this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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you can have depression from outside causes. some of it will be internal. I have major depressive and general anxiety. I don't think current events created it but they did push it to where it is not manageable by me with things like walks and breathing excersises.
I definitely have both. Before 2016, my anti-depressive medication did an amazing job.
But then there was an election in the US, and that one day made me realize just how fucked we all were in a profound, unmitigatable way. I never looked at the people in my country the same way again, I never looked at the political system the same way again, and my perpetual-hopefulness for the world was completed crushed.
I know some people will say that's overly-dramatic, but those people clearly hadn't been paying attention or connecting the dots. I knew immediately when that election was called that there would be no peaceful way back. All this fascism and violence was written on the wall that day. To be able to recognize the patterns forming, but lacking the ability to stop it (and even being called "alarmist" for pointing it out), meant being stuck in a perpetual feeling of helplessness. It's been 10 years, shit's played out just as I feared it would, and the only sliver of hope I've seen ever since was the rise of Mamdani in NYC. However, awesome as that is, it's just not enough to lift me up anymore.
I also know I'm not alone. We are collectively traumatized, there's no other way to put it. It's going to take a long time for us to heal (if we're able to at all.) The worst part is, this was all done on purpose. Those in charge of the Republican party absolutely, 100% wanted us to feel this way - Project 2025 proved it.
Then there's the non-political stuff that I didn't predict, adding insult to injury. Like a network of cameras being installed everywhere, and gen AI furthering the confusion between reality and fantasy. Oh, and that whole year where the world shut down due to a disease, which was more bizarre than anything I could've expected on that first election day.
Anyway, you're right, there's no amount of nature walks or breathing exercises that can resolve the perpetual stress so many of us are under. I don't want to be a "doomer" but how the fuck am I supposed to not feel doomed? Even if I didn't look around and try to understand the world, there's my own empty wallet, grocery stores full of disease-infected food, all the clothing available is shit quality that starts to unravel before being worn (so it has to be purchased more frequently), and the never-ending bills that get higher even when our wages stay the same. It's not like we're working hard in order to eventually get relief; we're just working hard today in order to survive to work harder tomorrow. There's no end in sight.
Everything truly sucks and now I daily contemplate things that I never thought I would have before, even with my anti-depressants.
I completely understand and while I don't think we can avoid eventual collapse I do see a narrow path through with the next election. Granted its a best case scenario when we continually have been following a worst case. If both houses of congress have a massive democratic win. Like red states that were considered unassailable and such. then maybe we can get impeachment and enough action to get us off this dysfunctional train wreck of a government. So a lot of things would have to go right. I know its thin but im holding onto it for the next month or so.