211–220 of 242 posts
What I'm not able to reconcile is if the despair and anxiety resulting from nihilism is something that should be treated . I'm a staunch believer in existential nihilism (and hence believe life is inherently purposeless and pointless), so time to time it gives a sharp tinge of sadness on the lines of _why am I existing at all_. It's not a suicidal feeling, but very close to it. I have (rightly, so) convinced myself o…
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So depression is not pathological but the idea of depression is pathological? How meta. Your comparison with cancer is odious, as you indicate. The idea of depression may be a cause of depression? Check. The idea of cancer might be a cause of cancer? Ridiculous. The OP may well have helped people with depression (or their friends) recognize or diagnose or de-stigmatize their condition. Your comment? Not so much. The…
> The idea of cancer might be a cause of cancer? Ridiculous. Not ridiculous at all. There are all kinds of plausible mechanisms for the idea of cancer to cause cancer. Here's just one example off the top of my head: stressing out over the possibility of getting cancer can stimulate the production of excess stomach acid, which can lead to acid reflux, which is known to increase the risk of esophageal cancer.
Lack of sleep of course would also cause one to drink more coffee which can be a gerd type irritant (I speak from personal experience here).
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What was your solution, if you don't mind sharing?
My only hesitation about sharing is that I don't want people to extrapolate from what worked for me to expect it to work on themselves. So don't. With that disclaimer, I'll say that I went on several regimens of drugs for a few years. They had serious side effects, didn't work or worked only for a few months. They did keep me afloat long enough to get the rest of my life together. Stephen Ilardi's "The Depression Cur…
So no, depression doesn't lie any more than a healthy brain, it just tells you the truths and lies you don't want to hear.
Of course, I agree with the article that if you are unwell you should seek help. But I had this thought once: the doctor who prescribes you medication optimizes for a different thing than you may want to. Say there are two possibilities (numbers completely made up)
(1) Not taking the medication, which results in a suicide 5% of the time and getting over it on your own and a perfectly happy life in 95%.
(2) Going with the medication and being not suicidal but slightly unhappy for the rest of your life with 100% chance.
Then your doctor's incentives are such that he'll certainly choose (2), but that's not what you might choose if you were aware of the options.
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Stress is not a meaningful cause of stomach ulcers.
Did not know that. Why is that such a commonly held belief?
The fascinating bit is the original researcher proving it by ingesting the bacteria, and giving himself an ulcer, and then curing himself with antibiotics. A Nobel Prize seems reasonable.
I'd also recommend reading psychologist Martin Seligman's book "What You Can Change and What You Can't", which covers a variety of mental health issues from sexual fetishes to fear of spiders to schizophrenia, and the treatment options available for each. Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches people to recognize negative thoughts ("I failed the test because I'm stupid"), dispute the thought ("If I'm stupid, how did I…
Does it really work? My guess is that's just how slim people tell fat people that laziness got them fat and so they should do more exercise, i.e. people that never suffered from a certain condition giving advice to people suffering from that condition. " I failed the test because I'm stupid " - that's just how I felt when I got rejected after an onsite interview with a certain company that's renowned for its hiring s…
Actually, it appears that diet, and especially simple sugar consumption, is the main driver of obesity, per, for example, Gary Taubes's book Why We Get Fat.
It is highly unlikely that people have evolved to be much fatter from 1950 to the present. So the solution has to be somewhere in behavior/environment.
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Likely --- I haven't gone through them. I have no dog in this fight. I was merely offering the citations you requested, thinking you were genuinely interested in the topic. I won't make that mistake again.
Well that wasn't a very nice thing to say. I was specifically hoping for a summary of results that discussed, among other things, experimental design. You gave me a vague Wikipedia article that points at a lot of specific studies I could probably summarize myself, as well as a lot of specific refuting studies I could summarize as well, but that's about it. And that's assuming I could get access to all the papers that…
Yes, the article is vague, but I thought the citations were solid. I felt (and feel) that if you had a true interest in the subject, they would be of use to you. You declared they were not. I was reminded of the cartoon of the angry mother shouting "But he was wearing a hat" to the fireman who rescued her drowning son. No, you'll have to research and read, but that's about the best you can hope for when asking for citations from strangers. And no, not everything is available easily and for free -- blame Elsevier.
But if you are willing to pay, or willing to search a bit, most things are accessible. Here, for example, is a link for the 2012 metastudy mentioned on that page: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/227708596_Depressive...
You'll have to click on the "View" link in the upper right. I've only read the abstract, but it concludes that depressed individuals have significantly less positive bias than the non-depressed, but that both still have a distinctly positive bias baseline. Further, they conclude that studies that lack objective standards of reality and utilize self-reported measures are more likely to find depressive realism effects.
I am rather disappointed by much of the discussion in these comments. The HN community has always taken pride in being careful, analytical and data-led. If someone were to advocate an unproven cancer therapy based on anecdote, they would rightly be harshly criticised. The evidence base for SSRIs is extremely poor. The most favourable metastudies indicate only a very mild benefit, similar to that of many non-drug inte…
> The brain is not merely a passive vessel for the mind and environmental influences can cause substantial structural changes to the brain I have always thought that. Now I am not a neuroscientist or anything closer to that field, so it is just a hunch. To me, it always seemed odd that such a large community of scientists never questioned that. In other words, there is sort of a tacit assumption that if we see it on…
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Before I actually experienced depression first hand I might have made a comment pretty similar to yours. Before you actually experience the sapping, frightening, frustrating, even debilitating condition that is depression, it is easy to stand on the sidelines and make all kinds of logical arguments and find bits and pieces of research supposedly supporting any particular viewpoint, for or against. I would even have b…
You seem to be refuting an argument that I haven't made. Firstly, how very presumptuous of you to assume that I haven't suffered from depression. Anecdote is not the singular of data. Whether I have or have not suffered from depression has no bearing whatsoever on my ability to analyse the available data. Having had cancer gives you no insight whatsoever into the biology of cell division. Depression is known to spont…
I only recently finished having suicidal thoughts. In fact, I had them 4 days ago. It's frightening, and disturbing. I have two small children and my wife loves me. Still the thoughts come. Awful.
Hey, look. Please go and talk to your loved and trusted ones about this, and go see a pro. Simply that is progress, and it is the kind that'll keep turning into more progress. Just make a few phone calls and get yourself into that office. Don't fret about choosing the right doctor etc. It's like startups: release your MVP as fast as you can, and then tweak it later iteratively.
Thanks for your concern - it actually does mean something to read your comment :-)