Reply to I frequently feel empty and have little sense of self

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]OP, no one wants to be friends with you because you complain about a life that’s objectively amazing. I highly recommend keeping a gratitude journal so you learn to count your blessings and be thankful for what you have. You become less depressed by choosing to be less depressed — the less pity you have for yourself and the more you recognize that YOU have the power to be happy, the happier you’ll be. If you think you’re no longer depressed and start acting in that manner, then you’ll become less depressed; that’s the basis of CBT.

I highly recommend keeping a gratitude journal. It will do wonders for your (frankly, off-putting) amounts of self pity. Here are a few things you should be grateful for:

-Having a lucrative, prestigious job that 99% of people your age would kill for
-Having a college degree from an Ivy
-Having enough affordable income for therapy
-Being able to afford to live in a lively and dynamic city such as DC

Just curious, OP, have you ever worked a minimum wage job in food service? One where you have to ask customers “would you like fries with that?” I suspect not. If you did have that experience under your belt, you’d be a lot more grateful for the things that you have and be way happier with your current station in life.[/quote]

Not OP but this really irritates me. Its so out of touch. OP is not feeling ungrateful, but rather she has never been able to develop herself. Your criticism kind of sounds like its echoing her parents, who simultaneously abused OP while justifying that they were giving her a good life.  Its great to have gratitude for the things you have in your life, that's not really the root of OPs problems. I mean, look at all the outwardly successful, beautiful, wealthy people who commit suicide. If only they kept a gratitude journal!  (sarcasm).  [b]If anything, the outward trappings of success can exacerbate exactly the sense of loneliness and depression--like "I have everything and I still feel empty, what is wrong with me." 
[/b]
OP needs to connect to her inner child (as corny as that sounds, I think in this case it is true), and figure out who she really is, shed of the expectations and pressures of her parents. She does have the whole world ahead of her, and her education and relative wealth will hopefully allow her to make the leap. But simply focusing on that is not going to do the trick. [/quote]

OP here. Yes, that’s exactly what’s happening. I kept a gratitude journal for a couple of months at the insistence of my old therapist. I ended up resenting it — I have all these things to be grateful for, so why am I still depressed? I have no real reason to be depressed! It felt like the journal was taunting me. I ended up throwing the notebook into the Potomac one night when I was particularly frustrated. [/quote]

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