The knowing. That's the hardest part. My dog, for example. She knows some things. She knows that I give her food and belly scratches. But she doesn't know that if I don't go to work, or if I lose my hand in an accident, those things go away. We're more aware, and that is both a blessing and a curse. It enables us to accomplish more, but it also can hold us back if we become too afraid of what fate holds in store for us. That's my take anyway. Best wishes.
In his book *White Noise*, there’s a discussion sort of in line with the “what makes a human different from the animals” question that lead to answers like e.g. “featherless biped.” The answer in the book is that a human is the only animal that knows it will die.
I know a bit about elephants. They are intelligent, they mourn for their deceased relatives and many other fancy facts about them. It’s really interesting to see how they have their own language and culture we don’t understand. Looking deeper into things like this makes me even more curious if we’re just a cosmic accident or someone really made us. We’ll never know 😔
I dunno,
Cats run off & hide when they know they're gonna die. I think Dogs understand that they get older & life will eventually end (at least I think the 2 German Sheppards I've had, who both grew old & died, were pretty sure they knew that's what happens when you get old?)
Dolphins & Whales definitely know that they eventually die. They take care of their little babies & their older relatives in their pods. Killer whales will kill a sting ray, or a seal & bring the meal to the older whales. (dolphins, I think are just as smart, if not smarter than Humans. They just didn't evolve the same way & we can't talk to them.)
Octopus' definitely know when They are gonna die (go watch my Octopus teacher on Netflix)
Even a Mouse running away when any threat presents itself, is this not deep engrained self preservation kicking in so Death is avoided?
I think most Mammals know that they live & then they die.
Humans just have the evolution ability to study it more.
In reading this, I thought to myself "I guess that means humans are also the only creatures capable of experiencing an existential crisis", but then I thought about my cats...
Grief is one of the emotions that I think a lot of animals share. But not anticipatory grief, which is grief ahead of time knowing something will happen soon.
I read once that grief is love that has nowhere to go when a person dies, so we call it grief.
It made a lot of sense to me.
I agree with your comment though, it is definitely one of the hardest things to deal with.
I’m sorry you got hit with the comments below. I have adhd as well, and wasn’t aware that I had it until I was in my thirties. The symptoms were debilitating, and I spent my entire life fighting to be able to function in a way that didn’t leave me homeless or institutionalized. Discovering that I had adhd, and learning that all of the things I spent my life thinking I was just somehow bad at, or broken in some way, were actually symptoms of neurodivergence, helped me. It let me, for the first time *ever*, put a name to what was happening so I could learn how to address it, and starting meds helped give me a future i wouldn’t have had without my diagnosis.
TLDR, don’t listen to people telling you what you are going through isn’t real, if it was just a “concept” you would not have had the symptoms leading to diagnosis in the first place.
Don’t worry it’s ok. I understand some people are just so blessed they won’t understand what we’re going through. But my god I related to you so much 😭😭 Before I got diagnosed by the psychiatrist I knew I had it. My ex said I’m just delusional, so for my sake (also for my final exam) I went to the doctor because I needed to get my shit together or I won’t graduate and to prove him wrong. Even then he still said it’s not real like wtf 💀 I made my peace with it tho. I won’t make it my label, just at least knowing what I struggle with and how to deal with it. I think that’s good enough 😊 Cheers to you too. I hope you have a good organized day 💕
I fixed it by getting a job that keeps me so busy and multitasking so much that adhd doesn’t even bother me anymore… when I get overwhelmed with thoughts I just take a deep breath and say “welp, gotta get it done somehow” and just keep moving. Somehow it makes me think less. I get so busy in what I do that I really don’t have time to overthink anymore. When I’m not at work I’ve taken up hobbies like repairing electronics and car repair, it makes you focus cause the hobby is too expensive to fuck up 😂
Agreed. Navigating relationships with other people is probably the hardest part of being human. Mostly because people are complex and don't tell you what they're feeling. You sometimes have to guess and/or deal with the uncertainty of never being totally sure how others feel towards you.
This.
I heard a related discussion on the radio this morning about if you find someone's wallet with cash do you return it with the cash? Someone said they went out of their way to find the person to return the wallet with $700 cash and wouldn't take anything from the person. Later that day played some gambling game and won $3K. If that isn't good karma Idk what is.
I spent three hours returning someone's work check I found in the parking lot and didn't even get a thanks.
Only thing I won was depression and being sent to the psych ward a month later.
Coincidence is not a sign of the divine.
Do good to be good, if you expect a reward you will nearly always be dissapointed.
Not totally the same. But one night after working i had all my tips turned into big bills so I could turn into the bank the next day. It was around $2500. After work I went to a friend’s house and left around 2am. The next morning I wake up to go to the bank and I can’t find my wallet anywhere. I rush to my friend’s house, gas station I stopped at, i was panicking. I get a call from an old neighbor and she said some young man was there with my wallet. I show up and he had my wallet with all my cash, credit cards and everything. He said he found my wallet outside my friend’s apartment when he went to work the next day and found the address on my id (which was a previous address I lived at) and returned it there. I offered him a few hundred for his kindness and he refused any form of repayment.
A few months later I’m at my friend’s apartment and getting ready to leave when he was having some car troubles. I go speak with him and went to the auto store to get some parts and replaced his alternator for him.
And that holds us back from finding and living to our fullest potential until such time as we either tell fear to eff off and take the jump, or we actually find out that our date is closer than expected and decide to live it up in the time we've got left.
We do have the ability to create our own meaning and purpose even if it isn't part of some grand plan though. I thought the Pixar movie Soul did a great job of showing this.
I find that weirdly nice.
That you have no set purpose, you make it yourself and decide what you want out of your limited time and what your legacy is gonna be.
Our world is very complex. We have to earn money to get our food and shelter. In the wild, animals need to hunt to get their food. Our complex world makes it harder to navigate.
But we're smarter.
We don't have to hunt. We CAN order delivery. Then we just have to hunt our phone between the seat cushions.
We could go off the grid and hunt our food. But to me that's harder. Or farming is harder to me.
I disagree. I’d rather hunt or farm. Physically it’s harder, but it’s so much simpler. Our modern society is so complex and difficult to understand, it’s so difficult to do anything that gets you enough money to survive these days. At least in the wild all you had to worry about was catching dinner or growing it.
Real. Life is suffering, but I do like being alive. Does that mean I like suffering? I dunno. What about you? What gets you through the days, months, and years?
Time. It goes by so fast I didn’t realize I had been getting by. I don’t like suffering. I want peace. But my motivation in life is slim to none, so we’ll see how much longer I can go.
Having empathy. The suffering of humans and animals hurts me constantly. Life is hard when you feel the pain of others so strongly. Then, to compound it, others tease you or tell you to get tougher.
I’m already so upset and concerned for the pets and wildlife who will be disturbed, killed, lost or abandoned by the fireworks on the 4th. And i can’t do anything about it.
I find that for a good person, it is another one of those things that you have to balance.
A lot of people in the world definitely could use more empathy, but too much empathy for people you can't help at all can drive you crazy.
On a large scale, people like us are unlikely to change things. But you can make a huge difference in a few lives. One starving dog or cat can have its life changed if you adopt or put out food or donate, for example. I know it’s hard…the cruelty in this world is overwhelming sometimes. But small acts can snowball into big ones. Just a couple of days ago, a lady I met five years ago made a 20 hour drive to tell me that something I did on the day we met changed her entire life. All I did was include her in an activity and be nice. That was it. But it helped her start a journey toward overcoming her anxiety. We don’t need to change the world, but if we can change one person or one animal’s world, we have done a lot. ❤️
Periods. I have a concert tonight and right now I’m trying to map out how I’m going to have access to the bathroom every 30 minutes to be able to change my tampon. It’s hell
I know some ppl don’t like it but the cup changed my life. I can’t even count how much $$ it saved me in the last 3 years. I bought the name brand for $35 and it’s lasted. Except on the very first day, I can go all day without changing it
And for people who can’t get comfortable with the cups, try the discs. I use flex, and went from having to use the crazy giant tampons *and* a pad, and *still* having leaks on the first couple days, to not having to worry. The first day, I will use a pad as backup to be safe, but yeah, it’s a total game changer. And, it helps me have less cramps.
From my experience the concept of working makes life very hard, we have to earn money to survive, often doing menial or meaningless tasks that often serve no tangible benefit to humanity. If one has a job it means lining the pockets of someone else. So we work hard during the best hours of the day for 40-50 years to help someone else pay for possessions whilst the worker has less spending power each year due to inflation, we’re also expected to be grateful for the opportunity to do so.
I also find the whole thing entirely disingenuous, the concept of being professional when a client or whoever is being a nasty twat is quite trying.
So, in life it’s crucial to find something you genuinely enjoy and to find meaning in it, to win back the best hours of the day and your life to spend the time doing things that you actually care about.
For the people that find meaning in jobs such as insurance, actuarial services, corporate law or finance I have nothing but respect for, personally it’s all to fake, ruthless and damaging for me to pretend and this is coming from someone who has had a 20 year insurance career.
Complex social structures, and that every person has to find their own ends and own purpose. We do not have a set life cycle which means a lot of freedom, but a lot of responsibility too
Bruh I don’t see humans as any better than a damn bug. We see ourselves as these civilized ultra beings. But many other species develop incredibly complex societies and ways of existing we couldn’t understand. The concept that our existence is somehow “better” because we can farm and domesticate and make a computer chip isn’t so far off from ant colonies and other such groups of living things. Language shmanguage. Space travel my ass. We’re just some weirdo apes with an inflated sense of self. The hardest thing to do is come to terms with our inferiority and smallness in the grand scheme of the universe and still be ok and still contribute to the group and to land.
+1000 points for dogs and cats frfr 😔
But tbh I think every species has an asshole. We just met lots of human asshole because it’s the society we’re living in 💁🏻♀️✨
Knowing that we're the smartest animals on the planet and that many of us choose to be cruel. We should all know better than to hurt/abuse each other or other animals.
I just live minutes by minute, hour by hour and day by day. Live in the moment because the past is the past and you can’t change that, the future is unwritten so all you have is right now. Don’t overthink your existence and just live like everyday is your last
Every body process that we are not conscious of. There thousands of things happening in your body every second and thankfully the brain does it without needing conscious input.
I used to love being human and loved taking care of my body and tried my best to be healthy. However recently I have developed sudden hearing loss and severe tinnitus and it is a super shitty feeling to be trapped inside your mind and body with inescapable sounds blaring at you all day that sound like electric ringing and roaring. I remember how things used to sound and now I can't hear them like they did before because of my hearing damage. It makes me feel like a freaking robot and gives me depersonalization bad. Not necessarily from the stress and depression related to this but because my actual hearing sense being damaged has distorted my reality.
To me the hardest part of being a human is knowing that only humans are capable of doing truly horrible things, we lack empathy when we are too concerned with our own lives and struggles, some people have no sense of perspective or understand that other people just like them are living terrible lives somewhere else in the world and we don’t care.
Having to work in sh*t to live but also the fear of death. Almost had a panic attack a bit ago cause of my fear of potentially being reincarnated when I die.
That not everything is going to go your way and that’s ok. We all have a destination and some people get it sooner than others. Life is supposed to be hard, we’re here to survive and duplicate and try to leave the world a better place than it was when we entered it
>Everything is so convenient for our survival...
It really isn't though
>and yet there’s depression and other stuff.
Which is why the second happens sometimes (although much like our spines, our brains are really shitty concerning the why the function/evolved, so sometimes depression just happens ).
>Other species literally have their lives hanging on the line cuz bro will get killed or starved to death
This is also true of Many people, just the source of WHY they are about to be killed or starved is different than other animals I guess?
Daoism teaches us that the ideal state of humans is as a baby. Babies are similar to other animals in that they do not try to label things, or worry about the future other than a few months in advance (ie animals that hibernate/migrate). They live almost entirely in the moment and listen to their instincts. They just experience and observe everything instead of getting into their heads and fretting about the unknown.
I feel that this mentality can help alleviate many of the worries we, knowledgeable humans, deal with daily.
Nobody actually teaches you how to be human.
Yea we have parents and school teachers but they don’t know what they’re doing either, none of us actually have any idea what we’re doing
We quite literally just have to “figure it out”.
One day you don’t exist, and the next you’re here. Bam. That’s it. No owner’s manual, no instructions. Just a desire to eat and pick your nose.
From the perspective of a baby, we pretty much just spawn into a random existence that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
I think it's that we forget that we are animals that are affected by our environment.
We created a society that doesn't necessarily help each other thrive, and instead of changing the environment, we've convinced ourselves that something is wrong with us.
Probably has already been said but:
Dealing with other humans. Specifically the close-minded kind.
I'm no saint, but compared to other insufferable brats and idiots that are a waste of oxygen, such as my boss... makes me really think what must be wrong with them and what experiences led them to lack any manners, respect and love to others.
My opinion,
I was raised life is contract with terms and conditions about everything from parents,partner,kids,employer,friends.
Can be incredibly complex and challenging. Here are some aspects that people often consider the hardest parts of being human:
1. *Emotional struggles*: Managing emotions, such as anxiety, sadness, anger, and fear, can be overwhelming.
2. *Relationship complexities*: Navigating relationships with family, friends, and loved ones can be difficult.
3. *Mental and physical health*: Dealing with illnesses, injuries, or chronic conditions can be a significant challenge.
4. *Self-doubt and uncertainty*: Questioning one's own abilities, identity, and purpose can be a constant struggle.
5. *Loss and grief*: Coping with the loss of loved ones, experiences, or dreams can be devastating.
6. *Making difficult choices*: Facing tough decisions and uncertainty about the future can be stressful.
7. *Comparing ourselves to others*: Struggling with feelings of inadequacy or competition with others can be harmful.
8. *Finding purpose and meaning*: Searching for direction and significance in life can be a continuous challenge.
9. *Dealing with change and uncertainty*: Adapting to unexpected events, transitions, and unknowns can be difficult.
10. *Practicing self-care and self-compassion*: Taking care of oneself and treating oneself with kindness can be a constant struggle.
Remember, being human is a unique and individual experience. What one person finds challenging, another person may not.
The curse of consciousness....
Being smart enough to grasp the gravity of all the evil in the world, smart enough to see a problem (like police accountability as an example) knowing that problem is solvable, yet also knowing it will never be solved. This same process pretty much applies to everything.
The knowledge that theres a way to end pain and suffering but being cursed with the crippling knowledge of what that decision means for others, passing on that pain your trying to escape to someone else.
Empathy is a powerful force, but for some people like me, it's so powerful it becomes malevolent. Being empathetic to a fault is a burden I wouldnt wish on the most evil person to have ever lived. It's pure torture.
I wouldn't know myself as I'm rather unhuman, but I expect the hardest thing about being human is making six hour long video essays about what makes people human when the answer is pretty obvious: killing mammoths.
sentience is not restricted to human beings.
having spent a lot of time outdoors, it seems wild to me how many people don’t realize the conscious intelligence of everything around us.
if we really look at “comforts” and “conveniences” we come to realize these things (sometimes) help us feel more comfortable or convenient in the moment, but the price seems to be our mental and physical health.
our lives are constantly on the line as well. no one knows when they will die and the threat of being eaten by a predator as a prey animal in the wilderness is just a big a threat as a piano falling on your head or a car crash ending it all.
if anything wild animals are less stressed about these sorts of hypotheticals than we humans are because they’ve adapted and evolved to live the way they live, and know how to do it very well. we humans create more and more novel ways to stress ourselves out that create more and more potential for death in previously unnatural ways that are new and scary for us.
my belief is we are so depressed and messed up because of our “comforts” and “conveniences.” with enough money, one doesn’t need to ever leave their house or interact with others and more and more people are heading in that direction efficient is a great source of an unfulfilling life.
our “comforts” and “conveniences” have isolated us, made us unhealthy, and allow us to dwell on hypotheticals we create in our heads that often lead us to embrace our addictions (so we can forget about xyz) that we can easily access due to their convenience.
wild animals live as they have lived for millennia. they know what they need and how to get it and it’s simply what they do.
we don’t know what we need and instead try to get what we want while neglecting what we need. we don’t know what to do, but most of us don’t want to be imprisoned by shitty jobs, yet we must in order to survive.
animals play outside all the time, which is what we need to do to to keep ourselves mentally and physically strong, yet society tells us play is for kids and kids are only allowed to play when adults say so.
the hardest part of being a human in my opinion is living under the rule of psychopaths that do not realize what life is all about, but instead impose their toxic ideologies on us all and if we do not follow their pretend rules, we suffer and others within society often look poorly upon those who question our live against the rules because they’ve been conditioned to think rule breakers as bad people.
this isolates those who do not want to play this toxic game and isolation (which again, we all seem to be falling further into) causes depression because we’ve evolved and adapted to be a part of a community.
when our communities are behind screens that mess with our mental and physical health, depression runs rampant.
When the rest of the troop is doing something bad and you can’t possibly stop them all. Hurting another troop? Killing that environment we need to live? I can’t stop industry, and our troops are so big that we now have to dedicate our lives to hoping to get them to listen
Having people close to me take their lives or suffer because of “depression” makes me shake my head!! Personally I think all the video games, working in offices, not moving around, obesity, lack of confidence and all that leads to “depression”. I’m 46 and growing up I never heard of anyone taking their lives. I didn’t know anyone who knew anyone that did. Now it’s all the time. I believe people have to get out and move. Exercise, play sports, meet people. To stay stuck in an apartment playing video games or watching movies is NOT HEALTHY!
The hardest part for me is being nice to people and patients that I take care of even though they are being terrible towards me and there isn’t anything I can do about it besides take it like a champ 🙄😮💨
Other people.
Being able to see the full spectrum of humanity from your adolf hitlers to your child molester, really makes you think about how amazing our free will is in the eyes of the abusive. Its hard knowing bad faith actors can exist at any given moment.
Other humans for sure. Also the depth of pain and suffering you experience when you lose someone or a pet you loved so much. The helplessness of watching the pain and suffering caused by politics and war, knowing there’s very little you can do to fix it.
Time, I saw a speech about time, can't find it, but it goes somewhere along the lines of this:
Man invented time, and so we are the only animals burdened with it, deer do not hurry for the subway, moose do not worry about being late to work, and dogs do not fear of sleeping in, and yet despite this, the rooster still caws at sunrise, the birds still sing in morning, and the dogs still wake and bark, yet they are unburdened by this creation of ours, and because we are the only creatures who are aware of time, we have a distinct fear which no other creatures do: the fear of time running out
Edit: nvm I found it, I got it quite wrong but still got the general gist right,
“Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.”
for the majority of people, not having answers.
this leads to people believing the first answer to everything they are given. usually the source is whatever mainstream bullshit we're supposed to believe
the hardest part of being human for me is dealing with these people on subjects they think they know about
biological instincts, and needs . example i am extremely lonely yet I have friends and family around , but I never have had romantic contact in my 53 years of life, seeing others in romantic situations is painful, no bitterness or jealously, just a deep sadness and ache that feels like my soul is dying, it doesn't even require thought, gut a glance and it's like being sucker punched in the chest, I tried so many things to fix my problem in that area, nothing works, not religion, no hobbies not pets friends, counseling, medication, nothing works, there's was a brief moment that I was mislead into thinking someone really liked me, for that moment it was fading almost totally gone I never felt like that ever before nor after.
I was told to try something once to see if it was truly the source of my inner pain, they said go hug a tree ,I laughed at this it was ridiculous, hippie shit . so I didn't for years, till I was doing yard work one time had to tie a rope around a tree, I had to wrap my arms around it for a second to get the rope around, so I said wtf I'll do it, and it worked just a little, felt so nice to feel that , so odd I hug friends and family all the time , never felt any relief.
now the reason they claim this work is because the tree is alive it's not male or female but is more female energy then male because of its ability to reproduce, there's a lot of us hippie stuff to it
but to.the point the hardest of being human is not being able to shut off basic biological instincts , If I was never going to find someone and remain a virgin my entire life I should be able to shut off this ache in my body, and not have it just get worse over time, I asked about castration once to see if that would make it stop , I was asked I an I horny all the time, I am not , I almost never think about sex because it's depressing and triggers sadness so deep I can't handle it, so no that wouldn't work
being kind. there’s so many people, no matter where you go, that are power/money hungry and/or just miserable and insufferable. we all know times are tough and you have to put you and your family first, but there are so many out there that would get themselves a new yacht before even donating a few meals to those in need. not just in terms of donating, but the general kindness of society has gone downhill for years and i feel as though when COVID struck is when it got even worse. specifically in America is where i see this culture the most. maybe it’s with how independent people are wired here, but it seems a lot to ask today for basic kindness around the globe.
Feeling rejected and not belonging to the in-group. Social rejection hurts as much as physical injuries do, according to research. Humans are ultimately social animals.
Having discourses and ideologies thrown our way constantly that differ from others in the world and lead to misunderstandings, violence, conflicts, etc. Whereas if we just had animal brains we’d recognize our needs are all the same with food, water, sleep, sex, etc.
The knowing. That's the hardest part. My dog, for example. She knows some things. She knows that I give her food and belly scratches. But she doesn't know that if I don't go to work, or if I lose my hand in an accident, those things go away. We're more aware, and that is both a blessing and a curse. It enables us to accomplish more, but it also can hold us back if we become too afraid of what fate holds in store for us. That's my take anyway. Best wishes.
I agree ☝🏼
This
In his book *White Noise*, there’s a discussion sort of in line with the “what makes a human different from the animals” question that lead to answers like e.g. “featherless biped.” The answer in the book is that a human is the only animal that knows it will die.
I know a bit about elephants. They are intelligent, they mourn for their deceased relatives and many other fancy facts about them. It’s really interesting to see how they have their own language and culture we don’t understand. Looking deeper into things like this makes me even more curious if we’re just a cosmic accident or someone really made us. We’ll never know 😔
An interesting study. There are a few others that know death, recognize it, have a "culture" around death, but do they KNOW of their own mortality?
What about an old dog who will leave home and go to the woods or fields to pass there? Or an old lion will leave her pride to pass?
I dunno, Cats run off & hide when they know they're gonna die. I think Dogs understand that they get older & life will eventually end (at least I think the 2 German Sheppards I've had, who both grew old & died, were pretty sure they knew that's what happens when you get old?) Dolphins & Whales definitely know that they eventually die. They take care of their little babies & their older relatives in their pods. Killer whales will kill a sting ray, or a seal & bring the meal to the older whales. (dolphins, I think are just as smart, if not smarter than Humans. They just didn't evolve the same way & we can't talk to them.) Octopus' definitely know when They are gonna die (go watch my Octopus teacher on Netflix) Even a Mouse running away when any threat presents itself, is this not deep engrained self preservation kicking in so Death is avoided? I think most Mammals know that they live & then they die. Humans just have the evolution ability to study it more.
Humans are the only animals that cook their food.
Who is the author?
I think it's simultaneously that as well as the NOT knowing. Like being aware of the mysteries that can never be answered.
In reading this, I thought to myself "I guess that means humans are also the only creatures capable of experiencing an existential crisis", but then I thought about my cats...
Grief.
Grief is one of the emotions that I think a lot of animals share. But not anticipatory grief, which is grief ahead of time knowing something will happen soon.
Elephants grieve and I’m sure dolphins do .
I read once that grief is love that has nowhere to go when a person dies, so we call it grief. It made a lot of sense to me. I agree with your comment though, it is definitely one of the hardest things to deal with.
I love this way of understanding grief. It makes so much sense.
Controlling that mind that's gone rogue. Thinking all those self-defeating-but-fulfilling thoughts.
I have adhd and girl…THE STRUGGLE JGHFGGGGH 😭😭😭
I’m sorry you got hit with the comments below. I have adhd as well, and wasn’t aware that I had it until I was in my thirties. The symptoms were debilitating, and I spent my entire life fighting to be able to function in a way that didn’t leave me homeless or institutionalized. Discovering that I had adhd, and learning that all of the things I spent my life thinking I was just somehow bad at, or broken in some way, were actually symptoms of neurodivergence, helped me. It let me, for the first time *ever*, put a name to what was happening so I could learn how to address it, and starting meds helped give me a future i wouldn’t have had without my diagnosis. TLDR, don’t listen to people telling you what you are going through isn’t real, if it was just a “concept” you would not have had the symptoms leading to diagnosis in the first place.
Don’t worry it’s ok. I understand some people are just so blessed they won’t understand what we’re going through. But my god I related to you so much 😭😭 Before I got diagnosed by the psychiatrist I knew I had it. My ex said I’m just delusional, so for my sake (also for my final exam) I went to the doctor because I needed to get my shit together or I won’t graduate and to prove him wrong. Even then he still said it’s not real like wtf 💀 I made my peace with it tho. I won’t make it my label, just at least knowing what I struggle with and how to deal with it. I think that’s good enough 😊 Cheers to you too. I hope you have a good organized day 💕
I fixed it by getting a job that keeps me so busy and multitasking so much that adhd doesn’t even bother me anymore… when I get overwhelmed with thoughts I just take a deep breath and say “welp, gotta get it done somehow” and just keep moving. Somehow it makes me think less. I get so busy in what I do that I really don’t have time to overthink anymore. When I’m not at work I’ve taken up hobbies like repairing electronics and car repair, it makes you focus cause the hobby is too expensive to fuck up 😂
Other humans
Was gunna say this.
Agreed. Navigating relationships with other people is probably the hardest part of being human. Mostly because people are complex and don't tell you what they're feeling. You sometimes have to guess and/or deal with the uncertainty of never being totally sure how others feel towards you.
Fuck humans. They suck
No cap, for real for real
COMPLETELY AGREE
Doing the right thing when no one is looking. And not giving a fuck what other people say and do
This. I heard a related discussion on the radio this morning about if you find someone's wallet with cash do you return it with the cash? Someone said they went out of their way to find the person to return the wallet with $700 cash and wouldn't take anything from the person. Later that day played some gambling game and won $3K. If that isn't good karma Idk what is.
I spent three hours returning someone's work check I found in the parking lot and didn't even get a thanks. Only thing I won was depression and being sent to the psych ward a month later. Coincidence is not a sign of the divine. Do good to be good, if you expect a reward you will nearly always be dissapointed.
Not totally the same. But one night after working i had all my tips turned into big bills so I could turn into the bank the next day. It was around $2500. After work I went to a friend’s house and left around 2am. The next morning I wake up to go to the bank and I can’t find my wallet anywhere. I rush to my friend’s house, gas station I stopped at, i was panicking. I get a call from an old neighbor and she said some young man was there with my wallet. I show up and he had my wallet with all my cash, credit cards and everything. He said he found my wallet outside my friend’s apartment when he went to work the next day and found the address on my id (which was a previous address I lived at) and returned it there. I offered him a few hundred for his kindness and he refused any form of repayment. A few months later I’m at my friend’s apartment and getting ready to leave when he was having some car troubles. I go speak with him and went to the auto store to get some parts and replaced his alternator for him.
Thanks for sharing. I love hearing stories like these and being reminded there are good people in the world.
Knowing that we as humans ultimately serve no purpose other than to experience existence.
But the fact that we can’t live as long as the tree. I think that’s what fuck us up. We’re cooked because we know we have expiry date 💀💀
Every living thing has an expiration date. The mess up part is that we humans are the only living thing that is conscious of it.
Only we know for sure.
And that holds us back from finding and living to our fullest potential until such time as we either tell fear to eff off and take the jump, or we actually find out that our date is closer than expected and decide to live it up in the time we've got left.
As far as we know.
Everything has a expiry date, the earth, sun not sure about chuck Norris though.
Chuck Norris is the sun's expiration date
Trees age, die, and fall. It just takes longer.
Isn’t every animals basic purpose to reproduce?
We do have the ability to create our own meaning and purpose even if it isn't part of some grand plan though. I thought the Pixar movie Soul did a great job of showing this.
You just reminded me of that amazing movie! It didn’t get the attention it deserved.
I find that weirdly nice. That you have no set purpose, you make it yourself and decide what you want out of your limited time and what your legacy is gonna be.
Our world is very complex. We have to earn money to get our food and shelter. In the wild, animals need to hunt to get their food. Our complex world makes it harder to navigate.
But we're smarter. We don't have to hunt. We CAN order delivery. Then we just have to hunt our phone between the seat cushions. We could go off the grid and hunt our food. But to me that's harder. Or farming is harder to me.
I'm working towards the latter because I personally find it more taxing living the "normal" way
I disagree. I’d rather hunt or farm. Physically it’s harder, but it’s so much simpler. Our modern society is so complex and difficult to understand, it’s so difficult to do anything that gets you enough money to survive these days. At least in the wild all you had to worry about was catching dinner or growing it.
Yup. And even if you choose to do that today, the IRS is knocking at your door.
Harder to navigate, but much easier to survive.
You mean "hunt" as a word to describe all the ways life sustains itself, right? Like eating grass, for example.
Changes from person to person. For me it's existentialism
Putting up with liars & thieves. I have no use for people who can't be trusted.
Suffering
Real. Life is suffering, but I do like being alive. Does that mean I like suffering? I dunno. What about you? What gets you through the days, months, and years?
The ability to look towards the dawn of tomorrow and ignore the dusk of today.
Time. It goes by so fast I didn’t realize I had been getting by. I don’t like suffering. I want peace. But my motivation in life is slim to none, so we’ll see how much longer I can go.
Good luck, warrior
Appreciate it pardner.
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
Figuring out what to eat for dinner.
Getting up.
i have to remind myself everyday when i get out of bed that im good enough to do so. felt this.
Taxes and the daily grind.
Rumination
Being around other humans is a challenge Quite a few are insane
Having empathy. The suffering of humans and animals hurts me constantly. Life is hard when you feel the pain of others so strongly. Then, to compound it, others tease you or tell you to get tougher.
I’m already so upset and concerned for the pets and wildlife who will be disturbed, killed, lost or abandoned by the fireworks on the 4th. And i can’t do anything about it.
I find that for a good person, it is another one of those things that you have to balance. A lot of people in the world definitely could use more empathy, but too much empathy for people you can't help at all can drive you crazy.
I feel the same. I live every day asking what I can do making life better for those suffering and realise that I can’t really change anything.
On a large scale, people like us are unlikely to change things. But you can make a huge difference in a few lives. One starving dog or cat can have its life changed if you adopt or put out food or donate, for example. I know it’s hard…the cruelty in this world is overwhelming sometimes. But small acts can snowball into big ones. Just a couple of days ago, a lady I met five years ago made a 20 hour drive to tell me that something I did on the day we met changed her entire life. All I did was include her in an activity and be nice. That was it. But it helped her start a journey toward overcoming her anxiety. We don’t need to change the world, but if we can change one person or one animal’s world, we have done a lot. ❤️
This!
That makes me so happy to read. I’m glad there are people like you in the world
Anxiety. What other animal worries about things that never happen? lol
The constant longing for whatever - the inability to be satisfied with what we have.
Periods. I have a concert tonight and right now I’m trying to map out how I’m going to have access to the bathroom every 30 minutes to be able to change my tampon. It’s hell
I know some ppl don’t like it but the cup changed my life. I can’t even count how much $$ it saved me in the last 3 years. I bought the name brand for $35 and it’s lasted. Except on the very first day, I can go all day without changing it
And for people who can’t get comfortable with the cups, try the discs. I use flex, and went from having to use the crazy giant tampons *and* a pad, and *still* having leaks on the first couple days, to not having to worry. The first day, I will use a pad as backup to be safe, but yeah, it’s a total game changer. And, it helps me have less cramps.
>And, it helps me have less cramps. Please, as someone who gets severe, vomiting, passing out cramps, I beg you to expand on this.
and during it I am particularly prone to diarrhea, which is a disaster
Name checks out.
Aww noo, that must suck so much honestly, mine are okay but I don’t eat on my period much because I just feel too nauseous
When people u love die
A better answer than most here
Loss
Yup it's the knowing that we know. You know?
Having feelings
What I was going to comment, I hate having feelings
not being able to fully understand anyone else
From my experience the concept of working makes life very hard, we have to earn money to survive, often doing menial or meaningless tasks that often serve no tangible benefit to humanity. If one has a job it means lining the pockets of someone else. So we work hard during the best hours of the day for 40-50 years to help someone else pay for possessions whilst the worker has less spending power each year due to inflation, we’re also expected to be grateful for the opportunity to do so. I also find the whole thing entirely disingenuous, the concept of being professional when a client or whoever is being a nasty twat is quite trying. So, in life it’s crucial to find something you genuinely enjoy and to find meaning in it, to win back the best hours of the day and your life to spend the time doing things that you actually care about. For the people that find meaning in jobs such as insurance, actuarial services, corporate law or finance I have nothing but respect for, personally it’s all to fake, ruthless and damaging for me to pretend and this is coming from someone who has had a 20 year insurance career.
Knowing there is a past and a future, while we live in the present. Humans want to experience everything, everywhere, all the time.
Loneliness.
Complex social structures, and that every person has to find their own ends and own purpose. We do not have a set life cycle which means a lot of freedom, but a lot of responsibility too
Breathing. I want to be reincarnated as an obsidian so I wouldn’t struggle with this obligation in my next life.
Shoelaces. Just why?
Other people
Having to go to work and fulfill society’s expectations.
Bruh I don’t see humans as any better than a damn bug. We see ourselves as these civilized ultra beings. But many other species develop incredibly complex societies and ways of existing we couldn’t understand. The concept that our existence is somehow “better” because we can farm and domesticate and make a computer chip isn’t so far off from ant colonies and other such groups of living things. Language shmanguage. Space travel my ass. We’re just some weirdo apes with an inflated sense of self. The hardest thing to do is come to terms with our inferiority and smallness in the grand scheme of the universe and still be ok and still contribute to the group and to land.
Dealing with other humans, I hate people so much
+1000 points for dogs and cats frfr 😔 But tbh I think every species has an asshole. We just met lots of human asshole because it’s the society we’re living in 💁🏻♀️✨
Knowing that we're the smartest animals on the planet and that many of us choose to be cruel. We should all know better than to hurt/abuse each other or other animals.
The ability to comprehend your own inevitable demise.
Having to eat everyday is a drag. And when you can't eat everyday, it's an even bigger drag.
I just live minutes by minute, hour by hour and day by day. Live in the moment because the past is the past and you can’t change that, the future is unwritten so all you have is right now. Don’t overthink your existence and just live like everyday is your last
Being conscious of how short our time is. :(
Every body process that we are not conscious of. There thousands of things happening in your body every second and thankfully the brain does it without needing conscious input.
Getting upvotes on Reddit.
Having to deal with inconsiderate people.
I used to love being human and loved taking care of my body and tried my best to be healthy. However recently I have developed sudden hearing loss and severe tinnitus and it is a super shitty feeling to be trapped inside your mind and body with inescapable sounds blaring at you all day that sound like electric ringing and roaring. I remember how things used to sound and now I can't hear them like they did before because of my hearing damage. It makes me feel like a freaking robot and gives me depersonalization bad. Not necessarily from the stress and depression related to this but because my actual hearing sense being damaged has distorted my reality.
Being hyper conscious and aware of how life is so fleeting… moments of existentialism
Existential dread.
Knowing you'll eventually die ):
Waking up
The other humans.
Getting physically old and dying
Feeling lonely on an over populated planet.
To me the hardest part of being a human is knowing that only humans are capable of doing truly horrible things, we lack empathy when we are too concerned with our own lives and struggles, some people have no sense of perspective or understand that other people just like them are living terrible lives somewhere else in the world and we don’t care.
Having to work in sh*t to live but also the fear of death. Almost had a panic attack a bit ago cause of my fear of potentially being reincarnated when I die.
Knowing that you will die.
That not everything is going to go your way and that’s ok. We all have a destination and some people get it sooner than others. Life is supposed to be hard, we’re here to survive and duplicate and try to leave the world a better place than it was when we entered it
>Everything is so convenient for our survival... It really isn't though >and yet there’s depression and other stuff. Which is why the second happens sometimes (although much like our spines, our brains are really shitty concerning the why the function/evolved, so sometimes depression just happens ). >Other species literally have their lives hanging on the line cuz bro will get killed or starved to death This is also true of Many people, just the source of WHY they are about to be killed or starved is different than other animals I guess?
Job
Having to follow rules
The quest for purpose
Regular maintenance
Learning things the hard way.
Well speaking as a person with ADHD, everything. Its so hard.
[удалено]
Thanos was right at the end 😩😩
Basic maintenance
Definitely the horrors
I do not think this are convenient at all haha life is definitely a struggle sometimes
The hardest part is knowing the next generation of philosophers say “we do be diff”
Figuring out what to eat for dinner everyday.
Loving and knowing life is gonna end.
Emotional pain
Loving yourself, and others. Knowing the difference between love and fear.
Daoism teaches us that the ideal state of humans is as a baby. Babies are similar to other animals in that they do not try to label things, or worry about the future other than a few months in advance (ie animals that hibernate/migrate). They live almost entirely in the moment and listen to their instincts. They just experience and observe everything instead of getting into their heads and fretting about the unknown. I feel that this mentality can help alleviate many of the worries we, knowledgeable humans, deal with daily.
Being able to control most of what happens in our lives.
Having to consume at least three square meals a day. Mostly to power the bobble head right on top of a pair of legs and scrawny neck.
Being around fools and resisting the urge to slap the taste out if their ignorant mouths. In America its a daily hourly minute by minute challenge
getting up every morning and doing it again
the other humans
You obviously know how to write English properly... How can you type out "we do be" and expect to be taken seriously?
Nobody actually teaches you how to be human. Yea we have parents and school teachers but they don’t know what they’re doing either, none of us actually have any idea what we’re doing We quite literally just have to “figure it out”. One day you don’t exist, and the next you’re here. Bam. That’s it. No owner’s manual, no instructions. Just a desire to eat and pick your nose. From the perspective of a baby, we pretty much just spawn into a random existence that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Putting up with delusional democrats who,even after ol joes debate fiasco,still say hes in charge. And is best person to run the country
The dread of knowing that everything will end eventually. That's partly why we invented religions.
I think it's that we forget that we are animals that are affected by our environment. We created a society that doesn't necessarily help each other thrive, and instead of changing the environment, we've convinced ourselves that something is wrong with us.
Mental illness
Probably has already been said but: Dealing with other humans. Specifically the close-minded kind. I'm no saint, but compared to other insufferable brats and idiots that are a waste of oxygen, such as my boss... makes me really think what must be wrong with them and what experiences led them to lack any manners, respect and love to others.
Don't listen to all your inner voices,. At least question them occasionally. And stop being proud of being stupid or under-educated.
staying awake between 3pm and 6pm
Having to work til death for crap we don’t need
My opinion, I was raised life is contract with terms and conditions about everything from parents,partner,kids,employer,friends. Can be incredibly complex and challenging. Here are some aspects that people often consider the hardest parts of being human: 1. *Emotional struggles*: Managing emotions, such as anxiety, sadness, anger, and fear, can be overwhelming. 2. *Relationship complexities*: Navigating relationships with family, friends, and loved ones can be difficult. 3. *Mental and physical health*: Dealing with illnesses, injuries, or chronic conditions can be a significant challenge. 4. *Self-doubt and uncertainty*: Questioning one's own abilities, identity, and purpose can be a constant struggle. 5. *Loss and grief*: Coping with the loss of loved ones, experiences, or dreams can be devastating. 6. *Making difficult choices*: Facing tough decisions and uncertainty about the future can be stressful. 7. *Comparing ourselves to others*: Struggling with feelings of inadequacy or competition with others can be harmful. 8. *Finding purpose and meaning*: Searching for direction and significance in life can be a continuous challenge. 9. *Dealing with change and uncertainty*: Adapting to unexpected events, transitions, and unknowns can be difficult. 10. *Practicing self-care and self-compassion*: Taking care of oneself and treating oneself with kindness can be a constant struggle. Remember, being human is a unique and individual experience. What one person finds challenging, another person may not.
needing food, sleep and shelter
The curse of consciousness.... Being smart enough to grasp the gravity of all the evil in the world, smart enough to see a problem (like police accountability as an example) knowing that problem is solvable, yet also knowing it will never be solved. This same process pretty much applies to everything. The knowledge that theres a way to end pain and suffering but being cursed with the crippling knowledge of what that decision means for others, passing on that pain your trying to escape to someone else. Empathy is a powerful force, but for some people like me, it's so powerful it becomes malevolent. Being empathetic to a fault is a burden I wouldnt wish on the most evil person to have ever lived. It's pure torture.
Not struggling.
I wouldn't know myself as I'm rather unhuman, but I expect the hardest thing about being human is making six hour long video essays about what makes people human when the answer is pretty obvious: killing mammoths.
Definitely dealing with other humans, we’re kind of the worst.
Passive aggressive assholes.
sentience is not restricted to human beings. having spent a lot of time outdoors, it seems wild to me how many people don’t realize the conscious intelligence of everything around us. if we really look at “comforts” and “conveniences” we come to realize these things (sometimes) help us feel more comfortable or convenient in the moment, but the price seems to be our mental and physical health. our lives are constantly on the line as well. no one knows when they will die and the threat of being eaten by a predator as a prey animal in the wilderness is just a big a threat as a piano falling on your head or a car crash ending it all. if anything wild animals are less stressed about these sorts of hypotheticals than we humans are because they’ve adapted and evolved to live the way they live, and know how to do it very well. we humans create more and more novel ways to stress ourselves out that create more and more potential for death in previously unnatural ways that are new and scary for us. my belief is we are so depressed and messed up because of our “comforts” and “conveniences.” with enough money, one doesn’t need to ever leave their house or interact with others and more and more people are heading in that direction efficient is a great source of an unfulfilling life. our “comforts” and “conveniences” have isolated us, made us unhealthy, and allow us to dwell on hypotheticals we create in our heads that often lead us to embrace our addictions (so we can forget about xyz) that we can easily access due to their convenience. wild animals live as they have lived for millennia. they know what they need and how to get it and it’s simply what they do. we don’t know what we need and instead try to get what we want while neglecting what we need. we don’t know what to do, but most of us don’t want to be imprisoned by shitty jobs, yet we must in order to survive. animals play outside all the time, which is what we need to do to to keep ourselves mentally and physically strong, yet society tells us play is for kids and kids are only allowed to play when adults say so. the hardest part of being a human in my opinion is living under the rule of psychopaths that do not realize what life is all about, but instead impose their toxic ideologies on us all and if we do not follow their pretend rules, we suffer and others within society often look poorly upon those who question our live against the rules because they’ve been conditioned to think rule breakers as bad people. this isolates those who do not want to play this toxic game and isolation (which again, we all seem to be falling further into) causes depression because we’ve evolved and adapted to be a part of a community. when our communities are behind screens that mess with our mental and physical health, depression runs rampant.
Other hoomans
Ego and feeling emotions
Existential dread.
Living around other humans ☠️
Listening to people say shit like "we do be acting"
When the rest of the troop is doing something bad and you can’t possibly stop them all. Hurting another troop? Killing that environment we need to live? I can’t stop industry, and our troops are so big that we now have to dedicate our lives to hoping to get them to listen
Other species are all also sentient...
Having to deal with people sensitivity issues! Can’t do anything or say anything without people being offended.
Love/pain and the inextractability of both.
Having people close to me take their lives or suffer because of “depression” makes me shake my head!! Personally I think all the video games, working in offices, not moving around, obesity, lack of confidence and all that leads to “depression”. I’m 46 and growing up I never heard of anyone taking their lives. I didn’t know anyone who knew anyone that did. Now it’s all the time. I believe people have to get out and move. Exercise, play sports, meet people. To stay stuck in an apartment playing video games or watching movies is NOT HEALTHY!
The hardest part for me is being nice to people and patients that I take care of even though they are being terrible towards me and there isn’t anything I can do about it besides take it like a champ 🙄😮💨
Living with other humans.
Other people. Being able to see the full spectrum of humanity from your adolf hitlers to your child molester, really makes you think about how amazing our free will is in the eyes of the abusive. Its hard knowing bad faith actors can exist at any given moment.
Existence is pain
Other humans for sure. Also the depth of pain and suffering you experience when you lose someone or a pet you loved so much. The helplessness of watching the pain and suffering caused by politics and war, knowing there’s very little you can do to fix it.
The hardest part is acting like one.
Losing loved ones, and working ur life away when you don’t enjoy a job. Managing to stay financially afloat. Negative emotions
Understanding that in reality, you are alone, in almost every aspect of life. And there’s nothing to look forward to after we die.
Time, I saw a speech about time, can't find it, but it goes somewhere along the lines of this: Man invented time, and so we are the only animals burdened with it, deer do not hurry for the subway, moose do not worry about being late to work, and dogs do not fear of sleeping in, and yet despite this, the rooster still caws at sunrise, the birds still sing in morning, and the dogs still wake and bark, yet they are unburdened by this creation of ours, and because we are the only creatures who are aware of time, we have a distinct fear which no other creatures do: the fear of time running out Edit: nvm I found it, I got it quite wrong but still got the general gist right, “Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.”
The mothman one sold out so fast 😭 i wanted one so bad
for the majority of people, not having answers. this leads to people believing the first answer to everything they are given. usually the source is whatever mainstream bullshit we're supposed to believe the hardest part of being human for me is dealing with these people on subjects they think they know about
Other peoples nonsense...
Listening and considering the opposite opinion of others instead of hearing and waiting to tell them they are wrong since it isn’t their opinion too.
I have a feeling that people who are like this believe opinions and facts are synonymous
biological instincts, and needs . example i am extremely lonely yet I have friends and family around , but I never have had romantic contact in my 53 years of life, seeing others in romantic situations is painful, no bitterness or jealously, just a deep sadness and ache that feels like my soul is dying, it doesn't even require thought, gut a glance and it's like being sucker punched in the chest, I tried so many things to fix my problem in that area, nothing works, not religion, no hobbies not pets friends, counseling, medication, nothing works, there's was a brief moment that I was mislead into thinking someone really liked me, for that moment it was fading almost totally gone I never felt like that ever before nor after. I was told to try something once to see if it was truly the source of my inner pain, they said go hug a tree ,I laughed at this it was ridiculous, hippie shit . so I didn't for years, till I was doing yard work one time had to tie a rope around a tree, I had to wrap my arms around it for a second to get the rope around, so I said wtf I'll do it, and it worked just a little, felt so nice to feel that , so odd I hug friends and family all the time , never felt any relief. now the reason they claim this work is because the tree is alive it's not male or female but is more female energy then male because of its ability to reproduce, there's a lot of us hippie stuff to it but to.the point the hardest of being human is not being able to shut off basic biological instincts , If I was never going to find someone and remain a virgin my entire life I should be able to shut off this ache in my body, and not have it just get worse over time, I asked about castration once to see if that would make it stop , I was asked I an I horny all the time, I am not , I almost never think about sex because it's depressing and triggers sadness so deep I can't handle it, so no that wouldn't work
Watching so many people give up their authentic experience of life for dogma based herd mentality death cults.
Being aware of our mortality. Other animals don’t know
being kind. there’s so many people, no matter where you go, that are power/money hungry and/or just miserable and insufferable. we all know times are tough and you have to put you and your family first, but there are so many out there that would get themselves a new yacht before even donating a few meals to those in need. not just in terms of donating, but the general kindness of society has gone downhill for years and i feel as though when COVID struck is when it got even worse. specifically in America is where i see this culture the most. maybe it’s with how independent people are wired here, but it seems a lot to ask today for basic kindness around the globe.
Feeling rejected and not belonging to the in-group. Social rejection hurts as much as physical injuries do, according to research. Humans are ultimately social animals.
The knowledge of good and evil. Free choice.
Having discourses and ideologies thrown our way constantly that differ from others in the world and lead to misunderstandings, violence, conflicts, etc. Whereas if we just had animal brains we’d recognize our needs are all the same with food, water, sleep, sex, etc.