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I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

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Re: I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

#71

Post by toast_coder »

slg wrote: post #7
comboy wrote: post #2

So what do you guys think: hunter-gatherers, then feudal farmers and then now - how does median/average suffering per capita compare? We all have better luxuries now than kings had hundreds of years ago. Less famine, life threatening situations and so on. But we do have a way to compare ourselves with best parts of lives of many interesting people around the world. We have antibiotics and painkillers, but we also see…

We have the luxury of operating at much higher levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs than generations past. I would much rather worry about whether my life truly matters than worry about whether my life will immediately come to an end if I can't kill or grow enough food. Depression was probably always an issue, today we just have the privilege of it being the most pressing problem for many of us.

> I would much rather worry about whether my life truly matters than worry about whether my life will immediately come to an end if I can't kill or grow enough food.

I cant help but think negotiating those situtations is exaclty what the human needs to avoid depression. Maybe you chances of dying young are much higher, like 30% vs 1%. But die young or die old, those humans really lived.

Re: I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

#72

Post by gascan »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #21
comboy wrote: post #2

So what do you guys think: hunter-gatherers, then feudal farmers and then now - how does median/average suffering per capita compare? We all have better luxuries now than kings had hundreds of years ago. Less famine, life threatening situations and so on. But we do have a way to compare ourselves with best parts of lives of many interesting people around the world. We have antibiotics and painkillers, but we also see…

Hunter gatherers didn't necessarily suffer that much. Sure, they faced a lot of environmental challenges like bugs, a lack of air conditioning, hunger, and serious diseases like malaria and smallpox, but they arguably had much easier social customs than we do now. There were no clothes, no laws, no social signaling for the most part. If you didn't like your tribe, I'm sure you were free to run away and eat berries in…

The occasional brush with a health condition, serious injury, and/or surgery hints to me that we have become so well protected from physical pain that we barely remember what we are so lucky to avoid.

Re: I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

#73

Post by manfredo »

gascan wrote: post #66
manfredo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just my personal perspective for the most part, but I think a lot of the anxiety I feel stems from innate, primal survival instincts that have no real need anymore in my life position. For instance even though I could support myself and probably a small family on my current compensation, but I still feel the urge to get a raise. I still worry about my motorcycle getting stolen off the street even though it's…

I still worry about my motorcycle getting stolen off the street even though it's a leisure vehicle and is a used, small bike that costs less than what I make in a week. Dude, that one's easy. Look at your cheap crappy bike and laugh. "Hah! What kind of self respecting thief would even bother stealing a crappy bike like this?"

That's essentially what I do. I deliberately park it next to more expensive motorcycles. As my MSF instructor told me, "By far the best theft deterrent is to park next to the Harley-Davidson".

Re: I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

#75

Post by dragonwriter »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #69
protomyth wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Manual labor is our default condition. It might have been our default condition, but it certainly isn't now. Manual labor has evolved with the machines and techniques of civilization. Its been a while since ditch diggers weren't aided by mechanical assistance, and we've all met people who really cannot be trusted near anything with moving parts.

Anecdotal. Anyone can learn to do manual labor. The industrial revolution happened 300 years ago. We were farming and huntering/gathering for 50,000+ years before that. Our bodies have not lost the ability to do manual labor in under 10 generations.

> Our bodies have not lost the ability to do manual labor in under 10 generations.

Our living conditions have substantially weakened the filters that prevent people likely to be unable to do manual labor from surviving to adulthood (if the problem manifests at birb) or surviving long after the condition arises (if it manifests later.)

Re: I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

#76

Post by gascan »

petermcneeley wrote: post #42
comboy wrote: post #2

So what do you guys think: hunter-gatherers, then feudal farmers and then now - how does median/average suffering per capita compare? We all have better luxuries now than kings had hundreds of years ago. Less famine, life threatening situations and so on. But we do have a way to compare ourselves with best parts of lives of many interesting people around the world. We have antibiotics and painkillers, but we also see…

The notion that we live better than the kings of old is absurd. Even materially one can ask Where is my castle? where are my tracks of land? where are my ships and armies? Where is my gold and gems? Where are my servants and slaves?

Here is your tea, sugar, salt, and spices each for a pittance. Here are your 600 thread count sheets, your satin for a song, your comfortable house that heats & cools itself. Your telephone and computer, which do the work of an army of couriers & mathematicians. Your Netflix subscription, which can keep you endlessly entertained.

And, if you want ships and armies, you can always join the military and pursue a command. Remember, many kings of old were not just politicians with military powers bestowed on a purple cushion, they were war figures who rose to the top of the bloodshed. Think Andrew Jackson, Washington, Grant.

Re: I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

#77

Post by nomadiccoder »

'anxiety is the dizzyness of freedom' ― Søren Kierkegaard, once one accepts ones mental illness and instead of running from it, accepts and attacks it head on can one truly make progress. The paradox is that [mental] illness hinders ones ability to do so.

Re: I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

#78

Post by anjc »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #11
anjc wrote: post #9

Is there any evidence that talking about depression openly, or talk-type therapies, help to reduce depression? My experience of colleagues talking openly about these things is that it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle, and ultimately makes things worse.

I think you're only thinking that because they're letting it be more visible in order to get support. The alternative is that they put on a mask to function in society, because they don't want to be a burden, all the while dying inside... Until they unexpectedly disappear, because they've committed suicide.

Essentially I'm questioning this common idea that talking about depression will alleviate it, and maybe prevent suicide. I'm not saying that it doesn't, I'm just asking for evidence that it does. My anecdotal experience is that people who talk about it, solidify it into their outward personality. I'm not sure it's a good thing, but other posters seem to have had good outcomes.

Re: I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

#79

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

imtemplain wrote: post #47

This is what soy does to people.

The one sentence you posted doesn't advance the conversation very much. I'd suggest adding a few sentences to clarify what point you're making, and to help make it.

Re: I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

#80

Post by dragonwriter »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #65
dragonwriter wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think human beings have been doing manual labor since they emerged from the forests 50k years ago Believe it or not, the conditions humans live in now are different than 50K years ago; it's much more common for someone able to survive to adulthood without being able to do manual labor now. > Everyone can do manual labor, or they can eventually get in shape enough to do it. Stephen Hawking, for a fairly extreme an…

Sorry I should say 99.9(repeating)% of people. The industrial revolution happened 300 years ago. We were farming and huntering/gathering for 50,000+ years before that. Our bodies have not lost the ability to do manual labor in under 10 generations.

> Sorry I should say 99.9(repeating)% of people.

That's exactly the same, and therefore exactly as wrong, as 100%.

As of 2010, 12.2 million people in the US had disabilities for which they needed physical assistance with tasks like “doing housework, using the phone and preparing meals.”

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/miscellane...

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