The Irony of Misery - Why is Our Natural Instinct To Make Ourselves More Miserable?

Have you ever noticed that when you're really miserable or even depressed that all you want to do is be alone, not go out with friends, not do things that you enjoy... not not not!

Probably the hardest thing a person could ever do when depressed is try to be happy. Why is that? What kind of backward self defeating programming is this that the one who kicks us when we're down most is ourselves?

It's not so apparent when you actually are depressed because no one is really thinking very clearly when depressed. We tend to focus on the things that make us depressed, even if we have to blow those things way out of proportion to do it. Ever had a friend or family member laugh at the things you say to depress yourself because it just sounds so ridiculous to them? I bet you hated that. Fact is, it was ridiculous.

Everyone gets miserable, depressed, has a bad day... and everyone has seen it happen to someone else. And when that happens, we can very easily see the triggers in them that they use over and over again to keep themselves in that frame of mind. And it makes no sense to us at all! But when it's our turn to feel that way, we do the exact same thing as them and it makes total sense to us for some reason.

This is a motivational article and so far all I've given you is observations of the absurd things we do when miserable. Truth is, I'm hoping you can see where I'm going with this on your own.

Next time you're having a bad day, feeling miserable or even depressed and you're scouring the Internet for some way to get your motivation back... think about these absurd observations. Think about just how stupid it is that we as humans do this to ourselves.

The next time you're miserable and you say no to doing something that you know you'd enjoy if you weren't miserable, remember just how dumb it is that we do that. Ask yourself, why do we do that?? And when you can't come up with an answer, stop doing it!

It's not really that simple, I know. When you're miserable, thinking straight is rough. But you can do it. You don't have to cheer yourself up or chuckle about it. Just realizing what your own mind and chemical make up is doing to defeat itself should be enough to snap you out of it.

The fact that our mind is wired to do it is just stupid. It defies logic. Don't let something so dumb drag you down further.