Dealing with Dilemmas/Coping with Anxiety

Post Reply New Topic

I feel that on a regular basis I find myself rendered inert by anxiety when faced with a choice (every one of which feels more like a dilemma than just a choice). I don't feel like I get anything meaningful done throughout the day, and inevitably end up having hell to pay later on as a result. I just feel like everything I do is arbitrary and meaningless, and the one obstacle preventing me from changing that around is anxiety. Making an important phone call; grabbing job applications from restaurants, department stores, etc.; going up to the god**** circulation desk at my library; even ordering food at a restaurant; it all just seems more difficult to me than it ought to be, and as a result the hell I have to pay is being 22 and nearly homeless because I've outworn my stay at my mom's place (because I don't get anything she deems "meaningful" done, I just "sit around and do nothing," even when I'm out of the house and at the library). Hell, even just typing this makes me realize that I've really done nothing today except get on my laptop at the library and do stupid **** that doesn't have anything to do with finding work, finding my own place to live, paying off some debt I owe to my meds provider and to my university, etc. I just feel useless and scared and petrified. And it's not fun. Anybody have advice on some strategies to use to cope with this? Because Sartre certainly didn't help...

(of course, I haven't read all of Sartre's work yet, just the introduction and first chapter in Essays in Existentialism)

I have that problem. The only thing I know is that the more I do nothing, the more inertia I have. The more I am forced to do things, the easier it is.