LINK ‘Deaths of despair’ are rising. It’s time to define despair | Science News
Questions: Why do "some individuals nurture hope during difficult times while others experience a toxic brew of mental pain?" How do psychologists measure levels of despair as compared with clinically-defined psychological disorders?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.The worst that can happen is death and once experienced everything else is irrelevant.
Everything else is surmountable in one way or another
So protect those you love
Enjoy what you love
Deny your self nothing if it brings you joy
Avoid that and those which would ruins your good time
LenHazell53
Level 9
Dec 7, 2020
2
Sounds fabulous to me!
And chocolate milk.
Chocolate may not solve lifes problems. But its something worth trying.
PondartIncbendog
Level 8
Dec 7, 2020
2
Chocolate, weed, water and exercise are my standbys.
@AnonySchmoose All at once? Are you swimming while eating chocolate and smoking a bud?
@PondartIncbendog
The weather is hot here constantly. The name of this place means "Cruel Sun." In the heat I keep still so as to not break into a sweat, eat chocolate to help endure the heat, & vape resin to enhance imagination.
@AnonySchmoose It's colder than witches poop here. I try not to move until April. I hate winter.
I can testify to the consequences of childhood trauma. The increased despair I've experienced with the pandemic is minor. In fact, watching all these people struggle gives me a sense of community.
BitFlipper
Level 8
Dec 7, 2020
3
I had early trauma too. The pandemic has not changed my life much yet. Though if I get the virus, I may not survive it, 'cause my immune system attacks unpredictably.
Ever since Trump took office, I totally gave up on society. I'm feeling much better now.
PondartIncbendog
Level 8
Dec 7, 2020
2
I hope you keep safe.
@AnonySchmoose Yep. I have one in the garage. I keep my chocolate in there.
@PondartIncbendog
I commend you on keeping the chocolate safe.
@AnonySchmoose I shouldn't have said anything. You know what I have to do now right?
@PondartIncbendog
Go retrieve the chocolate of course.
@AnonySchmoose Change the combination on the chocolate safe.
I am a history buff. According to my study of historical patterns approx every 80 years following the second world war/civil war/American Revolution. The covid world order is the next pattern of crowds control and powers to be in the wealthy corporatism. Since the medical profession is the leading cause of death, this methods is designed to create the monster and the government corporation will act as your Savior. The only God, is the Government, through backdoor politics, dominant by a religious staff.. Comparing world covid deaths of 0.95 to cancer and heart dieses of 75% death rate of all people on earth. Yet many other worst dieses must wait in line behind the covid victims too.. Fear mongering like this is like comparing sharks to mosquitos deaths. .
This humanity abuse will pass also.
As empires die off at the rate of people.
Everybody dies, not everybody lives.
Castlepaloma
Level 8
Dec 7, 2020
2
I understand things you said about historical cycles and how the powerful control the masses.
Loved the final three sentences too.
I think it has to with the social disconnection during this, unnecessarily,global Covid pandemic..it exacerbates the feeling of isolation due to the need to social distance and loss of familial contact. Add to that a feeling of hopelessness about not being in control of nearly all activities..except for self isolation..can be overwhelming..
Charlene
Level 9
Dec 6, 2020
3
It is perceptive of you to understand the intense feeling of isolation for many during the pandemic. Yes, I agree that loss of control with most activities can cause hopelessness. And we still do not know how long this pandemic will limit our lives. Extreme uncertainty exists in millions of lives with no end I can perceive!
@AnonySchmoose If you will replace “...no perceivable end.” with “...no end I can perceive.” I will believe you.
As a secular Jew, I am amazed of the statements coming out of the Christian community about suffering. It's as if Christians must live in a world of hurt, despair, and suffering. But the reward is eternal life after death. How fucked up is this.
ADKSparky
Level 8
Dec 6, 2020
2
What does that have to do with the article and the illustrations?
Am curious. When one considers life and death, it is a duality construct, just as time is a man-made construct. How does religion have anything to do with the article or with the science of psychology? Please feel free to conjecture. I'm curious about your comment.
@AnonySchmoose Of course my thoughts are limited to my small set of experiences with Christians. And, I didn't spend much time at all looking at the graphics--I just can't focus that long. However, I have found that those raised Christian deal with life and death differently. Jews are required to do good work while alive. There's no afterlife. As far as I know, there's no deathbed conversion after a lifetime being a jerk. (I'm not much of a philosopher)
@ADKSparky
To "do good work while alive" sounds real nice.
As I have aged I have started to realize just how many people are complete assholes whose only purpose in life is the stir up problems which they use to dismantle and cripple others!
My solution is stay away from the vast majority, a lot of my so called old friends turned out to be more users than companions!!!
It is just now so much easier to walk away and do not look back!!!
You are the only one who can make you happy!!!
Why let others ruin your happiness using the false front of friendship to dismantle and cripple your happiness???
of-the-mountain
Level 9
Dec 6, 2020
3
How do your comments relate to the article or to the questions?
Please explain. By the way, I've been forced to walk away my whole life, and am bored with that now. Happiness cannot be given, but it can be shown, and in that way it is shared. If one thinks one is alone, one is only thinking. If one knows one is alone, one is aware. And one can be alone and happy.
Seems you post then do not comprehend what you post!!!
Despair is a matter of perception and lack of mental awareness of their relationship to themselves and others!!!
So in your fantasy nothing I state is about despair!!!
@of-the-mountain
People in despair often do not admit they are in despair.
They simply experience themselves and their life as hopeless. But keeping trauma totally hidden (from oneself) does not diminish it or educate the traumatized on how to process that. Some of those with unprocessed trauma go out in public and mass-murder others. How does one account for them? Are they a "fantasy"? What about expressing anger toward strangers publicly? Is that reality or is it a personal fantasy about someone one doesn't in fact know anything about -- such as what & how they think and feel? The question is: does one care really about others or has one given up learning to care? And caring is a human quality. Do we not wish to become evolved humans? Caring does not need to include personal friendship. I perceive despair (and maybe anger and hopelessness) in your comment.
You are so full of yourself!!!
Try your armchair psych 101 on yourself!!!
The world would differently be a better place for the rest of us!!!
I remember terrible disruptions in each stage.
The message was clear, I was neither wanted or needed and anyone that put up with me was making huge personal sacrifices that I should be grateful for.
I was also married for 14 years to a Bulgarian that had come to the US for political asylum but communism had collapsed so revocation of her visa was inevitable.
In 2007 at the start of the Great Recession I found myself unemployed long term for the first time in my life, so she divorced me. I ask myself if it’s a case of escaped hostage, I think not, but isn’t that always the case?
So when I consider my year of isolation I wonder how it’s different than the five years before it.
All I can tell is that I haven’t had to tell people to back off as much as I once did. I always despised hand shaking and crowded seating.
Alone and loving it.
Willow_Wisp
Level 8
Dec 6, 2020
2
I still need to tell a few people to back off now and then. I prefer to do it subtly rather than bluntly, which is not possible sometimes.
I was isolated by family a lot and had an absence of interpersonal skill development and self-confidence during adolescence, which caused me not to ask for help or feel comfortable in groups for many years.
Despair when confronted with death is a one time deal. You get no redo.
barjoe
Level 9
Dec 6, 2020
3
Unless you feel that life and death are interchangeable and constant.
Life and death are mostly comprehended as a duality -- as opposites.
@AnonySchmoose The Catholicism I knew invented Heaven so believers would lose their fear of death. That seems to make life and death a unity.
In a few days I will pass my ninetieth birthday.
Though I’m an atheist, I don’t fear death more than I did in 1957 when I tossed religion. I just don’t want a painful death.
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