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Mental Wealth

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Re: Mental Wealth

#151

Post by banads »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #27
frequentnapper wrote: post #20

I wouldn't put much stock in Ayurveda or even worse, Traditional Chinese Medicine, except some of the treatments which have been proven to work. There's a reason why western medicine is superior - it follows evidence-based modern scientific and research principles, not hogwash.

Instead of “western” medicine, I prefer to call it “evidence based, tested with randomized controlled experiments, mechanism of action deduced” medicine. No data, no medicine. Even then, medicine is super hard since there is so much complexity in the human body and variations across populations, and experiments are extremely costly.

>Instead of “western” medicine, I prefer to call it “evidence based, tested with randomized controlled experiments, mechanism of action deduced” medicine

If that's the definition, then there are zero psychiatric drugs that can be classified as western "medicine", as we have yet to understand how drugs like anti-depressants intercourse with the mind ("the mechanism of action deduced").

"psychiatric diagnosis still relies exclusively on fallible subjective judgments rather than objective biological tests" -Allen Frances

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Frances

Re: Mental Wealth

#152

Post by sg47 »

frequentnapper wrote: post #20

I wouldn't put much stock in Ayurveda or even worse, Traditional Chinese Medicine, except some of the treatments which have been proven to work. There's a reason why western medicine is superior - it follows evidence-based modern scientific and research principles, not hogwash.

He mentions that in the post. Ayurveda is designed for prevention whereas modern medicine is designed for fixing. I used to be skeptic of traditional medicine but on close observation, I realize that these cultures have incorporated some or many aspects of Ayurveda or Chinese traditional medicine into everyday life which, at least in the past, have contributed to better mental and physical health. So, Ayurveda might not fix cancer but could potentially prevent you from getting diabetes.

Re: Mental Wealth

#153

Post by Enginerrrd »

resiros wrote: post #132
vgchh wrote: post #94

Recently I had an epiphany and I felt as if I had cracked the code to living a good life - 1. Exercise everyday 2. Eat and drink clean. As cliche as it sounds it felt like if I took care of these two things, everything else will take care of itself. Since last 15 days, I feel reinvigorated once again as I focus on these two things. There is a long way to go to fully undo all the damage, but I feel I am on track.

Although exercising and eating well are very important for our well being, they're not enough. The most fundamental thing is having the right mindset: Some beliefs are so destructive that no amount of exercise will alleviate their effect. For instance, some people are what I call blamers. They believe that their misery is because of life, others, society... They refuse to accept what life has given them (whether thei…

You say that, but I've actually seen people with that exact mindset start to make progress when I've helped them keep a consistent workout schedule and designed an appropriate training regimen for them. All of a sudden, they're 3 months in and they feel good, their body doesn't hurt anymore, they're stronger, they look better, their cardiovascular fitness has noticeably improved, and they realized that THEY did that. They put in the work, consistently, and changed things they had previously been blaming on their genetics and parents.

So, for some, it can help.

Re: Mental Wealth

#154

Post by lotsofpulp »

banads wrote: post #151
lotsofpulp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of “western” medicine, I prefer to call it “evidence based, tested with randomized controlled experiments, mechanism of action deduced” medicine. No data, no medicine. Even then, medicine is super hard since there is so much complexity in the human body and variations across populations, and experiments are extremely costly.

>Instead of “western” medicine, I prefer to call it “evidence based, tested with randomized controlled experiments, mechanism of action deduced ” medicine If that's the definition, then there are zero psychiatric drugs that can be classified as western "medicine", as we have yet to understand how drugs like anti-depressants intercourse with the mind ("the mechanism of action deduced"). "psychiatric diagnosis still re…

Yes, mechanism of action is an ideal, but not attainable yet with current technology. Of course, we have to make do with what we have, and there is higher probabilities of errors with medicines which we don't understand the mechanism of action.

Re: Mental Wealth

#155

Post by a_zaydak »

vgchh wrote: post #94

Recently I had an epiphany and I felt as if I had cracked the code to living a good life - 1. Exercise everyday 2. Eat and drink clean. As cliche as it sounds it felt like if I took care of these two things, everything else will take care of itself. Since last 15 days, I feel reinvigorated once again as I focus on these two things. There is a long way to go to fully undo all the damage, but I feel I am on track.

All good things! I would also say that STRESS KILLS. It has real physical harm to the body. I love working in high-stress situations but it has taken a long time to learn how to make stressful situations not stress me out. Finally, find meaning in the things you do even if they are not 'meaningful things'.

Re: Mental Wealth

#156

Post by velp »

wsinks wrote: post #145
christiansakai wrote: post #142

For myself. This is what I've been doing and working for me. From the outside, generally, stay away or just observe from far away: - People who post political/religious/racial comments every 5 mins or so on social media, whether their view aligns with yours or not - People who are too passionate about one thing - People who don't keep their identity small in public, be it digital or real life - People who have black…

Can you explain more about keeping your public identity small but your private identity large? Does that just mean not trying to do your own personal branding so people can find you on the internet? Or is it more about "everyone that I care about, aka local people, should know about me - that's my private identity". I'm curious, as an American born and someone who's continually trying to learn about other cultures.

Not OP, but his post reminded me of a Paul Graham article [0] about keeping your identity small.

[0]http://paulgraham.com/identity.html

Re: Mental Wealth

#157

Post by opportune »

onion2k wrote: post #33

I find articles like this one where 100% of the onus for coping with mental health problems is put on the individual quite annoying. There's nothing in the article about getting help from other people, or how to cope with problems that you can't fix easily. It's kind of a toxic attitude because it makes others believe people with mental health issues just aren't trying hard enough and completely ignores individual ci…

I’ve seen firsthand how blaming outside circumstances for mental health can be damaging. Both for myself and others. It’s very tempting to blame lack of happiness on your job, where you live, your partner, or an upstairs neighbor who rearranges their entire apartment at 2am. In most cases (not all) these were misattributed.

Also I think your attitude is unnecessarily defeatist. So what are you suggesting instead, that rather than attempting to build healthy habits, depressed people should give up?

Re: Mental Wealth

#158

Post by scns »

Cro_on wrote: post #55
jordwest wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm working on pretty much all of the suggestions from the book so I'd highly recommend giving it a read if you can. Some big ones are moving closer to nature, spending more time with a close group of friends (at least pre-lockdown), looking back into my past for things I'd avoided thinking or talking about. Also meditation was for me a pretty good mood improver, but it's more recently helped me uncover some painful…

>looking back into my past for things I'd avoided thinking or talking about For a long time I had many small and (apparently) inconsequential triggers which brought up past anxieties, or memories of the awkward and the nervous. Previously, I would remember such event and feel a brief stab of shame, etc. and then throw the memory back into the recesses of the mind to come back again whenever it felt like tormenting me…

You discovered on your own what Cognitive Behavioral Therapy does

Re: Mental Wealth

#159

Post by tikititaki »

mathieuh wrote: post #113
cousin_it wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the book he describes the ways modern life has disconnected us from a lot of what humans find meaningful, and given that it's not surprising that rates of depression and anxiety have skyrocketed. Yeah. See Yvain's excellent review of "Empire of the Summer Moon": All of the white people who joined Indian tribes loved it and refused to go back to white civilization. All the Indians who joined white civilization ha…

Isn't this literally describing the noble savage? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_savage

Yep. I like this bit by Slavoj Zizek: https://youtu.be/IISMr5OMceg?t=407

This is just racism in a different form.

Re: Mental Wealth

#160

Post by karatestomp »

twoheadedboy wrote: post #106
jibolash wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sleep at least 6 hours every day to see the positive effects of those two things compound dramatically

I feel like 6 hours is really not enough to be healthy. 6 hours for me and I feel pretty rough. Multiple days in a row and I'm a zombie.

Worked until some time in my early 20s. Ate an astounding quantity of junk food, often got 6 or fewer hours of sleep days in a row. Looked great, felt pretty good, almost never even got the sniffles.

Go figure, at some point your body stops being able to find something (I still have no idea what) to do with an extra 2-2.5k calories a day of crap, 6hrs a night of sleep starts to leave you dragging after one night of it, and you can't live like that anymore (well, you can, but it'll be... very bad).

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