermind.
<<<< Chances are you have not been in love. >>>>
I have...and am....
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Post by Ich Liebe Rammstein on Aug 12, 2002 20:02:47 GMT -5
Also...I have OCD's and no one in my family cares...They say things like "You've been watching too much tv,your on the internet too much "( really how did an OCD miz with TV and internet?! ) And my family says I have a "habit" NOT an OCD...um well excuse ME,but I think I KNOW what an OCD is (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and I think I DID watch something about it to check and see if it was infact a "habit" or not...well it's no habit.....It *is* an OCD and I'm tired of my parents pushing that away.... Sorry for boring you guys,just happened to scan tiff's post and thought about this whole... "incident" thingie...so um....uh....err....yeah. ;D
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Post by -*- Little Miss Strawberry -*- on Aug 26, 2002 11:16:14 GMT -5
1. Nobody has a perfect life 2. Nobody is satisfied with what they've got 3. Some people tend to think others are better off than themselves 4. When things are bad for you, its hard to see the good bits 5. If somebody is unhappy and miserable then obviously their lives aren't so "perfect" 6. People have problems which aren't seen directly on the outside
Maybe I'm one of these people that has a "perfect" life. Well, I don't think so. Outwardly, maybe people think I'm pretty, clever, sorted out, has an idea of what I want to do in life, has plenty of opportunities... but inside I'm someone struggling like the rest, coping with a hearing loss that makes a lot of things difficult and all the rest. It's a silly thought to think that everyone is happy and those that appear happy but are miserable are silly.
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Post by x.just.a.little.grL.x on Sept 21, 2002 14:08:42 GMT -5
At this age (I'm 16, going on 17)....and every other teen age, I think it's hard to see all the good in your life, when all you see is hurt. I think that it's hard to get past the clouds to see the sun shining in. I think that people over dramatize the bad and look past the good. Yet, we all have our problems, no matter how trifling or unimportant they seem. Many people believe at a first glance, that I have a good life. Both my parents are employed, I live in a nice area, I have nice things, my parents take me to plays, shows, vacations (well, sometimes, LoL)...and I have good friends, and a good social life. I'm pretty smart, a little unfocused, but smart..and people see this, and they think, "Hey, little spoiled girl, what's YOUR problem?" And I absolutely hate that. We all may have better lives when people see us from the outside, but from the inside, all or most teenagers suffer. I was depressed for a while a year and half ago, and I partly still am. I have very low self-esteem, and it bothers me a lot. Well, enough of the sob story, bottom line is that every teenager has problems, and yes, we should be thankful that we're not dying or we don't live on the streets, but I think we hafta recognize the fact that teenage problems are serious, because everyone's always telling us "Oh, you're just the typical overdramatic teenage drama queen, what do you know about life or love?" And I do think that living almost a quarter of your life constitutes for knowing about life, in some part at least. We may not have loved, hurt, crashed, and burned, but we know enough right now to know what hurt and pain is. And our problems are important, maybe not as important as a death or something extreme, but our problems DO matter. That's all I'm saying...
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