The Rubinshteinic Guide to Mental Survival

(Philosocom's Masculinity Directory)

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Survival as a human being is never exclusively physical. I would like to suggest that Maslow's hierarchy of needs may distort our perception of human needs, even though it is generally agreed upon. In other words, our mental needs are still needs, even if they are less demanding than our physical needs. If you minimize the importance of a need simply because it is smaller in comparison, you may be harming yourself without realizing it.

Why? Because many of us have a need to be loved, to feel accomplished, and to actualize ourselves. If you minimize these mental needs, you may damage your chances of survival in this world. Maslow's hierarchy is one of priority, not importance. This means that once you have secured your physical needs, you should then secure your mental ones if you want to increase your chances of survival!

What is generally considered to be survival is just one aspect of it—the physical one. Even those who are well-off still need to survive in accordance with their needs. If they neglect their mental needs, their mental state can be damaged. In order to survive, one must also maintain good mental health. If they do not, they could risk many dangers, most notably giving up on life.

When it comes to mental survival, we need to understand that our mentalities are different from one another. Our mental needs may differ depending on our personalities, interests, and life goals. Therefore, in order to improve our mental survival, we must know ourselves better in order to prevent ourselves from doing things that we may regret later on, which could result in our death.

Survival is essentially this: Doing whatever it takes to avoid premature death. While we cannot completely avoid premature death, we can reduce the chances of it happening. After all, a poor mental state can override our compliance to our survival instinct. It can make us not act on it, which is very unwise.

Understand -- Men are likelier to die earlier than women. Although women are more prone to mental health problems than men, the subject of mental health among men is taken less seriously. We men are expected to be stronger and more resilient even if we are not. In fact, we may struggle more in finding emotional support than women. Therefore, we need to take into account the mental risks of being a man -- and I'm speaking to both men and women. That's because our mental survival, so it seems, may depend on our gender as well.

And according to this article, autistic people are more prone to despair than the rest of the population, due to numerous reasons, mentioned within.

So, if you are a man, and/or autistic, entertain the thought that you might die earlier, and thus, are less likely to survive than a woman. And so, never take your health lightly, and when I say health, I also refer to your mentality, as well.

Psychologists can help, yes, but remember that they are first and foremost, problem solvers. They are not healers. I myself went to psychologists for over a decade. It didn't help much personally. The solutions I found were my own, so I am not fond on wasting my finances on solutions that might not work. It feels like gambling my money away, and I dislike gambling. And I'm not going to gamble my life away due to a fallacy I devised.

As someone who suffers from an anxiety disorder, I utilized this constant stress to better survive and become mentally tougher. After all, anxiety can be regarded as a survival mechanism.

I thought I should work towards serenity, but I realized how important anxiety is to my survival — and other people's survival as well. I must constantly worry in order to survive better, so that I can do things like donate to charity and fund my poorer writers. After all, a person without a care in the world might be less willing to help not only themselves, but others as well!

So I do not care for serenity as much as I used to. There are more important emotions and subjects to nurture, in order for me, at least, to survive.

As someone who is in a often a feeling of "flight or fight", I truly experience life as what it is: a finite, uncertain one, that can end at any time by whatever means possible, intentional or otherwise. I have used the abuse I suffered from others to understand this well.

Never be too carefree, or you might die as a result, or at least be traumatized unnecessarily. Never have full trust in anyone, when they can damage your mentality unintentionally. Never use the lack of intention as an excuse. That's because abusers may use it too.

For example, whenever someone yells at me, I will yell back until they cower. Should someone mock me in a physical space, I will be angry at them until they submit. I do not care for the sentiments of those who stand in my way, when my way is the way of survival.

For I only survive to work! Anything else is smaller by comparison! Never forget that. So instead of falling victim to trauma, I seek to utilize it, to become more resilient and decrease unnecessary trauma in the future. I merely hope to make it until I die of old age. Because it will be then, and only then, when I will be able to optimize my work as a philosopher.

You can apply the same rationality in the name of whatever you're living for. And you need a good mental state to make it.

Because even today, remember that the strong are those who rule over the weak. Social status, money, influence — they are but tools for one's own survival over others. And social dominance, even if toxic, is an inevitable feature of the socio-political animals that humans are. Why? Because reality is toxic, and hoping for a life pure of toxicity is a fantasy that belongs to pure physical hermits. And never to people who live and interact with each other regularly.

And other people are not going to care, necessarily, for your mental condition. Even if they work to deteriorate it, intentionally or not, they might not hold themselves accountable for their actions. Whether because they are immature, illogical, or straight-out psychopaths who are incapable of remorse (or capable, but very little).

Do whatever you can to not let your mind deteriorate to the point that you decide to overcome your survival instinct. For the tendency to end one's life can be too strong. And that is something that belongs to the weak.

And in this world, the strong survive. Mentally, too.

No. You need to act on it. Act on instinct.

And for that end, I view life as a contemporary version of a wild jungle. So I will guard my mentality like it deserves. And I'm not letting anyone do it for me. That's my responsibility, as an adult. As a man.

Because my quest for relevancy is the quest to not kill myself. And that is why I made Chen pay. So I would not die mentally. I did everything I could to prove her wrong by becoming a successful writer.

So I killed much of my sensitivity in accordance. Became more masculine and so on. It's all in order to survive. And by writing this article, I want you to survive, as well. Philosophy in general can help for that end.

And I do not expect you to agree with me, nor with my methods. I expect you to entertain my ideas.

Act on this instinct.

Expect no mercy.

Survive.

Don't just walk.

Run.