And, should I change?
I’m 38 years old, single, not interested in starting a family (my mother was a drama queen and I couldn’t live that again with a partner or a child), don’t own any property, not really a consumerist person, I max my 401k and save 70% of my net income because most of the stuff society tells me to buy is irrelevant to me (I still own clothes I bought 20 years ago and they still fit me), don’t need a car and use a bike or public transportation, I prefer to cook at home because it’s cheaper and I can choose what I cook. I stopped drinking alcohol 10 years ago. I’m definitively not an extrovert.
I majored in philosophy because I liked it and I still do, but never found a job with my major. I tried being a high school teacher, but teenagers are way too much for me. Nursing, what I do now, is a versatile and safer job, even if I think it’s slowly killing me.
I feel cheated in life.
For 15 years I lived paycheck to paycheck paying off my debt, often having to move due to increased rent so this might be my way of coping with trauma. I still feel I’m way behind most people my age. I feel like a loser because I imagine them knowing better than me what they want in life.
It’s true that comparison is the thief of joy, but I cannot stop ruminating about this.
If you read my post history you’ll realize I don’t really care about my job, but stay because I need a paycheck and I like having a big rainy day fund. If I was a millionaire, I’d stop working. I don’t like any job.
It might be true that I’m autistic, because close human connections where never that important to me and most people I work with are not close to me, but as I’m nearing 40 I’m starting to think if my destiny is going to be to live and die alone in a nursing home. Sometimes this scares me, but I always go back to my apathetic, indifferent self, like I’m on some kind of drug that makes me not feel anything, neither good or bad, like my emotional brain is underdeveloped.
What I don’t want to be is this desperate loner craving for any kind of human attention turning to post his whole life online hoping a good Samaritan comes and saves me. First because it’s pathetic and secondly because that’s never a good foundation to build a friendship, I’d be inviting a predator, another crazy loner, a newborn Christian to save me with god, somebody trying to scam me with a MLM scheme or an antivaxer into my life. And I’m not a 20 year old discovering the world, I’m almost 40.
Every woman I’ve been attracted to has ignored me and every woman that showed an interest in me wasn’t good enough to me: she could be eager to make a connection, put an interest, even pretty and genuine but I cannot fake being in love or feeling attraction. I always ended up considering them as friends or acquaintances. I’m too old and too introverted (autistic?) to visit a club and try to impress a woman to go out with me.
I don’t think this is depression, depression would be me not going to work not even calling in sick.
It seems clear I need a friend, but I don’t know how to make friends anymore. I focused so much on surviving that I stopped caring about anyone else.
You don’t sound autistic at all and even though you say you don’t think it’s depression, it really sounds like one to me.
First thing I’d try in your place would be to go to therapy. Seriously, it helps. And if nothing else, you’ll get a more educated opinion on whether it’s depression or something else.
All of the stuff sounds like a coping mechanism to avoid something traumatic. The good news is that 40 is far from old, you can still make meaningful connections with others. Don’t give up!
I’ll piggy back on your comment, I was gonna say something similar (and I fully agree with it 😊)
With only the information you provided, it sounds like you’re potentially navigating some high functioning depression, maybe some meaninglessness. They can go hand in hand, and much of the joy of life is lost when/if you’re depressed with no personally meaningful direction.
Therapy is a good starting point, or even just some gentle self analysis of what may have led you to these feelings (as opposed to the symptoms of it, which it looks to me like what you described).
It’s a process, and it can take a very long time to learn how to be gentle enough to listen to yourself without judgement. So in addition to therapy, I’d add meditation to allow yourself space and journaling with personally directed questions (e.g., what do I feel, what may have led me to feel this way) that might grant you insights. Dig for what means something to you, and find a way to make it your reality.
One final thought - do try getting out there and connecting. It’s hard, irritating, and exhausting. But sometimes we spend so much time in our own space/heads that we ruminate ourselves into a quagmire. Ppl and activities corner that rumination to fewer hours of the day, and gives us a break from our own thoughts.
As poster above said, you’re not even 40 - lots of years of beauty, hope and meaning to be found and loved, though it can take time to really get there :)
All the best, OP
First:
No, you don’t need a purpose, and your lifestyle sounds ok, if you were enjoying it (I think plenty of people would) but a couple of things stick out to me. One, you are avoiding romantic attachment - if any women are attracted to you, you are not unattractive or too awkward or whatever - you are really not attracted to any women who find you attractive? Or your brain rejects them because you subconsciously think you cannot possibly be attractive so there has to be something wrong with them?
Two, you do honestly sound depressed. It doesn’t have to mean so catatonic you can’t make it to work, it can mean going through the motions of life without feeling anything.
I don’t have a general answer for you, but I did want to say that you should not rule out depression as a major component of what’s going on with you. I have a genetically-based cyclic depression that’s been with me more than four decades. Despite that, I have managed to remain employed. It has sometimes been very difficult, but it is possible to remain somewhat functional even when severely depressed. I have had to change jobs a few times because of it, but I’ve been able to make a steady living.
Depression can leave you with very little energy or volition, but very little is different from none. The worse it gets, the more you have to focus on your most critical necessities, which is not pleasant, but it can keep you going. Small victories like that can actually help counteract it. I think a lot of depression is “living to fight another day”.
If you do have depression, there are many things you can try. Therapy, medication, exercise, meditation, mindfullness, support groups, volunteering, hobbies, etc. Start by talking with a doctor.
I wish you the best!
I can’t stress enough how helpful it would be for you to find a hobby and meet with people who also enjoy the same hobby. Do that, hands down. Good luck!
Pick a hobby, literally anything.
Our brains want us to be productive, so it’s likes doing something and seeing a result. Even the most inconsequential thing will stop your brain from freaking out.
If you also feel like you need more social interaction, a good hobby would be online videogames. Play something with voice chat and just be super helpful. Teammates want to do something stupid? Back em 100% and they’ll be appreciative.
You went off on dating too, but it’s 2024. Throw up an online profile here and there, but dont make it your priority like you can fix everything else by getting a partner. Fix the other stuff to make yourself a better person, and just make yourself available.
Don’t try to fix everything with your life at once. You can (and should) work on multiple things, but pick one thing to focus, knock it down, and make a new priority. Basically don’t try to fix your life, it’s a giant task for anyone. Pick easy attainable goals that will improve your life, and knock them out one at a time to feel like.peogress is being made.
Do you have any hobbies, no matter how obscure? That’s often a great gateway to meet people with a shared interest. If you don’t have one, look for nearby homeless shelters / churches. They often have volunteer programs where you can do anything from feeding the homeless, to helping pick up trash, etc. This work tends to be very fulfilling because you can cause a positive impact in the area that you live in. You will probably also meet a person or two while doing this.
People love to talk about themselves, so if you do manage to chat someone up at one of these events, ask them about their life. Try to steer the questions towards one that don’t have a yes/no answer, and keep engaging them and asking follow up questions. Making acquaintances is basically as easy as that. Do that long enough and you’ll have more than one friend.
TLDR: Find people with shared interests; engage them in conversation. Repeat until friend[s] acquired. Easy as that.
The problem, as I see it, is: You are rotating around yourself. All the time. Round and round.
Humans are made for relationships. Not just man-woman, but relationships in the most general sense.
You are not living any strong relationships, and therefore your life feels meaningless.
So, the solution is: start to invest your time into people. Nursing wasn’t a bad start at all. But you do it for a job = for making money, so there’s not much coming back to you.
My advice is:
Do something for people in such a way that nothing comes back to you. I’m not talking about money, but your time. It does not need to be much. But do it very regularly. That way you will be able to escape that rotating around yourself.
You are going to meet new people, and there will be some wonderful people among them. Some others, too, but you are strong enough not to get scared off easily.
I second this person’s advice
You are sharing very deep observations about yourself.
About your mother and her impact on you wanting to start a family, take a look at raisedbynarcicissts communities or speak to a therapist.
For friends connection, try joining a board game club in your area. They really don’t care about autistic traits.
I’d recommend minimising the amount of commercial media you are viewing, and switch to mostly consuming open-licenced media for a while.
Audio books: librivox.org
Movies: vole.wtf/voleflix
Nursing, and care professions like teaching or ambulance drivers, can often be squeezed to rely on the compassion of the individuals in them. Do you have balance within your position. Is it time to retrain for something else at night-school? Or time to go to 3 or 4 days a week.
Take some pride, every single day nurses help people to stay alive.
The Stoic Reading app on FDroid may help you find some philosophy that motivates or solidifies a purpose.
Travel to a different town and meet random people, introduce yourself using your middle name. Invest nothing in making long term friends, just chat.
You actually sound quite aware of many things around you, finding opportunities for hobbies or artistic endeavours, where you do not overthink things, would help.
Remember that everyone is doing their best with what they know, and to let some things go.
All the best for your future.
My advice is to enroll in a community college acting class and really throw yourself into it. Worked wonders for me, in fact it turned my whole life around. I didn’t become a professional actor but it changed how I look at everything. Take job interviews - I reframed them as not being job interviews, I already work there, I’ve been away on a sabbatical or something and it’s my first day back. Think how great it will be to see everybody again! It’s a fantastic group, we all like each other, the manager is awesome… so I get into that character and when I walk in I’m genuinely glad to be there and everybody feels it - not the formal politeness of a typical super-nervous applicant, instant comfort level and 100% culture fit. There are lots more ways acting experience benefited me - one was the almost instant social life. Rehearsals, going out for pizza, cast parties, other parties, dating - theatre women are a blast, and tbh a straight guy doing theatre is golden. I went from overanxious introverted computer nerd to sociable, confident, dare-I-say Man About Town, puttin’ on the Ritz.
edit: regarding age - I started in my late 20s but late 30s is totally fine. Most of the students were early 20s, people who had gone to work right after high school for a few years and had gone back to school. But there were people older than myself. There may or may not be people there your age in a particular class, but it doesn’t matter. When you’re doing a character you aren’t who you are anyway. So don’t let that hold you back.
I think you should get a roommate. Worst case scenario you make an enemy. Most likely scenario is you become more tolerant of others and save some money. Just be clear about boundaries up front.
If you aren’t uncomfortable you can’t change. But first you have to want to want it. You aren’t really living paycheck to paycheck if you have a healthy savings however, it may be time to move somewhere where you can afford to live for longer and enjoy your nursing career, it’s a noble one after all.
Making and keep friends / lovers is much harder especially if you’re successful financially and career wise. I’d try to find a hobby in the psychology world online. There’s plenty of like minds out there that share the passion. If you want true friends you need to let them not be perfect. Have a great deal of grace and humility with coworkers. Same with finding a mate, even more so.
Good luck, it sounds like you’re doing a lot of things a healthy way.
Find a shop sells games like Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: the Gathering, stuff like that.
Even if you don’t play, you have a high chance of crossing paths with nerds (autistic folk, if you will). This could give you human connection in your life.
Near as I can tell, that’s the only god damn reason to be on this Earth. Hang out with other humans.
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If it makes you feel better, most people have no idea what they actually want and just follow whatever has been put in front of them.
After doing research on solutions I found that many people benefit from volunteering and joining groups.
The ability to look into other people’s needs and glean some joy from solving social issues is usually overlooked by modern society.
Also, people with religions tend to take delivery of life’s goals. They accept the social bindings that find them.
Allow people to seek you out, and take intrigue and curiosity from what is happening. Obey the social contract and get beyond the niceties of not really accepting people into your life.
If you’re surrounded by streets full of bums you could see it as your challenge to work with them, rally against their terrible choices, or escape them.
Experiment with meaning. Take them all out for lunch. Throw a street party for them. Hire a bus and take them somewhere. Teach them how to live again.
Accept your reality and it might accept you back!
