How To Keep My Mind off of Negative Things?

I've been feeling a lot more depressed this year than usual. A lot of things in my life have been going badly. I have all sorts of problems and I have no one to talk to about them. I haven't had a conversation with anyone for months now. I live with my family but we don't talk much. I usually say hey in passing but that's where it ends.

So I spend all of my time in my room trying to fix things. The problem is that all I do is try to fix things. I don't have any way to just take a break and do something fun. I don't do anything that makes me happy anymore so I just end up thinking about all the bad things. Even worse was when I got addicted to porn... It sounds stupid but porn ended up being the only thing in my life that relieves stress. So it's been really tough to quit. I feel like if I do quit then there won't be anything to make me feel good anymore. Maybe it's a fake feeling and maybe it's not real but it's all I've got.

I don't know what to do. I need help finding some way to keep my mind off of my problems but I don't what to do. Any ideas?

Hello & Welcome, NoCake!

In the spirit of the shotgun approach, here's
one list of 30 ideas for keeping the mind off negative things, and
Nonsense's list of distracting activities.

Basically, you might try the following:

• Distracting yourself from what's bothering you.
• Focusing coolly and intently on what's bothering you with a view to discerning what is in your power to change or control and then planning to change or control it.
• Talking about what's bothering you with a sympathetic, active listener (doctor, therapist, counselor, clergy, teacher, etc.).

It is possible, NoCake, you may be suffering from clinical depression or another illness (or both). Try to get screened.

Don't think of a purple elephant. But to not think of a purple elephant,
you must first think of one, and then cross it out in some way.
That's how the mind works.

When I was around 20, someone gave me the following advice on depression.
Close the curtains and do anything else that makes the room depressing.
Than be as depressed as you can possibly be for at least two hours.
That sounded weird but I respected the person so I tried it.

For the first 15 minutes, I was very depressed. Then I started to relax.
I still felt the same feelings but they weren't depressing.
For the entire second hour, I felt great. I wanted to finish the second hour
but it was difficult. I just wanted to leave and go do something fun.
But I stuck with it because I thought I should.

I haven't been seriously depressed since.
Fighting the feelings of depression just makes it worse.
In my opinion, depression is emotional exhaustion. Giving into the feelings
gives you the rest you need. You focus your attention on the feelings and
that causes them to relax. Attention heals.
Avoiding or "distracting" your attention (sounds like repression to me) will just prolong the feelings.

Thanks a lot for all the advice here. I'm going to give these things some thought.