Venting How are people okay with working their lives away?

[Burning_soul]

I suppose for some, no matter the gruelling nature of work, it's can distract them for a bit or call their focus. There's less time to be in your own head. A lot of people only look to the short term of paycheck to paycheck which can also be less existentially dreadful, spending on small pleasures to cope with it all. Other people, in higher paying jobs, stay to keep in social circles (like familial expectations) and a greed to amass more wealth as it becomes the only distraction in life even when excessive. The constant anxiety of certain work also keeps an adrenaline rush that makes it difficult to think past task to task or only hold passive room for suicidal ideation. Some don't view their work as something wasting their lives away, but necessary, such as working for an industry that helps a community you care for or are apart of or working as an extension of some life's passion (although this mindset is fairly uncommon from what I see in most people's state of misery). A more common sentiment I hear is satisfaction in working just enough for the basic needs and spending the rest of time doing what the person likes (typically if they have a non expensive hobby). Is spending your days alone and idle any better, however? Even if the natural state is to spend the least energy possible, however much better it feels to distance yourself, being alone with your thoughts surely only cements suicidal ideation. To me, it seems either choice of lifelong work or unemployment is a miserable and unliveable state if you cannot live with your thoughts or limit a will to do anything but CTB.