Existential Babies

[depressedcopywriter-blog]

Submit your own to [email protected] or #DepressedCopywriter

[existentialbabies]

[Image description: Ad for anti-aging cream says “Start young, stay young” changed to “Start young, die young”. The rest reads, “Advanced night repair. Our #1 serum for beautiful, younger-looking skin. you are never too young to experience this revolutionary serum with its age-defying powers. Start using it today. Millions of women don’t trust their skin to anything else. Tested an proven: [obscured number]% of women said their skin looked”]

Never too young, huh? That’s good, I’m 23 months old but I want to look 19. I won’t trust my skin to anything else, like sunlight, air, water, or the passage of time.

[existentialbabies]

[Image description: Photograph of dust on a finger with the question, “Disgusted with dust?” from an ad for an air filter.]

Well yeah but no more so than with existence generally. Am I really deep, or just really deeply depressed?

[existentialbabies]

there's a toddler stomping through Target right now screaming "I DON'T CARE ABOUT MYSELF" dude it only gets worse I am so sorry

— amy brown (@arb) February 1, 2015

[existentialbabies]

"People who live in society have learned how to see themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends. I have no friends. Is that why my flesh is so naked?"

(Photo from New Existentialist. Quote from Sartre.)

[existentialbabies]

(A baby lying in a crib gazes into the void. Text reads, "Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?")

[existentialbabies]

“I can't go on, I'll go on.”  ― Samuel Beckett

[existentialbabies]

"I don't understand why anything happens and I'm confused and scared and trying really hard all the time." —Randall Munroe, XKCD #1146

[existentialbabies]

Clinical psychologist Dr. Meg Jay joins us tomorrow at 10 a.m. to talk about her new book "The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter -- and How to Make the Most of Them Now." She said in USA Today, people in their twenties "need to learn how to be more future-oriented. If you ever want to change something about yourself, your 20s are your best shot."

In short, she says that the slower path to adulthood is not better.

What do you think?

—Minnesota Public Radio

[existentialbabies]

Like the flu, depression is a highly contagious disorder that can be transmitted socially. It is especially apt to take up residence in a household, jumping from one family member to others. And just as individuals can be depressed, so can whole families, often without their awareness.

Depression in a family can suck up all the energy of a household, turning a home into a black hole of swirling negative emotions. Usually, such depression is disguised as physical illness or a general air of irritability and negativity. Family members withdraw into their own spaces, in the protective custody of a TV or computer. And pessimism, sarcasm or silence becomes the dominant style of family communications.

—Psychology Today

[existentialbabies]

"I'm sorry, baby. I wish you'd been born into a more certain, sane, logical world. But the truth is, blind faith and dumb luck are going to be the most solid basis you'll have for making some of the most important decisions you'll ever face. And there's no one who can really help you with that."