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Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff

psychiatrymargins.com

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Re: Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff

#391

Post by Out_of_Characte »

staunton wrote: post #296
heavyset_go wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humanity is still subject to evolutionary pressures. We are "natural" and what we do is "natural", and if something like our environment were to drastically change as an evolutionary pressure, selection would absolutely happen. Consider a change in environment where, for example, oxygen levels drastically drop. That might make living at altitude deadly for those who don't have genetic adaptions to high altitude livin…

Sure, I never claimed otherwise. What I'm saying is that evolution matters across large timescales. By contrast, I believe the topics I was commenting on concern timescales where effects of biological evolution are negligible compared to the effects of memetic evolution. Thus, biological evolution doesn't matter at all for predicting what will happen (or is happening right now) to humanity, unless predicting so far i…

Its impossible to properly seperate biological evolution from current day enviromental pressure. There have been many natural and man-made disasters that have killed or otherwise economically robbed millions of people from a good future in their lifetime. Its difficult to say what the fitness function actually selected for.

If you could look back far enough and understood most of the enviromental pressures we faced, then we are all lottery winners of our tumultous history.

Re: Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff

#392

Post by tpm »

woodpanel wrote: post #123
krstffr wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend had a very similar episode with a psychosis, but turned out to be bipolar, not schizophrenic. Sounds very similar though! He was smoking a lot of weed leading up to and during the psychosis. Ended up in psychiatric ward for a month, which was followed by a couple of years of depression/introspection/therapy, but is now doing great with lithium.

It’s why I profoundly dislike the line of thinking that easier access to drugs means social progress. It’s rather a shedding off of an inconvenience for those that have no (direct) problems of functioning (eg risk of developing addiction, psychosis, etc) at the heavy costs payed by those that are more vulnerable.

> It’s rather a shedding off of an inconvenience for those that have no (direct) problems of functioning (eg risk of developing addiction, psychosis, etc) at the heavy costs payed by those that are more vulnerable.

And what about those who have a "direct problem of functioning" (like anxiety, depression, ptsd, whatever) and get no real help from the medical profession, but do get help from the drugs?

Re: Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff

#393

Post by nerdyadventurer »

suzzer99 wrote: post #9

I've lost one of my best friends to what I think is schizophrenia. We don't know because she's cut off all contact with friends and family and refuses to see a doctor. It's definitely psychosis. She thinks she's in some kind of Truman show that she calls "the game". Since none of her friends or family are willing to admit to it, then we must be in on it. We don't know her full family medical history because her dad w…

> We don't know because she's cut off all contact with friends and family and refuses to see a doctor.

It is not just schizophrenia, any mental health condition is isolating, others cannot understand it. I have OCD,ADHD etc so I know it, that's why we prefer who have been or going through same thing than normal people.

Re: Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff

#394

Post by rwyinuse »

greenaccountpun wrote: post #347
andai wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cannabis is also a potent psychedelic, and its association with psychosis is well established. (Not to condemn psychedelics, I just think the pendulum has swung a bit too far in the "it's totally harmless" direction.) Could you elaborate on The Game? What did she say about this?

I've used cannabis a handful of times. The first was a bong hit, and I felt a little funny. The second was a bong hit and I was seeing a light show half an hour later. The third was a bong hit and I got paranoia and dry mouth. The fourth was one square of THC chocolate and I felt a little funny and relaxed. The last time was two squares of chocolate. I was out for the evening with visual and auditory hallucinations.…

Yeah, it's not worth the risk. When I tried the stuff, I first felt absolutely nothing. Then I took some more, and a couple of minutes later I had a full-blown panic attack, probably some hallucinations too. My brain felt a bit weird/slow a day or two after that.

Only later I found out that a deceased close relative of mine had schizophrenia. That killed any remaining interest I might have had towards the substance.

Re: Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff

#396

Post by mpnsk1 »

hshshshshsh wrote: post #239
ChainnChompp wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Derealization, I believe - not depersonalization? Believing everything around you to be made up - perhaps even by yourself in some cases. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, just trying to make sure I have the terminology correct

So brain realizes it's completely making up the reality on fly?

It is more like a feeling.

For example when you get very aroused your pupils dilate. Your brain fixes this for you so you don't feel like more light is hitting your retina even though it does. When you are high on psychedelics you can experience this though as the world getting literally brighter and darker with your mood. Feels like you are shaping reality with your feelings? As soon as the drugs wear off the effect is gone but you still have the memory that it happened.

Weirdly enough, the same way dreams can feel more like an episodic story or more like an immediate experience, that unfiltered dreamlike experience feels more real than the rest of the trip. Maybe because it literally is closer to reality because it was less bring-filtered, or maybe because the contrast between this and the hallucinations of wallpaper shifting before your eyes put the search for "real reality" into your head in the first place, now the concept of more or less reality is in your brain as an experiential concept. Now you have the memory of having struggled for real perception and achieving it.

Like in inception: you fell into a dream, you are trapped for longer than you anticipated and don't like it and want to wake up. Weeks later when you have a deja vu it triggers the uncomfortable feeling that your mind is playing tricks on you. Are you dreaming now?

Though this is not schizophrenic. From what I was told from someone who had schizophrenic episodes it makes you completely unable to tell apart illusions from reality.

Also I guess there are degrees to it.

Re: Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff

#397

Post by ninetyninenine »

Aeglaecia wrote: post #395
ninetyninenine wrote: post #307

Homosexuality is a similar prevalent trait.

gay uncle theory is good enough of an explanation for me personally

Never held water for me. There's no evidence that gay uncles expend the majority of their time raising the offspring of others in the family.

In fact the gay uncle is behaviorally driven to do things that are evolutionarily detrimental. Like spending time mating, flirting and being with other gay men. I don't really see gay men abandoning all of that to care for a nephew or something like that.

Take Sam Altman for example. He's not spending time caring for other kids in his immediately family. He's sinking time into getting rich from openAI and snogging his current partner.

The gay uncle gives about as much of a shit about nephews in the family as the straight uncle which is virtually for all intents and purposes: zilch.

Re: Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff

#398

Post by Aeglaecia »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #397
Aeglaecia wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

gay uncle theory is good enough of an explanation for me personally

Never held water for me. There's no evidence that gay uncles expend the majority of their time raising the offspring of others in the family. In fact the gay uncle is behaviorally driven to do things that are evolutionarily detrimental. Like spending time mating, flirting and being with other gay men. I don't really see gay men abandoning all of that to care for a nephew or something like that. Take Sam Altman for ex…

maybe theres a reason religion represses gay people, without the pressure of raising their own offspring there is 0 barrier to overt hedonism. lacking the opportunity to live this way and instead existing under a system of morality, the energy of gay people would naturally be inclined towards taking care of their own family, especially when a sibling dies in battle or by disease

Re: Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff

#400

Post by Aeglaecia »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #157
bettercallsalad wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for sharing your journey! Most difficult part of this relationship has been to have her not worry about me leaving her because of her symptoms. Communication is the key. The only thing that can get tiring is when sleep schedules are so messy, and I have to go to work in the morning. If you don’t mind sharing, what was your progression towards being cured? Did you do anything different lifestyle wise? I have…

First, I’m sorry if there’s any typos I am doing speech to text on my iPhone writing this and it’s early in the morning. There are many psychiatrist that have different viewpoints, for example I’ve talked to many who see purines as a problem and then you have the whole keto/mitochondrial doctors. There are many psychiatrist that will never change their minds about mood disorders because why do they have to? I should…

thank you for writing this out , im sure r/antipsychiatry would genuinely appreciate a copy paste of this comment
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