Histrionic Pessimism

histrionic - adj - an attitude of melodramatic despair

I've put of this rant because I could not find a suitable word to sum it up, but I think 'histrionic' comes closest. Other helper words, not meant as synonyms, but as modifiers, would be melodramatic, pessimistic, victim mentality, defeatist, and overemotional. Perhaps an example would help clarify the attitude in question.

You're with a friend when their car breaks down. They flip out, become philosophical and start whining about how life is out to get him/her, bust out the 'poor-me' routine, or maybe even start to cry because they won't have the money to fix whatever is wrong and now they'll have to move back to Golden. They seem to suddenly decide as if that moment, out of all possible ones, is the best time to look at the bigger picture, and of course, they don't stop to consider the bias coming from the current situation. Later on, they realize it was just a blown fuse in the car and they, hopefully, feel quite foolish.

However, it doesn't have to be something as trivial as a broken down car. People still seem to allow their emotions to get the best of them under traumatizing situations too. I mean, I'm not including situations concerning death, someone being paralyzed, etc, because these are different, much more permanent changes. Crying is quite an acceptable reaction to many situations, but when it's accompanied by this drivel about how 'this kind of stuff always happens', it's just kinda silly. I've learned by now from experience that tough times, bad trips, or situations involving big changes are NOT the time to be evaluating your life.

I've had plenty of nights when either due to a large dose of mushrooms or a family crisis, I was sure that things would never be the same again and that I'd be just as upset the next morning, but of course, when the next morning arrived, I never seemed to be nearly as worked up. It's as if at the moment of crisis, there's some unseen force that compels us to blow things out of proportion and act like it's Judgment Day or something.

I think there's a lot to be said for making an effort to stay cool in situations like the aforementioned. By maintaining a level-headed grip on the situation, we allow ourselves the best opportunity to come up with solutions, and we also prevent ourselves from feeling foolish later if we realize that things weren’t really that bad and we'd gone hysterical.

Now I'm not saying we should become numb to the world around us, just that we should put a higher priority on maintaining our composure in times of adversity. I've been stranded 25km from the nearest possible person, blown a flat tire going 160km/hr in the dark, been pulled over by the cops while smoking dope, and the first two actually made the experience more enjoyable because of the crisis and in the third, nothing bad happened in the end. Now of course, these examples aren't meant to be truly traumatic, but then again, they could've been, if I/we hadn't kept our cool and just gone with the flow. The only constant is change, and resisting this only leads to more suffering. Go with the flow and try looking on the brighter side. Oh yeah, and getting stranded out there (more than 3 hours from town, too) was definitely among my top 3 best memories of 2004.

Slipknot - Vermilion pt 2