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Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com

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Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#31

Post by kelipso »

nradov wrote: post #22
notmyjob wrote: post #11

“The prevalence of cognitive disorders is increasing year by year, placing a heavy burden on patients, families, and society. It is estimated that the total annual cost of dementia disease in China will reach $1.89 trillion in 2050 [4]. However, there is no drug that can stop or reverse the progression of dementia.” That is my own RNT. If only there were a way to escape from this reality. Death, taxes and global popu…

This is unironically the best time to be alive. The problem is that most people are ignorant of real history and don't realize how much life used to suck. Everything is amazing right now and nobody is happy.

If you have a lot of money, sure. But coming back to reality, prices for everything has risen and lots of people are living harder lives than a few years ago.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#32

Post by zdragnar »

an0malous wrote: post #27
nradov wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unironically the best time to be alive. The problem is that most people are ignorant of real history and don't realize how much life used to suck. Everything is amazing right now and nobody is happy.

Most would agree the 21st century is better than the 16th century, but is 2025 better than 2019 or even 2010?

Well, there aren't any signs of a worldwide multi-year pandemic starting that will shut down every economy, force governments into extreme monetary devaluation via supply expansion to pretend everything is okay, and an extreme loss of trust in many medical and scientific institutions.

So, yeah, I'd rather carry on as we are than go back and live through it all over again.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#33

Post by deltaburnt »

shortcord wrote: post #30
adamwong246 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's common for old fogies to claim that the future is bad and the past was best. But I don't remember a time in my life that was this stressful. I really do think the world is getting crazier, dumber, and just all around worse, this past decade most specifically. It seems the world has decided to just go nuts, shift into overdrive and metaphorically drive off a cliff. Everybody wants to escape the real world and liv…

+100 million people died in war in the 20th century. Not to mention preventable famines, etc. Increase your time horizons to see things aren’t even close to as bad as they can be. Our lifetimes are a vapor.

I think most people aren't leaving their house each day with the same worries people in the 20th century had. It is certainly much nicer to be alive now than then, especially in places like Europe.

What personally has me worried is the derivative and 2nd derivative. How much is my current comfort sustained purely because of the momentum of systems made possible less than a lifetime ago (post WW2 reconstruction). So ironically your comment induces more stress in me. The idea that just as recently as the 20th century, times that my grandparents were conscious for, that many people lived through that much suffering. To me it seems incredibly easy to end up right back there.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#34

Post by kashunstva »

notmyjob wrote: post #21
adamwong246 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's common for old fogies to claim that the future is bad and the past was best. But I don't remember a time in my life that was this stressful. I really do think the world is getting crazier, dumber, and just all around worse, this past decade most specifically. It seems the world has decided to just go nuts, shift into overdrive and metaphorically drive off a cliff. Everybody wants to escape the real world and liv…

For many nations, DJT has been the best thing that has ever happened, by a wide indisputable margin. Not all nations, but some.

> DJT has been the best thing that has ever happened…

I am curious about whether your model of how the current Administration in the U.S. has benefited various countries so strikingly includes the United States itself.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#35

Post by euroderf »

hliyan wrote: post #28

I have a personal theory (I'm sure it's not a novel one and it probably has a name) that human brains are naturally predisposed to negative thought than positive thought because our brains are essentially evolved prediction engines. And because it is often easier and faster to lose something than gain it (e.g. it is usually less urgent to act on the signs of deer you might want to hunt and eat, than the sign of a tig…

> it is often easier and faster to lose something than gain it

And things that add to entropy are favored by nature, undoing human labor & endeavor. Related?

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#36

Post by kashunstva »

adamwong246 wrote: post #23
nradov wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unironically the best time to be alive. The problem is that most people are ignorant of real history and don't realize how much life used to suck. Everything is amazing right now and nobody is happy.

Yes, it's an absurd situation for so many to be so unhappy when, by all measurements, this is "the best time to be alive. But do you really think that Americans are simply that spoiled and stupid? When an entire nation sinks into a despair, surely there must be a better answer than "ignorance"? So I am positing that there must be some underlying problem, something that is difficult to quantify, dare I say it, some ki…

> Yes, it's an absurd situation for so many to be so unhappy when, by all measurements, this is "the best time to be alive.

Considering the United States only for a moment; the distribution of national income has not been so unequal since the robber baron days. At the same time the visibility of wealth to make upward comparisons has never been greater due to complete permeation of media, both traditional and social. If my share of income in real dollars was slipping as is the case for many, while watching the .1% pocket it, I’d be pretty doggone dysphoric.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#37

Post by growingkittens »

hliyan wrote: post #28

I have a personal theory (I'm sure it's not a novel one and it probably has a name) that human brains are naturally predisposed to negative thought than positive thought because our brains are essentially evolved prediction engines. And because it is often easier and faster to lose something than gain it (e.g. it is usually less urgent to act on the signs of deer you might want to hunt and eat, than the sign of a tig…

I know that traumatized human brains tend toward negativity. I don't believe it is a natural human condition, though. With trauma, the instincts you mentioned start applying to the wrong situations - trauma rewires the brain. "Minor" trauma, sustained trauma, traumatic events, can all contribute to this.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#39

Post by bendigedig »

nradov wrote: post #22
notmyjob wrote: post #11

“The prevalence of cognitive disorders is increasing year by year, placing a heavy burden on patients, families, and society. It is estimated that the total annual cost of dementia disease in China will reach $1.89 trillion in 2050 [4]. However, there is no drug that can stop or reverse the progression of dementia.” That is my own RNT. If only there were a way to escape from this reality. Death, taxes and global popu…

This is unironically the best time to be alive. The problem is that most people are ignorant of real history and don't realize how much life used to suck. Everything is amazing right now and nobody is happy.

If you're well off economically, then maybe.

But outside of the freedom in how you spend whatever money you are able to 'earn', I'd argue that the Western model of life (i.e. work) is pretty damn authoritarian. It's entirely possible that people in the past felt that they had more freedom than they realistically do now.

edit: To the coward who down-voted me without deigning to engage in debate, here's some evidence that when empires (like the west) collapse it can improve the lives of the 99%: https://aeon.co/essays/the-great-myth-of-empire-collapse

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#40

Post by [deleted] »

hliyan wrote: post #28

I have a personal theory (I'm sure it's not a novel one and it probably has a name) that human brains are naturally predisposed to negative thought than positive thought because our brains are essentially evolved prediction engines. And because it is often easier and faster to lose something than gain it (e.g. it is usually less urgent to act on the signs of deer you might want to hunt and eat, than the sign of a tig…

[deleted]
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