All of bipolar's Comments + Replies

bipolar10

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.

bipolar10

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 diagnose

... (read more)
0[anonymous]
I'm 25. I noticed the cycling at about 17, though it started at 14, I guess. The worst period was at 20-21. I will. Should I enter full-blown mania or depression, I'll give lithium a try. I'll see if I can get access to some other mood stabilizers until then. I have rather the opposite problem (even when manic). I sleep 8-9 hours on good days and often 11 or more. This seems unrelated to how depressed I am, nor does my sleep seem disrupted. I've slept lots and really deep for all my life. Sleep deprivation (and polyphasic sleep in general) absolutely triggers hypomania. I rarely use this intentionally to get stuff done before a deadline, but it's really destabilizing for at least 1-2 weeks afterwards.
bipolar10

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 "... (read more)

bipolar30

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.

bipolar30

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.

7NancyLebovitz
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. 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.
1AlexM
It's actually unclear to me that religion does more harm than good For quick and dirty empirical evidence, look at latest european poll Do countries on the top of table with least belief in God, spirit or life force behave more rationally?
bipolar20

If you have more to say as to your list of what the real problems are I'd be interested in reading.

5NancyLebovitz
I believe that a lot of what's wrong with the world comes from taking governments too seriously. The historical argument for atheism-- the damage done by religion-- applies at least as strongly to governments. This doesn't mean I think it necessarily makes sense for individuals to conspicuously ignore a government which is dangerous to them. To put it mildly, there are group effects.