TomDent wrote:
I'm currently a NEET and there's lots of things I do to console myself. The majority of it is drawing or painting, then there's playing video games (though I only have Mario Kart 7 currently and it'll be a pretty good while until I get more games), and of course watching anime. These things always make me forget that I don't have a job and that I'm not a student anymore.
My first reaction is to say that your post made me so goddamn sad. I just want to hug you and build a gigantic mansion for NEETs to live in!!!
So, despite how unrealistic/facilitating that dream is.... I really feel for you. The whole NEET-state-of-existence is horrible. And it can escalate into extreme agoraphobia, paranoia, or even Cotardian delusions (the belief that you are actually dead and exist only as a ghost).
NEETs can be any age, but it's dangerous for young people in their late teens to early 30s.
Why?
Because those are your productive years. That is society's designated time for you to go out and take risks. Start a business. Get into med-school. Quit med-school. Declare bankruptcy. Get drunk. Go back to school. Find a social network of support (read: true, lifetime friends). Achieve your dreams, or settle for lesser victories. Build a family.... In your teens and early 30s, you can fail at anything and still have the time and energy to start over.
If you begin adult life as a NEET, you're more likely to relapse and never come out of it.
Being a NEET doesn't seem so bad at first and that's why it's dangerous. You're devoting life to your hobbies. You're playing games that give you a false sense of accomplishment... It's just "me-time" that got a little out of hand. So, when it comes time to leave the house and go to a family function or even just shopping, you begin to put it off. It makes you feel anxious, embarrassed... Becoming a NEET is like taking the short road to hikikomori-land. You don't believe you fit in with people. You lose your desire to fit in, even with people who share your hobbies. You blow off everyone, even family members... It's just easier and LESS COMPLICATED to stay alone, play it safe.
You know it's bad when you've restricted your contact to only one other person...
It doesn't seem horrible when you're going about your NEET business, but when you come out of it (IF you come out of it) you're going to want to mourn for all the time you lost, time you could have spent with loved-ones or in the pursuit of bettering yourself or preparing yourself for the future.
I don't know anyone who can be forced out of being a NEET. They have to do it themselves.....
Please note that the NEET lifestyle isn't healthy. It leads nowhere. IF you want to make the argument that some really wealthy people become NEETs or "retire" from public life because they have the means, then OK. But, they are not typical. And, according to my sociology professor, the rich are more likely to commit suicide. They stand to lose it all, but it's not just that. When you have everything and something's still missing.....those are the people who self-destruct.
The majority of people who become NEETs aren't extraordinarily wealthy or extraordinarily poor. They can start out in the middle or upper middle classes.... I mean, when you aren't making money and you are just living off of savings, you're going to run out of $ eventually. After a while, most of them can't afford to maintain their lifestyles and rely of family/elderly parents for financial support.
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