• Shawn
    13.2k
    Coping in my mind is the last resort when therapy or medications are inadequate at addressing an underlying issue.

    Let's take for example the case where one is depressed affliction and develops a dependency on the SSRI any medication. One doesn't feel too happy about this predicament. Taking the medicine staves away the depression affliction and negative thoughts. But, there's still something bothering a person. Say it is suicidal ideation (negativity?) or some such stuff.

    Then, in this case, is coping justified?
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    If this belongs in the Lounge, then I understand.
  • Dfpolis
    1.3k
    Then, in this case, is coping justified?Wallows

    I am unsure why or how it would be unjustified. What is the alternative and what do you see as the down side?
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    I am unsure why or how it would be unjustified. What is the alternative and what do you see as the down side?Dfpolis

    The alternative is remission. I don't know how often it occurs, or if that has indeed occurred in this case here. Seemingly not.
  • All sight
    333
    Pick up your cross? Life is suffering? Nobility, virtue, love; they are good. Not pleasure, not positivity, not happiness.

    Everyone's coping, I know that I for one am no Jesus, I'm so full of sin that it may be irreparable, but you have to understand that things are much bigger than you or me. There is a war being waged.
  • All sight
    333
    I should also clarify, that life is not suffering inescapably, or it isn't a bitter pill that you must swallow. No, you have the choice, but you chose correctly because you're strong, and noble, and not weak and cowardly.
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    @schopenhauer1, I would like to ask for your input on the matter, if I may be so bold as to ask for it.
  • Dfpolis
    1.3k
    It seems as though you have a scenario in which there is no choice but to cope as well as you can. There is value in being an example for others, even if there is no hope for yourself.
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    It seems as though you have a scenario in which there is no choice but to cope as well as you can.Dfpolis

    So, it's necessary that I cope with my problems if medication is not addressing the issue properly enough?
  • Dfpolis
    1.3k
    As I asked in the beginning, what is the alternative?
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    As I asked in the beginning, what is the alternative?Dfpolis

    Dunno, asking you that?
  • Dfpolis
    1.3k
    It seems to me that after you do all that can be done, the only thing left is to cope the best you can. As I said there is value in that because others are in similar situations, and are encouraged by your strength. I know a couple of cases in which incurable suffering, patiently borne, had a life-changing effect on caregivers.
  • schopenhauer1
    10.9k

    What would you like input on? Dealing with mental illness is one of the harms of being alive. Like most other things in life, in order to get better you will probably have to put energy into short-term painful therapy to get the benefit of long-term relief. That could be very daunting. However, nothing in life is meant to be easy. Rather, we seem programmed to take on projects of various lengths so we can overcome them and strengthen our minds or bodies. Now, as you know, I think this is not something that should be foisted upon a new individual. I don't think prioritizing adversity is good to do to another person, if that person does not exist yet. But once born, there is no choice. You must learn to overcome adversity. Sometimes it is just dealing with the stress by existing through it.
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    You must learn to overcome adversity. Sometimes it is just dealing with the stress by existing through it.schopenhauer1

    So, coping is the key here? How does Schopenhauer help you cope with adversity? I'm basically astonished at how one can still carry on living with such a state of mind that Schopenhauer puts you in?
  • schopenhauer1
    10.9k
    So, coping is the key here? How does Schopenhauer help you cope with adversity? I'm basically astonished at how one can still carry on living with such a state of mind that Schopenhauer puts you in?Wallows

    Here's some quotes from his in the Wisdom of Life https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/wisdom/complete.html#chapter1:

    ...So arises an inclination to suicide, which even the most trivial unpleasantness may actually bring about; nay, when the tendency attains its worst form, it may be occasioned by nothing in particular, but a man may resolve to put an end to his existence, simply because he is permanently unhappy, and then coolly and firmly carry out his determination; as may be seen by the way in which the sufferer, when placed under supervision, as he usually is, eagerly waits to seize the first unguarded moment, when, without a shudder, without a struggle or recoil, he may use the now natural and welcome means of effecting his release.6 Even the healthiest, perhaps even the most cheerful man, may resolve upon death under certain circumstances; when, for instance, his sufferings, or his fears of some inevitable misfortune, reach such a pitch as to outweigh the terrors of death. The only difference lies in the degree of suffering necessary to bring about the fatal act, a degree which will be high in the case of a cheerful, and low in that of a gloomy man. The greater the melancholy, the lower need the degree be; in the end, it may even sink to zero. But if a man is cheerful, and his spirits are supported by good health, it requires a high degree of suffering to make him lay hands upon himself. There are countless steps in the scale between the two extremes of suicide, the suicide which springs merely from a morbid intensification of innate gloom, and the suicide of the healthy and cheerful man, who has entirely objective grounds for putting an end to his existence.

    A dull mind is, as a rule, associated with dull sensibilities, nerves which no stimulus can affect, a temperament, in short, which does not feel pain or anxiety very much, however great or terrible it may be. Now, intellectual dullness is at the bottom of that vacuity of soul which is stamped on so many faces, a state of mind which betrays itself by a constant and lively attention to all the trivial circumstances in the external world. This is the true source of boredom — a continual panting after excitement, in order to have a pretext for giving the mind and spirits something to occupy them. The kind of things people choose for this purpose shows that they are not very particular, as witness the miserable pastimes they have recourse to, and their ideas of social pleasure and conversation: or again, the number of people who gossip on the doorstep or gape out of the window. It is mainly because of this inner vacuity of soul that people go in quest of society, diversion, amusement, luxury of every sort, which lead many to extravagance and misery. Nothing is so good a protection against such misery as inward wealth, the wealth of the mind, because the greater it grows, the less room it leaves for boredom. The inexhaustible activity of thought! Finding ever new material to work upon in the multifarious phenomena of self and nature, and able and ready to form new combinations of them — there you have something that invigorates the mind, and apart from moments of relaxation, sets it far above the reach of boredom.

    But, on the other hand, this high degree of intelligence is rooted in a high degree of susceptibility, greater strength of will, greater passionateness; and from the union of these qualities comes an increased capacity for emotion, an enhanced sensibility to all mental and even bodily pain, greater impatience of obstacles, greater resentment of interruption; — all of which tendencies are augmented by the power of the imagination, the vivid character of the whole range of thought, including what is disagreeable. This applies, in various degrees, to every step in the long scale of mental power, from the veriest dunce to the greatest genius that ever lived. Therefore the nearer anyone is, either from a subjective or from an objective point of view, to one of those sources of suffering in human life, the farther he is from the other. And so a man’s natural bent will lead him to make his objective world conform to his subjective as much as possible; that is to say, he will take the greatest measures against that form of suffering to which he is most liable. The wise man will, above all, strive after freedom from pain and annoyance, quiet and leisure, consequently a tranquil, modest life, with as few encounters as may be; and so, after a little experience of his so-called fellowmen, he will elect to live in retirement, or even, if he is a man of great intellect, in solitude. For the more a man has in himself, the less he will want from other people — the less, indeed, other people can be to him. This is why a high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial. True, if quality of intellect could be made up for by quantity, it might be worth while to live even in the great world; but unfortunately, a hundred...
    -Schopenhauer
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    The wise man will, above all, strive after freedom from pain and annoyance, quiet and leisure, consequently a tranquil, modest life, with as few encounters as may be; and so, after a little experience of his so-called fellowmen, he will elect to live in retirement, or even, if he is a man of great intellect, in solitude. For the more a man has in himself, the less he will want from other people — the less, indeed, other people can be to him. This is why a high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial. True, if quality of intellect could be made up for by quantity, it might be worth while to live even in the great world; but unfortunately, a hundred...schopenhauer1

    Hear hear, wisdom has been spoken.
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