Feeling Good
April 12th, 2024
Just going to jot down some notes. And a warning, "[a]ll models are wrong, some are useful."
Theories are an expression of probability.
Mental Health and Physical Health - a dangerous line
When analyzing correlations of human behaviour and human health, we have a tendency to bias towards explanations attributed to moral responsibility. Obesity is caused by sloth and gluttony. Strong bodies are due to strong character. If your body is not as strong it must mean you are of poor character.
Humans and apes alike share one thing in common in our hierarchies: food quality. Leaders of the pack gain access to better nutritional quality. I find it funny how morally advanced we are, however the pattern still emerges. Higher class people eat healthy and lower class people eat junk food. The question is, what caused what, if a causation even exists?
I believe psychiatrists should always first and foremost address physical health first. It is a low-hanging fruit and should be taken into account before prescribing pills we don't fully understand. If the patient isn't sleeping well, isn't sleeping consistently; if the patient isn't eating healthy; if the patient isn't exercising intensely: those should all be simultaneously addressed first.
Patients don't want their mental worries be attributed to poor physical health. It invalidates their cognitive beliefs. Most mentally ill people I've met come up with some rationalization about the way they're feeling, and then push for it hard.
It's important to recognize and not push back against their logic. It'll only be counter-productive. Recognize it. Recognize their patterns and thoughts. Hopefully they can gain the meta-cognition in order to overcome the poor cognitive patterns terrorizing them. Hopefully they can find an activity to root to in order to fix their health. Hopefully they can find the motivation to fix their physical health.
Older People
Ever notice how older people are more irritable?
I watched a clip of young Donald Trump. It's astounding. He had such a high level of self-awareness and was soft-spoken. It's astounding how that calm young man is now so inflammatory.
You have to wonder if his performance nowadays is a facade. But I don't believe it so. I do think he genuinely is aggressive.
I think as we get older, our bodies age. Our mood swings get more intense and are capacity for calmness is lowered. We decrease in testosterone, and all sort of metabolic diseases arise.
I think we become more metabolically inflammatory as we age, and it's proper to note that personality can carry with that change.
Americans
I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Americans are fat and depressed.
In the U.S.A, 41.9% of the population is obese. A poll by Gallup points that 29% of the U.S. population have experienced depression.
America is not poor though. The average American is middle-class. They can afford a place to live in and a car to drive around. They can stock up on food and water. They even have enough money to peruse Amazon buying knick-knacks and things like that.
We are materially wealthy but physically and mentally poor. What is happening to this country?
If I had to choose between America and China in 100 years time---no comment.
Rewards and Punishments
A model of the world: what if all human emotions were just reward/punishment mechanisms, ala artificial intelligence?
I mean, why else would men's saliva increase in testosterone when socializing with women? Why do common colds depress us, and why do depressive moods motivate us to self-isolate? Why does sunlight influence serotonin levels?
If some emotions make us feel bad, why do we not escape the negative feedback loop?
Well, looks like some neuroscientists are already on it. Time will tell.
Sleep
Another blogger has noticed that good sleep correlates with higher blog quality and lower post frequency. They also note that poor sleep leads to worse decision-making quality and even worse evaluation quality. Also, people with poor sleep evaluate themselves to be of better quality.
Reflecting on my own posts, Jesus Christ, it's so true. I have been getting better sleep consistently this week and it's obvious by the way I post here. The effect in writing is especially noticable since it is a solitary, reflective activity. I can tell when my mental health is declining based on the rate I post here.
I don't want to think about how poor sleep affects work quality, driving, socialization, or anything else.
