Does anyone else find cubing to be depressing?

[Snoutmol]

I love speedcubing, but whenever I try to sit down and practice it, I get depressed. I feel like I'm slowly wasting away in my room. :rolleyes:

Then I get addicted to solving it over and over and I can't stop. I have to force myself to stop.

 

[uniacto]

then don't sit in your room. do it somewhere else.

 

[Snoutmol]

then don't sit in your room. do it somewhere else.

That helps a little bit. But I still feel like I'm being incredibly unproductive and wasting my life.

Then again, I do sit and practically do nothing for 2-3 hours a day at school. I should bring a workbook to school or something...

 

[Ollie]

This is partly why I took up BLD and memory sports simultaneously. At least by improving my memory whilst cubing and then taking it even further to pack of cards, names and faces, numbers, letters etc I felt I was practicing a useful real world skill as well.

 

[AlexByard]

That helps a little bit. But I still feel like I'm being incredibly unproductive and wasting my life.

Then again, I do sit and practically do nothing for 2-3 hours a day at school. I should bring a workbook to school or something...

I have felt this too. But as I thought about it I realised it wasn't the cubing I was just generally unhappy, shared no common interest with anyone. It wasn't untill my friends got into cubing I stopped feeling this. So it could be that it's not the cubing but rather your perspective of where you stand right now. You just need too fins more drive for life. I hope this could possibly help.

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[JianhanC]

after a while you'll get sick of it. take a break or try out a different event.

 

[cxinlee]

To me, improving my times and learning new things are achievements. Thus, I fell great when that happens.

 

[SenileGenXer]

Clean your room and put some bright stickers on the cube? Add some light and new music. Exercise. Exercise outdoors.

Change your environment because you can and because it helps.

I'm not trying to be personal and I'm not projecting but you may be seasonal. You might have been thinking these "wasting my life" "can't control x,y,z" "I get depressed when" kind of thoughts all winter and be due for a big change in attitude and energy very soon. That energy is going to flood in to whatever you are interested in. The hardest thing to overcome is the fact that all the "wasting my life" "can't control x,y,z" "I get depressed when" thoughts are false conclusions that you have repeated to yourself too many times. Your only wasting your life if you give up something you have worked on or decide to do it poorly, you can control a great number of things if you set yourself to it, and you got depressed because it was winter.

 

[kunparekh18]

If people found cubing depressing, this forum wouldn't even have half the population it has now.

 

[Dacuba]

Not wanna be prejudiced or something, but how often are you with people?

 

[Ickathu]

Why do it if it's depressing? No, I don't find it depressing. On the contrary, if I'm feeling depressed or angry or upset I usually turn to cubing (or math) as a stress reliever and calmer of sorts.

 

[emolover]

Hell no. The most common emotion I feel while cubing is anger. Given, I am an angry person so...

 

[ben1996123]

sort of but not really. its kind of why I rarely cube anymore and do stuff I actually like now, such as making a sim so I can cube more (but I'm bored of sim too now)

 

[Florian]

well for me it was that when I realised that it's basically a waste of time to cube like an hour a day. I basically stopped and cubed here and there once or twice a months.
Just go out with friends instead or build study groups instead. Or for the time you're alone find something usable to do instead of 3 hours of cubing, like watching Khan Academy/sixty symbols or other studying. Or the best option read "The Art and Craft of Problem Solving" by Paul Zeitz , a great book.

Have a study aim, but not like an awesome mark at school or (you're from US right?) a 2400. Something different like being team of the IMO, IPhO or IChO. Cause that's something different AND much more interesting than school stuff, whilst it helps you with school as well. Not sure when the US evaluation comp for those olympiades starts, but maybe (if I'm lucky and you as well) we'll see each other in 2014 .

But still don't give up cubing it's a great hobby with great experiences at competitions.

 

[Escher]

Hey man, when I was cubing a lot and really depressed I was doing 1000 solves a day. I did get pretty good for a time, so maybe it was worth it. It's probably just that you're depressed anyway, and cubing allows you hours in the day to suppress actually thinking about your life and what to do with it. If you feel like that all the time, you should probably get help. If it's just when you cube, you should probably find something else that is productive and has more obvious positive effects in other areas, such as a sport, or dedicating your time to learning things like languages or programming, or the wealth of interesting things they never bother to teach you in school. I play LoL now which is hella fun, but I wouldn't recommend it if you mind being called an ***** by aggressive imbecilic 11 year olds.

 

[jayefbe]

As other people are saying, it sounds like you're depressed in other aspects, and are blaming cubing as the cause, when it's actually the symptom. The time spent unhappily cubing probably isn't happening because you love cubing, it's probably due to having nothing better to do.

Not every second has to be spent doing something completely productive. As a grad student, I value my leisure time and wholly take advantage of it. It's during those times that I cube or participate in my other hobbies because they enrich my life. But the thing is, these hobbies are a PART of my life, they are not all of it. Because I have close relationships with family and friends, and because I have rewarding work, I can spend the whole weekend cubing without feeling like there's something missing. Granted, there's very little any of us know about you to be making such large assumptions, but I imagine that your larger issue is that your life is lacking these things. Not cubing.

 

[AlexByard]

Is anyone else just loving how this community has come together like this too support an individual? I am!

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[SpeedSolve]

Look at the good things cubing is bringing you as well. Not only does it bring attention at school, it brings in all the chicks. Amirite? Cubing is a good hobby, it's not supposed to make people depressed. If anything you're making the most of your life doing something that isn't something just anybody can do. Sure, a ton of people can solve but ask 50 people at your school if they can solve a cube and take that ratio and you'll see what I mean. And if you're still depressed, well, get a therapist. It really does help.

 

[uniacto]

Look at the good things cubing is bringing you as well. Not only does it bring attention at school, it brings in all the chicks. Amirite?

Nope. They'll see you as a nerd, trust me on this one.

 

[5BLD]

I find it depressing to cube alone now but thats about it
I also find it depressing when i dont want to cube