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Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com

231–240 of 261 posts

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

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You think because that obvious fact is true it completely eliminates genetics? No. The claim is not that genetics has nothing to do with intelligence. The claim is that race is a material, important driver of intelligence. There is no rigorous evidence of this.

The phrase you are responding to is 100 percent saying environmental factors does not eliminate genetic factors as a driver of intelligence. The English in context does not imply anything else. Please read what I wrote and respond to what I wrote and don’t make random assumptions.

Sorry I assumed you understood the context of the conversation you were inserting yourself into

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

#232
post #219

I saw this with a family member. In their 60s, they started getting stuck on small worries and always assumed the worst. At first it just seemed like anxiety, but over time their memory and focus started slipping too. It was like their mind got stuck in a loop. What helped the most wasn’t medicine. It was little things, like going for walks together or having simple conversations. Just giving the brain something new…

Hmm, I wonder if things like algorithm driven social media is causing a huge amount of cognitive decline?

I don't have any hard evidence but being fed polarizing, click bait-y headlines that drive engagement through emotion certainly don't help. Fear is drummed up in a relative of mine from the headlines for articles (that they doom scroll past and don't read).

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

#233
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, in the 80s we had a really nice welfare system in the Netherlands that alleviated worry because there was always a safety net. Rent prices were government-set. Healthcare was good and very cheap. In this century everything was cut and privatised due to globalization, neoliberalism and the financial crises. Wages are not keeping up with inflation, social security is less, national healthcare keeps being…

It has never been possible to live life with complete security but the amount that you worry about it is completely up to you.

No but life was a lot better back then. We had less money (we couldn't even afford a car though one is not really necessary here) but that's not so important.

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

#234
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? We're more comfortable? What planet do you people live on? People have never been more stressed and uncomfortable. People are literally fighting psychological warfare and vanishing opportunities. Psychologically, we have never been so uncomfortable.

Just no. There is a particular problem of 'reporting' vs 'reality'. Less fighting, more opportunity, more food, more clean water, less disease than ever. What we do have now is 24 hour news and social media screaming how bad it is so we watch ads.

My grandmother, who lived to 90, used to tell me "The only thing which really improved in my life is medicine." She would tell me that people were so happy and society was so safe when she was a child that her family used to sleep with the windows open.

I also observed things only getting worse in my life. So I really don't buy this narrative that things keep getting better. IMO, the only people who think things got better are billionaires and multi-millionaires; of course it got better for them but it didn't get better for the average-luck person. For the average ambitious person who worked hard to improve their situation, things got MUCH worse; there are all these artificial barriers preventing them from succeeding, depriving them of opportunities and then constant gaslighting to blame them for systemic issues (including their own failure to thrive). Low birth rates, high rates of depression, high rates of homelessness, high suicide rates speak for themselves.

The fact that it all gets covered up by social media echo chambers to the extent that some people think life got better, makes it MUCH, MUCH worse, not better. People just don't seem to notice the tent cities, the increased immigration (due to worsening conditions in poor countries), the political division (again, driven by poverty).

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

#235
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is really because we don't actually understand the human body, and how it reacts to various stimuli. We used to think stress caused ulcers, based on a correlation. We now know the actual cause is a bacterium.

Yes, sometimes we are right, sometimes we are wrong.

Which is more damaging to society?

Having things that are wrong, but we don't know any better, or having things that are right, but we don't have the skills to prove it?

We often laugh how people in times before thought "crazy" things about health maintenance, but we're no better.

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

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t call me dumb just because I disagree with your point. Keep the conversation civil and stop acting like an immature child or find another place to voice your opinion without insulting other people. Common sense says many things about genetics. In fact it’s the basis behind my entire premise which you didn’t even address. Genetics plays a role in the physicality and even temperament of a race (testosterone is mea…

No, that’s entirely incorrect reasoning. Does genetics influence intelligence? Yes. Does genetics influence race? Yes. Does that mean that race is a _material_ driver of differences in intelligence? No. That just doesn’t follow at all. Every difference between groups is statistically significant at some obscene sample size but the claim in question here is about whether it is _material_ and important. That is not at…

The claim was originally made by me. Qualifiers like “important”, “material” were added by you so you’re the one who’s moving the goal posts with vague words like “important”.

The word I used is “significant”which I will specify here as a different mean value.

It applies because among top countries of different races with extremely high wealth, gdp and education standards there are clear differences in IQ. You can still attribute this to environment but it starts to lean towards genetics once you match wealthy countries.

None of this is solid but neither is your conclusion that genetics doesn’t influence racial intelligence in any significant way. If your conclusion is “we don’t know” then my counter is common sense and evidence suggests otherwise.

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

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phrase you are responding to is 100 percent saying environmental factors does not eliminate genetic factors as a driver of intelligence. The English in context does not imply anything else. Please read what I wrote and respond to what I wrote and don’t make random assumptions.

Sorry I assumed you understood the context of the conversation you were inserting yourself into

You inserted yourself into my context. I brought the topic up and you responded. Don’t apologize to me if it’s fake. Additionally Please try to follow what’s actually going on instead of making stuff up.

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

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. Not only did the first paper not imply causation, they literally did not even consider it. They didn't consider that fulfilling our most critical and primal instinct, in an activity that [generally] creates psycho-emotional bonds like no other, might have positive psychological benefits. Does not not strike you as odd? There's a practical issue with social science. Very near to 100% of researchers (from…

> Does not not strike you as odd? Not really. What struck me as odd was someone citing papers as evidence for their opinion that having children increases your happiness, when the papers drew no such conclusion. It's great that it has worked out that way for you. Sadly, I have a different experience, but life happens. If this makes any difference to you, I don't know, but let's move on.

I cited the papers' data which are unquestionable, not the sociologists' opinions on why that data might be, which are extremely questionable.

I know you said you'd prefer to move on, but if you could share when/how things went south for you, that could be beneficial others to learn from, myself not the least.

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

#239
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just no. There is a particular problem of 'reporting' vs 'reality'. Less fighting, more opportunity, more food, more clean water, less disease than ever. What we do have now is 24 hour news and social media screaming how bad it is so we watch ads.

My grandmother, who lived to 90, used to tell me "The only thing which really improved in my life is medicine." She would tell me that people were so happy and society was so safe when she was a child that her family used to sleep with the windows open. I also observed things only getting worse in my life. So I really don't buy this narrative that things keep getting better. IMO, the only people who think things got…

I mean the places I've lived in my life I've left the windows open and the doors unlocked and not had issues. Maybe I'm lucky as your grandma.

Of course maybe your grandma like my grandma ignored all the cases of people that had abjectly terrible lives back then because that wouldnt fit her world view of 'make the present the past again'. Birthrates dropped in the US long before we were born. Homelessness was very high in the US before the postwar 'irregularity'.

All those poor countries are still richer than ever historically, it's just that first world nations are that much better.

Just stop the billionaires from sucking up everything and it's not really too bad at all.

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

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If we see huge variation in intelligence scores intra group, that strongly suggests that there are social/cultural/environmental factors in play driving a large part of this. Correlation does not equal causation. Variation in genetics in a group can realistically be a factor as well. Three probable possibilities here: Only environment, Only genetics, both genetics and environment. Common sense says it's both genetic…

Cite them. Let's see which ones you're talking about. We know there are studies that say what you say! But it's hard to engage when the studies themselves are abstractions.

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