Motivation: I’m trying to figure out how my brain works. I definitely have bipolar tendencies (and genetic reasons to suspect so) and schizoid personality disorder, along with scoring rather highly on autism/Asperger’s quizzes. I have a tendency to take more ideas more seriously than most, which I suspect for completely unrelated reasons has to do with increased neuronal excitability. I also seem to have rather high neural plasticity (I learn quickly in varied domains, update ontologies quickly, update beliefs quickly, et cetera) though it’s possible that such plasticity is not abnormal among those of roughly my age and fluid intelligence. These factors led me to find the dysfunctional sodium pump hypothesis to be reasonably likely, at least in my case, but it saddens me that I don’t seem to be able to easily construct a model out of the hints that Wikipedia is giving me.
Ultimately I think my intellectual productivity (and quality of life, happiness level, interestingness, et cetera) is better when I’m manic and I’d like to take advantage of that, but I feel obligated to see how Algernon’s principle applies and if trying to be always-manic-schizo would significantly increase my risk of actual schizophrenia or something else bad like increased neurotoxins due to purposefully messed up sodium pump activity patterns or something unanticipated.
I may be reading between the lines too much, but I get the sense that you’re not diagnosed by a psychiatrist, or undergoing treatment. If that’s the case, this might not be the exact area to try to outdo the professionals.
Professionals aren’t allowed to optimize for their patient’s intelligence and productivity, they’re only allowed to prescribe medicines to treat the conditions listed in the DSM, which, sadly, does not recognize the lack of superhuman productivity as a disease.
I don’t think that’s an accurate description of the legal restrictions on doctors. But the legal restrictions are not relevant, only the actual behavior, which has some resemblance to what you say.
As a clinical social worker and a therapist, I can attest to the fact that if you want to bill an insurance company for therapy you have to label the patient/client with a DSM diagnosis.
If one is paying a doctor themselves for medication, there probably is a bit more leeway.
Believe me, I know that high intelligence can skew a professional’s diagnosis. But the underlying disorder is still the same and still treatable with essentially the same methods. You have to shop around a bit anyway to find someone you can work with, and even more so if you are high functioning and cope well.
There’s no reason you can’t do things traditionally as a baseline, and then decide how to proceed; mania is a terrible place to make a decision from.
Ultimately I think my intellectual productivity (and quality of life, happiness level, interestingness, et cetera) is better when I’m manic and I’d like to take advantage of that, but I feel obligated to see how Algernon’s principle applies
People who are experiencing mania or hypomania often exhibit overconfidence, impulsiveness, and irritability, and often make poor decisions.
Hmuh, in the evolutionary environment where there’s not much intellectual work to do these would be enough to somewhat punish mania, but in modern society I think that the increased cognitive performance of manic states is probably a stronger factor… in which case Algernon’s law need not be feared. But maybe there are other detriments related to personal health?
Motivation: I’m trying to figure out how my brain works. I definitely have bipolar tendencies (and genetic reasons to suspect so) and schizoid personality disorder, along with scoring rather highly on autism/Asperger’s quizzes. I have a tendency to take more ideas more seriously than most, which I suspect for completely unrelated reasons has to do with increased neuronal excitability. I also seem to have rather high neural plasticity (I learn quickly in varied domains, update ontologies quickly, update beliefs quickly, et cetera) though it’s possible that such plasticity is not abnormal among those of roughly my age and fluid intelligence. These factors led me to find the dysfunctional sodium pump hypothesis to be reasonably likely, at least in my case, but it saddens me that I don’t seem to be able to easily construct a model out of the hints that Wikipedia is giving me.
Ultimately I think my intellectual productivity (and quality of life, happiness level, interestingness, et cetera) is better when I’m manic and I’d like to take advantage of that, but I feel obligated to see how Algernon’s principle applies and if trying to be always-manic-schizo would significantly increase my risk of actual schizophrenia or something else bad like increased neurotoxins due to purposefully messed up sodium pump activity patterns or something unanticipated.
I may be reading between the lines too much, but I get the sense that you’re not diagnosed by a psychiatrist, or undergoing treatment. If that’s the case, this might not be the exact area to try to outdo the professionals.
Professionals aren’t allowed to optimize for their patient’s intelligence and productivity, they’re only allowed to prescribe medicines to treat the conditions listed in the DSM, which, sadly, does not recognize the lack of superhuman productivity as a disease.
I don’t think that’s an accurate description of the legal restrictions on doctors. But the legal restrictions are not relevant, only the actual behavior, which has some resemblance to what you say.
As a clinical social worker and a therapist, I can attest to the fact that if you want to bill an insurance company for therapy you have to label the patient/client with a DSM diagnosis. If one is paying a doctor themselves for medication, there probably is a bit more leeway.
Believe me, I know that high intelligence can skew a professional’s diagnosis. But the underlying disorder is still the same and still treatable with essentially the same methods. You have to shop around a bit anyway to find someone you can work with, and even more so if you are high functioning and cope well.
There’s no reason you can’t do things traditionally as a baseline, and then decide how to proceed; mania is a terrible place to make a decision from.
This does not fit my anecdotal knowledge of treatment of friends with these disorders who are smart and insightful.
What are you basing your statement on?
People who are experiencing mania or hypomania often exhibit overconfidence, impulsiveness, and irritability, and often make poor decisions.
Hmuh, in the evolutionary environment where there’s not much intellectual work to do these would be enough to somewhat punish mania, but in modern society I think that the increased cognitive performance of manic states is probably a stronger factor… in which case Algernon’s law need not be feared. But maybe there are other detriments related to personal health?
I think I’d be more worried about what’s causing the tendency toward poor decisions, and whether that generalizes to your own case.