341–350 of 396 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And from George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Which is a distinctly western sort of thought, that insists on a person being somehow outside and not of the world in which he inhabits.
Attributing mental health issues to physiology might look like a convenient way for a distressed individual to escape the associated social stigma, but in absence of causal mechanisms pointing that way it is a dangerous assumption to make, prompting symptomatic treatments that leave the underlying cause to fester.
Unintentionally perpetuating the stigma of mental illness through e.g. mindlessly used unfortunate figures of speech is among the worst casual slips one can make.
I've always been depressive and pessimistic person as far as I can remember. I've been looking at other people only to see how happy they are and how content they with their life. They feel motivated, want something from life and in generally think that being alive is alright, which I just couldn't internalize no matter how hard I tried. Essentially, I've come to the conclusion that there _must_ be something wrong wi…
So a failure to transmit or receive sufficient chemical stimulus in the brain describes a failure of hardware that may or may not be correctable with drugs. Because we live in a culture of convenience it is common to misrepresent a difference of personality as a defect correctable with a drug, which may explain the drive to consume and abuse stimulants.
Some people, myself, literally enjoy working 80+ hours a weeks with less sleep and without preconditions, like increased compensation. Many people see that as bizarre and wonder where the increased energy and focus come from. It’s not a product of increased energy or focus, but really just a minor difference of personal interest and emotional concerns. Stimulants won’t buy you a necessary change of personal goals or the necessary continuous interest of where you value your time, and certainly won’t buy you enjoyment of working 80+ hours a week. Instead people tend to be most productive where they naturally find increased output due to personal interests whether that’s just from spending time with other people or reading literature.
That’s the difference personal interests (personality) make which is not any indication of defect. There is a famous quote: “Know thyself”. The reflection to that is know what you are not or rather don’t lie to yourself.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's hard to know if you are clinically depressed. I've asked myself the question many times, and can never really say for sure.
Clinical depression is diagnosed when 1) its ongoing over 6 months or more and 2) it's having a detrimental effect on your life or the lives of those around you Roughly speaking of course
I've always been depressive and pessimistic person as far as I can remember. I've been looking at other people only to see how happy they are and how content they with their life. They feel motivated, want something from life and in generally think that being alive is alright, which I just couldn't internalize no matter how hard I tried. Essentially, I've come to the conclusion that there _must_ be something wrong wi…
I think you're on to something really important here. Some people (normal people if you will) just don't think too much about things. Even when they sometimes go on to make terrible choices for themselves, and others, they might regret it, they might have negative thoughts about it, but they don't become depressed. They are not inclined to ruminating hours on end about their mistakes, so the negative thoughts dissipa…
For the most part this is good, but of course, not all memories are created equal. Sometimes this process of forming connections reminds me of a painful event, something I'd rather not think about.
At first it was frustrating when these memories surfaced repeatedly. I'd dwell on some embarassing thing I'd done, or some painful thing a friend had said to me, which they maybe didn't realize I'd taken so hard. It was tempting to analyze these events to death, and have silent conversations with these figments, as though I could go back and phrase it differently, or change my actions, and perhaps it would have gone better.
Eventually, however, I realized that these mental tasks were not productive. The event, the "danger" had already passed. So now, whenever I realize my mind is about to go down that path, when suddenly I am reminded of a painful event, we pause, my brain and I. "Do we really need to go down this road again? We know where it leads. Let's not."
And so we don't. We reach once again into the stream of thought, allow ourselves to dwell on some happier moment, and in time, that old memory fades and we're off on a different adventure.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And from George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Which is a distinctly western sort of thought, that insists on a person being somehow outside and not of the world in which he inhabits.
I've always been depressive and pessimistic person as far as I can remember. I've been looking at other people only to see how happy they are and how content they with their life. They feel motivated, want something from life and in generally think that being alive is alright, which I just couldn't internalize no matter how hard I tried. Essentially, I've come to the conclusion that there _must_ be something wrong wi…
It seems that lots of very smart people take these drugs and I wonder how many are emotionally and spiritually stunted by them.