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The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

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Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#181

Post by m463 »

Ensorceled wrote: post #36

I remember a panel on a news program years ago where the one guest was a psychologist who was treating "untreatable" drug addicts by getting them "hooked" on running or weightlifting or martial arts. They would stop drugs but would instead be doing martial arts for hours a day or running 20 miles every morning. Then he would start treating the addiction personality and causes, but in many cases the patients would jus…

This goes hand in hand with many laws in california.

There's a law that governs the treatment of mental illness and basically, it's not against the law to be mentally ill, and as long as you're a not "a danger to self or others" they will have to leave you alone, even if you clearly need help.

This is particularly heartbreaking for many people with some form psychosis, because anosognosia is frequently correlated with it. This is basically an inability to have insight into your own mental illness (sort of like a powerful form of denial).

So there are lots of mentally ill people in california, and they usually end up homeless, or eventually in jail.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#182

Post by mark-r »

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

I had a garage door problem with the sun too. I tried the toilet paper roll trick, but it was only partially effective. Finally had to replace the sensor.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#183

Post by Zarel »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #77
mlyle wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In this view, if you have symptoms of ADHD but can, for instance, hold down a good job then by definition you don't have ADHD. I deleted the book from my Audible account. This may overstate the point a little bit. But there's a kernel of truth here: if you don't require some degree of significant impairment of functioning, a whole lot of criteria for mental illness would apply to huge swaths of the population. E.g.…

> if you don't require some degree of significant impairment of functioning, a whole lot of criteria for mental illness would apply to huge swaths of the population. E.g. this is why the diagnostic criteria for ADHD include: "There is clear evidence that the symptoms interfere with or reduce the quality of social, academic, or occupational functioning." Wouldn't this just tell us that these categories are completely…

The problem is that it's a matter of degree. Like another comment mentioned, having some wine every few months isn't being an alcoholic. Being distracted sometimes is completely normal, being distracted too much is a disorder. So it has to be a line you draw somewhere.

And it's not like you can just count them or something. It's not like you can say "5.2 distracto-particles is normal, but 5.3 distracto-particles is ADHD".

And traditionally, "too distracted to hold a job" is a common place you might draw the line between "normal" and "ADHD".

So yeah, you might have to draw the line somewhere arbitrary, but that doesn't mean that the thing it's trying to measure doesn't exist. Any line you draw between "short" and "tall" will be arbitrary, but that doesn't mean height doesn't exist.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#184

Post by larsiusprime »

Baeocystin wrote: post #160
larsiusprime wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a weirder version of this problem that's less debilitating but annoys people who live with me -- if I pass by a door I will automatically lock it with no memory of having done so, even seconds after. Like kleptomania but for locking doors. If I'm within five feet of a door it's as if a magic force emanates from my body to lock it as far as my own awareness is concerned. One of my roommates in college was carry…

I had a family member who had the same drive, and after one too many times of me getting locked out while I'm bringing in things from the car, the New Rule™ was that if I'm actively using the door, it is stopped fully open, and the Habitual Locker is not allowed to touch it without coming outside to help carry things in, no exceptions. It actually worked out quite well!

I will give it a try! I guess you accept the ingress of a few extra mosquitos and flies as the cost of doing business.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#185

Post by BirdieNZ »

colechristensen wrote: post #172
Ensorceled wrote: post #36

I remember a panel on a news program years ago where the one guest was a psychologist who was treating "untreatable" drug addicts by getting them "hooked" on running or weightlifting or martial arts. They would stop drugs but would instead be doing martial arts for hours a day or running 20 miles every morning. Then he would start treating the addiction personality and causes, but in many cases the patients would jus…

Psychology has the sizable problem that everything is a disorder but very little is actually known about any of them. You can't say "ADHD is this" and point at a definitive cause, tis just a bag of related symptoms that is geared more towards consistent diagnoses (i.e. you go to five different doctors and they all diagnose the same thing) rather than attachment to a common underlying cause or consistent treatment pla…

> You can't say "ADHD is this" and point at a definitive cause

There's plenty of existing and on-going research that demonstrates differences in brain structure and development in people clinically diagnosed with ADHD. In other words, ADHD is caused by parts of your brain being underdeveloped or damaged. There is on-going research applying machine learning to MRI brain scans to try to predict ADHD through brain scans rather than only clinical diagnosis.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#186

Post by aaroninsf »

caslon wrote: post #84
kaibee wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So like, in theory, yes, but in practice, now everyone has to take Adderall just to be able to keep up with their coworkers.

Seems like the free market at work to me.

That's about the shortest, but most on-point and total, take down of the free market I've seen in some time.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#187

Post by mark-r »

paulcole wrote: post #68
hallway_monitor wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> In my experience most doctors are pretty useless trying to solve a difficult problem This applies to nearly every profession. Most people are average at their jobs and most people aren't that great at consistently solving the harder (or hardest) problems their job presents. It's as true for doctors as it is software developers or truck drivers or teachers.

Here's one I heard a very long time ago:

What do they call a person who goes to med school and graduates at the bottom of their class? "Doctor".

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#188

Post by BirdieNZ »

Zababa wrote: post #141
gwbas1c wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> could only be diagnosed with ADHD if your life was worse than "the norm" Because ADHD is a real situation for some people, and for others it's a way to legally take class-B stimulants. Yes, people really do try their friends' ADHD medication, enjoy it, and then shop around doctors to find someone who will prescribe it. It's called "drug seeking," and doctors do flag patients who do it. This, BTW, is what happens wi…

> Because ADHD is a real situation for some people, and for others it's a way to legally take class-B stimulants. In some cases it's really clear, in some others it isn't. A few of my friends did better than me in school, and they had access to Ritalin. They were pretty good student while I was a problem child. I never really explored the option during school as I didn't really know how it worked and what ADHD was. I…

> Was it because it's a stimulant and it helps anyone?

ADHD meds for non-ADHD students don't really help those students perform better academically. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3489818/

They make you feel better, but not actually perform notably better.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#189

Post by trhway »

Ensorceled wrote: post #36

I remember a panel on a news program years ago where the one guest was a psychologist who was treating "untreatable" drug addicts by getting them "hooked" on running or weightlifting or martial arts. They would stop drugs but would instead be doing martial arts for hours a day or running 20 miles every morning. Then he would start treating the addiction personality and causes, but in many cases the patients would jus…

>Then he would start treating the addiction personality and causes, but in many cases the patients would just stop coming and live three or more hours of every day in the gym.

one can speculate why addiction hasn't been selected out - may be because it probably provides significant advantage when channeled right. Some achievements/mastery/etc. require tremendous focus and huge amount of persistent work which probably may be not doable on rational motivation alone, without the primal dopamine [over]drive.

Re: The Hair Dryer Incident (2014)

#190

Post by FranchuFranchu »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #113
rootusrootus wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The impact isn't the same, but I've been guilty of doing exactly the same thing with software bugs. "Sure, we could just do this little workaround and get you back up and running, but there's a reason for this and we would be better off in the long run investing in a real fix." I do have a limit, at least, after which I'll go for the quick fix and then try to follow up with a broader investigation. Depends on how sev…

People are not software :)

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