Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I'm an addict

onetwo.bearblog.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 602 posts

Re: I'm an addict

#331

Post by treeman79 »

nicoburns wrote: post #136
treeman79 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12 years of growing up in Christian schools. Doubt came up a lot. Depended on the speaker too. Many would talk about their struggles. Times when they got angry at God, or fell away. Or there reasoning on why God exists. One constant teaching was that Christianity is not a religion. But about forming a relationship with God through Christ.

> One constant teaching was that Christianity is not a religion. But about forming a relationship with God through Christ. How can one even begin to attempt that task if one truly doubts that God exists? Also, is believing a God of some sort not exactly what a religion is?

Religion is a set of rules and traditions. Perform 50 hail marries. Light 50 candles. Only eat X on whatever day.

A relationship is trying to understand God. What he means. How you can serve him. What kind of life Christ lived. How to live as an example to others.

Everyone has doubts. Most of my teachers would talk about times that they struggled.

It takes a lot of faith to believe that there is an all powerful God. that loves you for you.

It also takes faith to believe that universe popped out of nothing, the conditions for life happened to be just right, and that it’s also meaningless.

Maybe Christians are wrong. But maybe not. Worse that happens is people were nicer to each other for awhile. The other is that you spend eternity in Heaven.

Re: I'm an addict

#332

Post by notacoward »

supernihil wrote: post #160

I dont like the idea of replacing the time spend compulsively procrastinating with "learning a new language, getting a pet, going to the gym" is the right way. I see the root cause (for me atleast (used to read HN and blogs for 4 hours everyday)) is that i cant stand being with myself. During the last two months ive been trying to not panic when i'm idle. And not take out my phone or read the nearest material i can l…

> I hold unto my right as a mammal to be inefficient and sit drooling looking at trees.

OK, I get this. Really, I do. I've spent many many hours doing "nothing" just like this, and those have generally been happy times. But ... how would that change if you had a lot more free time? Could you spend all day every day in such a state? Would it be healthy if you did?

The reason I ask is that I've had to grapple with that question since I retired. Probably will even more so when my daughter leaves for college. And as much as I enjoy doing "nothing" I find that I just can't do it all day. I have to be doing something, which brings us right back to the issue of low-effort low-reward activities (e.g. doomscrolling on the internet) vs. high-effort high-reward activities (e.g. hobbies, community involvement, travel). I force myself to do the latter first so I don't lose the ability to do hard(er) things, and there's still plenty of time left over for the low-effort stuff.

I suggest that your "war" only needs to be fought because you don't have enough total free time, and it will seem like a very different war when that changes.

Re: I'm an addict

#333

Post by kayodelycaon »

rr808 wrote: post #188
FeepingCreature wrote: post #28

Consider talking to a doctor about ADD? (Alternatively, get some Adderall somewhere and experiment.) Executive control is a distinct mental capability.

Maybe but it seems too common - does nearly everyone have ADD?

The visible symptoms of ADHD (ADD is no longer a separate thing) are things normal people experience all the time.

ADHD is very poorly named. It has similar symptoms at times but it is categorically different because they come from severely compromised self-regulation across many facets. Emotional control, memory, focus, sensory processing, etc.

Many people with ADHD find ways to work around this by finding ways to create a structure they can work in. This contributes to the belief that ADHD can be solved by diligent, disciplined work. Especially because discipline is the solution to normal people’s issues with attention.

But the reality is ADHD not a lack of discipline, but the inability to have it in the first place. Some people manage, but many can’t and other people make moral judgements that anyone with ADHD isn’t trying hard enough.

Edit: I said this more clearly elsewhere:

The symptoms are not the disorder and don't come from the same mechanism that causes normal people to have difficultly paying attention sometimes.

Re: I'm an addict

#334

Post by bheadmaster »

alfor wrote: post #299
paskozdilar wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I dislike about Christianity in particular is how malleable to interpretation it is, making any kind of discussion with a Christian tedious. No matter what part of Bible you try to argue with, a Christian will always be able to say: "But that's not the real meaning! The real meaning is [thing I pulled out of thin air]", rendering your words moot, without actually engaging in your argument at all. I still ca…

I see it as a fusion of the campfire stories that humans have told themselves over thousand of years. The fact that it was written in a book gave it incredible power and have allow our civilisation to exist and science to be developed but also removed much of the evolutions of the stories. Now that our world change so fast the stories seems very outdated to our modern mind but most of them speak about a deep human co…

Interesting perspective. I'll check the lectures out - I have listened to Jordan Peterson before and I like the way he thinks and presents things.

Re: I'm an addict

#335

Post by [deleted] »

bengale wrote: post #128

My desire to read the comments sections on reddit and increasingly on here completely baffle me. If I was sat in a room and the people in there were saying things as stupid as I see on reddit I would leave that room and wonder how the hell I ended up in it. What possible reason do I have to be wasting time reading the barely formed thoughts of what must be predominantly teenagers. Yet ... I find myself back there.

[deleted]

Re: I'm an addict

#337

Post by seti0Cha »

bitexploder wrote: post #210
fipar wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an atheist, yet I don't think science can answer why we exist and what is the meaning of life. I think those questions are syntactically valid but semantically invalid. We kind of (in the 'broad strokes' you say) think ( ) we know how we got here, how life got started, etc. But why? How do you know that? It's an honest question because, again, I don't think that question makes sense so I'd love to know your take…

A fair response to my blithe and confident answer. In general, though, we have figured enough out to understand our origin well enough to rule out religious theories in our existence. To reduce things the way you did is a denial of progress at some level, while couching it in caution against trusting science too far. Our first bridges sucked, now they are better. Our first stabs at cosmology were not much better than…

You're engaging with religion only as an explanatory mechanism for physical occurrences, whereas the weight of the argument for and against religion are on philosophical and logical grounds. It's not a strawman, as many people have used God to fill the gaps in our understanding of the physical world, but it's entirely irrelevant to the really interesting discussions on the subject. If you want to see what religious people are on about, and why some scientifically literate people continue to have faith you need to understand those arguments.

Re: I'm an addict

#338

Post by mod »

malnourish wrote: post #317
anonymoushn wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Desoxyn 5mg is highly reviewed by people who have it prescribed for ADHD.

Good luck getting prescribed that by any GP. I am as above board as I can be when it comes to my medicine (never take more than 1 a day, never ask for more, etc) but the song and dance for getting refills, let alone a new or changed prescription, makes me feel like a criminal hunting for his next fix. I can't imagine what it must be like for people who legitimately need opiates.

My 78-year-old father, who doesn't even drink or smoke, gets Norcos for his back. He's a pool player and he just uses them when he plays long enough to trigger his back pain; on a normal day at the house, he won't use any.

The hoops and ridiculous requirements he has to jump through are crazy. He just got a random drug test the other day. He has to meet with the doc all the time. They ask him stupid questions (I've been in the room). He has to fill out the same form each time with all these questions about addictive behavior. He's got to bring his pill bottle with him; not allowed to have too many pills, or too few, or you get in trouble. Doc was quizzing him about why he has other prescribed medications. And on and on.

My dad has to set aside pills so that he doesn't lose the prescription, since he doesn't use as many pills as he's prescribed; it's highly important to him, as he's played pool nearly every single day for about 57 years and he is going to hold onto that as long as he can.

Re: I'm an addict

#339

Post by boppo1 »

annie_muss wrote: post #330
thomastjeffery wrote: post #271

Sounds like OP isn't necessarily an addict: they have ADHD. Half the article was them complaining about poor working memory, and the rest about getting stimulation/dopamine from unhealthy sources. Everyone has "a little ADHD". We all occasionally , forget things, hyperfocus on things we are excited about, etc. ADHD is the disorder of having those struggles so often it's debilitating. It stems from having an underdeve…

I agree with this completely. I sounded just like the OP. I struggled with it for decades. Then recently I was diagnosed and started taking medication. Some of the problems basically stopped instantly. I implore anyone reading this and noticing it in themselves to go to a professional and find out if you have ADHD or not. I am by no means "cured" or completely functional but at least now I have a fighting chance.

Medication came with unacceptable side-effects for me. Real bummer.

Re: I'm an addict

#340

Post by annie_muss »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #327
thomastjeffery wrote: post #271

Sounds like OP isn't necessarily an addict: they have ADHD. Half the article was them complaining about poor working memory, and the rest about getting stimulation/dopamine from unhealthy sources. Everyone has "a little ADHD". We all occasionally , forget things, hyperfocus on things we are excited about, etc. ADHD is the disorder of having those struggles so often it's debilitating. It stems from having an underdeve…

> "a little ADHD" Yikes. What a bad take. Many people experience some of the side effects of ADHD may be a true statement. But saying everyone has a little bit of this debilitating mental disorder makes light of something that is not an easy thing to deal with for many sufferers. That's like saying everyone has a little cancer because sometimes we all get colds which people going through chemo may be more likely to g…

I think a better way to frame it is on a continuum. If you lose 1% of the strength in your legs you probably won't notice. If you lose 99% you're stuck using a wheelchair. There's no clearly defined point where it goes from "normal" to "problematic", but if it's bad enough to affect you functioning in day-to-day life then it's an issue.
Post reply on HN