Are You Outsourcing Your Happiness? It Could Explain Why You Feel Empty and Anxious

The trouble occurs when you look outside of yourself to fill up the inside.

Photo by Em Lmt on Unsplash

A few years ago, I was living the typical life of a young twenty-something. I went out, I partied, I drank, I dined, I made random friends, I dated random people. I thought I was having fun — and a lot of the times I was enjoying myself — but, at the end of the day, I was just so sad, so hollow.

I figured I wasn’t doing enough. Despite all the effort to be social, perhaps I was still too introverted. I needed to be outside more, make more friends, join more parties, have more exciting relationships — I reasoned.

So I tried to do all those things while feeling more and more frustrated because I couldn’t get the outcome I wanted. Sure, all those things made me happy for a few hours, an evening, maybe even a long weekend but, afterward, without fail, I was left with an empty feeling that made me both anxious and depressed.

To alleviate this anxiety and depression, not knowing any better, I found those parties, those drinks, those meals, those friends, those dates again. They instantly relieved me and, before long, I depended on them to feel okay. And the cycle repeated until the day the toxicity of these…