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Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#31

Post by mtgx »

gnulinux wrote: post #21
tarellel wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Magnesium annihilated my anxiety too. I had severe anxiety and insomnia. I used magnesium supplement for about 6 months. All gone, now I have no mental problems and stopped using magnesium supplements. Just eating healthy, and it seems fine enough. Not sure how I developed that serious magnesium deficiency for years...

I suggest you check out Cronometer

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#32

Post by mtgx »

gnulinux wrote: post #21
tarellel wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Magnesium annihilated my anxiety too. I had severe anxiety and insomnia. I used magnesium supplement for about 6 months. All gone, now I have no mental problems and stopped using magnesium supplements. Just eating healthy, and it seems fine enough. Not sure how I developed that serious magnesium deficiency for years...

I suggest you use Cronometer.com for a few weeks or days and see if you actually reach the RDA of 400mg a day. My guess is you don't from food alone unless you eat a lot of pumpkin seeds and nuts that are magnesium rich every single day. Most people are deficient in magnesium.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#33

Post by merlan »

Sounds like learning to play poker could be a cure.

There's this TED talk by a "poker champion" Liv Boeree where she says that calculating probabilities is the main thing that she learned in poker and applies in everyday life. I also saw an article on that, with many poker players answering the question what they learned from the game, and the ability to estimate probabilities comes up every single time.

A quote from Liv: "So now I also try to speak in numbers as well. So if someone asks me, "Hey, Liv, do you think you're going to come along to that thing tonight?" instead of just saying to them, "Yeah, probably," I actually give them my best estimate -- say, 60 percent. Because -- I know that sounds a little odd -- but the thing is, I ran a poll on Twitter of what people understand the word "probably" to mean, and this was the spread of answers. Enormous! So apparently, it's absolutely useless at actually conveying any real information."

Liv Boeree' TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/liv_boeree_3_lessons_on_decision_m...

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#34

Post by everydaypanos »

I had a girlfriend who when faced with the choice of Chain-Coffee v Small-Shop-Coffee she’d at first choose the Chain-Coffee but as days passed she’d choose the SmallShop-Coffee more and more.

When I asked her why she chose the one with clearly no particular expertise in coffee making(they were also right next to one another) she’d tell me that she wanted to support the independent small player and not the big corporate chain.

I always wondered how efficient those theories, like the learning theory are, with complex intelligent beings like us. Sometimes we can even ignore all conventional models and just do smt because of philosophical belief. Which in turn developed by other unknown factors..

(When she was alone at University or Downtown she’d mostly hang out to the local big Chain-Coffee, but when faced with an easy choice of two different types of coffee shop one right next to each other she’d after some time make mostly the “philosophical” choice)

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#36

Post by myle »

merlan wrote: post #33

Sounds like learning to play poker could be a cure. There's this TED talk by a "poker champion" Liv Boeree where she says that calculating probabilities is the main thing that she learned in poker and applies in everyday life. I also saw an article on that, with many poker players answering the question what they learned from the game, and the ability to estimate probabilities comes up every single time. A quote from…

I have observed that playing chess competitively helped me a lot with my anxiety. A game of chess is self contained, you can analyze afterwards what went wrong, the implications are limited and you learn that focusing on the task and setting aside your worries helps improve your game. Moreover, that happens in a protected environment, with well defined rules and no interruptions, which facilitates the learning process.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#37

Post by mnm1 »

Seems insanely far fetched to expect that similar techniques used to treat heart disease would work for the psychological, social, and biological factors that make up anxiety / depression. This type of reductionism isn't even that effective with the mechanics of the heart (as we see from the constant debate of what to eat to keep this "simple pump" healthy), yet these doctors expect to reduce the entirety of one's experience to something so simple? Modern psychiatry to me is beyond perplexing and truly at or below the level of doctors using leeches to clean blood. This type of reductionism and the heavy reliance on drugs that goes along with it truly is akin to those doctors using leeches. The irony is, those doctors probably spent more time talking to their patients and while they were obviously ineffective at treating heart disease, they were likely much more effective at treating psychological problems than modern psychiatrists because they were at least willing to converse with their patients.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#38

Post by BerislavLopac »

iliketosleep wrote: post #13

Fascinating that Behrens reward game showed that humans were able to mentally model volatility at the level of an "ideal learner". But in the variation of the game where there was punishment instead of reward, non-anxious people still performed as "ideal learners" whereas anxious people's predictions became totally out of whack. In other words, the overly anxious mind temporarily lost its capacity to correctly formul…

Yes -- I basically outright refuse to do any coding when someone is watching.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#39

Post by hnarn »

iliketosleep wrote: post #13

Fascinating that Behrens reward game showed that humans were able to mentally model volatility at the level of an "ideal learner". But in the variation of the game where there was punishment instead of reward, non-anxious people still performed as "ideal learners" whereas anxious people's predictions became totally out of whack. In other words, the overly anxious mind temporarily lost its capacity to correctly formul…

>In the face of extreme anxiety, I literally become stupid.

You don't need to experience "extreme anxiety", or even have a diagnosis, to experience this effect. Most people that are just learning how to drive a car will at some point experience how acute stress causes you to fail even the most basic tasks, things you would never predict that you would fail doing before you actually do. When I was learning how to drive, I repeatedly forgot checking the rear view mirror before switching lanes (even though I knew this was extremely important), because I was so focused on manual gear shifting. I would switch to the wrong gear or forget turning the turn indicator off, because my stressed mind would filter out the noise of the indicator blinking.

Some even believe that the "experience of driving" in itself is detrimental, and that "each exposure elicits an acute stress response, and that repeated exposures may act as a chronic stressor".[1]

[1]: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#40

Post by icantdrive55 »

iliketosleep wrote: post #13

Fascinating that Behrens reward game showed that humans were able to mentally model volatility at the level of an "ideal learner". But in the variation of the game where there was punishment instead of reward, non-anxious people still performed as "ideal learners" whereas anxious people's predictions became totally out of whack. In other words, the overly anxious mind temporarily lost its capacity to correctly formul…

I think this is very common.

In kindergarten, twice a month we needed to put the correct wooden date placard on the front wall. They would hand me the card, and I would walk up to that board, and just freeze. They kids would be yelling, "over there, up one." I would go to all 31 spots until I heard, "You did it!" The kids would clap. (Kids were nice. Muss Palmer not so nice.)

I once worked at Rainbow Records. At the end of my first night, I had to call headquarters, and leave a total of the day's sales on an answering machine. Since it was my first night, my co-worker was watching me. I really liked the guy too. He was freshly from a failed signed band. Well when I noticed him watching me, I just couldn't talk. He seemed to know what was wrong, and completed the task. He didn't say anything other then, "Let's go drinking?"

I got over freezing when people were watching me, but I did bust a mental gasket in graduate school. I've never been quite the same since.

I had a panic attack, and then turned into generalized anxiety. I used busted mental gasket, because the Psychiatrist community didn't have a clue what happened to me, or offered real treatment.

I've been on two very addictive drugs for years, and dreading when my doctor retires.

I've tried, at least ten different drugs, and the non-addictive ones did nothing, but riddle my body with side effects.

I did try to go back to school, but my anxiety prevented it.

It's too bad, even after thirty years, Psychiatry is an absolute joke, other than a great money maker for the doctor.

(To those whom can't afford a Psychiatrist, or Therapy sessions; you just might be better off in the long run? I guess you need to go through it yourself though? They do have some old studies that claim that doing nothing works the same as the Psychology/Psychiatry expensive train ride. Of course, the studies were not done correctly, comming from the $350 doctor.)

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