Do be disappointed that this is it?

[Lily2811]

I feel like I'm beginning to realise that life is basically just 60 - 80 years of working really hard all week and then occasionally seei g friends or family. It literally just feels like one big full cycle of eating, working and sleeping. And housework. I don't know what else I was expecting, just feel disappointed and a bit sad that this is it.

You'll have lots of good times, I promise you :-).

Like some people have said, it depends if you enjoy your job. I love my job and don't really see it as a chore to do it, I work with interesting people doing worthwhile stuff and get to challenge my brain. So the weeks go pretty quickly. At the moment I've got a very young child and work 4 days a week so things can feel pretty full on, I have to stick to a bit of a rigorous timetable to make everything work, but that's only for the next few years.

Life is meaningless if you have no spirituality. You need to find something bigger than the self, whether it's God (which it is for me) or just Mother Nature. I believe we are here to help the bigger picture, to help others, to enjoy what God has provided for us.

Just so you know, this was the first trail of thought towards my battle with depression and acquaintance have said the same. I would really really tell you GP these thoughts ASAP before they spiral out of control and you find it too hard to claw your way out

Mid 20's? Your life will change immensely, believe me. I'm 71 now and so many things have happened during the past 50 years, most of them unexpected and some were huge challenges.

My main advice is to take each day as it comes and not over worry about the future. What will be, will be x

Eating, sleeping, working and occasionally socialising. That's not too bad is it?

• Eating - obviously extremely enjoyable

• Sleeping/resting - next best thing to eating!

• Working - OK this can be a drag but there's always a few good moments each day, whether that be a laugh with work mates, satisfaction in getting a task done well, or getting petty revenge on customer/boss

• Occasionally socialising - the perfect amount. Any more and those times wouldn't be special, and your friends would get on your nerves

Sounds like a nice life to me.

@DishingOutDone why be rude? Just read and carry on by.

I love when people on threads like this say ‘do a job you love’ or ‘we have a house keeper so we don’t have to do that kind of stuff’.

It really isn’t that easy to do a job you love. Yes you can retrain etc but you still have to pay the bills while training.

So many of these opinions come from people in a position of financial privilege.

@NellieIrrelevant you don't know me so how can you think I'm not a nice person?

Yep I feel the same op

Exactly @PancakeAndKeith- like it’s so easy to just have money to get house cleaners or take a sabbatical from work. I work in the NHS and I know what the OP is saying. I’m just irritated with the fact my pay is effectively worse than 10 years ago. I’m looking at doing something else but it’s not that easy. My bills swallow most of pay up and I do overtime when I can but it’s exhausting.

I think you need to buy a bike OP.

Write yourself a hit list of some places you would like to go +/or hobbies you would like to try . Figure out how your going to get there . It could be travelling across the States in a campervan , or it could be a windy day at the sea side eating chips, or trying the couch to 5k programme , and anything in between .

I remember feeling like this in my twenties - life is partly about working just to survive , but it’s also about squeezing every bit of happiness out of it that you can .

You're not wrong, OP. And I'm 50 so none of the 'you're so young' 'don't have kids' patronising bollocks applies. I think there's a lot to be said for accepting that life is a slog for about 99% of us, and no, you don't need to see a fucking GP for being realistic.

Once you get your head round that it is a slog and mostly boring, you might discover that that's not the end of the world by a long shot and learn ways to get a few kicks.

Western society preaches to people that it's all sunshine and rainbows or you're doing something wrong.

Try exploring different philosophies, you'll find ours is a pretty silly and immature point of view.

OP I'd highly recommend marrying for $ if it's an option for you. I mean be a good wife, but having money trumps being broke every day of the week. Any how, that aside, be careful you're not falling into a depression, on a serious note. The first time i realized I was, what i came to conclude, clinically depressed i was very young, 11 or 12. I remember the terrible feeling and trying so hard at such a young age to claw my way out of it. I'd ne in my mind like ok, what's the BEST thing in the world, the funnest,etc. And came up with Disneyworld. So I tried to imagine myself at Disneyworld having a blast (remember i was young and had no pressures of the real world) and couldn't even imagine having fun there. It was awful. My point is take care of your MH. You could have everything in the world and be depressed or nothing at all and be content.

If you're struggling with the treadmill of life in your 20s with no kids, wait until your 30s or 40s with a couple of kids and the increased money pressure, plus the gradual onset of health problems for your parents.

I'm just saying, look on the bright side - things can always get worse :-)

I understand the disillusionment, of course I do. Especially now when virtual living/social media has created an expectation of constant fabulous/fantastic/awesome experiences.

Life is ultimately meaningless. Very few people will have the kind of money that allows you to constantly experience something new and exciting.

We create our own meaning, our own contentment, our own life to fill the small pockets of time where we are beholden to no one. But it takes time to find what it is that feeds your soul, makes you happy and makes the slog worth it.

I love my job, don’t do much housework, spend my evenings meeting friends and socialising, ditto at weekends. I love my life.

I think life was harder in my 20s, I was skint, etc. It got better as my wages increased. I guess in the meantime try and get pleasure in stuff which doesn’t cost too much. A good book, watching a film, find a hobby you enjoy?

It's not that grim OP. though it sounds as though you are currently feeling very down with life and work in general.

I think you need to take a bit of time out, a couple of hours and sit down with a sheet of paper and some nice pens. Have a think about what personal and work goals you would like to achieve in the next month.

Don't make them too ambitious, keep them achievable but needing a bit of effort.

Could be : clearing out clothes, donating to charity and Marie kondo ing your knicker drawer.

Making an effort to exercise more, get off the bus two stops early, try to increase your daily step total, buy a hula hoop.

Tidying up your work area at work, asking your manager for a chat to discuss your next steps, digging out your cv and asking a trusted friend to help you revise it. Making sure your next contribution to a team meeting is a positive comment not a moan.

Try to develop a positive attitude to other people, let someone in front of you in the supermarket queue, smile and say good morning to a familiar face at the bus stop or train station.

I have recently been looking at bullet journals, I think if I had known about them when I was fed up with work and home I might have given them a go, seems to be a good way to celebrate, record and remember the little good things in life that all too often get lost under the big nasty stuff.

What about spending time on hobbies or things you love? At the risk of sounding pompous, helping other people or contributing to society in some way does help give life meaning. If you have an indoor job, spend time outdoors - add an outdoor interest? Doesn’t have to be sport ... it could be volunteering working in a community garden for example. Or if you want to do an indoor thing, a friend of mine volunteers at a local hospice.

Improving the world you live in really is good for you and it’s a great antidote to work. Surrounding yourself with positive people is a huge help too. Actively seek out people or situations where people are positive, kind, generous and supportive, actively avoid where possible people who are negative, bitchy, overly competitive or tiresome.

It’s totally in your power to change things, honestly.

I love eating and don’t do housework

haha I like you

I'm sorry to hear you're feeling like this OP. When I was in my early 20s I remember feeling similarly. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion the way I'd set my life up wasn't working for me and I started taking steps to rejig it into a more enjoyable existence.

I've made a lot of changes since then and I now genuinely enjoy most days. The catalyst for getting here was understanding that nobody is responsible for my happiness and mental wellbeing but me.

I started with this page, and it sounds dramatic I know, but it genuinely altered the course of my life: www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/improve-mental-wellbeing/