Venting Romanticization of the NEET "lifestyle" (and poor mental health in general)

[scary]

Lifestyle in huge quotation marks because I sure as hell didn't choose this. I know that it's a combination of many things in my life that were out of my control that led me to this point but I still feel like such a worthless waste of space. These types of posts I used to see on the internet before I purged all of my socials just made me feel more isolated and alone. On Twitter with the drawings of anime girls in messy rooms filled with wrappers, monster cans, and rifles saying shit like "uwu i'm just a smelly failgirl femcel!! do you wanna hear me sperg about my autistic interest?" or the TikToks where people talk about "bedrotting" for a day only to immediately mention doing something like going out with their group of friends. It's all so tiresome.

I have no doubt in my mind that some of the people who make these kinds of posts are struggling in some way, everyone has different ways of coping right? I don't know what everyone is going through. But I've seen so many cases of it being portrayed as a cool/quirky thing to the point where its starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth. It's quite literally isolating and tiring not being able to leave your house and interact with people, but excuse me for being the fun police.
(Completely ignoring the fact that the people who joke about it are the same ones who turn around and say you're disgusting for not showering due to said depression)

I just love being alone with nobody irl to confide in, trapped in a dark room either sleeping or being on my devices. I love not having the energy to take care of myself and having to cut huge chunks of knotted hair out that have become impossible to brush as a result of laying in my bed all day. I love being autistic and scaring off/weirding out everyone I've ever tried to talk to and make friends with. I love being too fucking stupid and anxious of people to go back to school. I love crying myself to sleep every night.

I wish I was the cute fetishized NEET instead of the pathetic loser NEET. Maybe if I learn how to draw in a garbage gooner bait animu style and post to Xitter i'll gain a scarebillion followers to commission me so I can buy SN or even N if that's possible where I'm from. My kawaii neet girl drawings will help me escape from this surely. Wish I actually had the energy and motivation to get back into art though, I miss being a kid who loved to draw.

 

[Karrikin]

NEET is a technical acronym. Even then, the connotation with it has become something that, as you mentioned, has become fetishized. I do not qualify as a NEET, despite being such a shut in I'm still in education, and I guess I try to maintain my room completely barren and sterile. Still -- even without having to be a part of it --I guess the way in which that sort of culture has become romanticized is no surprise. I remember that whole goth or punk era was looked down upon and now look at how its also become romanticized. I guess with all of that considered, I don't think any of what these "larpers" online say is all that valid. The gooner bait and idyllic NEET is a fantasy by people who only have a very ignorant understanding of what it's actually like to be living in those conditions. I don't know, just seems like fetishizing an aspect or side effect of depression...

Anyways.

 

[fishperson]

fuck my chungus hikikomori life

 

[NormallyNeurotic]

I literally uwu talk online sometimes. It doesn't help. The issue is that some NEETs inherently can't be romanticized by the average population due to our "bad hygiene" and other things related to... you guessed it... DISABILITY. The closest a lot of us will get to the fetishy NEET label is to hit up a disability fetishist, and trust me, it ain't worth it.

 

[eggsausagerice]

I just love being alone with nobody irl to confide in, trapped in a dark room either sleeping or being on my devices. I love not having the energy to take care of myself and having to cut huge chunks of knotted hair out that have become impossible to brush as a result of laying in my bed all day. I love being autistic and scaring off/weirding out everyone I've ever tried to talk to and make friends with. I love being too fucking stupid and anxious of people to go back to school. I love crying myself to sleep every night.

the tiktok/twitter version of neets honestly makes me want to kill myself more than i already do. being a neet is idealized here too, as well as having a chronic illness, or cancer. it's awful that people will wish to have something that others already have, just the real version of it instead of the one they're imagining. it's incredibly isolating, embarrassing, and depressing to be a neet and bedrotting isn't a cute term for "being in bed and scrolling on my phone, then going to see my friends later". it's being in your bed for days and days and never leaving your house. bedrotting and doomscrolling aren't hobbies you can pick up and put down. the same people that say they do it will judge you for being boring.

i know that i'll never be the cute depressed girlfailure people imagine me to be. i wish that mental issues weren't sexualized so that they appeal more to the general public like a social contagion. it's really tiring to be in a situation that doesn't look like it'll get better and there's 0 people in your life that are there to support you. being socially anxious and depressed just makes people want to get away from me. i'm a lesser person for not being cute enough to be fetishized.

 

[WrathfulGloom32]

I think others have said what needs to be said, the people online are ignorant of people who are neets, in theory I think I can classify as neet but I am employed from time to time.

But I kid you not I'm tired and I thought the green chair was big smoke from San Andreas

 

[fishperson]

I wish we could add each other , and have our lil neet friend group. but we are probably barely going to interact and its gonna be very gloomy. but sometimes it feels good to have people relate to the chaotic sleep schedule, eating patterns , psychotic behavior etc... instead of getting shut down by a friend saying they are going to work now and u feel even more miserable cause u got nowhere to go. and the only thing u can do is speedrun to find anything that can take ur attention away before ur intrusive thoughts/ memories come back to haunt u...

 

[Captain laser]

"i wish i had a depressed mentally ill girlfriend!!" no you dont, kiss her and you'll realize she hasnt brushed her teeth in 6 months, shit they'd probably say "oh i love girlsmell :3" or some bullshit like that

 

[kunikuzushi]

NEET just means not in employment education or training. Maybe you mean shut-in or hikikomori? I really do understand what you mean though about those things making you feel more isolated.

I've been a NEET for 7 years, and it's torture. I do go out with people quite frequently, and I do romanticize this lifestyle because they are ways to cope. Maybe because of this, others can't see that I'm hiding severe constant pain. So I guess we'll never know others' full story just from what we see on the internet, or even in real life.