On Your Lonesome

How do we cope with loneliness? Do you embrace it and try to defeat it by remaining alone or does winning the fight involve leaning on compatriots and peers? I'd like to hear of someone with the mental fortitude and steel resolve to overcome loneliness... alone.

I often attempt to best this beast by facing it head on. Is that even an option? Is it possible to stave off the hordes of negative thoughts and ideas when you have no camaraderie to rely on for moral support?

At one point I wholeheartedly thought so. The power of the human brain is an astonishingly amazing thing.

Part of my fragile psyche believed(s) that it is indeed possible, with enough self induced brainwashing, to trump the feeling of being alone and impossibly disconnected from the world and its inhabitants.

Sometimes, I believe that's why we seek out romantic relationships. I believe that, unless you're in the small minority of lucky individuals who doesn't need social interaction, each of us NEEDS at least one other living (non-fictional) person to bare your soul to.

Therein lies another prong of this tangent. Is it fair of me to ask another individual for help with my baggage? The manly man inside of me believes, to this second, that there are crosses for each of us to carry, alone. I think, I think that...I think...anyway, that it's not unfair to expect someone to hold the door for you while you tote around your big, proverbial, invisible cross.

If you're any half-way kind of decent, you'll open the door for someone with full hands. It's no different if the door is imaginary.. and the cargo is a big made-up lowercase T.

Then again, sometimes the act of surrounding yourself with support still does nothing to sate the feelings of emptiness and the vast void of space around you. Sometimes the dog robs me of my capability to connect with other individuals, regardless of how hard I try.

Always questions, few answers.

Back to the point, if there was ever one to be made. There is nothing wrong with accepting a little bit of help to deal with issues of the brain and heart, just don't use people as a crutch. You have to be able to stand on your own to provide a positive impact on the world.

I'd also like to talk about fabricated confidence sometime. Self-defeating thoughts that prevent me from asking a brilliant beautiful girl out, or facing a crowd of people... is this even depression or some other character flaw? Maybe tomorrow.