Hyper-Boredom, the Misdiagnosed Problem with the World

Part of me wishes I had made up the term “Hyper Boredom” but I didn’t.  Its been bounced around for a bit, used as a title to a blog or three, and been dropped a few times by other bloggers just rambling on.  One in particular listed boredom as a huge thing with suicide, and mentioned that most mental illnesses either are boredom, or are rooted in boredom.

For the longest time, I’ve fully believed that boredom was a HUGE issue, and it iss odd to watch it in the current teenage generation.  I’ve experienced boredom, a huge amount of it, all my life.  But there’s something more to it now....




My first real clue was watching a show called Super Nanny with a (now) ex-gf.  She had two boys, and they were constantly bored and complete terrors in some form or format.  Good kids overall, but they had tons of toys, and they were all over the house.  Super Nanny pointed out that kids get bored with too many toys, and had a concept of boxing up toys, and only letting the kids have 10 toys each a week that they could trade out.

As with more people, I rolled my eyes at the idea of a TV show having a good idea, but we tried it at the house...and it worked.  Suddenly the kids were respecting their toys, and playing with them all week long.  It wasn’t a case of them taking one out, getting bored with it and leaving it somewhere.  It was special to them.

After that deal, I really stepped back and looked at life, and at how much we all have now.  So many game, so many toys, so many tv shows.  Its so easy to get bored with something and move on.  I don’t know how many video games I have, right now, that I’m close to the end of, but have never finished.  Its hard to keep focus on one game when you have so many others that need played.  Its gotten to the point to where I’ve not played a serious video game in a few months, but that’s a story of me not having much time anymore, and wanting to spend my off moments elsewhere.

There was a lyric to a song I loved, “In the age of Super-Boredom, Hype and Mediocrity, Celebrate relentlessness, Menace to society.”  The band is big on...talking themselves up, so it goes on about how great there music is because of where it came form, and how you should love it because they’ve never deviated and kept coming out with music.  That line, though, “In the Age of Super-Boredom” struck a chord with me....



I watch my step-daughter, an almost 17 year old woman in her own right, but she has issues with boredom on a huge scale.  Its practically a diagnosable condition at this point, because she more or less just copes with it.  The problem is...there’s tons to do.  TV, computer, video games, iPod....  Yet she’s perpetually bored.  In the end, every symptom she displays of Hyper-Boredom is a symptom to Depression.

The biggest problem about it all is...it feeds itself, and is not just in my step-daughter.  Thousands of kids experience this now, with so many things to do online, game website, all sorts of distractions, I don’t know of a single kid now that’s not bored to death.

Which brings me to my final point.  There is a movie called State’s Evidence, which I think I’ve mentioned before in a blog, but either way, it’s a crazy movie, that deals with the teen ‘problems’ in such a realistic way, that I wouldn’t recommend the movie to anyone with a weak stomach, yet I think it’s a movie EVERYONE should watch.  It helped me understand the teen mindset better.  To get to the root of how someone goes from, “I’m simply bored,” to “Its time to get some guns and shoot up a school.”  (On a side note, “Girl Interrupted” with Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie looked into this exact topic and called in “Ambiguity.”  Another great term, BTW.)

The fact is, there is an epidemic among the youth today, and its being diagnosed wrong, or completely ignored.  Its causing the school shootings, the rampant disrespect, and all the pain caused by such sad acts.

The sad part is, most will read this and go, “How can simple being bored cause all this?  I’ve been bored, I didn’t shoot up a school.”  Fact is, you’ve never experienced Hyper-Boredom.  You’ve never known the grips of despair, of having so much stuff that you don’t want to do any of it.  Where you give up on it all, walk away from it, and sit in a dark room listening to music.  And that music, you never end, because before its over, before you’ve experienced the release of the emotion, you’ve already changed to the next song, getting emotional fixes and pushing past it all.  That’s only a small part of it...but it will drive you insane, and leave you completely empty inside, wishing there was a way out....

--Dan