hedonism is the Value-Theory that asserts that Pleasure/enjoyment is the ONLY thing that has intrinsic value. Can you think of anything else that has intrinsic value? — Mitchell

Pain relief.

No response... Guess Purple Pond got distracted... — CasKev

I guess I'm obligated to respond now.

Good answers everyone. I have not been diagnosed with ADHD so i don't think stimulant medications will help. Negative thinking won't help me do philosophy as Posty McPostface points out. StreetlightX's idea that concentration can be improved is correct to a certain extant. I can certainly try to improve my concentration through practice, though my concentration will always be far from perfect. I will certainty try it out. BitterCrank provides two good thoughts. Namely use what you have, and annotate to improve concentration. Reading books that interest me is also a good idea jamalrob. Unenligthtend says that the thought that I have a thought disorder is also distracting. I agree. Sapientia throws some Humor into the mix (or at least I hope its humor). Very funny Sapientia.

I think the fact that most people want to live is a testament to life being generally good.

Is nothing of nothing everything?

Hume is famous for his problem of induction. If Hume wouldn't have come up with that problem my guess is that he wouldn't be nearly as popular.

Here's a cool video on learned helplessness:

Depression also goes by another name, which I was wondering what some of you think about. Namely, 'learned-helplessness'. — Question

I think learned helplessness might be relevant to what's going on in the mind of a depressive. The thing is, learned helplessness experiments were about specific situations. The elephant in the video learned to be helpless abut the rope tied to its leg. But where's the evidence that learned helplessness is also general as in the case of depression? When we are depressed we aren't depressed about one thing. It's more of a mood thing. It would be interesting if there were experiments on generalized helplessness.

I can tell you from my experience. A lot of people say I'm really smart. Yet when I take an online IQ test usually score average. Either people mistakenly think I'm intelligent or online IQ tests are unreliable, or both. I've had a rabbi call me a dumbbell. I had a friend say "your not smart". Another friend told me "you strike me as a really dumb person", "you say stupid things". On the other hand, I had professors call me really bright on many occasions. I have a 3.9 GPA -- at a community college. If there is way to know whether someone is intelligent by just knowing them at least half the people who knew me got it wrong.

How do you deal with your 'monster'? Have any of you defeated it? — Question

I used to get suicidal thoughts almost everyday. My life is very depressing (I've even been diagnosed with schizophrenia). I still get suicidal thoughts, but not as often. What changed? I don't focus as much on how much my life sucks. Instead I focus more on what I can do to make my life better.

Depression is an illness just like any other. To me depression is as much philosophical as congestive heart failure.

There's something going wrong in the brain/mind of a person who suffers from depression. We don't know the mechanisms behind depression because we lack scientific knowledge of what exactly is going on in the head of a depressive.

It all depends on what you dreamed of. Let's say you dreamed about your friends. Your friends would be the object of that experience.