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Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder

studyfinds.org

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Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder

#31

Post by stev-0 »

zamalek wrote: post #21
selimthegrim wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you cite anything about a single drink a week?

https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-... Medical terminology gets confusing. "Chronic" to a layperson generally means "bad," but medically it merely means "ongoing." The idea that the protective effects of alcohol outweighing the risks are also under increased scrutiny and doubt: the risk of cancer is just too high. There are many ways to deal with a cardiovascular problem, but liver cancer? At…

Almost everyone I know binge drinks from time to time..

You are right that it’s better not to but calling it Russian roulette is a pretty big overstatement.

Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder

#32

Post by insickness »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #15
superkuh wrote: post #5

I don't think this paper actually disentangles the causation direction. It's just another study showing that people with mental problems tend to like smoking. The 20 year gap between starting smoking and hospitalization they're talking about leaves a lot to be desired. The most surprising thing to me is that they managed to find an n=131,140 of people in the system with enough genetic testing coverage to calculate th…

By all accounts, smoking is (at least early on, before your lungs rot out of your chest) pleasant. I would think the mentally healthy would enjoy it too. What would account for the selection effect here? Is there some smoking initiation mechanism that could account for it?

At this point, everyone understands that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health. The people who still engage in it, or who take it up, are those willing to sacrifice their physical health for stimulation. That type of behavior is exhibited in mentally less healthy people such as those with addictive personalities.

Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder

#33

Post by stev-0 »

drewcoo wrote: post #24
kochikame wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking cigarettes is first and foremost an anxiety suppression mechanism. It’s no surprise that those given to overly worrying and fretting would smoke. To use your words, the mentally healthy don’t need it

> Smoking cigarettes is first and foremost an anxiety suppression mechanism Citation? I know Bernays convinced everyone that they were "freedom torches," but I suppose freedom might be first and foremost an anxiety suppression mechanism.

I know another anecdote won’t help you but when I read this it immediately rang true to me.

> Smoking cigarettes is first and formost an anxiety suppression mechanism

This describes my experience pretty well.

Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder

#34

Post by zare_st »

throwanem wrote: post #11

One sentence in this article is of import: > Statistically, Speed and the team found a correlation here, but they couldn’t explain why they noticed what they did. Correlation between smoking and mental illness has long been recognized. Without meaningful insight into causation or lack thereof, it's not clear to what extent this work contributes, and the quotes in the article suggest a desire to handwave quickly past…

The body is a huge system. Causation is easy in easy cases, if you eat heavy metals you will get cancer, because we know enough of the radiation effect on cells to encircle these cases with systematic knowledge. This happened years and years after corellation was anecdotally detected and then statistically proven.

How many years we'll need to gather that knowledge for psychological diseases is beyond me. There are too many variables.

The research's findings are rather useless for the real world application. If someone was informed at early age they're in risk group, either by having history of illness in family or an episode, they're going to be advised to live a healthy life 100%.

Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder

#36

Post by zamalek »

stev-0 wrote: post #31
zamalek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-... Medical terminology gets confusing. "Chronic" to a layperson generally means "bad," but medically it merely means "ongoing." The idea that the protective effects of alcohol outweighing the risks are also under increased scrutiny and doubt: the risk of cancer is just too high. There are many ways to deal with a cardiovascular problem, but liver cancer? At…

Almost everyone I know binge drinks from time to time.. You are right that it’s better not to but calling it Russian roulette is a pretty big overstatement.

The only thing that "everyone you know is doing X" indicates is that "everyone you know does X." It is in no way correlated to how bad of an idea it is.

Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder

#37

Post by stev-0 »

zamalek wrote: post #36
stev-0 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost everyone I know binge drinks from time to time.. You are right that it’s better not to but calling it Russian roulette is a pretty big overstatement.

The only thing that "everyone you know is doing X" indicates is that "everyone you know does X." It is in no way correlated to how bad of an idea it is.

I never said it was a great idea. I said that equating it with a one in six change of instant death is a bit dramatic.

Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder

#38

Post by zamalek »

stev-0 wrote: post #37
zamalek wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing that "everyone you know is doing X" indicates is that "everyone you know does X." It is in no way correlated to how bad of an idea it is.

I never said it was a great idea. I said that equating it with a one in six change of instant death is a bit dramatic.

It's a literary device: a simile. I'm not dumb enough to suggest that it's actually like Russian roulette, I myself would have been long dead. The similarity is with playing games with your life, which is objectively true.
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