Great article. Sadly, I wish it wasn't focused on the gifted. I bet a lot of children suffer with existential depression and I also can imagine how hard it is to have to listen to the bullshit answers they will inevitably receive to their deep questions.
Existential Depression in Gifted Children
131–140 of 185 posts
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#132While I've read a fair bit of existentialist works I've never seen this term, but I think I know what it means. I also think the article would be improved by just titling itself "Existential Depression". The narrow focus is odd, even if true, and might serve better as a footnote. There's the strangest feeling I come across from time to time, and I think "come across" is the only good way to describe it. Everyone has…
Existentialism, could be viewed as modern, Western Buddhism. They have arrived to almost the same conclusions, rejecting any "religions" first. (absurd, lack of any meaning, life as a projection of ones mind, etc. One more step - and there is Eastern notion of Emptiness, void).
I don't agree, but why's this relevant here?
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#133While I've read a fair bit of existentialist works I've never seen this term, but I think I know what it means. I also think the article would be improved by just titling itself "Existential Depression". The narrow focus is odd, even if true, and might serve better as a footnote. There's the strangest feeling I come across from time to time, and I think "come across" is the only good way to describe it. Everyone has…
I'm so happy to see that I'm not alone. I've fought off depression through sheer willpower, but I frequently get anxiety attacks thinking about "Cosmic Sadness (I like your term for it)." I wrote about this a little while ago (don't mind the ramblings in the beginning) [1]. I think I could use some advice.
[1] http://nickdesaulniers.github.io/blog/2013/04/29/the-persist...
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just don't get too used to thinking being gifted is particularly rare and requires a different system to thrive. Many acquaintances of mine at a certain crimson ivy university grew up with similar notions, and got into a different kind of depression once being surrounded by other 'gifted' individuals - due to having the 'world view' they've internalized so far, around the notion of them being special, getting totally…
I completely agree. Your comment should be required reading for every "gifted" child.
Unfortunately, people don't learn that kind of thing from reading (or being told).
Maybe we shouldn't delay the real world lessons of "there are plenty of people better than you, just in different ways" and "yeah you are great, you'll still have to earn it" until they grow up. In my view, that's another one of the failures of modern schools.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#135I remember thinking these 'existential' thoughts that cause depression my first day of pre-school. I am not as intelligent as a lot of people, but I know that I'm not unintelligent. I began failing my classes in school when I was 9, and my depression was beginning to really develop. I would walk around the playground, by myself, thinking. By 15, I had renounced my belief in God and refused to be brainwashed by anyone…
Thank you so much for sharing that, and I second your suggestion.
I was born again at age 24, after swearing it off for years due to the evil and hypocrisy I saw growing up in it. But I had just hit another near suicidal rock bottom - even though my life was very monetarily successful - and I finally stopped fighting God's call and being so stuck on myself.
I went to church and was blessed to meet my kind, flexible, and giving wife who is truly my better half. (PS guys, odds of meeting flexible and giving women is much improved there) It's been 9 years later and we have two wonderful sons. Even if God takes me home tomorrow, I know he made some good out of my life.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#136While I've read a fair bit of existentialist works I've never seen this term, but I think I know what it means. I also think the article would be improved by just titling itself "Existential Depression". The narrow focus is odd, even if true, and might serve better as a footnote. There's the strangest feeling I come across from time to time, and I think "come across" is the only good way to describe it. Everyone has…
What would happen with superconductive materials at this heat death of the universe?
For all we know, their protons would decay, so they would not be anymore.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#137"As intelligence goes up, happiness goes down. See, I made a graph. I make lots of graphs." - Lisa Simpson
I know this post is at least partially a joke, but if there's any correlation between IQ and happiness, it's positive. http://theboostbook.com/2013/01/link-between-intelligence-an...
Apart from the fact that IQ as a measure of anything is completely bullshit, sure. We can make such a correlation.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#138I think this is a really pathetic reason to be depressed. And these "gifted" people have it all wrong. No, the laws of physics don't directly dictate that all governments be democratic, or that people drive on the right side of the road. But if they thought about the world on a deeper level, they would realize that there is structure, and that it's breathtakingly-beautiful (albeit subtle and not always easy to pick u…
> I think this is a really pathetic reason to be depressed.
Who the fuck are you to judge why people get depressed? Someone I know got depressed because she was 70 and her cat died. The only other social contact she had in her life withered away. Is that a good enough reason to judge her?
> But one person can have an impact on the world: sometimes, a very pervasive, meaningful one.
Really? In the long run, how much does it matter? Oskar Schindler saved a bunch of people from the Holocaust. He died poor, broken; his saved people went on to create a state which is known for its war crimes. The cycle goes on.
> I fail to see why some gifted children can't appreciate the world and their existence enough to at least have a good time and explore it a bit. You only get to do it once, and you won't get the chance to do everything the world has to offer, but you should consider yourself lucky to be conscious in the first place.
You have never been depressed ever in your life, have you? This is like me going to a sad walmart employee and telling them they should be happy getting a job when there are people in Africa starving.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#139While I've read a fair bit of existentialist works I've never seen this term, but I think I know what it means. I also think the article would be improved by just titling itself "Existential Depression". The narrow focus is odd, even if true, and might serve better as a footnote. There's the strangest feeling I come across from time to time, and I think "come across" is the only good way to describe it. Everyone has…
A similar idea is the Japanese concept "mono no aware", or roughly "the awareness of things passing" -- a central, inevitable poignancy that comes from the impossible contrast of ourselves against the universe. You said you've read a lot of existentialist literature so this might be redundant, but I'd check out Haruki Murakami's work if you haven't already: I can't think of an author who more immerses in -- and emerg…
Interesting; somehow reading someone like Camus didn't provide a convincing enough argument to get out of the existential crisis like depression. Do you have suggestions on any specific Murakami work to read?
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
A similar idea is the Japanese concept "mono no aware", or roughly "the awareness of things passing" -- a central, inevitable poignancy that comes from the impossible contrast of ourselves against the universe. You said you've read a lot of existentialist literature so this might be redundant, but I'd check out Haruki Murakami's work if you haven't already: I can't think of an author who more immerses in -- and emerg…
Interesting; somehow reading someone like Camus didn't provide a convincing enough argument to get out of the existential crisis like depression. Do you have suggestions on any specific Murakami work to read?
Murakami's solution is to start jogging.
edit: to answer your question, I suggest The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. Murakami is overrated. Once you've read that one, you've essentially read them all.