Have some thoughts I wanted to get off my chest. They are not really mental struggles, but action I took that probably prevented potention mental struggles.
I have always been a happy and positive guy. I've been told that Im a person that can have a fight, walk out of the room and come back in 2 min after and be smiling. A pupil I had in my class in one of my pracitucums told me I smile a lot.
However, the Internet has not been doing well for me. I left GAF last year and I left ERA last year (first I got banned, but then I also requested a self-ban to not be part of the site anymore) and I have been avoiding other parts of the Internet, different discussion boards I read at times (not registered) and unsubbed to different YT channels Ive checked out.
Im very sure me leaving sites like ERA, GAF and different sites and YT channels have made me happier. Almost everything just overflows with negativity and sometimes toxicity. You can't discuss something without a bunch of people bringing negativity in and derailing threads.
Reminds me off something Bill Burr talked about. People just care about negativity, never the positive things someone has done. "This dude helped a cat down a tree, nah, fuck that, he helped an old lady across the streets, yuck, oh, he said something dumb 8 years ago, oh hell yeah".
Right now Im basically just on MetaCouncil, Facebook (for holding contact with friends, family and different groups), some Discord channels and Reddit. Reddit at least allows me to easier avoid negativity. My Reddit front page consist of r/funny, r/humansbeingbros, r/awww, stuff like that, SnapChat and a bit of TikTok and Insta (only following funny people and positive people on those apps).
Before I knew about the Internet I was the person who saw everything in a positive way and smiled a lot and the Internet almost took that away from me.
I also think it's important not to care, not to give a shit. I think not giving a shit about many things gives a better quality of life. It's why I managed to play games that have controversy around it like Kingdom Come, Iron Fury, the upcoming TLOU 2 (looks amazing, have it pre-ordered). I simply don't care about the controversy around them and other things. Maybe it's a bad thing and I should care, but I don't and I don't know why.
Im on my second rewatch of New Girl on Netflix because I find the show funny and it makes me laugh and I don't care what people think about me watching that show.
Im an emotional guy, I can cry easily at sad things or things that are wholesome and makes me happy and I don't care what other people think about that. I also like to sing and dance to good music because singing and dancing is fun and makes me happy and I still don't care about what people think. I like to watch and rewatch standups by people like Carlin, Carr, Jefferies, Burr, Jeselnik etc. becaue it's fun and if people have problems with, let's say, Carr, right, but don't bring your problems with him to me, I don't care, I laugh at his jokes and that's what matters to me.
TLDR: I have avoided potential mental struggles by avoiding and leaving parts of the Internet that are overflowing with negativity and toxicity and it has made me happier. I also find it important to not care about everything as I think it improves my quality of life.