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Mitchell_Porter comments on No Value - Less Wrong Discussion
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The state of relative lucidity that you describe is itself something to protect. Just because you are emotionally disengaged from everything around you is not in itself reason to see a psychiatrist. At a higher level, and given the proclivities of this site, you should also listen skeptically to anyone who may try terrorize you into emotion by talking about singularities and existential risk. Just concentrate on remaining aware of yourself and your situation. Eventually, either you will notice that you have been feeling something after all, or life itself will simply force situations on you to which you will be compelled to react.
It is also possible that suchly blunted effect is a symptom of an easily treatable physical disorder such as anemia or thyroid dysfunction. A physical workup may be necessary.
What would be a good reason to see a psychiatrist, then?
This seems like genuinely terrible advice. Why is blunted affect not a problem when life is less enjoyable for it?
because life is less painful for it, presumably. Blunted affect means everything is blunted. Anhedonia is the one that blunts one way.
edit: to illustrate: imagine going through high school. Would you prefer to do it blunted or unblunted?
I seem to prefer negative emotions to feeling nothing at all. Feeling nothing seems to be almost like not living. Is this why some people cut themselves and are suicidal?
It's certainly one of the reasons, although they also do it to escape or distract from what feels like overwhelming negative emotions.
But yeah, I'm with you on the negative emotions > no emotions. First time I got really depressed, I noticed and celebrated (as much as I was able) when I started being able to feel things again, even though most of those feelings were variations on 'sad'.
You may have high school confused with middle school. Either way, I would have preferred to know that I had some chance of avoiding death, or at least putting it off for millenia, and could afford to think about reality in a deliberate and organized way.
Raiden doesn't control his life. The "blunted affect" is protectively shutting out the empty horror of his condition while his mind, even without conscious direction, tries to process just what his situation is. He's not even at the stage of formulating a strategic response because he hasn't formed a model of his situation; he doesn't really understand it. All he notices is this ugly absence of feeling.
So what has to happen is that his mind must continue its work. To do this he needs to dwell in that emptiness for as long as he can stand to do so, and as often as circumstances allow, until the job is done.
At least, that is how I surmise things were for him, a few days ago. Obviously I'm making some big guesses.