Hello, I'm a lurker on this sub, and have reading with great interest at the various viewpoints and intelligent perspectives espoused here. I'm of course very interested intellectually in the MGTOW movement, and fundamentally agree with the principles in it - it IS the lifestyle I want to adopt, but I'm deeply unsure that I could sustain it without going crazy.
Now I don't even consider myself particularly young, being 31, but looking truly honestly at myself, I do not think I could completely forgo that experience of pair bonding, of establishing and building intimacy - I would like to tell myself I could do it, but even after a few months of being single I can't help but feel something's missing in my life. Depression plagues me. Meaningless haunts me. Casual sex doesn't fill the void. I can't help but have this unrelenting urge to get into a deep relationship. I suspect I'm a hapless victim to my genetic drive, and a lot - I would expect the vast majority - are like me. I could without doubt though see someone a bit more advanced in their life, perhaps in their 40s having come out of a previous marriage and done the whole family thing, as embracing and even being enriched by the philosophy. My genuine question is how do you younger MGTOWs do it? Do you experience periods of darkness and depression, or loneliness, and how do you overcome it?
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Part of it is the realization that the above -- that "pair bonding" and "intimacy" you speak of -- is an illusion/delusion* that really only exists on your side of the equation (i.e. it's a fantasy you've constructed in your mind).
The women who you THINK are "bonding" and being "intimate" with you... are basically just engaged in an act.
Why? Because you "gift" them a whole shitload of things: your attention validates their self-worth, your wallet opens up on a regular basis (whether you fully comprehend the extent of it or not), and your muscles and hands and mind invariably get used as "free tools" in her service.
* EDIT: And I should note that while that sounds (and in some ways IS) incredibly "cynical", it's also pragmatic/realistic -- the plain fact of the matter is that the sense of "intimacy" or "connection/bonding" that you may feel; is in fact just a construct inside of your brain -- that's how/why we can still "feel connected" to someone who is at a remote distance from us, we may think that they are reciprocating and also similarly "feeling connected" to us, thinking of us, etc; but all too often the reality is that they are NOT (certainly not to the same degree and/or at the same time). Moreover, any actual "connection" that does happen to occur, is going to be rather superficial or ephemeral in nature; generally due to sharing or remembering some shared external experience (and internally THINKING that the other person's thought/emotions are in line with your own based on superficial evidence -- when the reality is that they may be, probably ARE having significantly different thoughts than you yourself are).
I have no doubt that a PART of it is a genetic/hormonal drive.
But to be blunt -- an even larger part tends to be more nuture/habit -- you have become habituated to having other people around you on an almost continual basis (usually the result of -- as a child -- never really having much "time alone", and thus never having developed a full "individual identity" that is separate from being a member of some group and/or group activity.)
That's FAR from an uncommon thing by the way -- for men OR women. In the case of the latter, it's one of the reasons that the majority of women so desperately want a child or children; because it's a virtually foolproof method of forcing the situation of having others around them -- children after all not really having the power or ability to leave them (and of course most women will fight tooth and nail to prevent anyone ELSE from getting custody).
--
At it's root, a big part of this comes from the fact that people are NOT really comfortable with themselves -- there's often an unhealthy inner dialog, which a sense of others watching/judging you that especially kicks in if and when you go out and about ALONE -- as opposed to a healthy inner dialog and sense of self that simply "enjoys" and focuses on whatever activity you are engaged in (and ignores/dismisses the sort of -- quite frankly paranoid -- idea that others care or notice, much less that one should really CARE about whether they do or not).
As for re-mediating that... well I'd suggest you take up some active hobby/craft that requires focused time ALONE, so that you become accustomed to keeping occupied/busy (and ideally "happy" & productive) in something that doesn't depend on the validation of other people.
Other things that people can/have found helpful include stuff that is more directly aimed at changing that "inner dialog" -- meditation, learning to enjoy "silence" (as opposed to being surrounded by a constant cacophony of noise), and simply "being" as opposed to constantly "doing", etc.
--
There are plenty of resources online and/or in book form, I'd suggest you just begin doing a search on things like "the art of being alone" or "active solitude" etc.
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