You feel tired all the time. You can barely drag your butt out of bed. You have the constant feeling that you’ve forgotten something. Your head hurts, your eyes itch, and you haven’t felt a modicum of happiness in…who knows how long.

You’d think that with our massive intellect and stunning self-awareness, we’d be able to quickly suss out what the hell is wrong with us. But sadly, we’re limited to browsing self-help articles, spending too much money on exercise apps, and frantically googling the question:

“Why do I feel like shit?”

The reasons aren’t that complicated. It’s quite simple, really.

Your Diet is Shit

As someone who alternates between coffee and beer all day and occasionally eats a banana, I’m in no position to hand out nutritional advice. But I’m going to do it anyway.

Your body needs fuel to operate. I know it feels like you can draw all your energy from cat videos and Spongebob memes, but you can’t. You’ve got to swallow at least a little food that wasn’t made in a factory. When you don’t eat, your body harvests your muscles for energy. It’s true. Your body eats itself. And self-cannibalism isn’t cool, y’all.

Your Work Habits Are Shit

Sign number 5,673 of late-stage capitalism: We all think that our value is expressed in dollars. So we work, work, work so that we feel better about our sad lives. Hey, it’s no big deal if we cry every night as long as we’re making that moolah, right?

You’re glued to your iPhone, which cheerfully dings you whenever a work email comes in. You crave those Trello notifications. They give you a feeling of importance. But it’s not even enough to be busy. You constantly feel the need to side hustle. Without passive income streams, are you even alive?

Your Sleep is Shit

I suspect people got better sleep when we all slept on leaves and fur. At least then there weren’t wailing sirens and a nagging sense that you left the oven on. Now, even the cushiest Casper mattress can’t help us sleep. I don’t know about you, but the existential dread is what keeps me up at night.

Or perhaps you forgo sleep. After all, the world’s most successful people bend space-time and work 200 hours per week, right? Pff, who needs sleep? Pass the Red Bull and keep churning out that project you’ll never finish.

The World is Awful

Let’s face it: everything is awful! (Sung to the melody of The LEGO Movie’s theme song.) The sky is full of dust. Everyone is/will be sick. An orange buffoon runs a trigger-happy nation. People of color are shot dead while they’re sleeping.

Yet snake oil salespeople and life coaches peddle fake positivity as though we can overcome the world’s horrors with a bit of yoga and meditation. “Think positive!” “Elevate your mindset!” “Eat two pounds of kale everyday!” Life hack: Simply close your eyes and you’ll be blissfully unaware of the fire around you.

Maybe it’s time to skip the self-help and side hustles. When did a daily grind become more than your morning coffee ritual? When did we decide that sitting down and doing nothing is “lazy”? We’re a society of overworked, distraught individuals who can’t slow down. Who has time for a home-cooked meal when the world is falling apart?

Sure, you feel like shit because you’re shit at self-care. But there’s more to it than that.

We can no longer be a nation of workaholics. We can no longer link people’s value to the amount of money they earn. We can no longer sell “self-care” as a hot commodity. We’ve normalized the idea of feeling shitty.

It’s time to flip the script: the world is shitty. And if we want to feel better, we need to make the world better.

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