Speedy

Norway has fantastic natural rescources, spead over a small population. Good oil, natural gas, farmland (for grazing), great fish stocks, not part of the EU farming plan,powerful rivers for hyrdro electric powert generation and huge forests for logging. As an outsider this is all I can come up with, so anyone who knows better feel free to prove me wrong

Whilst most of the protesters seem like idiots (remember it's the middle of the day so they are also likely unemployed, so don't actualy pay for the bailouts) I did atleast see one sign saying "who is John Galt" when watching the news. Havn't seen that kind of sign at a protest ever, whilst all the nonsense has been going on forever in the looney fringe irespective of what actauly goes on in the real world. Whilst I have no sympath for RBS, the senseless distruction is telling. What does piss me off though is the way it's being reported, as if everyone in the world now wants facism, the press, especialy the BBC are absolutly aweful and dishonest. Also there was some amusing irony when the TV images switched straight from a banner saying capatalism kills to a sign saying eat the bankers. Hopefully rational people will pick up on that.

Ok, I agree with all this, I just didn't agree with the idea that there cannot be innocent adults living in an evil country

So would you be part and parcel of any problem caused by the US government? Whilst I'll accept the "average" citizen is often to blame, there may be a large minority who are not, and who should certainly not be killed for the misfortune of living next to some monsters. Yes they may end up killed as collateral damage and the blame will be with whoever the war was actauly against, but they do not deserve to be killed

Nice job Apple! Whilst I'm no fan of DRM (I try to buy DRM free music) Apple certainly must stand up for its rights. It's particurly good that its a well respected company too, might help make some people look at things differently

Well if people showered daily that would arguably produce a superior situation, dosn'tmean the government should be imposing rules that everyone must take a shower once a day. Individual rights trump this argument however. Freedom means the freedom to make what most would consider bad choices. There are many examples of this. Also the argument is pretty clear for me. You have to weigh up weather your friends are worth it despite their annoying habbits. Obviosuly you think they are. You could also try expalining to them that it is a big deal (assuming it is to you) when they smoke at dinner etc etc. Plus smoke for me was easily avoidable before the smoking ban in the UK came into place. Since the 90s most places have been smoke free. No smoking on the plane, ferry, train, bus, in the mall, in the supermarket (I can't remember ever seeing smoking in the supermarket) and in the cinema was all common before the ban.

Just bill the cost to his bank account. Or sell his possesions. Should cover the 89 cents and labour costs

Okay, I think I've finaly figured out whats wrong with me (although I have thought this before). I think I have depersonalisation or disasociaton caused by stress, guilt, anxiety and depresssion which has in turn caused alll those creatiing factors to increace. Well at least I have found the scource of the problem now. Just a quick one, does this sound like the best course of action. Take anti anxiety pills so that I can concerntrate on therapy? I'll be able to make my choices once I've had a good nights sleep

Okay. Thanks for clarifying that

Just another few questions. Is there much difference between cognative behavioral therapy and congnative therapy, and if so which is better and why? Secondly this fight is reallly tiring me (although proberbly more than usual now as I'm extremly sleep deprived right now). Any tips for keeping up stregth whilst I feel weak and need to constantly remind myself that I do have strength left to fight this problem and sort myself and my life out. Thirdly I feel I may be suffering from depersonalisation though to much introspection (thatnlks to old feelings of guilt and self doubt). If this is the case then how can I cure myself as that cure requires introspection? Also, how do I gain patience? Alll I want right now is to get myself sorted. My work is simply a chore to be done and my interests just there to pass the time as I wait to see the doctor again. For example I've now edited this post about 5 times in an hour, obsesing over geting myself fixed instead of just doing something else. I know maybee anxiety meds might help this as my panics subsiding would alllow me to enjoy things again in the knolegde that things will be better, but in the meantime is there anything I can do to help gain patience?

Okay, since I first posted this I've been able to express my main problem a bit better. Bacicaly it's like I'm not full of myslef, and thats where all these conflicting thoughts come from, from some kind of anti me space left because I'm not full of myself and concrete there is some space for this rubish as I find it hard be 100% with things and go though them in my mind. Thanks to everyone who replyed, I will definatly make sure to check out everything, especialy the self esteem issues, the books from Sophia, have a look at cognative therpay, have a look at my deit excersise and sleeping patterns and go to the doctors to get my physical well being checked up on.

First off I'd just like to say that I chose to post this here as having looked around a few forums (mostly objectivist forums) this seemed like the best place to put this due to the generally well reasoned and well thought out nature of most posts here. First off some of this will be like a train of thoughts as I just write down what comes into my head. Because of this and other issues (which will be listed later) this may not be all that coherent and for that I apologize in advance. Firstly a little perspective. I am a 17 year old male living in the UK currently studying at college. My current problem has been going on since it was triggered by some stressful and traumatic events in the summer (where I made some mistakes I’d made before) and whilst I was very tired after being ill and having an activity holiday in a very hot climate. Currently I don’t feel myself, like I’m not fully conscious. I feel disassociated and surreal, like I am living a dream. I’m not concrete, not myself. It’s like a dream in some ways. When I wake up in the morning I don’t get those few second where you slot back into yourself after the night break in consciousness. I don’t feel the full force of emotions and my logical thinking powers have decreased dramatically. Time feels wired, an hour can fly by, and a few weeks ago can seem like ages ago. My memory is very bad, I can forget to do things and forget what has happened. Old memories (before my current state) seem so far away, surreal and in some ways detached from myself now. I don’t feel the proper emotional connection with them now. First up I went to see a therapist for a one off session, I didn't mention many of the issues I am having but I never went back to them as I felt that they would be of no use (call it a personality clash). After a few weeks and still feeling the same I saw a hypnotherapist. This really worked well the first time and wasn't full of all the mystical nonsense people often think of when they think of hypnotherapy. However the effect only lasted until the evening of that day and I went back to being the same as before. There could be many reasons for this, one of them being going back to a place where I had previously had a lot of stress and trauma or that I didn't go out and do anything with the huge amount of energy I had about an hour after the hypnotherapy. However it hasn't been of help since, as I usually haven’t been able to be hypnotized properly due to interruption and rather disturbingly, a sudden panic/ fear that my heartbeat is stopping so I pull myself out of the trance to stop it form stopping 9totaly irrational I know). Also it has often been upsetting, so I have stopped it for now. After the problem I encountered, I went to the doctors to get some advice in dealing with the problem. They gave me the number for my current therapist, whom I have seen twice so far and seems reasonable. However there are a few problems. First she says she will not be judgmental, which is first of all impossible and secondly unhelpful as I can't then identify the good from the bad. If I was perfect I wouldn't be seeing her, so I need to be able to judge the bad and the good. Secondly she doesn’t think man is that rational, saying a quote "I know man is a rational being but I just haven’t seen any evidence for it yet". She also says things like the future are a mystery and that I should only live in the present. Whilst there is some truth to it it’s blatantly false, if I had no way to change the future I wouldn’t even be seeing her. However there are many good things about her, she is quite enthusiastic and positive, recognizes pride as the ultimate value and works in a goal oriented manner (for example she gives out homework based upon my ides). Also if I went after some of her paths I think they might work, in the short term. I want to recover fully though, not just partly. I need to find the right kind of help. I’ve already spent £450 on all of this and I need to be getting better ASAP. I know an objectivist phycotherapist would be best, but I’ve only found two, and they are both nowhere near me (I live in the UK) and so can’t be reached (my bank card isn’t accepted on US websites so a phone session would need my mums money). I my head now feel so odd. I get these weird thoughts flash into my head all the time. I don’t enjoy things I used to properly. I can’t complete sentences in my head they way I want to or with any drive. If I start out to say I love that I may end up saying I hate that, even though don’t. Every time this happens its like being stabbed a little. I get thoughts that make no sense, and love and creating often gets mixed in with hate and destruction. It’s like here is some anti-me in my head. I don’t laugh at comedy I used to, I don’t enjoy food the same as I used to etc. I’ve put off doing things I like so that I can enjoy them when better. I’ve put of buying things as what I like now may change when I’m better. I’ve put off college work until I can think properly as my thinking abilities have been seriously impaired by this (I find it very hard to be logical). I am always worrying if it is too late to get myself back, or if it will become too late. I wonder if I will ever feel my full safe again. I have panics where I think it is already too late and that I’m beyond help, like just now if I look at stuff that is mine I don’t feel the full emotional connection I did a few hours ago (I could just be creating these scares though, for example I only did that after looking at my phone, and now I feel more connected to other stuff of mine). All this worrying makes it all very hard, and everything is such an effort. I don’t know how much more of this I can take; I wonder if I will go past some point of no return. I often worry if I already have. I still like the things I used to in some regards; maybe it’s just that it remind me of better time though. I watch TV I used to love and still do in many respects, on seeing the iphone out (just come out here in the UK) I tried it out for ages and researched it for ages. But even now I worry that I wouldn’t have the same enthusiasm right now, that maybe something has changed in just these few hours. This is what it is like in my head, constant worry. But I also worry that if I stop thinking about stuff then I’ll just end up this apathetic nothing, and I can’t stop thinking about these things. Because what I’m living for is to be better really, yes I can enjoy part of life now, but if this carried on forever then I’m not sure it would be worth it. I worry about never being my full, same self again. I worry when I look in the mirror, I don’t have the same piecing stare that used to, my eyes don’t look as intense as they did, and I wonder if I will ever get that back. I am scared that this will all be written on my face in bags under my eyes. I waste time just sitting about and wake up with little energy, and then have huge burst of energy just before I go to bed and then t is too late to do all that much. College work is building up and I’m going to have to start buying stuff again as my cloths are getting worn and winter is really settling in. Christmas is coming and I want to be able to enjoy it. The lights at the mall made me smile but I also wish Christmas were postponed until I was better. I wish everything of importance could be postponed until I was better, but it just can’t be. I don’t want things tainted; I don’t want my college coursework to be some half job of what it could be. I worry if I will ever be able to enjoy what I used to, weather stuff I have done in my current state will be too painful to do or that it will be tainted forever. I’m overeating as it allows me to feel more and it takes over my senses so I'm not just left there worrying. I used to love to think but now it just causes stress too much of the time. I’ve always had a hyperactive mind and liked that, so I don’t want to loose that just because it’s painful now. I can’t really imagine the future and being better that well. I can imagine being better in some small form, but nor what I will be like a year from now. This all worries me. Will I ever regain myself? I know you can never stay the same, but I want to regain my old core self, my old sense of life that is so subdued now. I think its still there somewhere; I just need to get it out again. I worry about not being able to judge again, to be proud again, to have those moments of being wholly proud and a whole sense of self, as always being like this, as there is now this big break in my life. I worry that as thee are the ears that create who you are, weather this will become who I am, some less enthusiastic, restrained and unhappy person. I’m worried that even if I am fixed, people will never accept that I am. I worried in the summer that if I dint stop all that was stressing me that I would have problems. I didn’t think I could last another year of it intact. I was right, I’m not okay, and I just hope it isn’t permanent. The therapists have all said that this whole thing is to block out stress. But its like I've become my problems, in hypnotherapy one time I found it so hard to separate myself from my problems. Maybe that is a mental block of mine, if I do sort out my problems then what will I be left with? What I need to do is break this vicious circle. All the time things get worse, from one thing to another, further and further away from myself and life as it should be. I need to turn around completely. I need a complete shift in consciousness. I always feel much better when around others, they give me energy and a sense of hope, plus a distraction form my current problems and thoughts spinning about in my head. After y first hypnotherapy, the one that worked, I still wasn’t completely with it all (made mistakes in the real world, was a bit dozy) but I felt concrete in myself and my nature, but I felt no regrets, that I didn’t want to be anywhere else but where I was. I know the joy of getting myself back won’t always be so strong. But myself needs to last after the first joy of regaining myself. I need that to last, and worry if I will be able to go back to that fully. If I am fixed, I may worry about the same thing happening again, which could turn into some self fulfilling prophecy. To get back to normal I know won’t be s snap change, I will have to go into some sort of unconscious state and be brought out properly. I don’t think I can just go from his to being normal again. There’s more I could put but I will have to stop. I needed to put this much o that you could have the information you may need. I know that was a lot, and if you read it all thanks very much. Any advice or information, especially from those who have dealt with this situation or have known someone go though the same thing, would be much appreciated.