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:
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).
There are of course
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... (read more)
Related to: Intrapersonal negotiation
I'm writing to inquire about whether there's interest on LW in developing a bipolar support group.
There's a general issue of the people at in-person support groups and designated online forums. been relatively uneducated; having little capacity for or ability for reflection; and for the discussion at such places to degenerate into platitudes. I was touched by datadataeverywhere's posting Intrapersonal negotiation and would be interested in talking with similar people about similar topics.
I'm bipolar ii and have been for at least a decade but only fully became aware of my condition over the past year. I've found my varying functionality/productivity corresponding to hypomanic/depressive oscillations very confusing and have little idea... (read more)
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.
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.
If you have more to say as to your list of what the real problems are I'd be interested in reading.
Agree with Caplan. Various people recommend National Public Radio.
Relevant post here: Kaj Sotala's Applying utility functions to humans considered harmful.
Thia was certainly my own experience; i'm 25 and didn't figure it out until the past year.