Is 18 too young to be bitter?

[Rewdalf]

I don't know exactly when, but I like to think that I've always been aware that the world is a shithole and it's pretty much futile to try and change it...
I'm constantly being told that I have to feel sorry for someone, or a group of people.
I have a great life, nice house, everything I want, I go to a good school, have lots of friends, but that doesn't make the world a better place.
Mind you I'm not some emotional pit of darkness, I do fine. I enjoy myself when I can and prepare for what awaits me in the future, but I still look down upon the human race and the many injustices and flaws that exist in our supposed perfect world...
There are just too many things to be bitter about at once so I just choose to ignore everything...

This is a not very well thought out post written in haste. It will probably be taken in many different directions and most likely be misunderstood, but I still don't care.

 

[Pandaman1911]

Haha, of course not! Being bitter can happen regardless of age. Calvin from the famous Calvin and Hobbes was bitter, and he was only six! You don't have to have no teeth and be incontinent to be bitter. Although, bitterness tends to grate on one's self after a while. Try apathy. It's much of the same, just without the hatred. Works for me just fine!

 

[ParanoidEngineer]

I've been bitter ever since I was 9.

Just because I knew who Geoffry Chaucer was then made everyone hate on me.

 

[thylasos]

It's never too young to be world-weary.

These days I prefer to drink bitter, though.

 

[shaneriding]

Do you have a terminal illness? Has your entire family been murdered? Have all your possessions been destroyed and your house demolished?

You have absolutely no reason to be bitter! Start looking for positives and you will become positive. This seems like just another thread whereby someone is one of those "I hate the world" types.

Its extremely fucking boring and shallow and not a day goes by without another relationship thread, or a discussion about gays or religion or manga appearing on these boards.

Seek happiness rather than attention and you never know, you might become dare I say, more human.

 

[xmbts]

18-20 Is actually considered to be the most stressful period of most peoples lives. I think you're fully entitled to be bitter.

Where in the bloody hell did you hear that load of bull?

Psyche class, from my professor, it makes sense to me since you're making most of your important life decisions, what you want to do for a career, picking a school, succeeding in school, moving out.

I'm not saying you have to be bitter forever but if you're all joy and smiles throughout it then you're a stronger person then I.

But that's just me you have every right to disagree.

 

[Danoloto]

I just realised after 18 straight hours of doing little more than read and generally be broody, i am a very bitter person deep down. The phrase "Why bother you'll just get fucked over again" has sprung to mind many a time.
Anywho my question still stands. Is their an age limit to absoloute bitterness, and if you are udner it is their something severly wrong with you?
Thoughts, Comments, Criticism's and STFU you mopey shit's are all welcome

To answer your question, 18 is a fine age to be bitter. Just try to get over it before you decide to grow up, or your bitterness will stain the world.
Being young usually involves not being content with something or other, but it's much more enjoyable to like everything that is going your way, instead of hating the things that go wrong.

 

[ZeroMachine]

18-20 Is actually considered to be the most stressful period of most peoples lives. I think you're fully entitled to be bitter.

Where in the bloody hell did you hear that load of bull?

Psyche class, from my professor, it makes sense to me since you're making most of your important life decisions, what you want to do for a career, picking a school, succeeding in school, moving out.

I'm not saying you have to be bitter forever but if you're all joy and smiles throughout it then you're a stronger person then I.

But that's just me you have every right to disagree.

No, I know you aren't saying "start being bitter then, it's the best time!"

What I'm saying is that psych teacher of yours must have had a pretty shitty first experience at college. Potentially, yes, it can be the most stressful time in life. Technically anytime could be for any person, it's all about the individual. But if we're talking about an "on average" thing, from what I can tell, later on in life where intense debt can potentially set in is much more stressful. Or a midlife crisis. Or the deaths of friends and loved ones around your own age by natural causes.

Maybe it's just because I didn't have an incredibly stressful time myself up until the past couple of months (I just turned 22 today for a point of reference) but from what I can tell issues later on in life are much more stressful with the exceptions of outstanding circumstances.

Also:

I don't know if it's a relationship thing that's made you that bitter, but even if it isn't, take this to heart. Learn patience. If you keep trying to force whatever little bit of happiness you can, you could damn well push it away, and turn bitter. If you just get on with life and learn to wait, it could come to you.

Reading that brought this quote to mind:

"Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue."

From my glass-half-empty point of view, it's so true haha

For someone who claims not to be bitter, that is one of the most bitter and pessimistic things I've ever heard.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

I just realised after 18 straight hours of doing little more than read and generally be broody, i am a very bitter person deep down. The phrase "Why bother you'll just get fucked over again" has sprung to mind many a time.
Anywho my question still stands. Is their an age limit to absoloute bitterness, and if you are udner it is their something severly wrong with you?
Thoughts, Comments, Criticism's and STFU you mopey shit's are all welcome

Yes.... and no. Most likely, anyone older will think that you havent gotten enough experience in life under your belt yet to truly be bitter. Then again, that same group has been eighteen, and should also understand where you are coming from.

You are at an age where (at least, when I was eighteen) you are still trying to figure out you. You know, your place in the world, what relationships with others make you happy, what you want to do with your life, etc. etc. and some bitterness is to be expected.

But being older, I know that in most cases, you have much larger rewards and disappointments ahead of you. Hopefully, many more rewards than disappointments. You will work through it, one way or another, and hopefully come out a fuller and happier person.

Good luck to you.

 

[xmbts]

snip

Yeah, it was a generalization, I didn't have a particularly harsh time of it, but a friend of mine lost his home, got his first real exposure to weed and alcohol, and swapped his major about 3 times all in one year. So I can see where my professor is coming from.

But you're right that it is all individual, what one person finds debilitating another may have no trouble with. I'm just hitting the 'Is this what I really want to do?' issue and I'm not nearly as concerned as I probably should be.

 

[[.redacted]]

It's not too young, but I think you're handling it in the wrong way.

Put simply, life is a depressing thing: you live and die in a heartbeat, achieve some success if you're lucky, and are forgotten soon after your death.

And even if you're not, odds are you never fulfilled your dreams, and if you did they weren't your real dreams, and even if you did - you're only human, you're just a sack of meat with some electrical impulses and chemical systems masquerading as a 'soul'.

Life is shit.

But.

Deal with it, try not to let this knowledge infect your everyday life - realise it, understand it, and file it away. However old you are, if you do eventually comprehend human life in its entirety, you will become depressed.

The real challenge is to accept that and move on. Bitterness is a phase, not a trait, it just takes some people longer than others.

[sub]Must say, your spelling could use an edit, you're likely to put a lot of people off if you post such a firebomb question without long words, so to speak =D[/sub]

 

[Ordinaryundone]

My parents always told me, life is what you make it. When I was a kid, I thought this was crap. "So many things happen TO me, where is the logic in saying that I have control over my own life?" I remember a specific example, when I was kicked out of college for bad grades. Up until then, it had been my entire life; all my friends were there, everyone and everything I knew. I basically got into this mindset that my life was over, that without a college education and that life I had built for myself I had nothing.

But as I've grown older, I realize that I misunderstood what they were saying. You ALWAYS have control. If bad things happen, you always have the choice to take another path, to find a solution and make things better. You don't have to just sit and take it. A big part of it is just learning to "roll with the punches". If you let every little thing get to you (and trust me, there are a LOT of "little things"), then life is just going to be miserable. Go looking for the good stuff, whatever makes you happy, and life will be ok.

The most important thing is, don't wear bitterness and cynicism as a shield. Its a really crappy one. The more you condition yourself to never get excited or get your hopes up, the more you start to realize that you can't get excited about ANYTHING. And a life without any passion is a life not worth living.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Nah, 14-18 is the prime bitterness period.

Enjoy it while it lasts because soon you might start appreciating what you actually have and that some people might just understand you and where's the fun in that?

 

[Triple G]

Jesus motherhumping christ you're all incredibly depressing.

This guy put it best:

Is their an age limit to absoloute bitterness, and if you are udner it is their something severly wrong with you?

I think if you're bitter at age 18, or younger, you probably have very very little reason to be.
Unless you were molested, abused, or have some type of clinically diagnosed (Not self diagnosed) psychosis or something, you have no reason to be bitter. Most 'bitter' kids I see have had very very little real life experience, and are basing all of their angst and mopey attitude on what happens in school. Which is, for lack of a better term, utterly moronic.

I'm 26, have so much left to experience that you can only experience though age, and am absolutely loving life. I was bitter when I was a teen, but that's because I was a dumb-ass teen who thought he knew everything (Like most teens). You grow up, though, and realize that life is pretty kick-ass.

I've also found that when you're just generally happy, the bad things aren't so bad.
But when you're a bitter pessimist, the good things don't seem so good.

I, for one, choose happiness.

And to give a more personal example of why you shouldn't be bitter... my girlfriend, a girl that I truly thought I would spend my life with (and who also thought we were going to spend our lives together) recently broke up with me due to a bunch of reasons, some legit, some bullshit. She said she still loves me, and we will try again someday, and she truly hopes that we work out, but I was so crushed that I couldn't learn the patience until I heard this quote:

‎"A great love is a lot like a good memory. When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of your reach, it can be all that you think about. And.. you can focus on it, and try to force it, but the more you do, the more you seem to push it away. But if you're patient, and you hold still, well maybe... just maybe... it'll come to you."

Some people on here may know what it's from... which makes the quote not only meaningful, but surprising.

I don't know if it's a relationship thing that's made you that bitter, but even if it isn't, take this to heart. Learn patience. If you keep trying to force whatever little bit of happiness you can, you could damn well push it away, and turn bitter. If you just get on with life and learn to wait, it could come to you.

EDIT:

18-20 Is actually considered to be the most stressful period of most peoples lives. I think you're fully entitled to be bitter.

Where in the bloody hell did you hear that load of bull?

Dude, I'm 20. And btw not stupid. Most people I know would say I'm very smart. I don't wanna be arrogant, but wait I do want to arrogant if I say, I know about stuff. I've done some things, people won't ever do in their lives and blablabla. But you know, if you're a realist, you must have come to the realization that life is shit. It may be a big and proud shit, with diamonds sprinkled all over it, but it's still shit. I'm doing my A-levels now, then I'll do my military service and after that I'll study computer science, but I still know that I will have to work till I'm old and ugly, that chicks won't ever find you sexually attractive as long as you are a nice guy(yes, all of you are going to argue over that point and tell me some bullshit about how that's not true and how I'm generalizing and blablabla, but trust me: I've seen it gazillions of times; If you're nice, they think you're weak, and if you're weak, then it's no pussy for you, mister.), that you can not trust anyone except yourself and that friends will never last forever. Also, your youth is kinda limited and by 30 you're an old man in todays world. Ah yes and on top of that everything that could like the stress is banned in most countries. And most people are stupid pricks who deserve to die a painful death. And everything is becoming more and more shitty: movies, books, games, television, education, healthcare, the list goes on. So my point is: You do have every reason to be bitter, if you're not bitter, you're either rich, stupid or just too easily satisfied.

 

[WanderingFool]

World sucks, get used to it early...

 

[mindlesspuppet]

All teenagers are bitter, it's that whole teenage angst thing.

I've been bitter ever since I was 9.

Just because I knew who Geoffry Chaucer was then made everyone hate on me.

He was the butler from Fresh Prince right? xD

 

[Wadders]

Also:

I don't know if it's a relationship thing that's made you that bitter, but even if it isn't, take this to heart. Learn patience. If you keep trying to force whatever little bit of happiness you can, you could damn well push it away, and turn bitter. If you just get on with life and learn to wait, it could come to you.

Reading that brought this quote to mind:

"Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue."

From my glass-half-empty point of view, it's so true haha

For someone who claims not to be bitter, that is one of the most bitter and pessimistic things I've ever heard.

I dont think its that bitter or resentful really. I thought being bitter is something you feel as a result of a wrong thats been done to you, or an injustice or humiliation, none of which has really happened to me on a noticable scale. I jsut think that something rings true about that statement to an extent. Its just saying that being patient is sitting there waiting for things to happen to you instead of making them happen.

Sure its not the most cheerful turn of phrase, but I've gotta say that the whole attitude of "oh well I deserve something good, so if I'm patient and sit it out something will come along one day" is pretty desperate.

That's just my interpretation of it, you're more then welcome to your own of course

 

[Flishiz]

Well if Aristotle is to be believed, happiness is a goal that is achieved with time and age, so 18 is a perfectly valid time to be bitter. Not for long, relatively, though.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Perhaps bitterness is not the correct term. I'm quite despondant, misanthropic and generally pessimistic in terms of personality but doesn't necessarily instill me with anger or depression. I think it just makes me more grounded and realistic, ultimately I can't dwell to much on my own personal qualms when some 10 year old kid in Sierra Leone has just gotten his legs blown off by the local militia. I've gone off on a bit of a tangent, but my point being that as an 18 year old I can be be prone to a negative disposition but I generally remain reticent about it so as not to pester or project my problems on to the few people I actually do care about. Life really isn't that bad, but as long as your behaviour doesn't negatiely affect others around you, you're entitled to feel however you please.