Insanity...I think. ..

[PiedPiper]

How might one perceive the notion of insanity? In my own conclusion it is the inability to divide the conscious and subconscious mind, subsequently falling into an abyss with little hope of a return. The Buddhists may call it enlightenment. The Christians would say demonic possession. The world, psychosis. Possible triggers...loss of self, loss of connection with what is intrinsically human, memory off the rails of what is accepted for its boundaries.

Quite a strange topic, and one that is even more taxing to explore. Is it not that very fear which lies in the heart of every man, the terror of losing self, or thought? Then of course there are a few philosophers such as Nietzsche who experienced so called breakdowns themselves. And now it brings me to an existential crisis. At a garish glance it often appears that individuals who pour much more thought into reality are more prone to fissures.

Perhaps, in my ramblings I am ignoring the obvious cause of my own cracks. I'd love to believe its karma, bad blood in the veins. Wouldn't that just be so diabolically easy. I'm curious as to others experience, surely someone must have some insight. Save this disease does not overtake me, all is darkness and uncertainty. It is no white rabbit who chooses to go down the path that leads to its own destruction.

I'm not insane, heh heh.

 

[Black Rose]

I got a psychosis episode this year. What defined it was fear because of the hallucinations. I lost control. Not sure what was real. But I am lucky. All I need to do is not eat marijuana again. And sleep on time. don't isolate. I think I can keep steady.

 

[PiedPiper]

How unusual. MaryJane I've noticed is potent with skitzo or psychotic disorders. Note to self to continue avoiding. As for social skills, well I'm a top notch reclusive, so we'll see.

 

[Rook]

to seek sanity is to seek death. only the void is frictionless.

all animals are insane, there is no universal mental override reinforcing a single interpretation of infinity.

 

[PiedPiper]

to seek sanity is to seek death. only the void is frictionless.

all animals are insane, there is no universal mental override reinforcing a single interpretation of infinity.

Perhaps it lends credence to our total and complete insanity of presuming we have the cure to it.

 

[Cognisant]

 

[PiedPiper]

The Life of Death - YouTube

 

[PiedPiper]

 

[EndogenousRebel]

Most people who are insane by "normal" standards have poor executive function in varying degrees. Most of them associated with lack of dopamine in the frontal outer cortex. This shortage of dopamine often means a surplus of serotonin.

The analogy I like is that dopamine is money and serotonin is confidence.

So the managers, mostly living in the frontal cortex aren't getting payed enough, so they interpret poorly whatever the fuck the inner cortices sends to them, hopped up on serotonin, they just can't help but stand by their judgements when prompted.

New York Accent: what are ya talking about? My buddy down in the occipital lobe says that's a pissed off unicorn right there in the middle of the street. Everyone else doesn't acknowledge it because you're a fucking idiot. That's what my amygdala friend is telling me. What the fuck do I know who pays me, I'm thinking about quiting.

The part of you that is self aware to a high degree may have its own place and can keep itself compartmentalized, but it will feel like it is being seiged. Cut off from stabilizing forces. Once everyone in crowded room loses their mind, what really can one person, who is aware of the situation do? It's a tricky situation.

But that would be the markers for most "clinical insanity". Hairline thin assessments and supreme confidence. OCD I think is different but consistent inversely speaking. They asses too much unilaterally and might lose their minds if they don't practice their habits because their confident creating serotonin is in the floor

 

[scorpiomover]

How might one perceive the notion of insanity?

Psychologists usually define mental illness by "dysfunctionality", which they describe in terms of an inability to do things that are in your own interest, that most regular people would do, in the same situation.

E.G. people who are too depressed to apply for a job, people who are too anxious to ask our girls, people who are so OCD that they scrub their hands so much that their hands bleed, and things like that.

OTOH, many atheists describe belief in G-d as insanity.

 

[Black Rose]

I have holes in my brain.

 

[scorpiomover]

I have holes in my brain.

Maybe consider filling in the holes?

Maybe you could fill them with knowledge?

 

[Black Rose]

I have holes in my brain.

Maybe consider filling in the holes?

Maybe you could fill them with knowledge?

vegan burgers

 

[EndogenousRebel]

I have holes in my brain.

Back in my day they called those Holy Brains. Kinda the same thing with socks.

 

[scorpiomover]

vegan burgers

Meat burgers are good for increasing dopamine and executive functions.

Vegan burgers are great for if you want to become a monk who has no ambitions.

 

[Daddy]

Holy Brains have become a new trend over the past decade or so; so don't worry, everything is normal here.

 

[scorpiomover]

The analogy I like is that dopamine is money and serotonin is confidence.

If serotonin was confidence, then risk-takers would be serotonin-junkies.

Most people who are insane by "normal" standards have poor executive function in varying degrees. Most of them associated with lack of dopamine in the frontal outer cortex. This shortage of dopamine often means a surplus of serotonin.

That's because hardly anyone in the USA dies of starvation anymore. Even if you have nothing to eat, you can probably get food stamps.

So when you see massive inequality, it's the lack of taking risks on a regular basis that tends to result in much lower outcomes.

So today, it's the confidence to take lots of chances that makes some people lots of money, and the lack of confidence that makes some people very poor.

Since it's lack of dopamine that is very dangerous today, lack of dopamine = too cautious => dopamine = confidence.

 

[Black Rose]

Since it's lack of dopamine that is very dangerous today, lack of dopamine = too cautious => dopamine = confidence.

I cannot afford foods with dopamine in them.

I sleep all the time.

 

[EndogenousRebel]

If serotonin was confidence, then risk-takers would be serotonin-junkies.

Confidence doesn't = risk seeking nor desire for novelstimulation in my eyes so... If anything related to those things, it would be willingness to engage. Not a craving to engage in such things. I mean you can see what serotonin is actually associated with. There's a reason SSRI's are typical treatment for some people with depression.

Seritonin, from my understanding, is clearly something that promotes "satisfaction" with your internal/external state.

Dopamine is the opposite.

That's because hardly anyone in the USA dies of starvation anymore. Even if you have nothing to eat, you can probably get food stamps.

So when you see massive inequality, it's the lack of taking risks on a regular basis that tends to result in much lower outcomes.

So today, it's the confidence to take lots of chances that makes some people lots of money, and the lack of confidence that makes some people very poor.

Since it's lack of dopamine that is very dangerous today, lack of dopamine = too cautious => dopamine = confidence.

??? Diet isn't always the problem with biological disorders. I don't know what you're on about though..

I cannot afford foods with dopamine in them.

I sleep all the time.

I'm not sure about now, but you can definitely afford high protein yogurt. There are supplements that are precursors to dopamine OTC, but considering your condition that's not advisable to me. I def would start with taking multi-vitamins and B-complex if you really can't find the energy to see what your intaking into your body.

 

[Black Rose]

There's a reason SSRI's are typical treatment for some people with depression.

Depression is three things

energy levels
sadness/blunt affect
sleeping too much

I am not sure how serotonin is involved but dopamine is to do with gambling/pleasure

losing the will to pleasure makes people sad.

is there more? maybe.

I do not like being blunted.

 

[Black Rose]

sanity is stillness in chaos

 

[scorpiomover]

I cannot afford foods with dopamine in them.

You can't afford a bit of beef, chicken or fish?

I sleep all the time.

Carbs and no meat, will do that to you. Too much serontonin makes you sleepy.

 

[scorpiomover]

If serotonin was confidence, then risk-takers would be serotonin-junkies.

Confidence doesn't = risk seeking nor desire for novelstimulation in my eyes so...

A lot of people confuse arrogance for confidence.

If anything related to those things, it would be willingness to engage. Not a craving to engage in such things.

A "willingness to engage", is called being "over-eager", or being "gung ho".

One thing it definitely is NOT, is "confidence".

If it was, then we'd say people willing to jump out of a plane at 20,000 feet without a parachute, were "confident".

I mean you can see what serotonin is actually associated with. There's a reason SSRI's are typical treatment for some people with depression.

For the longest time, people on SSRIs, have stayed in their depressive states for decades. When put on SSRIs, they just felt comfortable with staying depressed.

Seritonin, from my understanding, is clearly something that promotes "satisfaction" with your internal/external state.

It's been known for a very long time, that obese people eat lots of carbs, because it makes them feel "satisfied".

Dopamine is the opposite.

Then dopamine is the neurochemical that makes you want to get up and do stuff.

That's because hardly anyone in the USA dies of starvation anymore. Even if you have nothing to eat, you can probably get food stamps.

So when you see massive inequality, it's the lack of taking risks on a regular basis that tends to result in much lower outcomes.

So today, it's the confidence to take lots of chances that makes some people lots of money, and the lack of confidence that makes some people very poor.

Since it's lack of dopamine that is very dangerous today, lack of dopamine = too cautious => dopamine = confidence.

??? Diet isn't always the problem with biological disorders. I don't know what you're on about though..

I wasn't saying that food stamps solve every problem, merely that Westerners are very unlikely to die of starvation.

If you've EVER been that hungry, you know that sort of reality forces you to wake up and get your priorities straight.

If you never have to face such stark realities like that, then you can languish in a delusion for decades.

I def would start with taking multi-vitamins and B-complex if you really can't find the energy to see what your intaking into your body.

I would have happily suggested that, except that I've been taking multi-vitamins for decades, and they did nothing to abate my depression in any serious way.

So the vitamins don't work, just like the drugs don't work.

The vitamins do make your mind more flexible. They just don't motivate.

 

[EndogenousRebel]

If anything related to those things, it would be willingness to engage. Not a craving to engage in such things.

A "willingness to engage", is called being "over-eager", or being "gung ho".

One thing it definitely is NOT, is "confidence".

If it was, then we'd say people willing to jump out of a plane at 20,000 feet without a parachute, were "confident".

Yes, if they are confident they will survive, they are confident. Either that or they are suicidal and are confident they will die because they are not confident in the prospects of living.

I mean you can see what serotonin is actually associated with. There's a reason SSRI's are typical treatment for some people with depression.

For the longest time, people on SSRIs, have stayed in their depressive states for decades. When put on SSRIs, they just felt comfortable with staying depressed.

Seritonin, from my understanding, is clearly something that promotes "satisfaction" with your internal/external state.

It's been known for a very long time, that obese people eat lots of carbs, because it makes them feel "satisfied".

Carbs have been rare and sparse for most of humanity's development. There isn't a system that makes us feel full from it that's all that effective anyway.

The "satisfaction" you refer to is very fleeting without natural fibers and consistent snacking on carb sources like fruit. They are a short-term fuel source. And they are expensive. Like 7USD per 3lbs/1kg

Dopamine is the opposite.

Then dopamine is the neurochemical that makes you want to get up and do stuff.

In a manner of speaking yes.. It is responsible for the movements of all your muscles and thoughts you have to some extent, but yes, your dopamine levels are associated with that feeling of something "missing" that you need to get. That can be a consciousness task like monthly budgeting or it can be a doughnut.

This is why you can get addicted to just about anything psychologically despite no direct biological interfacing. Work, food, people, painting. It's a matter of what you incidentally chose was a good thing to fulfil your dopamine functions with.

Conversely as I have been experiencing these past couple weeks, you can deplete your dopamine and start putting your health at risk for doing work. Causing physical damage with the continuation of work. It's called burnout.

This is the difference between using your passively expendible energy and using your direct willpower.

scorpiomover said: That's because hardly anyone in the USA dies of starvation anymore. Even if you have nothing to eat, you can probably get food stamps.

So when you see massive inequality, it's the lack of taking risks on a regular basis that tends to result in much lower outcomes.

So today, it's the confidence to take lots of chances that makes some people lots of money, and the lack of confidence that makes some people very poor.

Since it's lack of dopamine that is very dangerous today, lack of dopamine = too cautious => dopamine = confidence. Click to expand... ??? Diet isn't always the problem with biological disorders. I don't know what you're on about though..

I wasn't saying that food stamps solve every problem, merely that Westerners are very unlikely to die of starvation.

If you've EVER been that hungry, you know that sort of reality forces you to wake up and get your priorities straight.

If you never have to face such stark realities like that, then you can languish in a delusion for decades.

Meat and fat on the other hand actually do make us feel full and give lots of energy. Also expensive at around 10USD per 1lb/0.3kg?

Maybe @Animekitty should invest in a coupon app. They are generally really good at giving you reduced prices, at the very least fair market values without embellishments.

I def would start with taking multi-vitamins and B-complex if you really can't find the energy to see what your intaking into your body.

I would have happily suggested that, except that I've been taking multi-vitamins for decades, and they did nothing to abate my depression in any serious way.

So the vitamins don't work, just like the drugs don't work.

The vitamins do make your mind more flexible. They just don't motivate.

Maybe we should all consider how much we contribute to our own ailments. Sometimes the very narrative we tell ourselves can do harm, and changing these narrative monologues is in my opinion way harder than simply following a medication routine. Then again I've never been one who has terrible side effects.

I agree, supplements do make you more flexible, and drugs are pretty lackluster. But in my eyes they are supposed to give you breathing room so that you can mend better whatever has run amuck in your mind.

If you start taking medication therapy and don't plan on changing anything about your thought processes and lifestyle, then the day you can't or don't want to anymore, you'll be in the same situation. Except it might be even left off worse because your homeostatic system now doesn't have the crutch to lean on for support. (This is why gradual reductions in medication are done.)

 

[Black Rose]

Why does the questionnaire the doctor give me why is it stupid? It has nothing to do with depression anxiety or anything else. Everything in my brain just sucks there are no distinctions between anything. IT all just sucks.

They don't ask you what you have there are no distinctions made.

why don't they do a proper diagnostic instead of asking vague questions?

 

[EndogenousRebel]

Why does the questionnaire the doctor give me why is it stupid? It has nothing to do with depression anxiety or anything else. Everything in my brain just sucks there are no distinctions between anything. IT all just sucks.

They don't ask you what you have there are no distinctions made.

why don't they do a proper diagnostic instead of asking vague questions?

If it makes you feel better I straight up told a social worker I had suicidal ideation and a plan and they just let me walk out of there without any suggestions nor attempt for interventions.

You need someone who's actually interested in listening to what you have to say in a non-judgmental manner for extended periods of time. Unless that's in their job description, there is no hope for that happening. Unless there are discord chats for that or something.

 

[scorpiomover]

If anything related to those things, it would be willingness to engage. Not a craving to engage in such things.

A "willingness to engage", is called being "over-eager", or being "gung ho".

One thing it definitely is NOT, is "confidence".

If it was, then we'd say people willing to jump out of a plane at 20,000 feet without a parachute, were "confident".

Yes, if they are confident they will survive, they are confident.

I've only heard of people like that being called "arrogant".

Either that or they are suicidal and are confident they will die because they are not confident in the prospects of living.

I've only heard of people like that being called "not confident at all" or "severely lacking in confidence".

Carbs have been rare and sparse for most of humanity's development.

Carbs include things like carrots and potatoes.

Watching programmes about the world, and history, and science and nature, I had got the impression that it was protein that was rare in humanity's history, and even today.

There isn't a system that makes us feel full from it that's all that effective anyway.

I'm not quite sure what you are referring to. Can you describe that in more detail, and how it relates to the digestive system?

The "satisfaction" you refer to is very fleeting without natural fibers and consistent snacking on carb sources like fruit. They are a short-term fuel source.

Here, fruit is usually listed as a low-GI food, that only provides energy for a short period of time. That's consistent with my own personal experience.

Perhaps you can provide sources of your claims? Perhaps you can list fruits and carbs that I can buy here, where I can carry out my own personal experiments to test your claims?

And they are expensive. Like 7USD per 3lbs/1kg

Do you mean carbs are expensive at $7 per kg?

Didn't you write later on in this post that "Meat and fat on the other hand actually do make us feel full and give lots of energy. Also expensive at around 10USD per 1lb/0.3kg?"

Doesn't that mean that meat costs $33 per kg?

Doesn't that mean that fat cost $33 per kg?

If meat costs [imath]33 per kg, and fat costs[/imath]33 per kg, and carbs cost $7 per kg, then how many carbs can you buy for the price of 1kg of meat?

Dopamine is the opposite.

Then dopamine is the neurochemical that makes you want to get up and do stuff.

In a manner of speaking yes.. It is responsible for the movements of all your muscles and thoughts you have to some extent, but yes, your dopamine levels are associated with that feeling of something "missing" that you need to get. That can be a consciousness task like monthly budgeting or it can be a doughnut.

This is why you can get addicted to just about anything psychologically despite no direct biological interfacing. Work, food, people, painting. It's a matter of what you incidentally chose was a good thing to fulfil your dopamine functions with.

Conversely as I have been experiencing these past couple weeks, you can deplete your dopamine and start putting your health at risk for doing work. Causing physical damage with the continuation of work. It's called burnout.

I'm not sure what you are describing here, as I wasn't living your life. All I picked up from your words was something about "deplete", "dopamine", "work" and "dopamine". Can you describe specifically what you were doing, in physical terms, and what your experiences were, in physical terms?

This is the difference between using your passively expendible energy and using your direct willpower.

I'm not sure what you are saying about "energy" and "willpower". Can you be more specific?

Meat and fat on the other hand actually do make us feel full

Really? Because in the UK, people are not known for feeling "full" from eating meat, or eating fat. Eating meat is used in the Atkins diet, because, as a friend of mine found out on the diet, after you've been eating nothing but protein, you just don't want to eat that much, even if you feel hungry.

and give lots of energy.

I agree that fat is considered to contain lots of energy.

I can't say that I've ever come across any science programmes that say that meat is a tremendous energy source. Rather, it's said that when the body runs out of energy, it will start to convert protein into energy, but that the body uses more energy in converting protein into energy than it gains, which is why the Atkins diet was supposed to work so well.

Have you any people in the UK that I can contact personally, that would confirm your claims, and risk their personal reputations on your claims?

Also expensive at around 10USD per 1lb/0.3kg?

I would agree that meat is usually expensive. People seem to love eating meat. So it's a case of high demand => high price.

Maybe @Animekitty should invest in a coupon app. They are generally really good at giving you reduced prices, at the very least fair market values without embellishments.

I have never heard of coupon apps. So I can neither confirm nor deny that. @Animekitty will have to discuss that separately with you.

Maybe we should all consider how much we contribute to our own ailments.

Self-sabotage is common.

Sometimes the very narrative we tell ourselves can do harm, and changing these narrative monologues is in my opinion way harder than simply following a medication routine.

IME, changing narrative monologues happened in 10 seconds. Getting someone to adopt a medication routine, requires changing their daily habits.

Then again I've never been one who has terrible side effects.

Side effects from what?

I agree, supplements do make you more flexible, and drugs are pretty lackluster. But in my eyes they are supposed to give you breathing room so that you can mend better whatever has run amuck in your mind.

That's the theory that people are told.

My point was, that if the theory worked, then everyone being treated for mental health issues would have the breathing room you suggest, and then they'd have gotten better very quickly.

If you start taking medication therapy and don't plan on changing anything about your thought processes and lifestyle, then the day you can't or don't want to anymore, you'll be in the same situation.

Surely, if any person changes any one thing about themselves consistently, and doesn't change literally anything else, and then stops also doing the one thing they changed, then surely they would have to be back to the situation they were in before, because they only changed ONE thing about themselves, and now they've even changed that ONE thing to what they did before?

Except it might be even left off worse because your homeostatic system now doesn't have the crutch to lean on for support. (This is why gradual reductions in medication are done.)

Surely, if their body adapted to the single change they made, and then they reversed that change, then their body would find it harder, the same as if you drunk 10 pints of alcohol a night until your body adjusted, and then went cold turkey overnight? Would you not get the same reactions as those shown in Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend?

 

[ZenRaiden]

I think the key problem here is that human mind is too big and highly adaptive.
So as it shapes and forms during life, the conscious and unconscious mind are in constant flux and exchange.

A simple animal like snake or rat act mostly on unconscious instinct.
They don't really reflect on instincts, because they do not have to.
Their whole survival is based on instincts that universally work, and if they do fail, they simply die.

Even if rats and snakes did reflect on instincts they would not have a solution, because they have neither the time nor mental tools to yield any special insight into nature of reality.
Their reality is wholly unconscious as its all they need.

Generally though as you approach more sophisticated beings with larger brains, and learning curves, they deal with higher complexity and greater amount of valuable data, and the conscious mind can actively differentiate between immediate benefit of instinct and long term or decision making process.

So as species are more intelligent and more adaptive they have greater need for conscious process.

The problem is conscious process requires more data points of value and even more time. Its slow, deliberate, and often go against the unconscious embedded instincts and primitive drives.

However the greater the intelligence the greater the possibility that the conscious mind can adapt more efficiently and with better results.

The down side of this model is that there is simply more encoding and greater complexity of mind and more time and energy consumed in order to achieve better control over situation and environment.

With people the complexity goes even more to abstract where you have symbolic language, or symbolic thinking and ability to related in multifaceted ways to reality in which case you need more data points to figure out how someone responds to general situations and stimuli as opposed to snakes that just have a fairly limited repertoire of response that can be easily seen.

I think insanity in real terminology is really a bad management of conscious and unconscious mind.

Ergo the mind adapts in ways that does not allow the mind to recruit its own energy for its own benefit and by extension to benefit others.

In humans instincts do not dictate our survival.

Our drives are part of our energy.

However the easiest way I see it is that if you can recruit your psychic power to do things in adaptive and beneficial way to yourself and others you are essentially not insane.

The split between the unconscious and conscious mind does tend to happen a lot even in normal people.

The difference is that in normal people these things tend to pass, while with mental illness this split can last longer or even be a long term problem or a life time problem.

My personal guess is that the human mind is in many ways managed by internal constructs that are more unconscious, but are by extension conscious process.
Only thing is the conscious process is extension of internal unconscious process.

Psycho analysis was the main school of thought that tried to work with unconscious constructs by working with conscious mind in order to find a sort of reconciliation of the unconscious and conscious mind in order for these two things work in harmony for maximum efficiency and that results in better focus of energy towards survival, and life.

The key problem I find in psychology is the wording and general professional terminology used.

I often start of with terms that I do not understand then I realize most terms are not really that important.

I also think the word EQ is often very badly worded myth.

I think empathy is way to complex to be simply summed up in simple terms.

Emotions and empathy do dictate our behaviors in social situations, but they do dictate our behavior outside of them as well.

I think the easiest way to describe sanity is ability to direct ones energy towards survival and by extension the ability to go further and self actualize which obvious thing once you get to that point. Whatever that may mean to particular person.

The inability to recruit adaptations and living energy is essentially the opposite the so called insanity.

mental illness in my understanding result of badly managed life energy and not being able to fully use ones potential in given situations.

 

[PiedPiper]

If serotonin was confidence, then risk-takers would be serotonin-junkies.

Confidence doesn't = risk seeking nor desire for novelstimulation in my eyes so...

A lot of people confuse arrogance for confidence.

If anything related to those things, it would be willingness to engage. Not a craving to engage in such things.

A "willingness to engage", is called being "over-eager", or being "gung ho".

One thing it definitely is NOT, is "confidence".

If it was, then we'd say people willing to jump out of a plane at 20,000 feet without a parachute, were "confident".

I mean you can see what serotonin is actually associated with. There's a reason SSRI's are typical treatment for some people with depression.

For the longest time, people on SSRIs, have stayed in their depressive states for decades. When put on SSRIs, they just felt comfortable with staying depressed.

Seritonin, from my understanding, is clearly something that promotes "satisfaction" with your internal/external state.

It's been known for a very long time, that obese people eat lots of carbs, because it makes them feel "satisfied".

Dopamine is the opposite.

Then dopamine is the neurochemical that makes you want to get up and do stuff.

That's because hardly anyone in the USA dies of starvation anymore. Even if you have nothing to eat, you can probably get food stamps.

So when you see massive inequality, it's the lack of taking risks on a regular basis that tends to result in much lower outcomes.

So today, it's the confidence to take lots of chances that makes some people lots of money, and the lack of confidence that makes some people very poor.

Since it's lack of dopamine that is very dangerous today, lack of dopamine = too cautious => dopamine = confidence.

??? Diet isn't always the problem with biological disorders. I don't know what you're on about though..

I wasn't saying that food stamps solve every problem, merely that Westerners are very unlikely to die of starvation.

If you've EVER been that hungry, you know that sort of reality forces you to wake up and get your priorities straight.

If you never have to face such stark realities like that, then you can languish in a delusion for decades.

I def would start with taking multi-vitamins and B-complex if you really can't find the energy to see what your intaking into your body.

I would have happily suggested that, except that I've been taking multi-vitamins for decades, and they did nothing to abate my depression in any serious way.

So the vitamins don't work, just like the drugs don't work.

The vitamins do make your mind more flexible. They just don't motivate.

Interesting. I've never seen much success with antidepressants. It's big brother, big pharma selling drugs under the guise 'medication'. Which leads to dependance and addiction, like any of the illegal drugs. But hey...drugs, right? Unfortunately I think humanity is still very much in the dark ages. Every century thinks they're modern. And to an extent we are. Or maybe we're just reversing into a backwards spiral. Why fix a problem when you can profit off it for years to come. Why assist the broken when one may see them as just cattle.
To me there is likely a simple answer, and yet, the human brain IS complicated. They say the mental health rate has risen remarkably, in relation to schizophrenics,
depressives, overall anxiety. I'd say it has more relation to the intense scientifical studies done, and of course, we just view things different in this new society. 102 years ago parents would have locked their child in a disappointments room for showing the slightest oddity in character. You win some you lose. The way of the world.

 

[PiedPiper]

The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.

Bruce Feirstein

I think the key problem here is that human mind is too big and highly adaptive.
So as it shapes and forms during life, the conscious and unconscious mind are in constant flux and exchange.

A simple animal like snake or rat act mostly on unconscious instinct.
They don't really reflect on instincts, because they do not have to.
Their whole survival is based on instincts that universally work, and if they do fail, they simply die.

Even if rats and snakes did reflect on instincts they would not have a solution, because they have neither the time nor mental tools to yield any special insight into nature of reality.
Their reality is wholly unconscious as its all they need.

Generally though as you approach more sophisticated beings with larger brains, and learning curves, they deal with higher complexity and greater amount of valuable data, and the conscious mind can actively differentiate between immediate benefit of instinct and long term or decision making process.

So as species are more intelligent and more adaptive they have greater need for conscious process.

The problem is conscious process requires more data points of value and even more time. Its slow, deliberate, and often go against the unconscious embedded instincts and primitive drives.

However the greater the intelligence the greater the possibility that the conscious mind can adapt more efficiently and with better results.

The down side of this model is that there is simply more encoding and greater complexity of mind and more time and energy consumed in order to achieve better control over situation and environment.

With people the complexity goes even more to abstract where you have symbolic language, or symbolic thinking and ability to related in multifaceted ways to reality in which case you need more data points to figure out how someone responds to general situations and stimuli as opposed to snakes that just have a fairly limited repertoire of response that can be easily seen.

I think insanity in real terminology is really a bad management of conscious and unconscious mind.

Ergo the mind adapts in ways that does not allow the mind to recruit its own energy for its own benefit and by extension to benefit others.

In humans instincts do not dictate our survival.

Our drives are part of our energy.

However the easiest way I see it is that if you can recruit your psychic power to do things in adaptive and beneficial way to yourself and others you are essentially not insane.

The split between the unconscious and conscious mind does tend to happen a lot even in normal people.

The difference is that in normal people these things tend to pass, while with mental illness this split can last longer or even be a long term problem or a life time problem.

My personal guess is that the human mind is in many ways managed by internal constructs that are more unconscious, but are by extension conscious process.
Only thing is the conscious process is extension of internal unconscious process.

Psycho analysis was the main school of thought that tried to work with unconscious constructs by working with conscious mind in order to find a sort of reconciliation of the unconscious and conscious mind in order for these two things work in harmony for maximum efficiency and that results in better focus of energy towards survival, and life.

The key problem I find in psychology is the wording and general professional terminology used.

I often start of with terms that I do not understand then I realize most terms are not really that important.

I also think the word EQ is often very badly worded myth.

I think empathy is way to complex to be simply summed up in simple terms.

Emotions and empathy do dictate our behaviors in social situations, but they do dictate our behavior outside of them as well.

I think the easiest way to describe sanity is ability to direct ones energy towards survival and by extension the ability to go further and self actualize which obvious thing once you get to that point. Whatever that may mean to particular person.

The inability to recruit adaptations and living energy is essentially the opposite the so called insanity.

mental illness in my understanding result of badly managed life energy and not being able to fully use ones potential in given situations.

So it has been said.
On a bit of a random note, I had found myself in the unusual mindset of self-experimented-hypnosis. Everyone is the rage on 'meditation'. Meditation focuses more on the conscious mind process, hypnosis opposite. Dreaming is essentially hypnotic, if not totally a drug. They say the conscious mind is too bogged with all the little processes it must account for, therefor it's scope is greatly diminished. When you fall asleep and start to dream, the entirety of your energy is depicted in the images that you see. The 'true self' if you will. The ego practically unleashes itself.

Ever think its odd that you wake up and know for a fact you remember what you dreamed, but you don't. Its like an iceberg, the surface layer is the most transparent, then you go deeper until you get to the dark depths of your psyche. Scary shit. Ones goal should beneficially be to pay attention to what pops up the most. The weirder the dream, the stronger the message. "It's just a dream" they said, but its not, is it. The only reason we give more credence to waking life, is because it is steadfast. It doesn't change, you wake up in the same bed. You go to the same job. You don't teleport to Spain from the Netherlands. It's somehow a calm in the forces of chaos.

A question. If you could choose to stay in a dream, albeit a changing one, or live life as it were, without dreams, which would you choose? Reality is stranger than fiction, because fiction was written from an aspect of reality. You can't write something that never existed. And so you see our world is not quite what it appears. Am I insane for thinking so? I would say no. How can you disprove what you don't even understand. Pretty sure there are no pink unicorns floating around in this world. But what's to say there aren't other worlds with a different set of rules, and fiction.

We are really just another planets definition of aliens.

 

[ZenRaiden]

Pretty sure my dreams are not mine.
Strangely mine thoughts are often not mine either, but ownership of thoughts is something that does not exist.

Id say some thoughts are more real than others.

Most thoughts are abstractions anyway.

Though mental structures with which we operate are permanent in that these structures direct our energy in very specific way.

Realistically though I still cannot figure out whether I am schizoid or schizotypal lol.

 

[EndogenousRebel]

I've only heard of people like that being called "arrogant".

Would you maintain that one cannot be arrogant and confident at the same time? Is it impossible to have misplaced confidence in this case? Or is this a matter of choosing your own descriptive qualifications above the descriptions and mental states of others?

I've only heard of people like that being called "arrogant".

Either that or they are suicidal and are confident they will die because they are not confident in the prospects of living.

I've only heard of people like that being called "not confident at all" or "severely lacking in confidence".

Is confidence a binary property that people have? If I am confident with one decision, must I be confident with all my decisions, therefore unable to not be confident?

Carbs have been rare and sparse for most of humanity's development.

Carbs include things like carrots and potatoes.

Watching programmes about the world, and history, and science and nature, I had got the impression that it was protein that was rare in humanity's history, and even today.

Before agriculture (>10,000 years) contains most of human development. We started cooking meat maybe 1 million years ago, which is said to really spark our ancestors advancement towards bigger braIns and higher cognition.

Potatoes were artificially cultivated by natives in the last millennia I think. I don't know about carrots.

It's safe to say that the apples you would see today are at least 10x bigger than an apple thousands of years ago. The reason carbs taste so good is exactly because our evolutionary system saw it as a rare resource that was beneficial to find. Not because it's something that we easily metabolize. Mass distribution has backfired in that regard because now we put excess carbs in everything.

There isn't a system that makes us feel full from it that's all that effective anyway.

I'm not quite sure what you are referring to. Can you describe that in more detail, and how it relates to the digestive system?

My digestive system easily metabolizes meat. I can eat a lot of meat before I have issues with meat overconsumption. I won't have to eat that much because I will get full quickly.

Meanwhile carbs need to be buffered with stuff such as fibers, otherwise my body will not make good use of it and it's more likely to cause metabolic issues.

This is why drinking a coke will spike your sugar even if you consume a fruit, say strawberries with the same amount of total sugar content. So like 15 strawberries to 1 coke can?

I see that as a system that is lacking in components that would make it efficient. It's basically a drain that is getting clogged by natural fibers that makes fruit healthier. We have to eat something with fiber in order to eat something effectively otherwise our body has metabolic issues that we never had before. Thus why you don't hear about diabetic and related disorders. Well outside of rich people.

The "satisfaction" you refer to is very fleeting without natural fibers and consistent snacking on carb sources like fruit. They are a short-term fuel source.

Here, fruit is usually listed as a low-GI food, that only provides energy for a short period of time. That's consistent with my own personal experience.

Perhaps you can provide sources of your claims? Perhaps you can list fruits and carbs that I can buy here, where I can carry out my own personal experiments to test your claims?

Yes, they are low GI because of their composition.

I can take strawberries and use the things it's made up of to make a high GI food.

I don't see my writing as contradicting your experience, it's pretty much exactly in line.

It's simple really. The more processed the food is the more likely it is that it'll spike your blood sugar. I personally would also highly cultivated crops in this category like potatoes and wheat.

I'm not one for linking research papers no one is going to read.

note this dude does make bold claims. I rewatched this video just now, it's pretty bold to say that sugar downregulates dopamine receptors. Still I check out his channel occassionally because he certainly has a unique perspective and evidence to support the claims, just like any other reasoning adult.

 

[Rook]

yeah no shit sugar is in a lot of stuff, much like msg, but i'd still say its possible to cut out/severely minimize its consumption if you prepare meals from untreated ingredients. depends on dietary and lifestyle habits i guess, and to some extent on culture and financial situation/priorities.

and some part in my mind wonders whether rats prefer sugar water because they instinctively balk at the effects of cocaine whereas sugar gives them a manageable energy rush. i din ken, didnay read da case study so ima jus blabbering. also i'm not a rat

 

[EndogenousRebel]

yeah no shit sugar is in a lot of stuff, much like msg, but i'd still say its possible to cut out/severely minimize its consumption if you prepare meals from untreated ingredients. depends on dietary and lifestyle habits i guess, and to some extent on culture and financial situation/priorities.

and some part in my mind wonders whether rats prefer sugar water because they instinctively balk at the effects of cocaine whereas sugar gives them a manageable energy rush. i din ken, didnay read da case study so ima jus blabbering. also i'm not a rat

Hold on, you're telling me you're not any type of rodent? Considering how easy you make managing nutritional consumption is for you I was thinking you might have been related to Remy from Ratatouille.

 

[Rook]

yeah no shit sugar is in a lot of stuff, much like msg, but i'd still say its possible to cut out/severely minimize its consumption if you prepare meals from untreated ingredients. depends on dietary and lifestyle habits i guess, and to some extent on culture and financial situation/priorities.

and some part in my mind wonders whether rats prefer sugar water because they instinctively balk at the effects of cocaine whereas sugar gives them a manageable energy rush. i din ken, didnay read da case study so ima jus blabbering. also i'm not a rat

Hold on, you're telling me you're not any type of rodent? Considering how easy you make managing nutritional consumption is for you I was thinking you might have been related to Remy from Ratatouille.

nah nah my dieting habits are shit right now, got blubber my ankles don't wanna carry XD but i believe with due diligence and adequate motivation anyone with a steady income can eat healthily; control yer portions, cut out all the ancillary sodas and sauces and whatnot, take the time to peal the fruit and chop the veggies and bob's your uncle you're eating food that wasn't churned out of a corporate cesspit.

i encourage such behavior as much as i am currently changing my own habits. exercise is also key.

Hmmm being a rat would be cool, sorta Fritz Leiber/Skaven where I scramble through ducts and stab the genocidal human oppressors with tetrodotoxin-coated needles while they slumber, but if i am any rodent i am the noble capybara.

 

[Rook]

 

[ZenRaiden]

The inability to recruit adaptations and living energy is essentially the opposite the so called insanity.

Correction I meant to say "essentially the opposite of the so called sanity."

Not sure why edit does not work for that post I made. lol

 

[ZenRaiden]

So it has been said.
On a bit of a random note, I had found myself in the unusual mindset of self-experimented-hypnosis. Everyone is the rage on 'meditation'. Meditation focuses more on the conscious mind process, hypnosis opposite. Dreaming is essentially hypnotic, if not totally a drug. They say the conscious mind is too bogged with all the little processes it must account for, therefor it's scope is greatly diminished. When you fall asleep and start to dream, the entirety of your energy is depicted in the images that you see. The 'true self' if you will. The ego practically unleashes itself.

Ever think its odd that you wake up and know for a fact you remember what you dreamed, but you don't. Its like an iceberg, the surface layer is the most transparent, then you go deeper until you get to the dark depths of your psyche. Scary shit. Ones goal should beneficially be to pay attention to what pops up the most. The weirder the dream, the stronger the message. "It's just a dream" they said, but its not, is it. The only reason we give more credence to waking life, is because it is steadfast. It doesn't change, you wake up in the same bed. You go to the same job. You don't teleport to Spain from the Netherlands. It's somehow a calm in the forces of chaos.

A question. If you could choose to stay in a dream, albeit a changing one, or live life as it were, without dreams, which would you choose? Reality is stranger than fiction, because fiction was written from an aspect of reality. You can't write something that never existed. And so you see our world is not quite what it appears. Am I insane for thinking so? I would say no. How can you disprove what you don't even understand. Pretty sure there are no pink unicorns floating around in this world. But what's to say there aren't other worlds with a different set of rules, and fiction.

We are really just another planets definition of aliens.

I think dreams don't really have any meaning in terms of interpretation, because the parts of mind that are deactivated during dreams and direct our psychic energy during day are turned off, so they can be repaired and recuperated during sleep cycle.

I think what we see during dream phase makes most sense in terms of energy.

Our normal psychic energy during waking time is directed, when the mind is idle its free form, which explains why most dreams have no real structure or cannot be remembered.

The part where we are waking up and we tend to vaguely remember are probably the moment our conscious mind is booting up and going back online and the moment that is happening the mind is still stuck between free form that is being activated at the moment of dream into the mental form we have consciously.

Interesting thing I noticed is how when I am falling asleep and then wake up from dream state is how I can recognize the hodge podge of free floating thoughts a sort of psychic current of mental images and sounds and process ....... which are non sense, yet somehow deeper in my mind without any particular recognition I can see or sense some sort of meaning.

I think this is due to the fact that in moment of waking from free form mind our minds tend to activate various regions of mind that are inactive or are active in different way, but as you wake your conscious mind catches a glimps of the process, and the moment you feel like you understand something might be result of your mind sorting out certain memories and putting them in long term memory.

Like the feeling of deeper understanding might be result of actual brain activity in the region that creates this feeling, by being activated, does not actually mean you have some deeper understanding really.

 

[PiedPiper]

So it has been said.
On a bit of a random note, I had found myself in the unusual mindset of self-experimented-hypnosis. Everyone is the rage on 'meditation'. Meditation focuses more on the conscious mind process, hypnosis opposite. Dreaming is essentially hypnotic, if not totally a drug. They say the conscious mind is too bogged with all the little processes it must account for, therefor it's scope is greatly diminished. When you fall asleep and start to dream, the entirety of your energy is depicted in the images that you see. The 'true self' if you will. The ego practically unleashes itself.

Ever think its odd that you wake up and know for a fact you remember what you dreamed, but you don't. Its like an iceberg, the surface layer is the most transparent, then you go deeper until you get to the dark depths of your psyche. Scary shit. Ones goal should beneficially be to pay attention to what pops up the most. The weirder the dream, the stronger the message. "It's just a dream" they said, but its not, is it. The only reason we give more credence to waking life, is because it is steadfast. It doesn't change, you wake up in the same bed. You go to the same job. You don't teleport to Spain from the Netherlands. It's somehow a calm in the forces of chaos.

A question. If you could choose to stay in a dream, albeit a changing one, or live life as it were, without dreams, which would you choose? Reality is stranger than fiction, because fiction was written from an aspect of reality. You can't write something that never existed. And so you see our world is not quite what it appears. Am I insane for thinking so? I would say no. How can you disprove what you don't even understand. Pretty sure there are no pink unicorns floating around in this world. But what's to say there aren't other worlds with a different set of rules, and fiction.

We are really just another planets definition of aliens.

I think dreams don't really have any meaning in terms of interpretation, because the parts of mind that are deactivated during dreams and direct our psychic energy during day are turned off, so they can be repaired and recuperated during sleep cycle.

I think what we see during dream phase makes most sense in terms of energy.

Our normal psychic energy during waking time is directed, when the mind is idle its free form, which explains why most dreams have no real structure or cannot be remembered.

The part where we are waking up and we tend to vaguely remember are probably the moment our conscious mind is booting up and going back online and the moment that is happening the mind is still stuck between free form that is being activated at the moment of dream into the mental form we have consciously.

Interesting thing I noticed is how when I am falling asleep and then wake up from dream state is how I can recognize the hodge podge of free floating thoughts a sort of psychic current of mental images and sounds and process ....... which are non sense, yet somehow deeper in my mind without any particular recognition I can see or sense some sort of meaning.

I think this is due to the fact that in moment of waking from free form mind our minds tend to activate various regions of mind that are inactive or are active in different way, but as you wake your conscious mind catches a glimps of the process, and the moment you feel like you understand something might be result of your mind sorting out certain memories and putting them in long term memory.

Like the feeling of deeper understanding might be result of actual brain activity in the region that creates this feeling, by being activated, does not actually mean you have some deeper understanding really.

Ach, the pain of the conscious mind. Similar may be said of drugs which activate certain mental faculties. I mean it is said that specific substances like DMT...SQUIRELL.
Like DMT can transport ones mind into another reality. Of that I am skeptical but curious. Still, I'm of the opinion that the unbridled faucets of the dreamworld lend credence to our underlying traumas that we fail to deal with in waking life.

...Alright i'm done.

 

[EndogenousRebel]

I'm thinking that the only way to fight "insanity" is asserting an objectively prosperous goal, and asserting that a logic (literal sense) practice of something will get you what you want despite what you want is.

If youre so paranoid you don't trust your own thoughts then it might be tough, but perhaps that would be a good goal to start with.

 

[sushi]

when you lose sense of reality and believe in pesudo stuff like flat earth