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Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders

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Re: Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders

#81

Post by eric4smith »

gooeykabuki wrote: post #79
eric4smith wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my 55 years of experience and seeing friends, family and others around me, having some kind of mission is critical. You just have to have something to aim for with your spouse, or you do get bored. Currently where I live, i see families working in the family business all the time and they really are forced to be together working on something. Whereas their children just want to move from the provinces and live in…

Your comments through out this thread make a lot of sense. Thanks for outlining them. Curious, when did you start thinking about your life in terms of mission (s) and what was the trigger for it?

Actually, it took me decades to put it into stone. But then I realized I was doing it bit by bit since I was about 15 years old.

Now 40 years later, i'm cogent enough to put it into words and mentor it to younger people in an elevator pitch way that they "get it".

Re: Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders

#82

Post by mac01021 »

eric4smith wrote: post #63
Trasmatta wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah...your "mission" outcome shouldn't be tied to the performance of your child is some sort of task. Especially an extremely difficult one, like getting a kid to learn calculus by the time they're 10. That's a good way to foster resentment between you and children. A better mission might be to help your kids explore their own interests, find what they're passionate about, and then do whatever you can to foster and…

No, you misunderstand. I have a kid who I taught to read by 2 years old. That was a mission. She hated it and hated me for it at the time. But I just came off a 2 hour session with her teaching her SEO. She was jumping to do it, because that early reading taught her how to be self-sufficient in learning things herself from the very beginning. Another mission was to teach her how to find and learn anything she wants i…

What was your basic strategy for training a 1-year-old or an 18-month at literacy?

Put her in an environment that she can only navigate by reading signs?

Flashcards and the conditional withholding of food?

Re: Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders

#83

Post by adventured »

sfgweilr4f wrote: post #60

There's a ship. It has no captain, no crew. Where is it going? There's another ship. It has a captain and crew but no destination is set. Where is it going? There's another ship. It has captain, crew, destination but no course is set. Where is it going? There's another ship. It has captain, crew, destination and a course set. Everyone is ready to go and intends to go. Where is it going? Only one of these ships will s…

> Sort of. Purpose means perseverance is useful. Lack of purpose means perseverance, resilience or even the least effort can be wasted.

That's taken care of right in the title: "perseverance toward life goals"

Re: Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders

#84

Post by raxxorrax »

derefr wrote: post #27
cc_ashby wrote: post #7

But what are you sacrificing in return for your “perseverance”? Very few people tend to look at the mind as a system, and also seem to ignore that depression, anxiety, panic disorders, etc. happen for a reason. The reason why modern humanity have increased risk of these symptoms is because they know, given their perhaps wrongly learned models of the world or otherwise, that even when they achieve their so-called life…

> seem to ignore that depression, anxiety, panic disorders, etc. happen for a reason ...no? In almost all cases, these syndromes are not appropriate responses to the environmental stimulus. OCD is not adaptive in any situation. Neither is Tourette's. Neither is anorexia nervosa. Neither is akinetic mutism. Neither is tardive dyskinesia. (Hypomania and ADHD-PI might be adaptive in exceptional environments — there's so…

I don't think it is even closely true that mental problems like this are sorely caused by genetic mutations. There is a careful chemical balance in your brain and it can get out of order by food, drugs, trauma and probably a lot of other factors unknown to us.

Our lifestyle isn't very natural, we have long left natural selection behind for that matter.

Re: Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders

#85

Post by jwilber »

looskyer wrote: post #34
derefr wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> seem to ignore that depression, anxiety, panic disorders, etc. happen for a reason ...no? In almost all cases, these syndromes are not appropriate responses to the environmental stimulus. OCD is not adaptive in any situation. Neither is Tourette's. Neither is anorexia nervosa. Neither is akinetic mutism. Neither is tardive dyskinesia. (Hypomania and ADHD-PI might be adaptive in exceptional environments — there's so…

> OCD is not adaptive in any situation. > And, to be even more clear, these are unfit mutations, that lower their subjects' reproductive success. I don't believe this first claim is true and from my understanding the second isn't supported by current evolutionary thought. Could you explain more about why you believe these syndromes are never appropriate responses? I can offer my own anecdotes that OCD gives me a comp…

I would love to hear your anecdotes about OCD’s competitive advantage, if only because I find it extremely hard to believe.

OCD is not a knack for being organized or orderly. Without even mentioning the compulsions, it’s a never-ending onslaught of intrusive thoughts and corresponding anxieties.

Managed well, it’s still a permanent distraction that’s always in the background. Managed poorly, it’s life-ruining. I don’t see how either could yield a competitive advantage in any scenario.

Re: Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders

#87

Post by jwilber »

eric4smith wrote: post #39
andi999 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you explained what are not missions, can you give examples for missions?

Sure, here are just a few. 1. Rearing children with the goal of making them read at 2 years old. Then with the goal of learning calculus at 10. Then others as they grow older. 2. Learning programming by writing a real system that actual people will use -- instead of code katas or reading programming books or attending a boot camp. 3. Marrying not only for love, but with the intention of building a business or farm to…

I’m not sure how to phrase this without it sounding bad, and I don’t want to personally offend you, but somewhere in what you wrote is the epitome of everything I hate about tech culture (not saying there’s not a lot about tech culture that I love).

It reminds me of a quora response where Andrew Ng says you should teach your kid to program as a toddler. Not everything has to be hyper-optimized. Let your child live their life.

Re: Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders

#88

Post by lvturner »

cc_ashby wrote: post #7

But what are you sacrificing in return for your “perseverance”? Very few people tend to look at the mind as a system, and also seem to ignore that depression, anxiety, panic disorders, etc. happen for a reason. The reason why modern humanity have increased risk of these symptoms is because they know, given their perhaps wrongly learned models of the world or otherwise, that even when they achieve their so-called life…

I've spent a great deal of time and energy trying to set meaningful goals and progress towards things, then worry that I was progressing to the wrong thing and adjust goals etc.

My current goal is simply to learn to be happy with what I have and who I am.

As an indirect result of pursuing this I've found that loads of other goals and things that I've wanted to accomplish have become massively easier to progress on.

Re: Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders

#89

Post by acituan »

sfgweilr4f wrote: post #60

There's a ship. It has no captain, no crew. Where is it going? There's another ship. It has a captain and crew but no destination is set. Where is it going? There's another ship. It has captain, crew, destination but no course is set. Where is it going? There's another ship. It has captain, crew, destination and a course set. Everyone is ready to go and intends to go. Where is it going? Only one of these ships will s…

There's another ship. It has captain, crew, destination and a course set. Turns out the destination sucks, but it is too late once they arrive.

There is another ship that comes across some depressive and anxiety provoking spots on the course. The captain consults with other captains and finds out the destination was foolish. But through this process they are able to iterate on setting better and better destinations.

The problem space of life is combinatorially explosive. No one knows the exact best destination, and best destinations both differ from ship to ship and also change over time. Anxiety and depression gets a bad rep but in their non-toxic forms they want us to ask "can I do it" and "is it worth it" respectively. This helps us setting better and better courses.

Chronic anxiety and depression are the ones that are sticky. They tell us "you can't do anything" and "nothing is worth it". Then the right approach (as this article aligns with) is to accept and commit (ACT), and balance them with the participatory knowledge of life, aligned with our values, which in turn (hopefully) informs us that we can do some things pretty well and there are still many things that are worth it.

Re: Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders

#90

Post by curiousgal »

sfgweilr4f wrote: post #60

There's a ship. It has no captain, no crew. Where is it going? There's another ship. It has a captain and crew but no destination is set. Where is it going? There's another ship. It has captain, crew, destination but no course is set. Where is it going? There's another ship. It has captain, crew, destination and a course set. Everyone is ready to go and intends to go. Where is it going? Only one of these ships will s…

Theoretically it's all good but if in your quest for your life goals you meet others to whom those goals came easily or even naturally (Third World citizen working hard as an immigrant to get a better passport and be able to travel easily for example), you can get disheartened and depressed rather easily.
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