The weekend doesn't count surely?

it's been a rough week for like.. around 450 weeks.

People be like: "Just try to think of the last time you were happy and..."
And I'm just over here thinking: "I remember being happy once... It was 1996. I was nine."

This is how I decline into drinking too much. I'm currently on a good path though.

keep it up, i, a random stranger, am proud of you! :) there's better little treats for you out there!

I think this is buy design. Capitalism zaps your energy by forcing you to pay the bills and leaves no energy for fun. Lazy fun means consuming. Food, drugs, tech, media, etc.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's by design, but I definitely share your observation that capitalism doesn't leave much time and energy you would need to pursue hobbies, and it's way easier to get a dopamine high by consuming.
Even if this phenomenon is not by design, it is definitely synergizing very well with capitalism, and therefore there are people who exploit it and, in turn, support capitalism with their actions.
It is actually a depressing example of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory, which states that every system inherently tends to stabilize itself.

It gets even worse. My little treat is alcohol.

Alcohol becomes your own internal voice, your own thinking working out complex feats of logic and reasoning for why it's okay just one more day and then before long that's your whole life, just that constant hum of background rationalization to get your boost. What steps you have to take to go stop by the Circle K or grocery store after work, or in the middle of the night, or during lunch. The whole while you are confident that it's your own free-will so it can't be a problem.
So anyway, it sucks and hurts inside and out, but escaping before you lose days, months and years to the shit will save your life. I have no idea why such an addictive substance is sold in every convenience store. Our species makes no sense.
- Good thing that I don't really care about life, then.
Oof. Me too.

Rough Week 523: The little treat is now two whole cheesecakes. I should feel ashamed, but I feel nothing without my little treat.

If alcohol is your treat, this is how alcoholism or alcohol abuse starts.

^This is why my pants don't fit anymore..

meanwhile

Perhaps it’s time for a large treat.

Upgrade that can of coke into a brick 😤
- A brick of coke? Isn't that like millions of dollars worth?

We all need to be reinforced. That doesn’t change when we become adults. If the little treat isn’t working you are being punished too much or need a different little treat. If the little treat hurts you, such as alcohol, try to find a functionally similar treat that doesn’t. Mine was Boba and fancy coffee for a while.

Unless you know more than ChatGPT, I've earned this fentanyl drip.

People don't have holidays anymore these days?

I just assume OOP is American. In the civilised world they definitely do.

The weekend does count. And don't call me Shirley

"It's just this once" every time.

Maybe deeper richer rewards and the paradigms of thought that support them might reproduce the incentive structure of capital a little less?

I find that people don't really answer the question "why not?", they just utter the phrase before doing what they wanted to do, lol.

That feels quite sad, honestly… I wish you all to find fulfillment and happiness without the need for sugar supplements

all good mate. ive got weed

Werthers original is my go to. Sweet, slightly salty. And lasts like 5 mins in your mouth, by the time it's dissolved in your mouth your are already hopefully in your next flow state. And only 20kcal per candy