Dealing with NGS syndrome can be a tough one. You could be a having a great week not long before, but then it happens—you find yourself with zero motivation and wanting to give up on it all—because you really do not give a shit. This doesn’t happen out of the blue though. It isn’t a random phenomenon. While NGS can be triggered by a major event (such as spectacularly failed expectations in yourself or others), it slowly builds up inside of your system long before any major symptoms. Common causes are a daily neglect of health; overwork; loneliness; or a grand combination of all this shittyness, plus a whole lot more—leading to a total lack of care for it.

NGS is a form of a detachment. Not quite a full on depression though, where you truly don’t give a fuck. But it could possibly lead that way. When you are struck with NGS, you often find ways to keep piling it on yourself. You don’t think of your greatest past moments, but tend to just recall the shitty ones—especially the NGS ones. You start to believe that it has always been this way. But you’re wrong.

Of course you give a shit! Otherwise the thought of not giving one, wouldn’t bother you. If you truly didn’t give a shit at all, you would be akin to the fasting Buddha. In a state of bliss, while allowing your body to diminish into nothingness.

Fasting Buddha statue

You are not Buddha, and you need to pull yourself out of this mess. It’s not easy, but it’s simple. Forcefully spring yourself into motion, as if you were trying to pull start an old lawnmower; initially you make some wild efforts to get things going, only to receive a pathetic sputter in response—but really, things are happening internally and you are just one pull away from getting that motor started. Hell. What I’m saying is this: as shitty as you feel, go out for that run tonight. Stay away from that bacon cheeseburger, and force your lazy ass to cook dinner at home. Do not worry about the million of things you could possibly do today, and just accomplish one thing that matters. Then smile like you give a shit, because eventually you will.