YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Is it normal not to have hopes, dreams, goals with depression? People always seem to have goals and dreams but I don't. Is that weird?
Is it weird that I don't want to live past 60? I just can't imagine living with this sadness and pain for much longer. People always think I'm kidding when I say I want to die young but I'm not.

My current goal is to someday have goals. I'd be perfectly content with dying tomorrow if it weren't for the family I'd leave behind. It's not being suicidal, exactly, I'm not going to kill myself, but the prospect of an early death certainly isn't negative to me.

Goals get interrupted, and come back.

It's normal to me. I don't have goals or dreams. For me, I think it has to do with dealing with depression that I take a very short term view of things. My only goal is to make it through this day. I also don't want to live forever. I'm not suicidal but like you the idea of having to suffer another thirty years is a pretty bleak prospect.

I've noticed with my depression, its better if I keep my life in small, attainable goals. Long term goals, since they are so far away, will throw me into a spiral of anxiety and self doubt that I will never get to them. Waking up and taking my dogs out every morning is a goal, because I did something selfless and I made another living creature happy. Than, making breakfast is a goal, because I nourished myself instead of anxiously smoking a pack of cigarettes before I have to go to work. Goals, hopes, dreams.. they dont have to be typical of society (getting married, moving up in your company, having kids, etc...) They can be simple. I woke up instead of calling off work again, I finally got the mail and paid my bills, I went to the store...

I dont think not having goals, hopes, dreams makes you weird, it just means you are depressed, like all of us. Redefine what hopes, goals and dreams are to you. We all walk around, with the beautiful thoughts of just ending it all in the backs of our heads, but sometimes the mini goals I mentioned above, keep me busy enough to just stay in the moment. Long story short, no, that is not weird at all