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Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

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Re: Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

#51

Post by marliechiller »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #33

I used to get this pretty regularly, I thought I just keep burning out. I have an unusually high IQ and noticed that my symptoms were very similar to the string of condensed matter physicists that committed suicide. Their descriptions of their health issues before they killed themselves mirrored my own and I too used the Flowers from Algernon to describe my difficulties to others. I shared other weird stuff like extr…

Interesting - your story of ME/CFS mirrors mine. Mine was triggered by a really mild cold a couple of years back, likely COVID. Thankfully a lot more research is going on into this, and im mostly back to full health now but the brain fog made me doubt myself at work a lot more than usual.

Re: Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

#52

Post by tough »

squigz wrote: post #13
tough wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Almost nothing about our modern life is "natural", including most of medicine. That said, how is death unnatural? only meant having to bear the death of your child before you, usually a parent dies first, although i guess infant mortality rates where much higher until recent times... this recent case what i was thinking specifically https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2025-03-17/justicia-av...

> The young woman has been in a wheelchair for years after falling from the top of a building . > He added that his daughter suffers from mental problems with suicidal tendencies and constant changes of heart, and therefore needed psychological treatment, not assisted death. > "The patient's capacity to make decisions has also been verified," the ruling states, "by the attending physician and the psychologist at the…

I didnt link them but several similar cases around mental illness.

IMHO a state shouldn't give individuals the right to off themselves.

Nature and physics already do, providing laws and a framework around it perverses it to push that people that feels out of society to bad decisions some times

Maybe its better to have them be able to do it -cleanly- and legally, but that also means more of them do?

I don't see mental health, or disabilities, as granting ending your own life, my worry is this discourse around euthansia is actively against that view and detremines the experience of humans that are considered not optimal to society as they where a throw away toy

Re: Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

#53

Post by tough »

sinenomine wrote: post #45
mrshadowgoose wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you genuinely believe that this is a binary decision, or is this just anti-euthanasia rhetoric disguised as concern trolling? Offering humane end-of-life options to people suffering today does not prohibit ongoing disease research towards potentially helping people in the future.

It's not entirely binary, but there is an obvious unpleasant tendency in e.g. Canada, to soft-push MAID onto potentially treatable patients who don't even seek medically assisted death. I wouldn't want my government to have an option of dealing with the problem this way, and if I needed MAID, I'd just self-administer.

Yes, it's a slippery slope once a state providing assistant to suicide is law imho.

It just doesnt seem something a state should be charged with.

Re: Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

#54

Post by tough »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #16
tough wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not try to cure alzheimer or other mental diseases that show up on the elderly instead?

I doubt you can cure these diseases, you can perhaps prevent them, but to cure would mean removing their effects, and if you could remove their effects and say, bring a seriously deteriorated Von Neumann back to his previous mental heights it seems like you should be able to make anyone the equal of Von Neumann - which I agree would be a great thing to be able to do but seems to be a much further along than the words…

Yeah tbh english isn't my first language, and I meant more into -finding the causes- and eradicating alzheimer, aka preventing it, much like we have done with polio, or whatever.

Not really curing people already in advanced state of the maladie...

anyways, they're not mutually exclusive, but enhanching life should preceed ending it in the order of priorities imho

Re: Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

#55

Post by tough »

ElevenLathe wrote: post #24
squigz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I agree would be a great thing to be able to do but seems to be a much further along than the words cure or prevent would indicate. If the words "cure" or "prevent" don't indicate that, why did you bring it up? :) I think this is being needlessly pedantic. Keeping in mind that one of HN's guidelines is to respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of a comment, I think we can assume that GP meant, essentiall…

The "disease" we're talking about here is death. Von Neumann was losing his mental capacity because he was dying. I know some in the silicon valley set think that "curing" death is both feasible and desirable but I disagree on both points.

no death is just part of life, there's no life without death.

the disease would be alzheimer, and curing it would mean probably preventing it / being able to edit the genome to nullify whatever gen is making it come up in the first place (if its genetic)

Re: Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

#56

Post by tough »

yapyap wrote: post #14
tough wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not try to cure alzheimer or other mental diseases that show up on the elderly instead?

because assisted suicide is a bit more damn easy than “curing alzheimer” why not cure cancer while you’re at it

well I didn't ask which one was easier but more worthy to pursue

Re: Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

#57

Post by bluefirebrand »

zellyn wrote: post #38
bluefirebrand wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am somewhat the opposite. The pandemic was great for me. Being able to work remotely is wonderful. Much less stressful than commuting daily, more free time, less scrutiny during work hours and I don't live alone so staying home isn't isolating I definitely do need to spend more time out of the house with friends and such though Most of my current stress is due to AI fears, layoffs looming, uncertain about the futur…

I think sleep is possibly the most important part. I also did a sleep study and started using a CPAP machine: might want to look into that if it’s a possibility…

I do have one already and it helps a great deal for getting good sleep when I can

But it does not help me get to sleep in the first place unfortunately. Too much anxiety

I appreciate the suggestion though and if anyone else struggles to sleep, wakes up randomly out of breath, I do strongly recommend a cpap. It is great for me when I actually can sleep

Re: Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

#58

Post by squigz »

tough wrote: post #52
squigz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The young woman has been in a wheelchair for years after falling from the top of a building . > He added that his daughter suffers from mental problems with suicidal tendencies and constant changes of heart, and therefore needed psychological treatment, not assisted death. > "The patient's capacity to make decisions has also been verified," the ruling states, "by the attending physician and the psychologist at the…

I didnt link them but several similar cases around mental illness. IMHO a state shouldn't give individuals the right to off themselves. Nature and physics already do, providing laws and a framework around it perverses it to push that people that feels out of society to bad decisions some times Maybe its better to have them be able to do it -cleanly- and legally, but that also means more of them do? I don't see mental…

> IMHO a state shouldn't give individuals the right to off themselves.

This is a really terrible way of putting it (another way of putting it might be "the right to end their suffering"), not to mention that a state needs a good reason to deny its citizens of rights, not the other way around. I don't see any good reason why we should deny people the right to end their suffering when they choose.

> Maybe its better to have them be able to do it -cleanly- and legally, but that also means more of them do?

I don't think assisted dying being accessible is going to cause more people to become suicidal, no.

> I don't see mental health, or disabilities, as granting ending your own life

The thing is, you don't get to decide that for me either, on a legal basis. You're welcome to feel this way yourself, of course, and encourage your friends and family not do so, but you don't have the right to decide that for others.

> my worry is this discourse around euthansia is actively against that view and detremines the experience of humans that are considered not optimal to society as they where a throw away toy

The thing is... we already do. Disabled, elderly, neurodivergent... There are large groups of people that society has been failing for a long time. Giving some of those groups (like the elderly) the option to not have to endure that seems to me a good thing.

Re: Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

#59

Post by tanewishly »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #36
squigz wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have conflicting feelings on it As ardent a supporter of assisted death as I am, I really don't think there's any other way to feel about it. You illustrate exactly why these types of choices will never be easy.

Yeah, to clarify I do support it. I think reducing suffering is a noble goal and allowing people to choose not to suffer needlessly is overall a good thing But it definitely is not cut and dry and I can see why some people are extremely resistant to the idea

Where I currently live, terminally ill nearing their end often fall in a pattern of eating and drinking less and less, to the point of having nothing (not even water). This process of dying takes 1-2 weeks(!). Longer if some liquid is still imbibed.

This is a common ending of a terminally ill process and apparently seen as humane. Though I think if anyone treated their dog like that, we'd report them for animal abuse.

I don't have good answers to most questions surrounding this topic. But I'd like to get to a point where people are treated as humanely as their pets in their final period. And I can't even tell you the current practice isn't, just that it does not at all feel that way to me.

Re: Me an' Algernon – grappling with (temporary) cognitive decline

#60

Post by 12_throw_away »

squeegee_scream wrote: post #29

I've had cognitive decline over the past 6 years. I turn 41 this year. It's strongly (maybe solely) due to stress, anxiety, depression, migraines, and insomnia. This entire clusterfuck started 6 years ago because, while I had the skills to excel in school and career, I was sorely lacking in the skills to be a father, husband, and homeowner. When I got married and we began having children, my decline began. But it was…

Hey I think you might be me, this is basically me in most respects. I have nothing helpful to say except to say yeah, this is a real thing that I think many people are silently suffering through right now, 5-ish years post-pandemic.
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