I hope you do stick around. I could really enjoy discussing philosophy with you. I've had those same questions! I remember as a child wondering if we really existed, or if maybe we were just all characters in sombody else's dream. Or just a dream of a dreamer who was just dreamed up by someone else. Then what does that make the characters in our dreams? Maybe the whole universe only exists because somebody dreamed it. Who would that be who dreamed up the universe? Could the dream theory explain other dimensions (they could be versions of the universe in yet another dream)? So there could be all these varying degrees of dreams and existence. Could it be circular? No beginning - the first dream is just dreamed up by the last?

Yeah, it can tie in to depression. I spent so many years wondering if I really existed and whether I had any right to exist, that it was easy to buy into any suggestion that I shouldn't, in fact, exist. One time my insurance company told me that I didn't exist, and that was why they were not going to pay my bill, and I figured that they must be right. What business did I have thinking that I existed anyway?

Controlling your thoughts is too complicated to explain here. You could try doing an internet search for cognitive therapy, or find a therapist who does cognitive therapy. One thing to try though would be to just decide to think about something else anytime an unwanted thought enters your mind. Music really helps - decide on a song and learn it, and play that in your mind instead.

<font color=orange>"They accused us of suppressing freedom of expression. This was a lie and we could not let them publish it." ... from the Director of Censorship...

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