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Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com

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

#71

Post by b112 »

No, it's correlation not causation. When you get older, you see everyone making the same damn mistakes you made, but refusing to listen to you. Various reasons are given as to "No, this is different", but it isn't.

Then, worse, you remember yourself saying "No, this is different", and how wrong you were, and it kinda bums you out a bit. You're watching a replay of yourself being a dumbass, which makes you angry at the situation.

That doesn't mean every old person is negatively inclined, because some will think "Well, this is the way of it", and take solace in that fact that it's been happening since at least the start of recorded history. You, and your ancestors are one. And you finally get your grandparents.

So even the optimists, feeling better, think "might as well play my part" then yell "get off my lawn!"

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

#72

Post by notmyjob »

nradov wrote: post #22
notmyjob wrote: post #11

“The prevalence of cognitive disorders is increasing year by year, placing a heavy burden on patients, families, and society. It is estimated that the total annual cost of dementia disease in China will reach $1.89 trillion in 2050 [4]. However, there is no drug that can stop or reverse the progression of dementia.” That is my own RNT. If only there were a way to escape from this reality. Death, taxes and global popu…

This is unironically the best time to be alive. The problem is that most people are ignorant of real history and don't realize how much life used to suck. Everything is amazing right now and nobody is happy.

If you ignore future developments that seem impossible to avoid, I’m talking demographics mostly, then you might have an argument.

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

#73

Post by CalRobert »

orwin wrote: post #41
notmyjob wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many nations, DJT has been the best thing that has ever happened, by a wide indisputable margin. Not all nations, but some.

Or for individuals. I;ve never realized how US-like my country was becoming until DJT and his second administration. I'm probably one of the most US-pilled person my age in my country (I follow US football more than soccer, i hang out on US forums and discords, i used to follow US news every day, i've spent a month between Ohio and WV, and another between California, Nevada and Colorado, it's the foreign country i've…

I'm an American living _in_ Europe for over a decade and I've been going crazy watching the EU willfully remain a weak and insignificant vassal to the US when it _could_ be much, much stronger. It's insane watching them go back to their abuser over and over and over and acting surprised when the abuser behaves exactly like they said they would.

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

#74

Post by sieste »

> the participants in the Q3 and Q4 groups exhibited lower cognition scores (Q3:β = -0.180, 95%CI -2.849~-0.860; Q4:β = -0.164, 95% -2.611~-0.666)

This seems wrong. If "β" is the estimate here (not sure), it should be inside the confidence interval, but is way outside...

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

#75

Post by ctoll »

nradov wrote: post #22
notmyjob wrote: post #11

“The prevalence of cognitive disorders is increasing year by year, placing a heavy burden on patients, families, and society. It is estimated that the total annual cost of dementia disease in China will reach $1.89 trillion in 2050 [4]. However, there is no drug that can stop or reverse the progression of dementia.” That is my own RNT. If only there were a way to escape from this reality. Death, taxes and global popu…

This is unironically the best time to be alive. The problem is that most people are ignorant of real history and don't realize how much life used to suck. Everything is amazing right now and nobody is happy.

There is no meaningful 'best time to be alive' distinct from psychological reality. If people are not adapted to their environment and either don't value it or aren't valued by it, it doesn't matter how much material comfort is available. There is a reason the suicide rate jumps during industrial revolutions.

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

#76

Post by jfengel »

throwaway77385 wrote: post #14
IAmBroom wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short answer: no, you can't just "think positive" your way out of mental illness. Also: Correlation is not causation; we don't know that avoiding these RNTs changes anything in the brain chemistry.

The only thing I'd add to this (as someone with stupidly depressive and negative thought patterns), is that there are techniques that can help. The parent comment comes off as flippant, but I am going to assume it's not intended that way. Learning to think more positively takes an incredible amount of effort. An effort which seemingly never goes away. It just never gets easier. It's like my brain is simply wired to a…

I have a really hard time doing gratitude. Most days are pretty much like any other day, especially with work. If I journal the same thing over and over ("lunch was fine" "the podcast I listened to was slightly interesting") it feels grim.

I feel like I'm already aware of the good things in my life. I'm actually quite fortunate. But even that forms a baseline: "I was healthy today in a world where not everyone is" grows repetitive. Saying it every day means little even if I write it down, and the writing itself feels more like a burden than a help.

Do you have any thoughts on how I might reframe that more beneficially?

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

#77

Post by notmyjob »

kashunstva wrote: post #34
notmyjob wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many nations, DJT has been the best thing that has ever happened, by a wide indisputable margin. Not all nations, but some.

> DJT has been the best thing that has ever happened… I am curious about whether your model of how the current Administration in the U.S. has benefited various countries so strikingly includes the United States itself.

The jury is very much out on that. Market’s up, unemployment rising but relatively low. Our place in the world stage not as good as 30 years ago, but arguably a tad bit better than the days between our Afghan withdrawal and Putin’s blitz on Ukraine, or the dark days of pandemic lockdowns. Sometimes the darkest hour is before dawn. To be sure I ask myself your question nearly everyday and the concerns are obvious: a declining superpower (ensured by demographics) leaves a lot of room for the devil to take hold. Nuclear war has never felt more close or inevitable to me. Hatred reigns in many places, forgiveness, unity and love quite scarce compared to 30 years ago when soft power meant something. The Cold War years seem comfy in hindsight.

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

#78

Post by BriggyDwiggs42 »

pessimizer wrote: post #18
kcoddington wrote: post #6

I'm not seeing where they are coming up with RNT as a cause, other than a lot of theory. Wouldn't it be a symptom of cognitive decline instead? Dementia patients, particularly those with Alzheimers, tend to become depressed because of confusion and memory loss. Wouldn't it be more likely that these depression symptoms are being caused by deteriotating brain function rather than the other way around?

Of course. It would be bizarre if there weren't a relationship between Lewy Body dementia, Alzheimer's, or vascular dementia (which in old people, means you've gone into heart failure) and repetitive negative thoughts. For one, you know you've got an incurable disease that will inevitably destroy your mind, and you've become one of the rare class of people for which assisted suicide has almost no controversy, it's so…

Wait down payments? Is that metaphorical? How much does that cost?

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

#79

Post by mirekrusin »

growingkittens wrote: post #56
sindriava wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is likely a byproduct of us being too comfortable now. Not in the "you've got nothing real to worry about!" boomer rethoric kind of way, but in the sense that our baseline for reward has shifted a bit higher. So trauma can still present a very strong negative RL signal, while positive RL signals of similar magnitude become rarer.

Or a byproduct of sustained trauma being more prevalent in modern society. There was a large shift in the way children are raised in the past 100 years, from community to individuality. Entire generations of people whose childhoods prepared them for a world that did not exist by the time they were adults. There is no template for raising children in the new world, and no community to fall back on. Many react with ang…

Or byproduct of the fact that we live 2 to 4 times longer depending at which scale/how you want to count it. Ie not so long ago in ancient rome reaching 5yo was slightly above 50% chance gamble.

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

#80

Post by notmyjob »

twixfel wrote: post #65
orwin wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or for individuals. I;ve never realized how US-like my country was becoming until DJT and his second administration. I'm probably one of the most US-pilled person my age in my country (I follow US football more than soccer, i hang out on US forums and discords, i used to follow US news every day, i've spent a month between Ohio and WV, and another between California, Nevada and Colorado, it's the foreign country i've…

I'm similar in that I had hugely admired the USA for as long as I've been politically aware (so a bit over 15 years) and dreamt of living there one day. That's all changed now of course, I think we need to keep the USA on side for as long as possible but we need to cut ties with them as soon as we can. Not only do they not give a shit about us, they seem to actively hate us. I don't recognise their right wing any mor…

So who will lead then? A world without great power competition isn’t an actual thing. I’d be ok with the UK, maybe Italy. It won’t be France which is in turmoil. So who do you prefer over the USA, that has some chance of taking over?
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