I think this is a great area to explore, and probably one of the areas a rationalist perspective can most help teenagers.
I know as a late teenager, and in my early 20s, my sadness, depression, and anxiety, were part of my identity. It was how I dressed, how I thought of myself, the music I listened to, drugs I took. To take a quote from classic t.v. show ‘Bojack Horsemen’ I fetishized my own sadness. Breakups felt like a beautiful soul-crushing torture.
As I studied more science, read more, and took more interest in the scientific world, I started viewing my interactions with my own emotions in a more evolutionary and scientific view. I was less interested in my ‘artistic sadness’ and saw it more as a sort of depressing failure of my brain and evolution—one which I could try to hack by exercise and eating well.
I wish someone had explained to me that as a man there were special hacks I could use, like lifting weights, testosterone, boxing, fighting, and other activities that I’m programmed to find rewarding. Particularly as a guy who was nerdier growing up, I never realized that passing on sports wasn’t just a personal choice, but could seriously hurt my own personal development and confidence.
probably one of the areas a rationalist perspective can most help teenagers.
Strongly agree. As a teenager, my experience was that so many of the variables that affected my experience were kept from my control that I developed learned helplessness about the rest. Learning about things like locus of control seems like it would have helped me.
I think this is a great area to explore, and probably one of the areas a rationalist perspective can most help teenagers.
I know as a late teenager, and in my early 20s, my sadness, depression, and anxiety, were part of my identity. It was how I dressed, how I thought of myself, the music I listened to, drugs I took. To take a quote from classic t.v. show ‘Bojack Horsemen’ I fetishized my own sadness. Breakups felt like a beautiful soul-crushing torture.
As I studied more science, read more, and took more interest in the scientific world, I started viewing my interactions with my own emotions in a more evolutionary and scientific view. I was less interested in my ‘artistic sadness’ and saw it more as a sort of depressing failure of my brain and evolution—one which I could try to hack by exercise and eating well.
I wish someone had explained to me that as a man there were special hacks I could use, like lifting weights, testosterone, boxing, fighting, and other activities that I’m programmed to find rewarding. Particularly as a guy who was nerdier growing up, I never realized that passing on sports wasn’t just a personal choice, but could seriously hurt my own personal development and confidence.
Strongly agree. As a teenager, my experience was that so many of the variables that affected my experience were kept from my control that I developed learned helplessness about the rest. Learning about things like locus of control seems like it would have helped me.