Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
blogs.scientificamerican.com
Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
1–10 of 83 posts
Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
#2Quite maybe, but that doesn’t make it easy to treat.
Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
#3Quite maybe, but that doesn’t make it easy to treat.
There is an irony there. Or maybe it's a trap. We speak of naming things as akin to understanding them. And we have grown quite used to being able to control things we understand.
Yet, I am fairly confident we can name more things than we can control. So, I don't know why that is such a common misunderstanding. One I often have.
Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
#4Quite maybe, but that doesn’t make it easy to treat.
There is an irony there. Or maybe it's a trap. We speak of naming things as akin to understanding them. And we have grown quite used to being able to control things we understand. Yet, I am fairly confident we can name more things than we can control. So, I don't know why that is such a common misunderstanding. One I often have.
Don’t go too far down the rabbit hole.
I’ve had a large number of conversations over the years with people over the decision whether or not to pursue a diagnosis for a mental disorder. Naming something doesn’t give you a ticket to understand something, but it does give you something to find in the card catalog or Google. If you have both eyes open, you can answer “Do I have an anxiety disorder?” or “Do I have bipolar disorder?” and understand some of the consequences, both negative and positive, of labeling yourself that way. It’s not a truly binary choice, but when you apply these labels to yourself it both exposes you to the effects of stigma and makes treatment and support available, depending on circumstances. I say “choice” because for many, the diagnosis is a choice… a capable adult who is not a danger to themself has a lot of latitude here.
If you think that “we” speak of naming things as akin to understanding them, then there are very, very few people I know who are in this group “we”.
A name is just a substitute for the infinite complexity of the universe. We can’t understand the universe, so we have to name things, create models, and understand the models as a proxy.
Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
#5For me it was magnesium deficiency.
Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
#6Quite maybe, but that doesn’t make it easy to treat.
There is an irony there. Or maybe it's a trap. We speak of naming things as akin to understanding them. And we have grown quite used to being able to control things we understand. Yet, I am fairly confident we can name more things than we can control. So, I don't know why that is such a common misunderstanding. One I often have.
"naming is the origin of all particular things" - Tao Te Ching.
That quote, first page, stopped me in my tracks for a long time. I often recall it when I'm tempted by the naming (categorization, abstracting, ...) of some X imagining I understand more about it than I actually do. Similar to as you note, I think.
Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
#7For me it was magnesium deficiency.
Same here, I have had severe anxiety and depression for quite some time. I was prescribed a few SSRI's bet, but my doctor was a dick and pretty much state I need to just get out and do more, get my mind off shit.
So on trying to improve my mental health I started taking nootropics. Some of them people SWARE BY, yet I never experienced any noticeable effect. But by chance I ordered a batch of Magnesium L-Threonate and it was absolutely exhilarating. I can honestly say I've been dosing for about 6 months now and it's completely turned my around. I don't suggest anyone experiment with supplements and/or medications without professional assistance. Because this was more like one of those one shot wonders, where you just chance it till you find whatever works.
Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
#8Journal article here: Anxious individuals have difficulty learning the causal statistics of aversive environments @ http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.3961
Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
#9For me it was magnesium deficiency.
Same here, I have had severe anxiety and depression for quite some time. I was prescribed a few SSRI's bet, but my doctor was a dick and pretty much state I need to just get out and do more, get my mind off shit. So on trying to improve my mental health I started taking nootropics. Some of them people SWARE BY, yet I never experienced any noticeable effect. But by chance I ordered a batch of Magnesium L-Threonate and…
I have had a similar experience. Magnesium lowered my anxiety and made me feel 10 years younger. My sleep is better too. And it's so cheap, yet none of the doctors mentioned it. I only discovered it by chance, when I bought a tube of effervescent pills to sweeten water while travelling (didn't trust the taste of water where I was going). So many schooled doctors, and yet none of them made such a simple suggestion!
Another wonder mineral is Calcium. It relieves my back pain. I have learned when I need Mg or Ca by the way I feel, so now I am OK without abusing them. I just pop one when needed.
Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is an irony there. Or maybe it's a trap. We speak of naming things as akin to understanding them. And we have grown quite used to being able to control things we understand. Yet, I am fairly confident we can name more things than we can control. So, I don't know why that is such a common misunderstanding. One I often have.
"naming is the origin of all particular things" - Tao Te Ching. That quote, first page, stopped me in my tracks for a long time. I often recall it when I'm tempted by the naming (categorization, abstracting, ...) of some X imagining I understand more about it than I actually do. Similar to as you note, I think.
Oriental philosophy has had a lot to say about names and their vacuity, but at the same time constructed its own extremely elaborate abstractions and conceptual systems. They don't give due credit to abstract and conceptual thinking though. It's not like we can understand the world any other way, we have to use names and abstractions, but apparently that comes in conflict with spiritual practice. I think the practice of stopping abstract thinking during meditation is a way to escape from reality into a self induced stated of peace, but it does nothing to help you solve practical problems, for which you would still have to engage in name based conceptual thinking.