The Hair Dryer Incident (2014) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#21

Post by Forge36 » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 6:26 PM UTC

MarkusWandel wrote: post #16

Seriously, I wasn't even through the second paragraph before I thought the same thing - just take the thing with you. It doesn't try to solve the OCD, but it solves the problem. Nobody in my household has OCD, but we had a garage door that sometimes, unpredictably, would decide that there was an obstruction at the very bottom, and go back up. Did you really, really watch it go all the way down before driving off? Did…

I had a gather like that, for like half an hour the sun would shine on the sensor and it wouldn't close. Fixed with a toilet paper role over the sensor to avoid the glare. In my current house I have homeassistant and a sensor so I can check if it's closed/auto close after ~10 minutes (I'd set it to 5 but that was too aggressive).

Haven't worried since

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#22

Post by frereubu » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 6:26 PM UTC

This reminds me of the British Psychiatrist R.D. Laing who had a kind of "open house" for people with mental health issues in the late 60s / early 70s, where they could go and live untreatead except as they wished. (There were obvious limits to this, such as violent people not being admitted). One person came to stay and wouldn't talk to anyone, spending the vast majority of his time in his room, and becoming very irritated if anyone spoke to him. He became more and more withdrawn and stopped eating, and the psychiatric team were very concerned about his wellbeing as his weight dropped. One morning he came down from his room, smiling, and asked for a large breakfast. It turned out that he had been trying to count up to one million and back to zero and every time someone spoke to him he'd lose count. Once he'd managed to do it the spell was broken and he was essentially "cured". There are obvious ethical concerns about his treatment, and I often wonder whether he just lapsed back into some other compulsion, but it does make me wonder a great deal about the lack of individual attention and creative thinking about treatments for for patients with mental health issues that the hairdryer incident points to.

Found the story: https://www.madinamerica.com/2013/11/living-one-r-d-laings-p...

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#23

Post by MarkusWandel » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 6:27 PM UTC

Forge36 wrote: post #21

MarkusWandel wrote: post #16

Seriously, I wasn't even through the second paragraph before I thought the same thing - just take the thing with you. It doesn't try to solve the OCD, but it solves the problem. Nobody in my household has OCD, but we had a garage door that sometimes, unpredictably, would decide that there was an obstruction at the very bottom, and go back up. Did you really, really watch it go all the way down before driving off? Did…

I had a gather like that, for like half an hour the sun would shine on the sensor and it wouldn't close. Fixed with a toilet paper role over the sensor to avoid the glare. In my current house I have homeassistant and a sensor so I can check if it's closed/auto close after ~10 minutes (I'd set it to 5 but that was too aggressive). Haven't worried since

In my case the rails were misadjusted so the door would contact the frame before it was all the way down. The friction would sometimes, just sometimes, trigger the overtorque sensor, but only when the door was about an inch or two from the bottom. Fixed by adjusting the rails.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#24

Post by quwert95 » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 6:28 PM UTC

A friend told me a story similar to this where a psychologist helped a patient with their taxes and credit card debt, the patient was immediately more functional as a result.

The crux of it being that academically this is the "wrong" solution because the textbook and journals don't cite it as a valid one. But a medical professional's job is to not only treat symptoms, but to treat the underlying problems as a person. This was the right solution for this particular person. Yes, it doesn't scale, but neither does perfect medical care in general. There is a difference between "triage" and "care".

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#25

Post by dr_orpheus » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 6:31 PM UTC

hallway_monitor wrote: post #19

kayodelycaon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had the same problems with regular doctors and medical issues. A lot of my problems turned out to be a milk allergy.

In my experience most doctors are pretty useless trying to solve a difficult problem. I had my daughter's colon biopsied before someone suggested using a hypoallergenic formula.

Variation from doctor to doctor is also wild the reactions you get out of people. Our daughter had a dairy allergy and we had observed after cutting it out her getting better. Our original pediatrician basically had the attitude of "well since you self-diagnosed this and it wasn't officially by me I'm going to largely ignore it and proceed as normal."

We switched pediatricians and the difference was amazing. The response was "I have listed to all that you have said and I agree with your assessment that she has an issue with dairy. Here are some options for her diet going forward". The difference between fighting a battle to feel heard versus feeling like someone is on your team solving a problem is incredible.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#26

Post by tempestn » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 6:32 PM UTC

mindvirus wrote: post #10

Hah, my first instinct was "just set up a baby monitor". I can totally see not thinking of the even more obvious solution.

Similarly my thought was, "Just sell the hairdryer and deal with damp hair - it's not worth it!"

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#27

Post by ElViajero » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 6:35 PM UTC

Many are missing the point, this is a story about transgender rights, not about psychologist knowledge.

The original article, linked in the post, starts with:

“I’ve made this argument before and gotten a reply something like this:

Transgender is a psychiatric disorder. When people have psychiatric disorders, certainly it’s right to sympathize and feel sorry for them and want to help them. But the way we try to help them is by treating their disorder, not by indulging them in their delusion.”

And then goes to explain the "Hair Dryer Incident" as a counter point.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#28

Post by hawkesnest » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 6:36 PM UTC

I heard/read a similar mental "hack" about folks who fear leaving things "on" when travelling. Take pictures with your phone of all the things just before you leave. They'd be easily available, verifiable evidence that the stove is off, all the doors are closed/locked, furnace set, water shut off, and so on.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#29

Post by rootusrootus » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 6:41 PM UTC

hawkesnest wrote: post #28

I heard/read a similar mental "hack" about folks who fear leaving things "on" when travelling. Take pictures with your phone of all the things just before you leave. They'd be easily available, verifiable evidence that the stove is off, all the doors are closed/locked, furnace set, water shut off, and so on.

That's cheaper than my solution, which was to make the status of the door locks, garage doors, furnace, etc, all verifiable via home automation. And with backups for some of them, like auto-closing garage doors. I used to have a problem where I'd get a half mile from home and have to turn around and verify the garage doors were in fact closed. Never once did I return to find them open. But now I can just pull it up on the phone.

Pictures is a cheaper way of accomplishing that, not a bad idea.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#30

Post by insickness » Thu, Jun 17, 2021, 6:42 PM UTC

This story sounds like it should be posted in the subreddit "and everyone clapped." Any therapist worth their salt would consider both practical solutions as well as treatment of the underlying cause. If your depression were triggered by job loss, they'd urge you to look for another job as well as figure out how to prevent/treat the depression itself. I'm skeptical that the other psychiatrists thought the practical portion of this treatment was scandalous.

The only reason the other psychiatrists may have objected to his 'treatment' is if the psychiatrist who recommended this solution considered the problem solved after just applying the practical solution. The OCD is likely to find another way into this person's life, whether it's checking lights or the stove or something else. It's a pathology and pathologies don't typically resolve themselves by making a minor life change.