How important my moods are to me

[MozartLink]

I am going to explain what my good moods are like to me. I know I've talked about this time and time again. But all my previous topics were way too long and I wish to give an effective brief summary here so people get a clear message.

First off, I am a hedonist as I've said before. That means you think that pleasure (your good moods) are all there is to life and are all there is to having meaning, joy, and happiness in your life. It is a life in which you solely live by the pain/pleasure principle. That is, to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Any moral values you have only give your life meaning in the context of the pain/pleasure principle. That is, your life can only have meaning, joy, and happiness if you are in a good mood and don't have any suffering in your life at the moment.

Now the words "hedonism" and "pleasure" imply something less important. It implies that you are living your life for nothing more than some pleasant sensation such as from hot chocolate or being rubbed on the back. This is a misconception of my own hedonistic life. My good moods are very profound and life depending experiences for me in my life. So it is for this very reason that I would no longer refer to myself as being a hedonist and is why I would no longer refer to my good moods as being "pleasure."

My moods are not nothing more than pleasant or unpleasant sensations. They alter my entire perception of reality. They are life altering mental states. Many people claim that they are nothing more than sensations and that one can have meaning, joy, and happiness in his/her life even while feeling down, blue, and depressed. But I have never understood this. It never made any sense to me.

When I am depressed, it is not just some unpleasant feeling (sensation) I am getting and nothing more. When I am depressed, the entire universe around me lowers down into a state of hell. My life then has the worst meaning. If I live a depressed life, then my entire reality has changed for the worst regardless of what great things I do in my life anyway.

But when I am not depressed and have my good moods, then my life is transcended into a state of paradise. It is the most profound and beautiful life for me. But having neither my good or bad moods is neither heaven nor hell for me. It is like being in limbo. So my good moods are absolutely vital and life depending for me. Without them, then it is like I am being suffocated. My good moods are like the air I need to breathe. I need air in order to live physically. But I need my good moods in order to live in terms of having good meaning, love, joy, happiness, and inspiration in my life.

It's as if my good and bad moods are not moods at all and shouldn't even be referred to as being "moods." It's as if they are some sort of supernatural sixth sense of my brain that transcend all other mental functions including thought. When I am in a good mood, it is like I am having the most profound and greatest transcended experience ever. It is like I am sensing heaven itself. It is like I am living in heaven.

But without my good moods, then I can tell myself all I want that my life still has good meaning, love, joy, inspiration, and happiness and I can do all I want with my life, but it is like I am in limbo in which all those things I am telling myself are nothing more than words and phrases and not any true good meaning, joy, happiness, etc. So my good moods are like some transcended mental experience bestowed upon me by angels of heaven. They are what transcend me, my life, and my composing dream into something truly great. They are what inspire my compositions and are the only things that do so.

Now I am a materialist and I do not believe in anything supernatural. So I am just giving a metaphorical description here for what my good moods are like to me. I am also not saying that I am better and unique than everyone else and that my brain is gifted and better than anyone else's. I am just simply explaining what my moods are like to me. My good and bad moods are like portals to heaven and hell. That is how powerful and profound they are to me. No other mental state compares to them. Not even my way of thinking alone.

When I am in a good mood, I have entered heaven. My life is full of bliss, joy, happiness, inspiration, and good meaning. My good moods are a sacred divine transcending life force far beyond any of my other mental functions. This is what my experience of my good moods are like to me. Even the version of joy and happiness that Buddhists speak of which is a content mindstate, this is nothing in comparison. The content mindstate is a state of thought and that's all it is. If you have depression in your life, then the Buddhists would tell you to accept and be content with your life anyway.

But these Buddhists are dead wrong here. They say that this content mindstate is true happiness, joy, and good meaning in one's life when it is quite the contrary. My good moods transcend any state of thought I can ever achieve in my life. Like I said before, no other mental state compares to them. So my good moods are the only source of true happiness, joy, good meaning, and inspiration for me in my life. Without them, then my life is empty and meaningless. Especially if I am depressed. When I am depressed, I have entered the portal to hell and no content mindstate can ever possibly give my life any good meaning, joy, happiness, etc. while I am depressed. It is no different than being content in cold, empty, meaningless space. Your life is still meaningless regardless of how content you are.

I said before that my good and bad moods are like a supernatural sixth sense of my brain. It is like how psychics enter whole new supernatural realms. As long as they are in the realm of a bleak world that is fully of emptiness and despair, then them being content in such a realm is very likely to not bring their lives any meaning, joy, or happiness. Let me tell you that. So that is what depression is like for me. When I am depressed, it is like I have entered a whole new realm in which no way of thinking can ever possibly bring my life any good meaning, love, joy, happiness, etc.

Same concept also applies to my good moods. As long as I am in a good mood, then no way of thinking can make my life empty and meaningless. I am currently in a state of paradise of no suffering at the moment when I have my good moods. It's like I am in heaven. When you are in heaven, there is no more meaninglessness and it doesn't matter what you think to yourself, your life cannot be meaningless. So my good and bad moods are not just simply moods. They are not just simply pleasant or unpleasant sensations. They are forces of heaven and hell.

Therefore, I would not call myself a hedonist, I would not call my good moods "pleasure," and I would even go so far as no longer referring to them as "good moods" anymore either. I would instead call myself a "supernaturalist" in which I live for a supernatural force of heaven in my life and rely on it to give my life meaning. My good moods are like the transcending life force of a deity. They are the life force of a transcended angel. So I would instead refer to my good moods as being "spiritual transcending life force" and I would instead refer to my depression as being "soul-destroying life force."

[Bill Wiltrack]

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Sounds like you're pretty normal except you have a gift to articulate rather well.


On a philosophical note, I perceive my depression as not being a "soul-destroying life force" but as a point of correction. We can learn a GREAT deal through our hurt & depressed states IMHO. More so than through our feel-good times...





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[duszek]

We can observe what circumstances put us in a good mood.
It could be going out with friends for a beer.
If your liver does not appreciate alcohol you can try an alcohol-free beer. It tastes the same and the amount of alcohol is minimal so that you can sleep normally.

Usually in life we cannot compose perfect circumstances for well-being.
A realist should make the best from the unsatisfactory.

[Walker]

Hello Motzart, duszek.

On a philosophical note, I perceive my depression as not being a "soul-destroying life force" but as a point of correction. We can learn a GREAT deal through our hurt & depressed states IMHO. More so than through our feel-good times...

People learn to transmute the energy of good moods, and bad moods, into the energy required for a specific purpose.

To my mind, the energy of moods is their only worth.

If one but learns to not cling to a conditioned and habitual association
namely,
the association of energy with emotion,
then the world is a better place.

But that will never happen in the totality of the population because the world would be a darker place without that feminine association of energy and emotion. It will never happen because that is the nature of being human.

What can happen is to not cling to the association.

Watch any professional performer on the tube. You really don’t care about their personal mood, do you.

Don't feel that PC guilt that you don't care.

The point is not that you are uncaring of the performer’s personal mood.
The point is that the professional has learned the reason why a human has moods.

Philosophically, performance requires any physical movement. Little finger, for instance.

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[MozartLink]

I am different. I am a different type of artist. One who does not find any value in suffering, despair, and death. This entire life and my composing is very personal to me. It is all here for my personal enjoyment (pleasure) and this is my one and only reason for living. This entire life and my composing is like a personal possession to me that I wish to have all to myself and live it however I want to.

It is no different than how if I had a personal movie or game to play. It is mine and I can just sit down and enjoy it all I want. The same thing applies to life itself for me. I also see life as being a place for my enjoyment. I should be able to live it however I want to and to live for all eternity in eternal bliss with no suffering and no death in my life. But such is not the case since this is not how life works.

It is for that very reason this life is now empty and meaningless to me since I can't derive any pleasure (enjoyment) from my composing nor from this life since I now struggle with depression and anhedonia. On top of this, I am a materialist who believes there is no afterlife. So far be it from this life being meant for me. It is for this very reason that there is nothing here for me in this life now.

My one and only reason for living and my one and only way of finding meaning and joy, happiness, love, and inspiration in my life is having no suffering, no depression, no absence of my good moods (anhedonia), and no death in my life and living for all eternity in a good mood. My good moods are the only profoundly spiritual experience for me in this life and you have to understand this. Please do not just ignorantly blow off this statement and still insist on telling me things such as that rationality is better and more profound or that I still have other things in this life to give me meaning.

Never once have I ever had any profound meaningful experience in my life through my thinking alone without my good moods. Sure, I can still acknowledge my family as being great to me while I am depressed and don't have my good moods. But that is not the same thing as having meaning, love, joy, happiness, and inspiration in my life. My thoughts alone without my good moods don't give me those things. Only my good moods inspire and transcend me and my life into something far greater.

My good moods are the one and only things that give me every reason to live on and compose for myself and others. Without them, then it doesn't matter how I think. My life is still empty and meaningless no matter what. It's as if the good moods themselves are an unspoken perception of good meaning, love, joy, happiness, and inspiration in my life. It's as if they, alone in of themselves, allow me to perceive meaning in my life completely independent of my way of thinking.

I have every reason to believe that our good and bad moods themselves dictate the meaning in our lives and that our way of thinking does not. Others are only brainwashed into thinking that somehow living a life in which you are crippled by depression and moving on is somehow supposed to be a meaningful life full of joy and happiness. That to me is just plain nonsense.

It is for this very reason that I personally deem heroic tales passed down unto generations in which the hero puts himself through pain and misery for other things and people is really just living an empty meaningless life and just forcing yourself to live through all that suffering and nothing more. It is for this very reason I would choose to be the self-empowered villan. But not the type of villan who harms and demeans innocent people.

What I mean here is just someone who lives for himself and for his own personal pleasure because that is all he really has in this life. Even despite the fact that he has a loving family and other innocent people looking out for him and encouraging him to live on, it is actually only his own personal pleasure that gives him every reason to live on and is the very thing that encourages and inspires him.

Many people would say to me that living for life without your good moods to help others and other things is the greater person with the greater meaningful life. But that to me is the lesser person with the lesser life. This is because, in my eyes, you are nothing more than some lifeless drone just choosing to live for others and nothing more.

As long as you are depressed and don't have your good moods, then you are a lifeless drone in my eyes who lives a life of no meaning in which his/her greatness as a human being has been hopelessly sapped out of him/her. You would only be fooling yourself into thinking that this is a meaningful life. You are brainwashed into thinking so by this modern moral society in my eyes.

[Walker]

All I can say in relation to your topic right now, which is all the time I have:

That’s a lot of writing. Take any value for yourself from it that you may find ... and start from the simple fact that you had to move a lot of something to make that much appear.

I personally know the human energy required for that much writing to appear.

Neither do I find any value in suffering, despair, and death.

But back to that energy, it comes from somewhere. Discover where it comes from. Own it, so it doesn’t own you. Apply it as you must.

But first, discover where it comes from. You don’t have to tell anyone when you discover it, probably better if you don’t. Scientifically, philosophically … artistically. When you are controlling it, you are not controlling it. And it’s not really controlling you. Whatever is controlling the energy, is controlling you.

And also, good to know you, to the extent that I do.

[Bill Wiltrack]

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Anhedonia: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Anhedonia (/ˌænhiˈdoʊniə/ an-hee-doh-nee-ə; Greek: ἀν- an-, "without" and ἡδονή hēdonē, "pleasure") is defined as the inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable, e.g. exercise, hobbies, music, sexual activities or social interactions.

While earlier definitions of anhedonia emphasized pleasurable experience, more recent models have highlighted the need to consider different aspects of enjoyable behavior, such as motivation or desire to engage in activities (motivational anhedonia), as compared to the level of enjoyment of the activity itself ("consummatory anhedonia").

According to William James the term was coined by Théodule-Armand Ribot.

One can distinguish many kinds of pathological depression. Sometimes it is mere passive joylessness and dreariness, discouragement, dejection, lack of taste and zest and spring. Professor Ribot proposed the name anhedonia to designate this condition. "The state of anhedonia, if I may coin a new word to pair off with analgesia," he writes, "has been very little studied, but it exists."

Anhedonia can be a characteristic of mental disorders including mood disorders, schizoaffective disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder and schizophrenia. For example, the 7th DSM-IV criterion for Borderline Personality Disorder: "chronic feelings of emptiness." Results indicate that emptiness is negligibly related to boredom, is closely related to feeling hopeless, pathologically lonely, and isolated, and is a robust predictor of depression and suicidal ideation (but not anxiety or suicide attempts).

Findings are consistent with DSM-IV revisions regarding the 7th criterion for Borderline Personality Disorder. In addition, findings suggest the emptiness reflects pathologically low positive affect and significant psychiatric distress. People affected with schizophrenia often describe themselves as feeling emotionally empty.[4]

Mood disturbances are commonly observed in many psychiatric disorders. Disturbing mood changes may occur resultant to stressful life events and they are not uncommon during times of physical illness. While anhedonia can be a feature of such mood changes, they are not mutually inclusive.
not only upon this board but in life in general.


To the original poster;

I appreciate the sincerity, passion & skill that you have in expressing yourself. That type of honesty and ability to write is extremely rare, not only upon this board but in life in general.

I think you are onto something but I don't believe you are incorrect in your perception or viewpoint of life.

Whent to a breakfast a few weeks ago with a speaker, a US marine who was blown-up in Iraq.

As he was flying through the air & his life was passing in front of him he said you only remember the good moments. The happy moments.
No words, just the few good times that have a lot of meaning in your life.



Good to you my friend...





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[HexHammer]

This is pure nonsense and babble, and has nothing to do with philosophy, it should have been written in the lounge.

[MozartLink]

This is pure nonsense and babble, and has nothing to do with philosophy, it should have been written in the lounge.

Sure, it might belong elsewhere. But how is it nonsense? I am explaining my own life and my own personal subjective experiences.

[Scott Mayers]

Mozartlink,

I think your affection is normal for everyone to a degree. If it is extreme, you may be bipolar. I wouldn't agree with the "Hedonist/Anhedonia" thing but agree to some of the content of Bill's descriptions on the DMS. It is like the mindset of most (males usually) to completely oppose or vacate the state of emotions we have for someone right after orgasm. A second before it, you could be emotionally so interested in your partner but the second after completely disinterested (or even disgusted!). This is why we men often loathe the followup, "talk to me" after sex from our lovers.....

...Isn't it bad enough we always get this from our wives?

Present emotional states rule over logic no matter how in your best mood you might think otherwise. This is normal evolution. Think of the Black Widow male and female relationship. Their chemistry in both prior to the act is likely similar to the extreme. The female immediately becomes 'irrationally' violent and the male become 'irrationally' passive after the act. Yet, if this kind of diverse set of moods are in drastic contrast normally for you in relatively long periods, it could place a risk to you or others without recognizing its power. If you already haven't done so, try to get an appointment with a psychiatrist to seek a way to get your chemistry in order. Often extremes of mood shifts are complex as they involve both your intake, like the foods you eat, to the drugs you take, to the natural hormones that change in time normally, as well as your regular psychological environment.

[HexHammer]

This is pure nonsense and babble, and has nothing to do with philosophy, it should have been written in the lounge.

Sure, it might belong elsewhere. But how is it nonsense? I am explaining my own life and my own personal subjective experiences.

There are certain diagnoses such as skitzo, where the victim will usually speak nonsense and babble, even if it's objectively what the person is experiencing, then it's only hallucinations and those are irrelevant, to a forum such as this.

[MozartLink]

This is pure nonsense and babble, and has nothing to do with philosophy, it should have been written in the lounge.

Sure, it might belong elsewhere. But how is it nonsense? I am explaining my own life and my own personal subjective experiences.

There are certain diagnoses such as skitzo, where the victim will usually speak nonsense and babble, even if it's objectively what the person is experiencing, then it's only hallucinations and those are irrelevant, to a forum such as this.

What exactly am I saying here that seems like a hallucination to you? I think that maybe I am just not all that great of a writer and that my writing comes off as incoherent and nonsensical. If it's what I've been saying about my good moods being like a transcended supernatural sixth sense of my brain, then that was just a metaphor. It is a metaphorical description of what my experience of my good moods are like to me since they really are that powerful and profound of an experience for me. It is a metaphorical description. I do not literally mean that they are a sixth sense here.

[Bill Wiltrack]

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It's weird...I think your writing is very good. Quite clear.




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