Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

cam.ac.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 169 posts

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#101

Post by scns »

captainbland wrote: post #54

I suppose it wouldn't be that surprising. Mindfulness for instance teaches you to "let go" of thoughts - which is really just a gentle form of suppression. CBT encourages you to redirect existing negative thoughts in a positive/constructive direction - ultimately steering you away from or undermining the original negative thought - but does not encourage you to do a deep dive on it. Not to mention that Freud was a qu…

> Mindfulness for instance teaches you to "let go" of thoughts - which is really just a gentle form of suppression

Have to disagree. To let go you have to acknowledge/accept the subject. Suppression misses this IMHO.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#102

Post by fellowniusmonk »

corethree wrote: post #95
99_00 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be suggesting that humans are capable of perceive objective truth for non trivial things. I say that we aren't. And given that, you are better off believing the lie that helps you or makes you feel good instead of the one that hurts you, assuming both have the same predictive power.

> You seem to be suggesting that humans are capable of perceive objective truth for non trivial things. I believe that for situations where a single human has enough information and ability to ascertain the truth, most humans deliberately will not make a beeline for the truth. They sort of veer off to the side towards a half truth that better suits their situation. None of this is a conscious choice though. Self dece…

Obsession with truth isn't necessarily advantageous for success at the species level.

I mean who cares if some guy running a convenience store or writing an email client thinks the world is flat?

Maybe we just need a small aberrant percentage of the population so there will always be a few people "shorting" the status quo for cash and occasionally preventing extinction.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#103

Post by scns »

dguest wrote: post #65

Why are we still talking about Freud? Some researchers studied how to be happy. Unsurprisingly they also found no support for Freudian ideas that were popular 30 years ago. The Cambridge University PR office still leads by stating Freudian ideas as the "accepted narrative". Maybe they are? But this is the least novel result of the study, and yet it's in the headline. Obviously we shouldn't shoot the messenger: scienc…

It is so easy being smarter than Plato/Kant/Freud. You just need to be born later. Still they are a valuable part of the evolution of the human mind IMHO. Some of his thoughts still make sense, even if they are not falsifiable.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#104

Post by amadeuspagel »

cf141q5325 wrote: post #32

When ever this notion comes up i cant help but wonder how good crashing and burning thanks to ignoring reality is for your mental health. Just because stuff isnt nice doesnt mean its safe to ignore. Its worth mentioning that dealing with negative thoughts and experiences is part of how we grow as people. Its why Bambis mother got shot in a Disney movie. Because sooner or later, kids have to deal with harsh stuff. Unf…

That's not the point of the study. Many negative thoughts are safe to ignore. There's a difference in dealing with realitiy and wallowing in negativity for its own sake, or because of some freudian bullshit.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#105

Post by danw1979 »

For a few years after the death of my baby daughter, I’d relive the events of that day pretty regularly, looking for some kind of meaning, pattern, lesson to be learned maybe. I’d also continually wonder what she’d be like now she was 3, 4 years old, etc.

This was making me incredibly sad. Eventually, I just had to forget that day, forget her, stop thinking about what her life would have been like, and get on with enjoying the here and now, with my other children.

Even though it would be her 10th birthday next week, I haven’t thought much about her in the run up to this.

Dwelling on past trauma didn’t work for me. YMMV.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#106

Post by oysterpingu »

m463 wrote: post #79
jl6 wrote: post #77

Where does suppressing negative thoughts end, and reality denial begin? There are many unpleasant realities that we must learn to cope with that cannot just be ignored or forgotten. Credit card debt is a source of negative thoughts for many - and not just low-level grumbles, but genuinely distressing anxiety. People kill themselves over their financial difficulties. But having a debt is definitely not something we sh…

> Where does suppressing negative thoughts end, and reality denial begin? Personally I think that juncture is where procrastination lives.

Could you elaborate?

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#107

Post by mdp2021 »

kristjank wrote: post #96
mdp2021 wrote: post #89

Somehow relevant piece of art, .gif animation, from Portuguese artist André Carrilho. Title: Bad memories https://cdn.myportfolio.com/453a92f80b154a9480bc9e2ebcb57c99...

That's a great piece of art, but maybe a content warning for gore-y content would be in order.

Did not perceive it as such. It is metaphorical. And it is an animated illustration (as opposed to realistic depiction).

Actually, the first reference is the scan (the slices are MRI), so an image of analysis. Then, the slicer can suggest removal (of the «bad memories»).

If anybody perceived it as sensational, they should go beyond the impact and perceive it as operational, or as sympathetical (your fellow man is performing his burden - where a bit of apprehension for the in-a-perspective "painful" act is shared experience).

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#108

Post by rendx »

mdp2021 wrote: post #107
kristjank wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great piece of art, but maybe a content warning for gore-y content would be in order.

Did not perceive it as such. It is metaphorical. And it is an animated illustration (as opposed to realistic depiction). Actually, the first reference is the scan (the slices are MRI), so an image of analysis. Then, the slicer can suggest removal (of the «bad memories»). If anybody perceived it as sensational, they should go beyond the impact and perceive it as operational, or as sympathetical (your fellow man is per…

I would definitely categorize it as "gory". I can almost "feel" the slicing, the moment I look at it. It's not like I can control my perception like you say, even if I tried: the interpretation and emotional/body reaction happens before that. I can intellectually ADD information, but by that not really resolve what the "emotional brain" does.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#109

Post by oysterpingu »

corethree wrote: post #93
kykeonaut wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that a sign of being a good programmer is recognizing you are not a good programmer. Then again, this is not me, but Socrates speaking.

Bro, this sounds like rationalizing. You realize you're not a good programmer and you try to rationalize that realization with this quote. Quotes like these are huge indicators of self deception. I mean it may be true, but usually the only person who cares for these quotes are the ones who have a strong desire to believe that it applies to them.

Well, I wouldnt say if you think you're a bad programmer that makes you a good one. However, I would rephrase it as "If you're honest with yourself and the mistakes you make, you are able to solve them. If you're not humble, then it is very difficult to be a good programmer (or anything really), because you would think you never make mistakes. And as a result you would never fix them"

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#110

Post by h0l0cube »

acituan wrote: post #67
h0l0cube wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no participant was given a negative event to imagine I feel that's taken a little out of context. There were two trials: > For No-imagine trials, participants were given one of their cue words, asked to first acknowledge the event in their mind. Then, while continuing to stare directly at the reminder cue, they were asked to stop thinking about the event – they should not try to imagine the event itself or use dive…

> I feel that's taken a little out of context Not necessarily, for one how often people really stare at the cues of a negative event, and try to suppress it versus trying to suppress an internal imagination of the event? Secondly, there’s a greater confound in which externalizing your fear to begin with has a positive effect on processing the affect. It’s also not clear enough how the operationalize “the suppress”, b…

I'm sure there's plenty of other issues and confounders to pick apart in the study, but it was a fair claim that most would be misled by the isolated quote to mean that no imagining of negative events occurred at all as part of the study.
Post reply on HN