Solipsism anxiety/depressed

[walterthegreat]

hey my name is Walter and im 16 this may sound incredibly crazy i know but bear with me.....about 3-4 months ago i watched this philosophy video about something called solipsism (oh and by the way if you dont know what solipsism is you are extremely lucky and i recommend you should stop reading this if you have a weak mind like i do) it basically says that no one is real and everything is a figment of your imagination because only your mind is known to exist or your the only real consciousness . It sounded incredibly stupid at first but for some stupid reason i started to think more and more about to the point where it started to actually really scare me.

a few weeks later i watched what used to be one of my favorite movies the matrix that triggered the weird solipsistic life is an illusion type thoughts i started to think what if i was in a simulation or weird alien experiment and all my family and friends and everything i knew was some sort of illusion. These thoughts have just been giving me anxiety and have made me depressed for some reason. the really scary thing is that people said these ideas can NEVER be proven false how do i know im not dreaming, how do i know that you guys have consciousness just like me and aren't part of my imagination. i dont want to turn into those weird solipsist.


i just want to know that everybody and everything IS real deep down i know solipsism isnt true but the uncertainty is killing me! sometimes i have weird thoughts like maybe if i kill my self i will know the answers but i really dont want to kill myself. ARRG!!!! i just want my life to be normal again. I dont know if this is ocd or something because ive never obsessed over something before. especially something this stupid. SOOOO.....what i really wanted to know is could solipsism really be true!?!? its really making me depressed and is messing up my brain and the way i think.

[beauty2010]

This could have been me at you age
I puzzled over the meaning of existence a lot
I think it is called existential anxiety
I became religious later but couldn't sustain it as I could not believe all the things you were meant to
I understand that craving for certainty
As I have become older I am more and more sure that no one can be sure of anything completely and that is what makes life exciting and wonderful
I have also experienced the death of a baby and in that tragedy found a joy and sense of love which makes me firmly believe that there is something more/ something deeper and that it is not all meaningless
You are and will be ok
B

[NoPoet]

That's interesting, I'm writing a 20K story (a prequel to Warhammer 40,000) called Solipsis, where two characters believe they've returned home but they're actually in the warp.

Beauty2010 has it: this is existential anxiety. Nearly everyone has these questions at some point in life. People with nervous illness tend to view these questions fearfully and negatively, yet people who are not anxious and/or depressed tend to view them as fascinating, thrilling, weird, confusing or just plain silly, or maybe they are so inspired they spin tales about them for our entertainment.

I cannot prove to you that we aren't in a computer simulation. But you cannot prove that we are, and there is no evidence that we are, nor would there seem to be a reason for it to be true. You're telling me that some infinitely intelligent alien or deity programmed my socks lying on the bedroom floor for a week while I play Grand Theft Auto with my mate? It's hardly a compelling idea.

Therefore it's a creepy "what if" based on someone's extremely active imagination.

Any "evidence" is basically theoretical, and highlights our lack of understanding about the mechanics of the universe, let alone the mechanics of existence.

When existential anxiety strikes, go back to the basics: I think, therefore I am.

[walterthegreat]

I know u guys are right but is there some way to get this out of my head for good? Because right now my head is all like what if i imagined you to say all this or what if the simulation is trying to trick me? I know its stupid but it wont leave my head

[Prospector]

I've dealt with a lot of these cases on these forums relating to this philosophical idea. Having had lots of deep philosophical problems tie in to ocd it's common for them to cause us to become scared of skeptical philosophies or 'philosophies of doubt' which I'm sure you can easily research online.

Firstly, the matrix is not directly solipsism, it is in itself an idea that reality could be a simulation. It also relates closely to the 'brain in a vat' idea. Its associated with a form of solipsism however.

Solipsism is the idea that we cannot prove existence outside of our own minds. Notice how I put idea. I'm not saying you can't prove it. Who knows. But it is a rational skeptical argument. This means that a solipsism could assume that reality does exist outside their mind or that it doesn't. Metaphysical solipsism is the extreme form that assumes the god-like mind.
But even this opens up doors as to how this would work. Whether their state as entities exists but consciousness doesn't.

Now with ocd, you desperately want a counter argument to solipsism or 'illusion' type ideas. But I can honestly tell you that whilst these can be provided, you'll most likely realize that solipsism wasn't your problem in the first place.
You have got to realize that whilst you have a viewpoint or an argument, forcing an idea to impinge on your view on reality is going to create problems.

Also realize that a lot of the time with people who have these types of problems, it is the THOUGHTS not the actual situation that causes them harm.

You've got to have an open mind to philosophy. You can't let these philosophies drag you down, especially if they are drastically affecting your view on reality, which is probably what you meant by 'deep down'. Also remember that another part of your problem is your fear of the fact that there is some kind of ulterior meaning behind the idea. As if it is drawn to negative attention like people being philosophical zombies.

In my past experience with this obsession/worry, I looked up all sorts of counter arguments. The fact that it was self refuting as for the argument to be made you had to be arguing to something else. The whole objective subjective reality. But the real problem here is the fact that you are narrow minded. By being obsessive, you are being overly rational with one idea meaning everything else is treated completely irrationally. If your obsessed with looking at dogs for example, your focusing away from how you would normally react and isolating that specific circumstance. It's the same with this idea, you're deliberately destroying every other philosophical argument in favour of an argument mostly considered irrelevant by schools of philosophy. You're even allowing this idea (and I'll say that it's completely up to you what you believe in, that's the thing with philosophy, it hasn't got restrictions) When you restrict yourself, the result is this whole uncertainty/fear situation where you feel as if there a need for an absolute answer which is worsened by obsessiveness and anxiety.

[OCDme]

This could have been me at you age
I puzzled over the meaning of existence a lot
I think it is called existential anxiety
I became religious later but couldn't sustain it as I could not believe all the things you were meant to
I understand that craving for certainty
As I have become older I am more and more sure that no one can be sure of anything completely and that is what makes life exciting and wonderful
I have also experienced the death of a baby and in that tragedy found a joy and sense of love which makes me firmly believe that there is something more/ something deeper and that it is not all meaningless
You are and will be ok
B

Wow. Thank you. I'm suffering from solipsism OCD as well currently and that gave me a new/refreshing perspective.