bipolar

Karma: 17

bipolar 2 Aug 2011 9:41 UTC
1 point
0
in reply to: taryneast’s comment on: Ego syntonic thoughts and values

Earlier than this and it can easily be mistaken for normal moods affected by outside forces.

Thia was certainly my own experience; i’m 25 and didn’t figure it out until the past year.

bipolar 1 Aug 2011 18:14 UTC
1 point
0
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Ego syntonic thoughts and values
But going with “alright, I’m bipolar” is just a label. I’ve gone through enough of those already.

As far as I know, there’s no good bipolar treatment. Lithium might be useful for more major cases, but my general mood is fairly stable as is.

It’s a possibility to keep an eye on in any case. How old are you? Anecdotally there’s a tendency for the cycling in untreated bipolar people increase in amplitude and frequency with time. If symptoms worsen, consider the following:
1. If I remember correctly, historically Lithium cuts suicide rates in diagnosed bipolar people by a factor of ten or so (can dig up a reference if you’d like).
2. There are of course other mood stabilizers that one can experiment with.
3. CBT, self-monitoring & being monitored by others can be used to recognize the onset of (hypo)manic episodes. This can be useful because one can then take tranquilizers and/or atypical anti-psychotics to reduce the severity of (hypo)manic episodes. This in turn tends to reduce the severity of subsequent depressive crashes.
4. Maintaining a regular sleep schedule with enough hours a night is thought to be important to maintaining (relative) emotional stability. Also, sleep deprivation can trigger (hypo)mania.

bipolar 1 Jul 2011 3:06 UTC
1 point
0
in reply to: NancyLebovitz’s comment on: Reasons for being rational

I noticed that, while there used to be religious wars, for the most part these days, what gets people to die for no good reason is nationalism.

Don’t both of religion and nationalism fall under the broader umbrella of tribalism? It’s plausible to me that without either one there would be some other sort of tribalism with adverse effects on global welfare. People might not die as a result but I don’t think that there’s reason to think that the aggregate negative effect would be smaller.

Now, if what replaced them was some sort of ideology of the type “equal consideration for all” that filled the vaccum left over by politics/religion then that would be different. I have little sense for how likely this would be.

I’m not sure what the best attitude is—I don’t think we can dispense with government these days, but on the other hand, I don’t think law-abidingness and patriotism should be put very high on the list of virtues.

What sort of law-abidingness do you have in mind here? Obeying military drafts?

bipolar 29 Jun 2011 19:41 UTC
3 points
0
on: Is it possible to prevent the torture of ems?
I think that you raise a legitimate concern. I think that as opportunity for growth increases, it will be to people’s advantage to rewire themselves to be more empathetic so that they can cooperate with one another more. So I think that people’s enjoyment of torture will go down on average. But this doesn’t entirely preclude the concern that you raise. I think that all that one can say is that while there’s a good chance that there will be torture in the future if the human race survives, there will be a lot of counterbalancing ecstatic experiences. Whether the latter can balance out the former is in some measure a matter of perspective.

bipolar 29 Jun 2011 18:26 UTC
3 points
0
in reply to: NancyLebovitz’s comment on: Reasons for being rational
Taking governments too seriously in what sense? Adopting values implicit in in government rhetoric? Following laws? Give some examples if you’d like.

Also, are you considering the counterfactual here? Without religion there’s atheism. What happens when people don’t take governments too seriously? It’s actually unclear to me that religion does more harm than good; I would guess that the harm done apparently done by religion is largely due to general human nature and that there are upsides of organic community so that on balance it’s a wash.

bipolar 28 Jun 2011 4:55 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: NancyLebovitz’s comment on: Reasons for being rational
If you have more to say as to your list of what the real problems are I’d be interested in reading.

bipolar 19 Jun 2011 21:12 UTC
0 points
0
on: What are the best news sources to read for *insightful* discussions?
Agree with Caplan. Various people recommend National Public Radio.

bipolar 19 Jun 2011 21:10 UTC
0 points
0
on: Utility Maximization and Complex Values
Relevant post here: Kaj Sotala’s Applying utility functions to humans considered harmful.