Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#51

Post by DanBC » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 12:49 PM UTC

mnm1 wrote: post #37

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 ex…

Front line treatment for a range of anxiety disorders is a talking therapy from a therapeutic st or psychologist. It's only when that fails that doctors become involved with medication.

We should not trivialise anxiety disorders: they cause death and harm and they can lead to years of life lost to disability. They can be very debilitating.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#52

Post by kuerbel » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 12:54 PM UTC

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…

It's the reason for procrastination as well. Well, it's one reason, there are some more but anxiety is a common one. It's definitely my reason. I'm so afraid of failing I can't start working on a task until I'm more afraid of disappointing people completely instead of just partly.

In my case it's also amplified by ADD and rejection sensitive dysphoria. It doesn't matter how much I achieve (e.g. I have, converted from German to US grades, a 3.7 GPA), or what I do, it won't go away. So I just live with it.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#53

Post by iamben » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 1:10 PM UTC

tarellel wrote: post #7

noetic_techy wrote: post #5

For 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…

Can you tell me the advantage of L-Threonate? Choosing magnesium (and dosage) opens up a world of options and examine.com doesn't help a huge amount...

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#54

Post by yayana » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 1:36 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #43

emerged wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can remember interviewing at Google on a whiteboard, with an employee who was: disinterested, overly specific, and antagonistic. Left that building wondering which was less healthy: my anxiety or their culture.

Was that the culture or part of the test?

It wasn't entirely clear to me if it was part of their culture to be overly dismissive of the applicants perspective and expectations in working somewhere or to intentionally test your reaction to contrived behavior..

But assuming behavior was contrived tests, why would you want to work for an employer that is tuning on who to hire by making sure they can abuse them in certain ways?

There's probably no sense in trying to fathom anything about why a company seems ugly when you can just move on.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#55

Post by PakG1 » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 1:46 PM UTC

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…

Hah. First experienced this as a kid when helping out at my mom's jewellery shop for the first time. Someone bought something and I had to calculate how much cash to give them. I don't know why I wasn't using a cash register, can't recall. Anyway, I'm really good at math, yeah? One of the best in my grade, yeah? Then why couldn't I calculate how much money I needed to give the guy? I did this kind of subtraction problem in my head all the time. But I froze. I felt so stupid at the time. :) STOP STARING AT ME, I'LL GIVE YOUR MONEY, JUST WAIT A SECOND!!!! :) Funny thing is that he probably wasn't judging me at all, it was all just in my head.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#56

Post by nxc18 » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 1:56 PM UTC

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…

Had similar experiences when trying to code in front of a boy I liked... I was a bumbling idiot. Similar thing driving with a guy I liked in the car - regular near crashes including spending some time in the wrong lane (admittedly in an ambiguous situation Tesla might have fucked up, too).

He must have been surprised by my sudden jump in intelligence when he got a girlfriend...

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#57

Post by slfnflctd » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 1:57 PM UTC

hnarn wrote: post #39

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 driv…

> each exposure elicits an acute stress response

I experienced this quite viscerally in my last job, where I had roughly a 40 minute commute in heavy traffic each way. On the surface, it sounds like nothing, but I feared for my safety every time and it worsened with each passing month.

There were several reasons I left the job, but this was at least 30% of it and I can tell you it significantly improved my mental health. For a while I had anxiety every time I had to drive, and it started well before I ever got in the car. A couple years later, I was able to handle several very long road trips and even did a stint as a rideshare driver with almost no issues-- the anxiety is pretty much gone now, it was nearly all due to that commute.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#58

Post by maxerickson » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:07 PM UTC

slfnflctd wrote: post #57

hnarn wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 driv…

> each exposure elicits an acute stress response I experienced this quite viscerally in my last job, where I had roughly a 40 minute commute in heavy traffic each way. On the surface, it sounds like nothing, but I feared for my safety every time and it worsened with each passing month. There were several reasons I left the job, but this was at least 30% of it and I can tell you it significantly improved my mental hea…

I worry that a lot of mental health issues are essentially situational and that we (as a society) put all sorts of barricades in place that make it difficult for people to shift their overall situations (the thing that will likely most benefit them).

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#59

Post by your-nanny » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:14 PM UTC

darkerside wrote: post #50

everydaypanos wrote: post #34

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 corpor…

When someone changes a decision like that after multiple experiences with the outcome, they are overriding a natural human bias for consistency. That likely indicates a strong reason. Maybe the coffee or atmosphere was actually consistently better? The article example is pretty dumb honestly. Chains are a mental shortcut for making decisions, but truthfully, there is much more variation between two Starbucks than the…

chains are predictable. less risky: your expectations are stable and accurate.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#60

Post by taeric » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:17 PM UTC

klodolph wrote: post #4

taeric wrote: post #3

Earlier 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.

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…

I am willing to bet I can find several text books that include phrases about the power of naming things. Pretty sure SICP does. And this is ignoring how common the trope is in fantasy.