One day, a psychiatric examination revealed that a man was depressed; a psychiatrist sat and watched him for several hours as he cried, moaned and bewailed his fate. Then, he seemed to stop his palpitations. It appeared he had calmed down.

So the psychiatrist decided, after having consumed too much material encouraging self-indulgent emotional masturbation in a vacuum, decided to help the man: by sorting through his problems on his own, he would become a more emotionally stable person. The man then excused himself and went to the bathroom, and the psychiatrist congratulated himself on not inculcating in the man a crutch mentality.

The psychiatrist continued to wait because he expected that, at any moment, the man would come out from the bathroom.

Nothing happened!

In fact, the man had gone into the bathroom and slashed his wrists, ending his misery. He died.

What the psychiatrist, in the self-congratulatory mood brought on by consuming too much motivational and self-help material, did not understand was that struggle is not always good, and that some people are bested by it, giving up in exhaustion, defeat and despair, and that imputing teleological meaning from his god's plan into explaining every facet of the world would obviate his profession (and indeed, most of human free will, at least in relation to fellow humans).

Often, struggle is exactly what we don't need in our life, since life sucks as much as it does already.


If your god made you go through your life with your path strewn with obstacles, he would b a sadist. You would not be as happy as you could have been. Maybe even killed yourself.

I asked for Strength ...and my god gave me difficulties which I couldn't overcome, breaking my spirit.
I asked for Wisdom...and my god gave me problems I couldn't solve, making me feel stupid and worthless.
I asked for Prosperity...and my god caused the stock market to crash, hoping to make me work harder. Instead I threw myself off the nearest skycraper.
I asked for Courage….and my god beset me with so many obstacles, I eventually stumbled and lost my nerve and confidence.
I asked for Love...and my god gave me so many troubled people to help that I cracked and started hating them all.
I asked for Favors...and my god gave me opportunities which could not be realised.

I received nothing I wanted...And I received everything I didn't need.

Live life full of fear, face as many obstacles as possible and know that any mortal would falter and wilt.

Send this message to those of your enemies who have a pathological inability to resist such bullshit, and watch them lap it up unthinkingly. Send it to anybody that you consider an ENEMY, even if you yourself are gullible enough to believe in all this rubbish. If this message returns to you, you can be sure that your circle of friendship is made out of idiots who take disingenuous chain mails at face value.


"What does not destroy me only leaves me crippled for life" - Conan the Tribal Shaman (A retired barbarian with slipped discs, chondromalacia patellae and a dislocated shoulder)

(Original version of this chain mail)

Now maybe, just like the last time, the original author will emerge from the wilderness of the Internet to contact me and scold me.