Jordan comments on Open Thread: March 2010 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: AdeleneDawner 01 March 2010 09:25AM

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Comment author: MixedNuts 02 March 2010 03:52:01PM 10 points [-]

TL;DR: Help me go less crazy and I'll give you $100 after six months.

I'm a long-time lurker and signed up to ask this. I have a whole lot of mental issues, the worst being lack of mental energy (similar to laziness, procrastination, etc., but turned up to eleven and almost not influenced by will). Because of it, I can't pick myself up and do things I need to (like calling a shrink); I'm not sure why I can do certain things and not others. If this goes on, I won't be able to go out and buy food, let alone get a job. Or sign up for cryonics or donate to SIAI.

I've tried every trick I could bootstrap; the only one that helped was "count backwards then start", for things I can do but have trouble getting started on. I offer $100 to anyone who suggests a trick that significantly improves my life for at least six months. By "significant improvement" I mean being able to do things like going to the bank (if I can't, I won't be able to give you the money anyway), and having ways to keep myself stable or better (most likely, by seeing a therapist).

One-time tricks to do one important thing are also welcome, but I'd offer less.

Comment author: Jordan 10 March 2010 05:23:34AM *  4 points [-]

For what it's worth:

A few years back I was suffering from some pretty severe health problems. The major manifestations were cognitive and mood related. Often when I was saying a sentence I would become overwhelmed halfway through and would have to consciously force myself to finish what I was saying.

Long story short, I started treating my diet like a controlled experiment and, after a few years of trial and error, have come out feeling better than I can ever remember. If you're going to try self experimentation the three things I recommend most highly to ease the analysis process are:

  • Don't eat things with ingredients in them, instead eat ingredients
  • Limit each meal to less than 5 different ingredients
  • Try and have the same handful of ingredients for every meal for at least a week at a time.
Comment author: wedrifid 10 March 2010 09:50:23AM 1 point [-]

I'm curious. What foods (if you don't mind me asking) did you find had such a powerful effect?

Comment author: Jordan 11 March 2010 08:18:38AM 2 points [-]

I expanded upon it here.

What has helped me the most, by far, is cutting out soy, dairy, and all processed foods (there are some processed foods I feel fine eating, but the analysis to figure out which ones proved too costly for the small benefit of being able to occasionally eat unhealthy foods).