This might be more of a psychological question. But is being depressed or even anxious the human default? I saw an article to that affect once but can't find it anymore. I assume we do more for the survival of the species when we aren't satiated? What evolutionary benefits might that have? Is depression a deeper more complex state that expands the mind more? Is there a reason childhood is generally happier for most? — TiredThinker
Is depression a deeper more complex state that expands the mind more? — TiredThinker
Ro cap it off, people are depressed because they treat themselves poorly. They drink too much, they don't work hard enough, they don't educate themselves, they surround themselves with non-compatible people, they don't search for meaning, they hate society, they are motivated by greed, they are too wealthy, they lie too much, they sleep with too many people, they value the opinions of others more than themselves, or they engage in all other forms of thought and behavior that negates their own homeostasis- or their parents (or other kids at school) do such to them. You'll be hard pressed to find me someone that sits outside this paradigm, but I welcome your thoughts. — Garrett Travers
1. Too damned busy to be sad. For instance, does a soldier have time to mourn the loss of a comrade in the thick of battle?
I have to dispute most of your long-winded and cant-see-the-wood-for trees view: as someone else who has suffered with depression on and off for nearly 20 years, worked in mental health care, and tried or at least been educated on all popular treatments, my definiton of depression is psychological. You seem to define it as what people do - that's listing the symptoms, not the disease.. — Tim3003
Depression results when a person's view of themself falls so far short of who they think they should be that they can no longer live with themself normally. — Tim3003
The psychological treatments aim at redressing this imbalance - which is of course constituted of two self-evolved and self-perpetuated judgements, not by events. Counselling seeks by various means to encourage you to replace your overly critical view of yourself with one more realistic; and to replace your overly optimistic view of where you should be in life with a more realistic one. — Tim3003
Some people have a vulnerability to depressive ways of thinking - being pessimistic and sensitive to failure or criticism are 2 warning signs. In these cases anti-depressants can help alleviate the symptoms. — Tim3003
So no, depression is not a natural state of man. — Tim3003
Perhaps in today's ever-faster-moving and more chaotic society it is becoming more and more common, but it causes under-performance and grief for all who encounter it. I see no evolutionary advantage in that.. — Tim3003
Depression results when a person's view of themself falls so far short of who they think they should be that they can no longer live with themself normally. The psychological treatments aim at redressing this imbalance - which is of course constituted of two self-evolved and self-perpetuated judgements, not by events. Counselling seeks by various means to encourage you to replace your overly critical view of yourself with one more realistic; and to replace your overly optimistic view of where you should be in life with a more realistic one. — Tim3003
So no, depression is not a natural state of man. Perhaps in today's ever-faster-moving and more chaotic society it is becoming more and more common, but it causes under-performance and grief for all who encounter it. I see no evolutionary advantage in that..
Children are happy, exploratory, game-organizing for play, and very deeply loving by nature. I've never known of any exceptions to this. — Garrett Travers
Ohh dear... — Tobias
Counselling seeks by various means to encourage you to replace your overly critical view of yourself with one more realistic; and to replace your overly optimistic view of where you should be in life with a more realistic one. — Tim3003
My point is not that they are prone to depression or not, but that they are nice. I never saw a friendly child in my life or at least, very few. — Tobias
So yes, they relish in the sight of burning spider under a magnifying glass. — Tobias
That someone kills you laughing does not mean he does not kill you. — Tobias
Children are, when not abused or led astray, very enjoying of their environment, and very loving of those that provide them with resources. — Garrett Travers
Many psychologists and philosophers have described young children as psychopaths, having no moral
compass, and having to be conditioned into what we consider civilized behavior. — Joshs
Piaget described the moral development of a child as
proceeding from an egocentric point of view to a progressively more decentered vantage. — Joshs
they believe the world revolves around their needs and everyone thinks the same way they do. — Joshs
Point of view is a concept that has to be learned, as does sharing. — Joshs
Is this really a conclusion you've drawn...? C'mon man, when have you ever heard of a child killing anyone in joyous laughter? And if you to happen to find me an abberation of such nature, describe to me the details of where the child comes from, and I'll show you who the real killer is. — Garrett Travers
You understand? — Garrett Travers
You see, like all systems in the universe - and everything in the universe is either a system, or resources to be used in or by a system - one of the primary functions of biological systems is homeostasis. Equilibrium, to put it another way. Regression toward the mean, to put it in physics terms — Garrett Travers
No, the point is that the definitions of PE does not lead to any normative conclusions such at those you draw. Yes they care for the ones that feeds them, so do cats. — Tobias
I didn't say they did, I never even implied. Look man, I'm not these mystic chumps on this website, dude. If you're going to engage with me on here, I'm going to need you to read what I say and the research I post. — Garrett Travers
In physics, the concept of time has long been assumed to be irrelevant to the understanding of homeostatic systems. Physicists argues that it didn’t matter whether we ran the equations backwards or forwards , since there is no arrow of time in a homeostatic system. They also assumed that once we arrived at a final physical theory of everything, we could essentially run the thing on a computer
and predict everything we needed to know about the world and ourselves. — Joshs
Applied to ethics, this physics-based approach to rationality connects happiness, understanding and doing the right thing with properly and rationally grasping the working of the closed homeostatic system that physics describes. — Joshs
Piaget introduces the concept of progressive equilibration, which asserts that living systems are not a closed system. The nature of a homeostatic system is to evolve. So picture a dynamic homeostasis as a spiral
constantly moving upward rather than the simple circle created by static homeostasis. The direction of progressive equilibration is from a weaker to a stronger structure. — Joshs
The implication of this model for ethics and psychotherapy is that the aim of a cognitive
system is not to correctly represent a static machine-like world but to adapt itself to a world that is constantly rearranging itself in more and more complex ways. Conceptual change is not through inductive logic but experimentation. Depression and other emotional ailments are the inability to keep with and adapt one’s
thinking to an evolving world. — Joshs
Edit: Pointless.
I advice a course on critical thinking Garrett. It will do you a world of good. — Tobias
But is being depressed or even anxious the human default? — TiredThinker
I teach them them, but thanks anyway. — Tobias
edit: It is a bit fickly to add pics. I google the image than copy the link than I click on the icon with the mountain and the sun. I add the link which I achieved through right clicking 'copy image link'. — Tobias
Depression is a response to trauma. Trauma is any event that produces an overwhelming negative emotion, pain, fear, humiliation, abandonment, stress anxiety, that sort of thing. The mind, unable to cope with and process the feelings encountered cuts itself off from the feeling. Unfortunately, it does not merely cut off one negative feeling but all feelings. Life — unenlightened
Or perhaps depression is the emptiness of the situation itself rather than a secondary response to it. — Joshs
Or perhaps depression is the emptiness of the situation itself rather than a secondary response to it. It would be the feeling of the failure to cope rather than a further act of cutting oneself off. — Joshs
I don't think a situation one cannot cope with would be empty. ?? — unenlightened
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