Maggie's Farm

How to manage impossible problems. It's a bit of an oldie, but a goodie: F- Feelings.

Many people have found it to be helpful, clarifying. 

It's coming to a DSM near you one of these days: Orthorexia nervosa. You may find many victims of this disorder in the socially-distanced lines at Whole Foods. It's a harmless preoccupation other than the risk of annoying or boring your friends. 

Another one is Binge Eating, aka Binge Eating Disorder.  These are people who will ask for seconds, or eat ravenously until the food is gone. Historically it was just called the sin of gluttony, but now it's a diagnosis. It is interesting to me how various behaviors, maybe once attributed to demons, later to sins, are now DSM diagnoses.

Does a "mind" even exist? It seems to me that it does, but the concept of mind has a history. 

Scott Alexander reviews a 20 year-old book,  The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

It is always an interesting topic. Pathological Liars, Psychopaths & Natural Liars - How can we tell natural liars from pathological liars and psychopaths?

He left out politicians in his "natural liars" list.

If it could somehow be measured, people's capacity for fantasizing about everything and anything would probably be represented by a bell curve, with the most inhibited and rigid on the left tail and the most free-wheeling on the right tail.

Sometimes attempting to turn fantasies into reality is a good idea, sometimes unwise or self-destructive.  Mistaking fantasies for reality is rarely practical. 

Here's an example:  AUTOGENDERPHILIA IS COMMON

Of course women want romance, a great sex life, and cheerful and intelligent companionship. Maybe solid husband material too. Maybe not so easy to find.

Who do women target? At Quillette, All the single ladies 

It's a guided imagery approach, Here.

Study Shows Genetic Source of Anxiety 

It is unsurprising, since we can identify anxious kids quite early. It frequently appears as unusual separation fears. 

A quick summary: Sex differences and personality.

Bear in mind that these are bell curve data. 

Why researchers are starting to change their minds.

Here are the problems, with which I am sure most people in my field would agree. First, most serious psychopaths rarely seek help, and then usually only when they get in trouble. Second, lying and manipulating are second nature to them, so they try to play you. Some are quite adept. Third, they tend to be unreliable with showing up or paying their bills.

There are others, too.

In my experience, when people come to me worrying about whether they have a cold or dark heart, or feeling guilty about some pattern of behavior, it's a good sign that they are far from psychopathic.

I will offer the opinion that there are full-blown psychopaths, very scary people. However, there are people with a range of psychopathic (ie sociopathic) traits which are worth being alert to. On the other end of the spectrum, most people have psychopathic fantasies which they never, or very rarely, act on.

No mortal is pure of heart. It's complicated. It's not a disease. 

Nobel Psychologist (whose Nobel was in Economics) Donald Kahneman explains why in a podcast interview.

Asylums for the "moral treatment" of the mentally ill emerged in the early 1800s. I put moral treatment in quotes not to disparage their efforts but because Moral Treatment was a new medical movement at the time to treat the mentally ill compassionately, protectively, and respectfully. That movement continues today.

-  Stanford professor who changed America with just one study was also a liar

-  A Cultural Historian Explores an Old Mental Hospital

The giant old state mental hospitals are mostly abandoned now.  

What is life like for people like Kayla Mueller's parents to know that their daughter was abducted, kept as a sex slave by al-Baghdadi until he tired of her, then tortured including having her nails pulled out, and then beheaded?

I have spent many hours with parents whose children have had tragic experiences, catastrophic lives,  or met tragic ends. Life must go on, but the mental images and the agony that accompanies them can never be erased.

A vale of tears. People like me can sometimes offer no relief, only companionship in suffering.

Everybody knows that most of "homelessness" is about dysfunctional people rather than lack of a roof. Given the complexity of humans, and the complexity of modern society, it's remarkable how few there are.

The great reformer Dorothea Dix recognized the need for "humane asylums" for the mentally ill and incapacitated. By the 1970s, the "miracle drugs" were supposed to treat serious mental illnesses. JFK led a movement towards "deinstutionalization". You all know this.

As things turned out, we found excellent treatments for bipolar ailments but really only symptomatic treatments for the Schizophrenic spectrum of low-functional, marginally-functional, and non-functional people. (Addicts are highly-treatable, but addicts do not always want that and it's a free country.)

So, for the chronically mentally ill (mostly Schizophrenic variants who might be as much as 1% of the population), there is either family support, street life, or asylum of some form. "Asylum" should not be a dirty word. It should be a beautiful word, and asylums can be good places. But nobody is building them or coming up with creative ideas about it.

 How The Loss Of U.S. Psychiatric Hospitals Led To A Mental Health Crisis

Seven Reasons Why Most Major Depression is Probably Not a Brain Disorder

Note that they say "most," not all. Bipolar depression sure seems like a brain disorder of sorts, as do depressive symptoms related to peripartum, hypothyroidism, some GI cancers, etc. 

To my mind, it's best to think of "depressive symptoms" rather than of a unitary phenomenon. Many acute depressive events I have seen are, in fact, reactive to events and could be viewed as grief. 

Bell curve chart is from No One Is Born in ‘The Wrong Body’

The terror of medical opioids is on an upswing. I have seen the upswings and downswings during my career. I wish we could find a middle course, because medical opioids are a blessing to suffering people. Yes, I include Oxycontin in that because it is an excellent medicine.

Of course opioids are habit-forming. For refractory pain, they are also life-giving. For people with life-impairing chronic pain, there is something called "pseudoaddiction."  AGAINST AGAINST PSEUDOADDICTION

These days, I have seen people in that category treated like drug addicts. Sooner or later, there will chemicals with the pain effects of opioids but without the habit-forming effects. Not yet.

Every food can be correlated with increased mortality risk!

 Diet Reporting—the Real Fake News

The one thing that is known for sure is that overeating is not helpful for fitness or survival. 

How to make life happy: Scott Adams podcast

Excellent summary on the mental and physical benefits of exertion: The New Science of Exercise:

Doctors, researchers, scientists--even ancient philosophers--have long claimed exercise works like a miracle drug. Now they have proof.

As I have said before, a rigorous exercise program might not extend your life. It will definitely enhance and extend your quality of life even if you begin it at any age. Everybody knows that they ought to do it, but it's hard and it hurts and we're lazy and "busy."  Plus there is that terrible part: delayed gratification. Everybody hates that. As I say, "The flesh is willing but the spirit is weak."

Our quite well-informed recommendations for general fitness and conditioning for the ordinary person who wants to achieve or maintain maximal functionality for life:

1. Nutrition: Don't be visibly overweight - it's the worst thing you can do to yourself besides being an addict, and no exercise can help being fat. Does a demanding exercise program require a specific pattern of nutrition? Yes. We have discussed that in previous posts here. With a serious exercise program, you have to keep up with the protein and fats - approx. 70-90 gms of protein/day.
2. Weight training - as heavy as possible, approx 50 minutes twice a week
3. 1-2 hrs total of calisthenics/wk for mobility, balance, and athleticism
4. 2 or 3 twenty-min sessions of cardio intervals/wk  (HIIT). (For HIIT, I do stairs once, elliptical once, rowing once. Occasionally sprints in the pool.) Can add an hour of endurance cardio.

Under age 35, it can take 12 months to be whipped into decent shape. Over 35-40, depending on your fitness starting point, 18-24 months. Intense sports like basketball can substitute for calisthenics. Yoga is excellent, but does not substitute for any of the above. Many men find Yoga to be quite challenging and helpful. Lots of pro football players do it. If your day job is physical, all of the above recommendations would differ.