Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#61

Post by technobabble » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:23 PM UTC

myle wrote: post #36

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 proces…

Anecdotally I had something different. As a kid I was always a sore loser, and sulked after every loss in the game. In retrospect I'm not sure why I took winning so seriously.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#62

Post by petra » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:34 PM UTC

visarga wrote: post #10

curlcntr wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

One view of of thoughts is that there are 2 types of them: one type focused around analysis and problem solving, and a second type focused around the stories the "self" invents and gets absorbed in. This analysis also correlates with different brain activation patterns.

Many people's minds spend most of the time in the second type of thoughts("self"), and it can be very helpful to have less of those, both for peace and other psychological benefits, and for having more mental power and clarity for useful thoughts.

But in the context of ancient India, China, where eastern philosophies came from, people don't need that much thought most of the time, but spiritual qualities can be very useful in small interdependent peasent communities.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#63

Post by gaius » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 2:49 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…

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

In a stressful situation your brain disengages the frontal cortex and falls back to an instinctual mode of operation. This mode is generally unaware of the modern world. In my own field of expertise sometimes divers with plenty of gas in their cylinder will tear their regulator out of their mouth. What’s happening? They are having difficulty breathing normally, panicked and the hind brain has said “there’s something in my mouth, take it out!”. Similarly pilots who fly aircraft into the ground, they have panicked and the hind brain has said “get to low ground ASAP”.

And after the fact everyone wonders “what we’re they thinking?” But the answer is, they weren’t thinking at all, they couldn’t.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#64

Post by Bjartr » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 3:01 PM UTC

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…

The CIA did a study on such "words of estimative probability" back in the 60's

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intellig...

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#65

Post by pdpi » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 3:23 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?

If that’s part of the test, then it’s definitely the culture.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#66

Post by touristtam » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 4:31 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #32

gnulinux wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Interesting website, thanks for sharing.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#67

Post by pasquinelli » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 5:05 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…

Oh man, i had two similar interview experiences where i struggled even to type.

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#68

Post by jgalentine007 » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 5:05 PM UTC

chiefalchemist wrote: post #49

We already know that too many choices is a bad thing. For some apparently, taken to an extreme, it becomes anxiety. Toss in neuroplasticity and for a subset that becomes chronic. Evolution is an infinite process. There's no reason to believe humans are no longer evolving. Survival is relative to current conditions. Some of us are, naturally, just not wired for the "amenities" of modern life.

I have a tough time making choices now, I think because of anxiety and obsession. I just bought a snow blower (of all things) and the process wss torturous. Do I get the 24" that is easier to maneuver and is cheaper? Or the 26" that is more powerful? This one brand has history of breaking shear pins. This other brand clogs easily. Before you know it I've spent a few hours watching youtube reviews and it's 60 degrees outside. I finally pulled the trigger on one and then afterwards found out the model has a history of carburetor problems (and then go down the rabbit hole of how to clean and prevent issues.) I hate what the information age has done to my brain!

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#69

Post by yellowapple » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 6:03 PM UTC

your-nanny wrote: post #59

darkerside wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And if those expectations are predictably and accurately poor?

Re: Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

#70

Post by chiefalchemist » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 7:33 PM UTC

jgalentine007 wrote: post #68

chiefalchemist wrote: post #49

We already know that too many choices is a bad thing. For some apparently, taken to an extreme, it becomes anxiety. Toss in neuroplasticity and for a subset that becomes chronic. Evolution is an infinite process. There's no reason to believe humans are no longer evolving. Survival is relative to current conditions. Some of us are, naturally, just not wired for the "amenities" of modern life.

I have a tough time making choices now, I think because of anxiety and obsession. I just bought a snow blower (of all things) and the process wss torturous. Do I get the 24" that is easier to maneuver and is cheaper? Or the 26" that is more powerful? This one brand has history of breaking shear pins. This other brand clogs easily. Before you know it I've spent a few hours watching youtube reviews and it's 60 degrees…

I recommend the book "Your Brain at Work" by David Rock. He does a great job at explaining what goes on in your head on a given day, for a given decision.

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Brain-Work-Strategies-Distractio...