When Doctors Thought ‘Wanderlust’ Was a Psychological Condition • Hacker News Board

Re: When Doctors Thought ‘Wanderlust’ Was a Psychological Condition

#81

Post by volkl48 » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 2:38 PM UTC

asveikau wrote: post #49

drb91 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is an unreasonable amount of vacation?

Near constant. Planning the next one before starting the ones that you've booked. Showing a very clear feedback loop of internal stress, escape, escape itself causing more stress, leading to further perceived need to escape. I don't want to get into lots of personal detail, but it's the kind of thing that when you see it from the outside it's clear as day. And saddening.

I certainly start planning the next one before starting the ones I've booked.

Every trip I'm considering/planning on taking in the next year or two is in a spreadsheet and I've got various things set up to notify me as deals come along that might influence when exactly I take those trips.

If you want to travel on a regular basis at low cost, doing that sort of thing is basically a necessity. I have more places I'd like to go than money or time.

Now, if you are looking at it as "two months from now I'm going to need another break from all this stress" when you haven't even left for your trip next week, that's concerning.

Re: When Doctors Thought ‘Wanderlust’ Was a Psychological Condition

#82

Post by asveikau » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 8:31 PM UTC

volkl48 wrote: post #81

asveikau wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Near constant. Planning the next one before starting the ones that you've booked. Showing a very clear feedback loop of internal stress, escape, escape itself causing more stress, leading to further perceived need to escape. I don't want to get into lots of personal detail, but it's the kind of thing that when you see it from the outside it's clear as day. And saddening.

I certainly start planning the next one before starting the ones I've booked. Every trip I'm considering/planning on taking in the next year or two is in a spreadsheet and I've got various things set up to notify me as deals come along that might influence when exactly I take those trips. If you want to travel on a regular basis at low cost, doing that sort of thing is basically a necessity. I have more places I'd li…

I have no doubt you and many others enjoy planning vacations, sometimes concurrently, and nothing comes of it. Just like in another thread on this story, it was commented that lots of people have varying habits of hygiene, the implication being, what's the big deal about correlating that to mental illness?

But when you also have an issue like depression or bipolar, or you're in the midst of an episode of the same, then these can be datapoints in a different kind of story.

Re: When Doctors Thought ‘Wanderlust’ Was a Psychological Condition

#83

Post by beenBoutIT » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 9:32 PM UTC

izzydata wrote: post #2

Aren't most mental disorders just behaviors that differ from the norm and make it difficult for those people to function in everyday society? Some cultures wouldn't recognize some things as a disorder if it wasn't difficult for those people. My point being that I don't understand where you draw the line. If someone had such a need to wander the world that it meant that they couldn't live properly in modern society th…

Outside of individuals who can't function at a MVP level(running around naked biting people, throwing poop, etc.), the definition of a mentally ill person is a person who believes that they have a mental illness. Other cultures might have a witch doctor in place of a licensed psychiatrist but the phenomenon of mentally ill people seeking help from non-scientific 'experts' remains consistent.

Re: When Doctors Thought ‘Wanderlust’ Was a Psychological Condition

#84

Post by Nasrudith » Wed, Apr 24, 2019, 1:08 PM UTC

jeroenhd wrote: post #16

Nasrudith wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also the converse - what is accepted as "normal" or even praised as a virtue is harmful and destructive. To give real examples smoking was normal, as was pedestray and ironically the Roman gladiatoral combat which is considered peak decadence was intended to combat decadence! Normal is a pretty shitty heuristic for being good.

I don't see how Roman gladiatorial combat is so different from modern sports. The only major difference is the fact that nearly all gladiators were slaves, but otherwise I see no difference between gladiators and UFC fighting tournaments (or for that matter, American football). I just don't see the peak decadence point.

Well let me know when sports stars sack a city and lead to massive damages and people still decide to keep on doing it that way. (Third Servile war - although slavery was involved.)

Although often well paid gladiators often were slaves which brings up the next big difference - consent!