No worries, Rezzy. I find myself in a serious funk from time to time. Sometimes a cup of tea or coffee and a nap is all it takes to shake it. Sometimes I watch sad movies, and listen to melancholy tunes.

Personally, I usually turn to playing music (usually piano) and end up creating some of the moodiest stuff while I'm down. Otherwise I force myself to watch a DVD that I've most likely watched a dozen times before.

Long term, perhaps find some local non-profit organization to get involved with. What do you feel passionate about?

Spill some tabasco sauce on your genitals, just to know that YOU CAN STILL FEEL SOMETHING.

Aww, relax

Easy things:

1. Listen to better music. The Guitar Hero Soundtrack is pretty awesome for rockin'

2. Exercise every day, or at least twice a week. There's hormones or whatever in your body that are released when you exercise and, personally, with moderate activity I feel much much better

3. Relax, do yoga, take a break from playing games and from GWJ if you feel you're burning out it's better to take a break.

At least it works for me. =)

Best of all, learn to be ok with yourself, doing your own thing. Being "alone" doesn't mean you're lonely. When you're completely comfortable with yourself, you'll begin meeting people that like you for who you are without the need to "Play along". You'll even *enjoy* meeting other people. It's great.

(edit: Ahh, I don't mean enjoying being alone with games and DVDs, that's just escapism man... I meant in a more spiritual sense, knowing yourself)

I assume you're in America, personally it seems like a very depressing place in general, the suburbs and all. I get the feeling people in suburbs don't really know each other. I wouldn't survive a winter there.

edit: Oh, and music... yeah, that's a good suggestion. Learning to play music is the best thing ever for relaxing.

A cure? Life is what it is. Doldrums are normal, and if I understand your frame of mind correctly, it's the kind of pain that is emotion's way of making you take a time out and take a close look at the world. Emotion can, through these times, reach a new paradigm (I try not to use that word, but I think it's appropriate here) of understanding of the world. You see things that you identify as problems, but we all experience these times. Remember everyone, the "negative" emotions: sadness, anger, jealousy etc. are not signs of unhealthiness despite what people would have us believe -- they are signs of a healthy human going through what healthy humans must.

For me, the problem tends to be wanderlust. I see a picture of a mountain or a city, and I want to lose myself in it. The best times of my life were spent traveling, and my personal crises tend to involve the desire to drop everything and take to the road aimlessly. I want to explore in a way I can't when I'm held at home by responsibilities. But I made a decision to finish school first, and I need to honor that. When it's over, I can take care of my traveling desires. It's hard though. One of my ex-gfs, who I met overseas over 6 years ago (separated because she went back to czech and I went back to u.s.) seems to have lived the most incredible life since our separation, while mine has been (not unfulfillingly, mind) spent mostly in the same general area, with my focus primarily on my work and my life. She's working for the UN with a master's in international relations, has been all over the world learning languages and studying, and is the same adventuresome person as ever. But that's the way it works. She was always the outgoing, party, fly by the seat of the pants person; I was the solemn loner with the playful streak. Our lives seem to have taken their predetermined paths, despite what I in my misunderstandings of myself would have wished.

I hope I'm on the right track here with you and am not just projecting, but I feel very deeply what I think you're describing at least weekly. Like a sudden insight, I'll hear a piece of music, catch a glimpse of the river, or listen to the sheer awesomeness of the wind cascading through the valley, and feel simultaneously insignificant and empowered -- the wanderlust springs up, and I lose myself for a moment in the sheer awesomeness and mystical beauty of life. Then it's gone, and I, once again, remember to look both ways before I cross the street.

"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding,
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief."
-Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Don't cheer up. Feel what you feel, do what you want to do. Your feelings are genuine and they're you, which means they're the greatest thing in the world.

How about burning your eyebrows? It worked for Ringo.

Harsh but true.
Great question. I've been going over and over on that for some time now. I have some places through work that I've been debating volunteering for. Haven't done it yet though.
This was part of my rationale for having some cigs again. Ever since I stopped smoking I can't stand being in a bar for more than a few minutes. I know this is kind of backwards, and probably a bad idea.
While I couldn't conscionable waste hot sauce like that when I have a perfectly serviceable cheese-grater I've actually started hitting the Bow-flex with a passion. I've developed a few love-handles that are making me a bit self-conscious. I'm actually rearranging my apartment at the moment to make more room for spreading out a bit.
I need new friend type things. Friends got married and dropped off the radar. Joined the military and dropped off the radar. Turned to drugs and dropped off the radar. Moved away and dropped off the radar. And the relationship I was in did not foster any new social contacts, in fact sort of prevented them. One of the many reasons I got out.

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas!

I've got Katamari Soundtrack queued up. I've thrown open my curtains and the afternoon sun is poking out of the clouds. I've got a favorite book, a cup of tea, and my sketchbook out.

Oh man! You were just kidding! I went out and did that before I read it was a joke. Oh man, you really got me there

Yoink!

While Morrolan is not incorrect, he certainly wasn't the first person to mention the positive benefits of shirking. Give credit where credit is due:

See?

I just want to be acknowledged for my pioneering work in the field of shirking. It is, after all, a matter of patriotism.

Keep 'em pictures coming! That one is awesome. Put it up on Flickr, or DeviantArt, and see the votes and comments roll in. That will make you feel much better.

And try taking those St John Wort pills with lots of coffee for that groovy 6-pack-of-Red Bull buzz.

In general, being outside, however briefly, helps a TON. Yesterday I walked for 5 blocks until I encountered a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant which sold something called a "Happy Box".

Walking around a little, contributing to capitalism and um, flow of money, by giving $7.55 for the Happy Box (with undisclosed happiness inside!), feeling its weight in my hand as I marched on toward home, has cheered me up.

Note: don't go to areas with 0 people in them, like a park. That doesn't work. It has to be an area with a bunch of stores and cafeterias and people walking about.

Hobos killed: 10/10
Quest Complete

Hobo hats: 8/10
In Progress

Another person in a funk, there are a quite a bit on GWJ (including me). I've just been playing a lot of hockey and forcing myself to spend time with my friends. It also helps that one of my best friends is going through far worse stuff than I ever have at one time. His misery and they way he handles it makes me realize that I'm in not such a bad state. Thing always can be better but things can always be worse. We have to live with the way things are.

Why can't any woman understand me the way you do?

Get a hobby besides playing videogames. Preferably something where you can either make stuff or compete against others. Not only will you have something to show for your efforts as time goes on, but you'll also be socializing with others who you'll have at least one thing in common with.

The blues is a natural part of life. Questions about whether it is depression or not...

Depression tends to go on for months at a time.
People will exhibits symptoms such as insomnia, hypersomnolence (sleeping too much), eating too much or too little, withdrawing from friends and life, etc..

This is not to be confused with boredom, though. If you have nothing to do, so you sleep for 15 hours, it may be that you are just reacting to boredom. If you are not going out, and mindlessly eating while you watch TV - yeah, you might gain weight.

Exercise in an excellent suggestion.
Drink more water. You'd be surprised how much dehydration can affect you.
Try to eat a more balanced diet. Feelings of depression can result from not eating healthily, and also can be caused by major changes in blood sugar (eating food that is loaded in processed grains or sugar, then not eating for more than five hours).

And in the volunteering arena... It is great, it grants you a boost to self-esteem, but even better than that - you can devote yourself to something completely outside you and your needs. I would recommend, where you already seem down, to watch what you volunteer for. You know yourself and your limits. There is a BIG difference in volunteering in the organization of a walk for cancer and jumping into volunteering to visit kids on the cancer ward. Both need doing, though. Just make sure you pick something you can handle.