Feeling totally and completely lost

slatey wrote:I know what you guys mean about the cloudy feeling where you just cant describe what it is exactly you want to talk about with the therapist. The anxiety I have just being there is counterproductive.

One thing a therapist had me do awhile ago was to bring in a few journal entries of times I felt really down and had a clear idea of what's eating away at me.

I'd always wished a therapist would suggest something like this. I imagine I probably should have at some point brought it up myself, but that's not something I could ever force myself to do for a number of reasons.

ME TOO!! I feel exactly this way a lot of times. Many times I question the meaning of life and what is the purpose of existence. I don't feel like it is depression though. IT is more a generalized feeling of emptiness and being lost. Don't know what to do with my life and don't know where I'm going what my aim is etc. I am worse off than you, I am unemployed... So that does not help and I have a useless 4 yr degree. Useless in the sense that I no longer want to pursue it. I realized that during my 3rd year, but anyway depression is more sad and more apathetic to me, like a loss of passion for life. This emptiness feeling is something else. I've experienced depression before and its rather different.
BTW I just discovered within this week that I have AVPD, and super super glad that other people have this too. I find this site somewhat therapeutic because I know other people are experiencing the same thing. It is like group therapy without the group meetings .AWESOME! I think the major problem I have is procrastinating and not willing to commit to something unless I am sure of it. In terms of careers, I ran through numerous books, and also the ENTIRE occupational outlook handbook online you can find it online. It lists all the possible career options, you might want to look through that. However, the problem is actually looking through all the information because if you are like me it would take you weeks to look through it all, because you would try to avoid looking and do something else.
Anyways, keep me updated on your progress or lack of progress.. I still want to know.

I've always felt lost and directionless. Even 20 years after graduating from college. I just let the tides of life push me. I thought I has chosen a good major. I found chemistry in high school very easy and I always thought it would be cool to be a scientist. Now I think it would have been better to study accounting.

I'm not sure many people chose theit careers anyway. I remember an old TV show called The Wonder Years. A kid gets to go his father's worplace to see what he does. The kid asks his dad when he decide that was what he wanted to do. The father laughs and says that was just the opportunity that presented itself. I remember a guy I know who actually told me about that before I saw it. He is a NORMAL guy and that is how he got into his career.