Mental Wealth • Hacker News Board

Re: Mental Wealth

#201

Post by falseprofit » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

jungletime wrote: post #102

Improving access to nature would go a long way to improve city dwellers sense of mental health and well being. Especially making it easier for owning a cottage. 1) I live in Canada, a giant country. But camping is super expensive, $50/night camping. Its unaffordable for any length of time. And many provincial parks sell out. 2) Buying a small piece of land and hand building a tiny cottage is basically outlawed in Ont…

People aren't rioting because they're bored and cooped up. They're protesting extrajudicial killings.

Re: Mental Wealth

#202

Post by SilasX » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 9:04 PM UTC

Yanu-3452 wrote: post #32

NalNezumi wrote: post #24

>When it comes to mental health, our society approaches it like we did with physical health 50 years ago. We only think about it when something is wrong. I'm not sure about the broader society, but I think this mentality is still prevalent in both physical and mental health these day. My mother was a very health conscious person (to the level of insanity) but one attitude she showed that I think lead to long term men…

Sorry but this is nonsense. You're suggesting that I shouldn't get the same chemotherapy for relapsed cancer or that my relapse is because of "something in my life is terribly wrong". Because the treatment worked to get it in remission, fuck me for wanting to take the same medicine again? Lots of people suffer from poor health through no fault of their own. Arguing that their ills must be because of poor life choices…

There's a good comment[1] that really stuck with me from a while back, and it strikes a balance between the two. Basically, avoid using medicine for minor issues -- instead focusing on general wellness through diet and exercise -- but for terminal conditions, be willing to take more extreme treatments.

To quote the key paragraphs:

>>I have seen what modern medicine does to people. "You cholesterol is too high, take this statin and your number will get better. Don't take it and you will have a heart attack". And then you have family members and friends take the drugs, and start having side effects.. random pain, random problems that stop them from being physically active. So then they go back to a doctor and get some new medicines, that maybe fixes the pain, but then adds a new side effect. And pretty soon they are bed ridden and taking 14 pills to stay alive. What a bunch of crap.

>>I am not anti-medicine, but I am anti-cutting-edge-for-margain-gain medicine. If you have AIDs, you probably should take some medicine. I vaccinate myself and my children. However I think that if you are active and eat well, I don't care what my cholesterol is. Maybe it is high, maybe it isn't. And if you aren't active or eating well - you need to fix that (not take medicine). If I start dying of cancer, I will throw every medicine I can find at it. But if I am good and healthy, I am going to leave well enough alone.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11506599

Re: Mental Wealth

#203

Post by pow_pp_-1_v » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

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…

> - People who are too passionate about one thing

People who are passionate about something are generally interesting people. They know the obscure ins and outs of the thing they are passionate about. You can learn a lot from such people. At least, that's what I always felt.

Re: Mental Wealth

#204

Post by chillwaves » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 9:28 PM UTC

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #199

banads wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civilized societies are definitely able to produce more food, and shelter at scale using industrial techniques.

Food and shelter aren't natural resources. They are things that you produce using natural resources. "Civilized" societies use far less land per person to produce food.

Unless you are arguing that we do not have enough resources to produce the food/shelter required to live, not sure what your point is.

Re: Mental Wealth

#205

Post by chillwaves » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 9:32 PM UTC

austincheney wrote: post #53

esotericn wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever, individually, faced a crisis? Reached a point at which - something you've been slowly working on for years - the progress just isn't quick enough, it feels hopeless, and then you lash out? Via anger, sadness, depression - whatever?

> and then you lash out? As an Army guy with a family embarking on his fifth overseas deployment spontaneous bursts of rage are frowned upon. I don’t do that. I have gotten comfortable to sparse, tiny, lonely living conditions and learned to regulate my mental health according to the expectations at hand. > the progress just isn't quick enough I suspect the majority of people engaging in riots, and possibly the prote…

Your argument is basically since you were not aware of what others in society were doing, they must not have been doing it?

Do you see how superficial this appears?

In case you didn't know, BLM has been around for a long time and NAACP has been around even longer. The issue of systemic violence against minorities has also been an issue in the American social scene for at least the last 100 years.

Re: Mental Wealth

#206

Post by LargoLasskhyfv » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 9:35 PM UTC

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink

&

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

Re: Mental Wealth

#207

Post by chillwaves » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 9:36 PM UTC

austincheney wrote: post #183

karatestomp wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like the framing of the behavior as somehow irrational or random or clinically-diagnosible. It's not irrational to get involved more in a movement when it is a movement, and seems like it might be gaining traction. Just like it's not irrational to not-boycott some useful, cheap product even if you strongly disagree with some of the practices that go into its production, but to join a boycott if it starts and…

Objectively speaking becoming involved in a trend only for the sake of a given trend becoming more trendy strikes me as directly irrational. It’s following for the sake of following only because that’s what followers do which is circular and absent of any original consideration.

There is nothing objective about your comments. That's just another veneer of credibility.

Same with calling protestors "irrational" -- maybe to your point of view, they are but this is not an objective statement by any definition of the word.

Re: Mental Wealth

#208

Post by othoia » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 9:37 PM UTC

cousin_it wrote: post #72

jordwest wrote: post #3

In this article the author covers a few areas to consider in managing mental health: Sleep, Diet, Exercise, Stress Management, Exogenous Compounds (from coffee to melatonin to Prozac, and anything in between) These are certainly important factors, and I think we need to look much more broadly at underlying factors than just these (or just drugs). I've been reading about mental health issues for years with my own ups…

> 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…

> there aren't too many records of what the Comanches thought of white people, but the few there are suggest they basically viewed us as pathetic and stunted and defective.

How much worse then to have been completely defeated by such a race!

Re: Mental Wealth

#209

Post by sverona » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 9:49 PM UTC

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…

I think this suggests a false dichotomy, although I'm sure that's not what you meant to write.

Quick thought experiment: would you tell a physically abused child, to their face, "Do you honestly believe your misery is a result of external consequences? Be grateful for what you do have."

Some people habitually blame things that they caused themselves on others. Others commit the converse and blame things other people did on themselves. I don't think either of these facilitates your mental health.

If you are an adult, almost certainly things happened to you that weren't your fault, but that are your responsibility. That's life. Life is the process of dealing with those things, and then you die. It sucks, but it's worth it. Am I out of platitudes yet?

All these habits are founded on a desire to be better, which in turn needs to be rooted, at least partly, in compassion for yourself. If you don't want to be better, because you don't think you deserve it, because you have had that beaten into you, why would you exercise or eat better? And the only way you're guaranteed to have compassion for you when you need it is to learn how to generate it yourself. You're not going to exercise or eat clean or anything healthy sustainably if you're sustaining it by abusing yourself verbally or emotionally. So don't do that.

Re: Mental Wealth

#210

Post by Jtsummers » Fri, Jun 05, 2020, 9:56 PM UTC

namenotrequired wrote: post #115

lotsofpulp wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the motto “sleep right, eat right, excercise right” (in that order) to be true.

Why the 'right' after exercise? My impression is that not doing it at all is both more common and more harmful than doing it in a mediocre way.

I've seen many people do a slightly wrong thing once and throw their bodies out of whack for days or weeks, if not longer, when weights are involved. With cardio, you can pretty much do what you want with cycling without too much risk of injury (aside from falling or collisions) so long as you don't overdo it. But with cardio in general (running, swimming, cycling), people often get too excited and start off wrong, or have wrong form in running, and either injure themselves or exhaust themselves and drop out.

No matter what the exercise is, ease in, find a trainer (you don't need one for long depending on what you're doing), and be smart.