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I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

theatlantic.com

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Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#21

Post by hellbannedguy »

throwaway205826 wrote: post #13

A few years ago I got some kind of brain illness. Doctors were unable to come up with a strong diagnosis, which is apparently quite common for such cases. One of the effects of the illness was that I essentially became stupid. I couldn’t focus on anything (even trivial activities like watching television), I couldn’t compose emails, I would get disoriented easily. It was absolutely terrifying not knowing whether or n…

They do like mentioning The Art Of Medicine when it's not a simple ailment, or treatment failure. And I get it.

It might be the only profession I know of that can still bill though. They make sure they are paid.

I do get the difficulty of the profession. I know most treatments are Placebo cures. It's a weird profession. Or, we still know very little, especially ailments that affect the brain.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#23

Post by codingwageslave »

throwaway205826 wrote: post #13

A few years ago I got some kind of brain illness. Doctors were unable to come up with a strong diagnosis, which is apparently quite common for such cases. One of the effects of the illness was that I essentially became stupid. I couldn’t focus on anything (even trivial activities like watching television), I couldn’t compose emails, I would get disoriented easily. It was absolutely terrifying not knowing whether or n…

I’ve been trying to tell people this. It’s always met with ridicule

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#24

Post by DoreenMichele »

I enjoyed the wit and sense of humor of this piece. I have a serious medical condition and, yeah, perspective and priorities change after your life gets hit by a truck, whether literally or metaphorically.

It can be hard to convey what that's like and that there are bad things but also sometimes good comes out of it and you can choose to embrace the good parts of it and amplify them while continuing to try to resolve the very real problems you have been left with.

For me, this was a good read.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#25

Post by pianoben »

ta988 wrote: post #22
pianoben wrote: post #2

This headline is like a bad r/nosleep title. Someday, somehow, I hope we move past this dumb clickbait style.

Or we should just get past the FOMO and let some stuff unclicked and focus on things interesting for us.

Personally I got over that long ago; the style itself just irks me to see. I left Facebook to get away from attention-economy junk and am sad to see it show up here.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#26

Post by PKop »

throw9239393 wrote: post #14

Really well written, especially considering the author's plight. Regarding this bit: > The day of the accident I had been working on a project to improve how homeless people are placed into shelters. I say out loud, “I don’t care about homeless people” to see how it feels. It doesn’t ring true; I do care about homeless people. I just don’t feel like working. I wonder if that's directly to do with the brain damage or…

The book "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging" discusses similar dynamics with returning combat troops, and others that have lived through war or extreme challenging scenarios. The surprising finding is it's not the memory of the event that causes PTSD/depression, but returning to "normal" modern, atomized and isolated life of relative peace and stability.. and losing the excitement, adrenaline/thrill of events arguably humans have been adapted to thrive in: challenges and struggles, especially alongside a group of people facing same challenge together. Many people have been polled as being happier in for example war time London facing bombing raids, death and destruction, than peacetime after WW2. It's a good read.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#27

Post by ashton314 »

throwaway205826 wrote: post #13

A few years ago I got some kind of brain illness. Doctors were unable to come up with a strong diagnosis, which is apparently quite common for such cases. One of the effects of the illness was that I essentially became stupid. I couldn’t focus on anything (even trivial activities like watching television), I couldn’t compose emails, I would get disoriented easily. It was absolutely terrifying not knowing whether or n…

First, my sincere condolences. That is terrifying.

> Think about the people you know who learned Java in college and then never learned another programming language; chances are, your doctor is that kind of person.

Ooof. That is a really good analogy.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#28

Post by maydup-nem »

eric_b wrote: post #11
pianoben wrote: post #2

This headline is like a bad r/nosleep title. Someday, somehow, I hope we move past this dumb clickbait style.

Yeah, I couldn't get very far in to it. Something about the author's tone and writing style was awkward and offputting.

On the contrary, I enjoyed it and read the whole thing with interest.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#29

Post by tyingq »

viburnum wrote: post #20
megablast wrote: post #9

Cars are so incredibly destructive to society, in so many ways. But most people are so blasé about them.

America has nearly twice the car death rate of Canada (and Canada hardly has substantially better weather or density than America). It's crazy.

The US does rate pretty high in "traffic deaths per 100k people".

But they also lead the world in how much they drive. 8,800 kilometers per capita, versus 4,300 in Canada, 7,000 in Germany and less than 1,700 in Japan.

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/12/13/why-the-u-s-trails-th...

I'm sure there are other factors, but that would explain most of the difference vs Canada. Twice as much driving means twice as many traffic deaths per capita.

Edit: Yes, I agree the US has work to do either way.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#30

Post by skadamou »

throwaway205826 wrote: post #13

A few years ago I got some kind of brain illness. Doctors were unable to come up with a strong diagnosis, which is apparently quite common for such cases. One of the effects of the illness was that I essentially became stupid. I couldn’t focus on anything (even trivial activities like watching television), I couldn’t compose emails, I would get disoriented easily. It was absolutely terrifying not knowing whether or n…

I'm so sorry this happened to you and I'm glad you are starting to feel at least somewhat back to your old self. I definitely understand where this opinion of docs is coming from as there are definitely some incompetent docs out there but don't you think that your opinion is largely based around an anecdotal experience that is probably pretty abnormal? Medicine as a field is still pretty unscientific in a lot of ways. To me it feels like docs are like alchemists before the discovery of the atom/modern chemistry. They're doing the best they can with the tools at hand but their field has some fundamental gaps in knowledge. Is that really the doctors fault?

That's just my two cents. Obviously this doesn't do much to help folks dealing with poorly understood illnesses but I hope it helps balance out the "all doctors are idiots" opinion that sometimes comes up in threads like this.

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