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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

#152
I do not know how many people here have "Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders" but I am on disability for all three and it runs in my family on my mother's side.

So what is this article saying? Me and my family just do not have perseverance? That we lack the "will" not to be depressed and anxious? That I just need to "Aspir[e] toward personal and career goals"? HA!

No, it's not true. You see, they found we all have a genetic disorder (GCH1 Deficiency). After I yelled at my doctors for years to look more deeply they finally found that it was not that I did not have goals, but that I needed a low protein diet and some medications that a psychiatrist could not give me, and now I am doing better. Now I can have goals.

So while this article might be true for some people with situational depression, I hate these studies because people always said crap like this to me. I was "lazy" and just needed a hobby, and on and on. They psychiatric association does not recognize, still, that mood disorders can be caused by metabolic issues. When they say I do not have enough serotonin and I ask them why they looked at me like they were in Psych 101. And these articles make psychiatrists lazy, putting all the effort on the patient while they sit back and collect check after check.

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

#153
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 totally agree. I'd add this : of course it helps to have life goals because it helps to structure, to not get lost. But I'm confident that the vast majority of us doesn't have a life goal. Most of use figure out a new small goal from time to time. And we'd be so much better if we'd recognize that a non-heroic life is just as good as any other.

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

#154

Yes to this. I often counsel my younger friends to have a "mission". Then once that is completed, to find another one. In fact, one can have multiple missions running at the same time. It's rarely said that marriage, kids, job, degree, a house, car, and most physical things are not missions. And in fact, most of these things -- unless accompanied by a "why am i doing this" and attendant missions/goals do not lead to…

Your last paragraph is insane It is also untrue. I have no mission for my marriage, or my children. Neither did my parents, or my wife's parents, nor do my siblings. No divorce in that cohort, and no abandonment.

If you want it to be a good marriage, and to make your partner happy, is that not a mission?

Same goes for children.

If you truly couldn’t care less about them then there’s no mission there, but most people do.

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

#155

“Our findings suggest that people can improve their mental health by raising or maintaining high levels of tenacity, resilience and optimism,” she said. “Aspiring toward personal and career goals can make people feel like their lives have meaning. On the other hand, disengaging from striving toward those aims or having a cynical attitude can have high mental health costs.” No they don't. Your findings suggest that pe…

Thanks for that. It was the first thing I thought when reading this.

Kind of a given that people with less sense of purpose would be more prone to anxiety/depression.

It’s why my anxiety always rematerializes when it turns out that the current company is a hellhole too. Can’t have a sense of purpose when everything is pointless.

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

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But what are you sacrificing in return for your “perseverance”? Nothing that matters to you. If it mattered to you it would be a life goal. > 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 goals, that they wouldn’t achieve philosophical nor psychological…

> In his essay, Yes, We Have Noticed the Skulls, Scott Alexander notes that any intellectual movement that has been around for a while has made some mistakes, and is probably aware of them, so if there's some obvious failure of a movement, the people who still believe in the movement probably have learned from that failure. Communists are aware of Stalin murdering people and are wary of totalitarianism. I'm not so su…

> So far, we've had dozens of implementations of communism all over the world and 100% of them ended up being authoritarian (i.e. if you disagree with the ruling party, you go to jail) or straight up murderous.

sigh You read a post saying that "but look at these skulls!"-type arguments are naive and arrogant, and your response is a "but look at these skulls!"-type argument? Really?

Which of these[1] pacifist[2] communes[3] do you think fit into your 100% number that you made up without researching?

I'm not defending communism or Christianity here, I'm saying find out what people actually believe and why they believe it before you criticize, instead of criticizing high-profile failures of their movement which they probably recognize and disagree with.

> Jordan Peterson explores reasons for why that might be so.

The fact that Jordan Peterson is exploring reasons for why something might be so which isn't so, tells me all I need to know about Jordan Peterson's opinions on the subject: they're uninformed opinions.

[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/07...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farm_(Tennessee)

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoz_Haim

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

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I don't think you have the necessary evidence to show that forcing your kid to read by the age of 2 is what allowed them to be excited about learning SEO today. > The point is that your mission with your kids is to actually force generic life skills down your children's throats. It's not an option!!! You're presenting a false dichotomy, where the only options are either forcing skills down your children's throats, or…

[deleted]

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

#158

Yes to this. I often counsel my younger friends to have a "mission". Then once that is completed, to find another one. In fact, one can have multiple missions running at the same time. It's rarely said that marriage, kids, job, degree, a house, car, and most physical things are not missions. And in fact, most of these things -- unless accompanied by a "why am i doing this" and attendant missions/goals do not lead to…

Maybe this is a bit semantic, because in general I agree with you, but: > It's rarely said that marriage, kids, job, degree, a house, car, and most physical things are not missions. No, they are missions. Anyone without them who wants them views each of these as a major milestone in their life. However, like you said, you need to find another mission after completing these. These things are kind of a like a "life pla…

> These things are kind of a like a "life plan starter pack", to give you a framework for what many people view as a set of good missions for your life.

For a lot of people this is the Standard Life Script, and they never even realise it's only one of many options. Then they get older and suddenly it hits them they've been living their life on autopilot with the sat-nav set to the factory default destination, and that's not where they want to be at all.

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

#160
post #152

I do not know how many people here have "Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders" but I am on disability for all three and it runs in my family on my mother's side. So what is this article saying? Me and my family just do not have perseverance? That we lack the "will" not to be depressed and anxious? That I just need to "Aspir[e] toward personal and career goals"? HA! No, it's not true. You see, they found we all have a…

I am curious. How does protein intake affect mental health?
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