Antidepressants can be a powerful tool for mental health issues, but they can also dull creativity. Some medications, such as lithium, trileptal, and norepinephrine, can cause feelings of emotional dullness and depression. However, it is important to remember that creativity is not a fixed resource, and it can be influenced by various factors.
Sedative serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can also have side effects like “blunting”, where patients report feeling emotionally dull and no longer finding things enjoyable. ADHDers tend to display more creative skills when working on tasks that require divergent thinking. Some ADHD traits, such as distractibility and hyperfocus, can be used as inspiration for creativity.
Medication can either dull creativity or unburden the mind, allowing creative expression to flow. Bipolar medication, and other mental health medications, can also have a negative effect on creativity. An award-winning novelist with bipolar disorder has shared anecdotes of striking associations between creativity and mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder. Some people who are treated for severe depression may find it easier to be creative again, while others may not.
In conclusion, while antidepressants can be effective in reducing depression and improving creativity, it is essential to recognize that they do not necessarily dull creativity. It is crucial to recognize that medication can be a powerful tool for mental health, and it is essential to recognize the potential benefits and drawbacks of different medications.
📹 Why Passivity Breeds Mediocrity and Mental Illness
Become a Supporting Member (Join us through Paypal or Patreon) Learn More here ▻ http://academyofideas.com/members/ …
Do bipolar meds make you less creative?
Taking medication can dull your creative edge, but it’s not ruining your creativity; it’s dulling your motivation. Explain this side effect to your doctor to find the right medication that won’t leave you sleepy and unmotivated all day. If you believe you only have artistic talent due to your disorder, there are bigger factors to address. Consider therapy to address why you don’t believe you have the creative ability within yourself.
Mary Sukala, in an article titled “When I Realized I Don’t Have to be Manic to be an Artist”, shares her journey of finding the right medication and working with a therapist to accept her creativity as within herself, not within her disorder.
FHE Health offers mental health treatment programs specializing in conditions like bipolar disorder that combine therapy and medication. The doctors at FHE Health value your creativity and work with you to find a solution that is nondisruptive to your life and allows you to become more focused. Book your consultation by calling 596-3502.
Can bipolar people be very smart?
Bipolar disorder, a mental health condition causing mood shifts from depressive lows to manic highs, is sometimes linked to highly intelligent individuals. However, there is no proven link between bipolar disorder and intelligence, and some studies suggest a potential relationship between IQ scores and bipolar disorder diagnoses. This connection could be due to genetics or environmental factors, and more research is needed to determine the exact cause. Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that can cause people to experience depressive lows to manic highs, but more studies are needed to confirm this connection.
Do stimulants decrease creativity?
Research on the impact of psychostimulants on creativity is limited, with fewer than a half-dozen studies examining their effects on creativity. Early studies from the 1990s did not find consistent effects on creativity when stimulants were used in ADHD. However, two recent randomized controlled trials found a decrease in divergent creative thinking in children with ADHD treated with stimulants.
When stimulants were given to healthy adults without ADHD, mixed results were found. One study showed that non-creative people saw a small gain in their creative abilities after taking Adderall, while high creatives had a modest decrease.
Researchers have also considered modafinil (Provigil), a wakefulness-promoting agent with benefits in ADHD, which has dopaminergic effects. While it improves memory, executive functioning, and subjective task enjoyment in adults without ADHD, it does not improve creative thinking and may even worsen it. In a study of 64 adults, modafinil broadly reduced divergent creative thinking.
Does lithium slow down thinking?
Lithium therapy has a broad range of effects on neurocognition, which is a complex area of research. In research, lithium has minimal effects on concentration or short- or long-term memory, but it does have modest effects on psychomotor speed, verbal memory, and verbal fluency. These effects may be acting on the impairments displayed during episodes. However, the effects of the disorder and lithium therapy are subtle and may not always be detectable in a clinical setting.
To map neurocognitive changes in patients with bipolar disorder who undergo lithium treatment, clinicians should use the Lithium Battery-Clinical tool. This tool allows clinical complaints to be correlated with changes in the illness profile and treatment. This enhances the attention paid to neurocognition in clinical settings and provides a richer understanding of contributing factors in patient illness.
To formulate treatment strategies that focus on improving neurocognition and normalizing mood, lithium dose and plasma blood levels should be modified and monitored with neurocognitive components in mind. However, identifying the domains of neurocognition modulated by lithium in the context of a fluctuating and complex illness like bipolar disorder is a significant challenge. Until specific neurocognitive profiles can be mapped out, clinicians will rely on their judgment to provide advice and make treatment decisions based on bedside tests.
Does lithium affect intelligence?
A study involving 539 subjects found that lithium treatment led to small impairments in immediate verbal learning, memory, and creativity, but no significant differences were found in delayed verbal memory, visual memory, attention, executive functioning, processing speed, and psychomotor performance. Cognitive impairment is underrecognized among patients with bipolar disorder and may represent both illness effects and adverse effects of its treatments.
The study assessed reported effects of lithium on cognitive performance using databases like MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and EMBASE. The authors independently conducted the literature search, focusing on lithium, cognit, neurocognit, neuropsych, psycholog, attention, concentration, processing speed, memory, executive, and learning. The study concluded that lithium may be a potential treatment for cognitive impairment in bipolar disorder patients.
Do antipsychotics dull emotions?
The study investigates the subjective effects of antipsychotics on cognition and emotion in patients with schizophrenia and other psychiatric diagnoses. A survey of 69 patients with a probable history of psychosis or psychotic symptoms and 26 patients with psychiatric diagnoses other than psychosis was conducted online. A questionnaire measuring possible effects of antipsychotics on cognition and emotion was administered. A clear response pattern emerged for 30 out of 49 items, which was similar for patients with psychotic disorders and patients with other diagnoses.
Factor analysis revealed three main effects of antipsychotic medication related to doubt and self-doubt, cognitive and emotional numbing, and social withdrawal. Antipsychotic treatment appears to be connected to a number of negative subjective effects on cognition and emotion. Further studies are needed to assess how these effects impact patients’ subjective well-being and quality of life, as well as their association with antipsychotic efficacy and adherence rates.
The study suggests that induction of doubt and dampening of emotion may be one reason why antipsychotics work while also offering an explanation for their unpleasantness and discontinuation by many patients.
Can medication affect your creativity?
Studies have shown that medications can either decrease creativity and make responses more uniform, or increase creative output. Some studies suggest that medications lower the pursuit of creativity and make people’s responses more uniform, while others suggest that medications increase creative output. Both studies highlight the importance of understanding the relationship between medication and creativity in order to make informed decisions about medication use.
How does bipolar affect you intellectually?
Bipolar disorder can cause difficulties in thinking, reasoning, and memory. Changes in thinking can occur during different phases, such as changes in attention span, racing thoughts, anxiety, difficulty remembering, and psychosis. Some individuals with bipolar disorder also experience memory impairment during high and low moods, and as their mood shifts, they may also experience memory issues. As the mood becomes more extreme, memory problems can increase.
Does lithium take away your creativity?
This paper explores the question of whether a patient might have a bipolar disorder, focusing on the subjective effects of lithium on artists and writers. The literature on this topic is limited, with few papers addressing the topic and some being of limited quality. A dated study by Schou evaluated the subjective effects of lithium on 24 artists and writers, with six assessing their creativity as unaltered, six as it worsened, and 12 reporting improvement.
Goodwin and Jamison noted that the trial was brief and that there is some indication that patients partially accommodate lithium’s cognitive effects. The paper suggests considering the question from a broader perspective, as about 80 per cent of those with a likely bipolar condition affirm feeling “more creative”. Supplementary clarifying questions can be informative. A clinical vignette illustrates how a final year high school student, experiencing a hypomanic episode, completed six essays in three days and received top grades, indicating that her mood state advanced her creative output.
The DSM-5 requires a level of impairment for both hypomania and mania, but an analysis of data from 74 patients with bipolar I and 104 with bipolar II disorders showed that most reported improved functioning during hypo/manic states.
Can antidepressants affect creativity?
Brain diseases and their treatment can impact creativity and quality of life. Increased creative drive is linked to conditions like bipolar disorder, depression, psychosis, temporal lobe epilepsy, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson disease treatments, and autism. Creativity relies on goal-driven approach motivation from midbrain dopaminergic systems. Fear-driven avoidance motivation is less beneficial to creativity. When serotonin and norepinephrine lower motivation and flexible behavior, they can inhibit creativity.
Hemispheric lateralization and frontotemporal connections must interact to create new ideas and conceptual schemes. Genes and phenotypes that increase plasticity and creativity in tolerant environments may confer risk in rigorous environments. Antidepressants that inhibit fear-driven motivation may also inhibit goal-oriented motivation. Antidepressants that boost goal-directed motivation may remediate this effect. Benzodiazepines and alcohol may be counterproductive.
Dopaminergic agonists may stimulate creativity, but their suppression may be inappropriate. Physical exercise and REM sleep may help creativity. Art therapy and psychotherapy are not well studied. Preserving creative motivation can help creativity and other aspects of well-being in all patients, not just artists or researchers.
Does mania increase creativity?
A study found thatmania can be linked to creativity intensity and high energy levels, but also hinders productivity. Over half of participants found unusual creative thinking advantageous to their work and considered creativity central to their identity. Establishing a connection between bipolar disorder and creativity could challenge stigma by demonstrating the positive attributes associated with the condition. The mechanism for this connection is still being explored.
📹 6 Signs of Concealed Depression
Even though people with hidden depression adopt coping strategies to conceal their depression, the burden to carry this mental …
Hobbies lift the spirit, challenge the mind and can bring joy to the heart. I love airplanes, and I fly as a hobby. One of my favorite quotes (and one that I very much identify with) comes from the pilot and author Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “I fly because it frees my mind from the tyranny of petty things.”
I think the laboriousness of pre-modern life is often greatly exaggerated. Actually hunter-gatherers like the Native Americans had a lot of free time and seemed to enjoy it. They didn’t work hard like the white man and didn’t want to….Benjamin Franklin spoke somewhere of the Indians looking down on the white man’s ‘laborious way of life’. Agricultural peoples have a laborious way of life… however even those people had large amounts of free time such as during winter in the Northern hemisphere when there was little agricultural work to be done. But as far as I know neither hunter-gatherers nor our farmer ancestors suffered overmuch from boredom. I think they were better equipped for ‘being with themselves’ and entertaining themselves. I think a lot of modern man’s boredom is really ennui, a sense of the futility of life which itself is born out of modern man’s unrealistic expectations of what life should and can be for most people. Modern man makes his own suffering because his mental worldview is unreal and when these unreal expectations meet reality suffering, both psychological and physical, ensues.
This has seemingly been true in my own life. I find my bouts of depression and anxiety are founded upon self-loathing and guilt that is caused by passivity and irresponsibility. One of the hardest life changes that I have made is voluntarily tackling responsibilities and creating productive free time for myself. It is my natural inclination to be passive and to seek momentary gratification. Since I have made this change I am far more content. I am also far more alert and competent in my work and hobbies as well.
I think the quote at the last part is a beautiful one: “Merely to do something what others have done is often safe, and comfortable; but to do something truly original, and do it well; whether it is appreciated by others or not—that is what being human is really all about, and it is alone what justifies the self love that is pride.” -Richard Taylor . Stay safe, everyone! <3
this is interesting because I’ve actually found that most of my depressive episodes came with the feeling that I’ve been engaging too much in activities that just fuel my passivity. Those activities that are meaningless and not beneficial to me just make me bored with life and I feel like if i’m not doing anything to improve my life or the life of others, then my life is utterly pointless. That’s why I started making articles in the first place, to give my life more meaning and connect with people, to have the important and thought-provoking conversations, to share my opinions, to offer a different perspective to people. I feel like sometimes I get caught up in things that aren’t important, like how many Instagram followers I have or if i’m pretty enough, but ultimately i’m not living for the applause of others. I do not exist to perform for others. Thanks for this article, nice to know I’m not the first to feel this way.
i used to be an artist, but staying at home has made me happier than ive ever been. back when i went to school, or worked, i didnt want to live and wondered what all that work was for, and if i would just spend my entire life toiling and competing for a spot in some corporate company who doesnt care about me, doing some dumb graphic art project. even when i did my own projects, its only a temporary sense of pride that quickly leaves and im back feeling down about life, like i had gotten a shot of drugs that wore off after a day. now i stay at home as the house caretaker, i have my free time to relax and not worry about when my next project is, i havent really drawn in over a year, and im happy for the first time in my whole life, actually. What ive learned about abandoning this societies ideal of “success” and “happiness” is that the constant drive to be the best, to succeed and go higher on the corporate ladder, is what’s making people unhappy (well, at least it was for me, and from what i’ve seen, a lot of other people. but i suppose thats anecdotal). most people just dont work like that. people need time to decompress, to relax and turn their mind off. our current society doesnt really permit that. we work 40+ hours a week at places that only allow short breaks once or twice a day, a marginal amount of vacation and personal days, and some people dont even get maternity days to take care of their own babies. how can you not be depressed when this company essentially owns your life and you barely have any freedom to decide when you want to even go on a damn vacation?
It’s a myth that people had to toil from dawn to dusk in order to sustain a living. There were certainly places and times at which this is true, but it’s also true that in some places working enough to sustain oneself took only a few hours a day, after which there was plenty of room for leisure. Source: primitivism.com/primitive-affluence.htm The other point, that passivity and depression are linked is profoundly incorrect. It’s not passivity that is at fault, but rather meaninglessness. For instance, the happiest people in the world are arguably master meditators that have spent literally 50,000 hours sitting and doing “nothing”. If sitting for 50,000 hours doesn’t count as “passivity” in the Western estimation, I don’t know what does. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthieu_Ricard#Life Taylor’s solution to the existential problem of “what to do?” is the Western existential approach rooted in that same mentality that continues to drive capitalism and what Weber wrote about in the Protestant Ethic, namely: a person’s worth is proportional to their diligent industriousness. That somehow one can achieve greatness or satisfaction by achieving some goal is deeply myopic. It’s not achieving a goal that satisfies – I mean, deeply satisfies – but, rather, developing a practice that’s intrinsically rewarding and enjoyable. For instance, Picasso didn’t paint to be the best painter, or to be recognised, but rather because he found it rewarding in an of itself. It’s learning to enjoy the journey, not the goal, that’s important.
This feels like a very one sided, opinionated theory. We bring into argument what constitutes mental illness, the roots of most mental illnesses and the entire philosophy of buddhism this theory starts to show cracks. Granted being a creative and curious human is important but having spare time where one is not creating anything, but simply existing, is considered a fundamental to being calm, mindful and understanding your emotions. Endlessly creating or turning ones mind over can do even more damage at time to mental health. As a creative person, always being creative can be your fall. Its crucial for me to turn off my brain if I want to be consistently going up in life.
In my own experience leisure time is dreaming, visualisations, reading,piecing together my past for answers etc. To one person this may be seen as passivity or a waste of time, to another it may be the most practical activity. Deep down we all know what to do in order to feed our souls, its whether we have the courage to act on it.
This is so unbelievably spot-on. Basically describes everything I’ve been going through for years now, which has come to a head in the last year to where I haven’t burnt out–I’ve rusted out. Also, I read this not as a call to be constantly busy with work and to not be idle with leisure, but rather underlines the importance of doing meaningful, edifying things and being intentional vs passive. People today can distract themselves either through frantic busyness or idle appetitive pursuits and pleasures: both function to distract from having to exist alone with oneself and the rumblings of the conscience. There’s definitely a range of good work to play ratios, but the big factor is whether the work and play is meaningful and edifying or soul-destroying and vegetative.
What’s interesting – when I had more money than I knew what to do with it and a monotonous (but well paying) job with little work to do, I eventually got super depressed and know what this article is talking about. In a sense, you made it financially and there was nothing left to strive for at least financially. Now I have a job that keeps me more busy and takes much more effort (with less money). Now I am not depressed in that way, but instead am stressed with having too much work and some financial worries. Perhaps somewhere in between is a good middle ground.
Wilson’s connection between passivity and depression may only be correlative. Not causative. For example, people’s habits and behaviours while passive are different to the habits of people who are active. Bored people tend to eat more and workout less which are two direct factors that influence depression and have more variables within that would take a lifetime to figure out alone. Active people are engaged with their day and are animated by something that keeps passivity at abeyance, but their habits are also different. Maybe they are so active that they forget to eat and work right through. It’s the meaning and sense of purpose that keeps bad habits knocking. And with fewer bad habits comes fewer depressive episodes. Depression is an illness, it can be the cause of passivity more than passivity being the cause of depression.
There’s a reason why depression is on the rise. Having this “True Pride” is more and more unattainable. Human civilization is now globalized on insane scales. Having knowledge and or skill that others around you don’t, is so incredibly difficult. With technology today, I can learn several languages, create 3D Models, design applications, learn several instruments more and more. people are growing less relevant because you aren’t competing with your town to become unique and the best; to stand out and feel relevant you need to surpass the world.
I agree with the base idea that too much “down time” can breed stagnation and depression. But it’s narcissistic to extrapolate a hierarchy of “worth” from that. We should all strive to take advantage of our time on this world because we’ve got some pretty cool things to take advantage of. And if the thing that drives you leaves society different (hopefully better) than you left it then the altruistic pride stemming from that is great. But there is no universal grounds to say that people who want to work, catch up with friends, and indulge in entertainment have less worth. Messages seem sort of mixed as the narrator accounts for “Hey, maybe we do need to take time for mental health and there could be nothing wrong with time spent idle when properly metered out” and the quotes used language like “merely to do what others have done” and “satisfactions of the animal side of our nature”. The writer of the essay may not believe he/she is above other people for having aspirations but the source material seems to believe people who are happy with day to day pleasures are lesser.
What is the purpose of life? Is it not to learn… About the universe, other people and, ultimately, about oneself? You reply, “Ok, but then what?” But can you not see that there is no ‘then what’? The destination is the journey itself. Why? Because the truth is, you can never know about all those things, And so your journey merely continues; Learning all the time as you go. And so the purpose of life is this; Right here, right now. Simply learn to savour and appreciate The specialness and uniqueness Of each and every little moment in life, For it will all too soon be gone, Never to be experienced again.
I get the idea but it is difficult to conciliate this to the thoughts of ‘the burnout society’ by BC Han… Self exploitation also causes illness and unhappiness and in a certain way some boredom allows the mind to sort some things out. When you meditate and reach the ultimate state of passivity, you can get lots of clarity on what’s important and on what pursuits feel most natural… There is something in the midway between this article and burnout society that should allow for effortless action and creativity.
This is actually quite a disturbing and ignorant view on the dynamics. Sure the old Greek philosophers could feel superior and spent their free time engaged in fulfilling creative work while their slaves and women were basically sacrificing their lives by doing everything else that needed to be done. It is always easier to look down on the small people so you can feel superior. But actually it is just heartbreaking.
Meh, this feels like a weak take. Doing nothing mindfully is critical to coming to a direct understanding of your mind and what is meaningful. Basically, you need to pay attention to your own mental processes, and that’s not possible if they’re busy dealing with outside distractions. It’s the multitasking, delusions of grandeur, and instant gratification of society that detract from this–sadly these are all things encouraged by a consumerist, capitalist society. Occupy your days with endless distractions if you want–they will not get you any further to a life well-lived. And furthermore, you can’t use a logic bypass to ignore emotions when seeking to understand your mind. The mind fundamentally is an inference and decision making machine that has evolved emotions precisely because of how useful they are in these tasks. Try fighting a wolf without the help of fear and anger. You have to observe how your emotional processes operate in response to stimuli, not just fetishize yourself as a vulcan. For more on this check out Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior.
After the “great recession” of 2008 I became a passive drunk, sitting around doing nothing. Finally I realized that I wanted to do something creative and got involved in Wood Turning, taking different woods and turning it on my wood lathe to make useful items. I was surprised that people liked my work and paid fair money for the different items. Then I needed major surgery and have been home bound and weak for over six months. My goal is to recover and begin again with my little wood work shop. Being inactive for months now I yearn to return to some creativity. I agree with the article and resist the temptation to molder. One thing I’ve noticed with people and their phones…they don’t seem to be able to hold a conversation without referring to the internet to support their views, it’s a strange way to converse, I don’t own a cell phone.
It’s not about accomplishing something that meets the approval of others; but rather accomplishing something that gives you pride. That accomplishment may or may not make you famous and/ or rich, but if its genuine and gives you pride then it doesn’t matter; it has fulfilled you. if your work gives you pride, then you are fulfilled. If nothing gives you pride, and you feel trapped in a wheel in your leisurely activities, then you may not be happy, or as happy as you could be. Playing a musical instrument brings me intense joy; and while I’ll never be famous or ‘great’, i know that true happiness is the journey and success is the byproduct.
TLDR: There is much truth in this article, do not misunderstand the message. A lot of negativity in these comments. Almost like people hate being told their “leisure” is likely a waste of time. I think something untouched in the article is that there is a difference between healthy and unhealthy leisure. Passivity refers to things that require little to no action (scrolling social media, perusal your show, talking about simplistic topics) and these activities, if you can really call them that, are what lead to the “neurosis” referred to in the article. Engaging in an activity that requires repeated input to receive an output, I think, is the basis for healthy leisure time. Do something that isn’t fun unless you make it fun. Something that gives you what you put into it. People at my work and about are frequently surprised to hear that I don’t watch and shows or movies at all. I’m a huge nerd so the fact that I haven’t seen the new anime series or any of the new marvel movies is usually what starts the convo. I just prefer to challenge myself when I get home by either playing a challenging game, playing music, drawing, or writing. It’s not really laborious unless I make it that way with the wrong state of mind. Some days are pretty miserable, where I can’t produce any satisfying results, but others are more rewarding than anything I could get from outside sources. I used to be suicidal. I was admitted to a mental hospital at 17, before my physically self-destructive tendencies escalated any further, and even after my release I battled with my crushing depression for years, having no concrete answers for why I felt this way.
This article gets it wrong on so many levels. It’s these type of articles that do more damage than good because their only goal is to get views, not provide the real width and breadth of such a weighty subject as the one presented here. This is a poor attempt at disguising un-researched twaddle as academic prowess.
“The superior ones”? I mean yes that kind of thinking doesn’t do well today, but for good reason right? Also this article ignores the fact that most people today do mental labour much more than physical labour. So it would make more sense to do physical activities in free time, rather than more mentally challenging ones.
There’s a difference between boredom and peace. A person could be sitting deep in thought, distressed. While the other could be also just sitting there, meditating, peaceful and content with feeling small and idle. My point is: purpose and intention are the distinction. So many citizens of capitalistic countries work on auto-pilot like cogs in a machine in professional environments only to come home and work tirelessly on a project they feel called to do (rarely any have the time or energy but people with hobbies still exist in capitalist nations) and end up feeling fulfilled and recharged.
capitalism. your value is your worth, your worth is your work. you feel guilty doing nothing bc our society has made working seem our inherent life goal even if it’s soulless edit: i like that i said nothing abt communism/socialism but ppl assume being against one thing means being for another! reading comprehension… develop it but continue to discuss
I’m torn between Wilson’s view and my experience of other cultures. I can acknowledge that I was not raise in an inherently loving family and so I sought praise from accomplishing things. High achiever mentality. If I’m good enough then I will deserve love. I think most people have at least some of this feeling. But there are people who grow up in very emotionally healthy families who know they are loved and so don’t have to achieve anything extraordinary to receive love. We’ve all had the experience of blissfully wasting days with a love doing absolutely nothing productive. And yet we were so happy because we felt loved. I think the depression that stems from a lack of productivity comes from the idea that I need to achieve to receive love. If I believe this and I do nothing then I believe I am not loved or worth of love. It’s broken people that push themselves to extraordinary achievement because it’s a way to emotionally survive. But if we’re all going to end up in the ground regardless why not just strive for a life of pleasantries instead of suffering? I think about this a lot. In my personal case, suffering comes whether I want it or not, so I may as well find ways to suffer to my benefit.
Seems as though pride and self love are awfully dependent on exterior virtues and values. You rise above the herd because the herd puts you there. They pay attention. And I don’t think most people talk about “nothing”. That seems to be an illusion adhered to by pretentious academic circles who think because they’ve read Hegel they understand these secrets of life that “the herd” won’t get. If you hear people talk about “nothing” it’s because they don’t need to openly discuss deep philosophical ideas about life to be motivated to live. They just chug on. Good article, a few holes in da logic tho.
I dunno…. I agree with this being the majority of the mindset of creatives but I think it’s a pretty self indulgent mind set to think that the only way to life is to create or be driven. I think just enjoying life as it is, is an artform in itself. Always reminding yourself to look for the positives in situations is work and also a form of being creative. When I meet very positive genuinely kind people that don’t need to boast about anything it is very inspiring to me… I love being around those people as well not just “creatives or the driven”.
Having a purpose & meaning in life, i.e., lack of passivity, the opposite of lack-of-belief, whatever you & experts want to call it…. is the main purpose of life. Humans grow with active pursuit of “something” (however mundane, finite, hedonistic results it may lead to) rather than sit back & be passive to every/ most things around them. The youth of today or for that matter every age, run that risk of slipping into passivity that has big consequences later in their lives as they find themselves depressed, disillusioned & lost. Thats the key message of this article & its right.
:You must have a love for yourself justified in the person you are.” Are you your skills? Are you your talents? Are you your education? Are you your wisdom? Are you your actions? Are you your wealth? Are you your social standing? No, these are all things that you have, they are not who you are. Advocating for loving yourself on the basis of what you have is a road that leads towards an endless grasping of straws in the hope that one day you will be worthy of your own love. Instead, you should love yourself. It is that simple, you do not need any reason, and it is not selfish or narcissistic to do so. It is not a bad thing to love yourself for no reason, just like it is not a bad thing to love someone else for no reason, it is, in fact, a very, very good thing. Love is not a finite resource, it is not something that can run out. When you love yourself you are like a cup that is filled to the brim, and as it continues to be filled it cannot stop from spilling the excess out into the world around it. Love yourself, and it will be hard not to love everyone around you, and when you love everyone around you it is very hard not to be a good person.
I think most of the frustration over life that people have comes from them feeling as though they ought to strive to be an ideal promoted by those that they are imprinted upon they say it is their own but are miserable when partaking in it, and won’t admit it to themselves, and so one should realize that you don’t have to be anything, when you do that you will achieve all that you truly desire I do not think one must be a master at anything, I think it is best to find love for what could be better, and mastery is often a side effect of love
My dear Wormwood, Obviously you are making excellent progress. My only fear is lest in attempting to hurry the patient you awaken him to a sense of his real position. For you and I, who see that position as it really is, must never forget how totally different it ought to appear to him. We know that we have introduced a change of direction in his course which is already carrying him out of his orbit around the Enemy; but he must be made to imagine that all the choices which have effected this change of course are trivial and revocable. He must not be allowed to suspect that he is now, however slowly, heading right away from the sun on a line which will carry him into the cold and dark of utmost space. For this reason I am almost glad to hear that he is still a churchgoer and a communicant. I know there are dangers in this; but anything is better than that he should realise the break he has made with the first months of his Christian life. As long as he retains externally the habits of a Christian he can still be made to think of himself as one who has adopted a few new friends and amusements but whose spiritual state is much the same as it was six weeks ago. And while he thinks that, we do not have to contend with the explicit repentance of a definite, fully recognised, sin, but only with his vague, though uneasy, feeling that he hasn’t been doing very well lately. This dim uneasiness needs careful handling. If it gets too strong it may wake him up and spoil the whole game. On the other hand, if you suppress it entirely—which, by the by, the Enemy will probably not allow you to do—we lose an element in the situation which can be turned to good account.
So according to this theory, distracting yourself from existential crisis is the life’s journey and purpose. For me at least, keeping busy didn’t help me much from keeping away from the emptiness i felt inside. If you want to run away from it, you gotta always run faster until you get exhausted and can’t run anymore. Always hungry for more. Besides, if you think that you need to be constantly able to achieve something to be worthy, what does that tell about how you value towards life itself? Also in order to be in this kind of ‘worker bee’ mode, you need to have a set of values to progress towards. Or is doing jumping jacks for the whole day everyday something that would get the approval as well? Question is then, upon which values to work towards? And if everyone is just creating all the time, who is there to appreciate the creations?
I agree with this to certain point. As someone who study PhD in university, I find physical labour very relaxing, especially really hard 10 hours a day work. The feeling I got when I came home after such a long day was really awesome. Although I needed a lot of rest, mentally it made me better than hours of solitude working on college degree. After a while I realized, I need both, mental as well as physical labour to stay sane and happy.
I don’t think being passive is a bad thing. My being passive led me to your article, dude. And passivity allows us the opportunity to enjoy other people’s creations. If people created and learned and worked nonstop there’d be no time for them to honor the fruit of other people’s existence. For example, it would be a shame if you made this article and no body watched it because they were too busy creating their own stuff. Passivity is good. The best thing about creating something is perusal someone else enjoy it at their leisure 😉 and besides, looking down on people just because they like to do different things with their time is a dick move. This society is soul sucking, if you really want to do something different change the world so that it’s not so damn soulless and people would have the creative energy to be their best. (sorry if this sounds preachy)
mediocrity (laziness, distraction etc) and conformity(fear, cultishness) are the two biggest obstacle which comes in the way of human potential achievement. sometimes I find that mediocrity and conformity are reciprocal to each other such as fear makes you passive and lazy and passivity leads to future fear. maybe we human being instinctively seeks comfort and do not like to take the risk, personally, I find that after a period of long work my mind seeks an award in the form of the mediocre thing(leisure, procrastination). I think it is a human tendency to learn only from an accident, incident, and guilt.
Personally, I find it relaxing to watch my favorite show and dance to my favorite songs after a long day of working and studying. Spending leisure time on these activities not only didn’t cause any harm to my well-being but also boost my mood up. And thanks to them, I can enter the stable state when I am devoting for my personal project.
The aristocrats sure did enjoy their leisure while their 40+ servants kept their homes spotless, cooked their every meal, even put their clothes on for them and ran their errands. Leisure all the time can get boring but working too hard causes much more harm than relaxation. I didn’t experience anxiety and depression until I went to college
When I suffered a leg injury, I spent a almost an entire year in leisure as I went through recovery. I think that, worse than the physical damage, the psychological damage of having lost all purpose and routine was far greater. It culminated in a mental breakdown, where I had to be hospitalized, and now, I’ve noticed I’m almost incapable of enjoying long periods of leisure, as I will get too restless within an hour of inactivity. If I have a long passage of time of idleness, even a week, my mental health takes a drastic decline, to where, exercise and creating is the only cure
There is a lot of romanticizing about the past and lack of historical knowledge in this article. No one has ever “worked from dusk till dawn”. Not even very strong animals, like horses, submit to, or can live in, such strict regimen. The closest we’ve ever got to this essentially fictitious notion was during the Soviet Gulags! It is worth pointing out the irony of this message being broadcasted on YouTube, which is one of the most passive activities one can partake on. At any rate, if you (the author of the article) want to toil from dusk to dawn, no one is going to stop you.
A few days ago Macron explained that the authors of the last riots in France were very young this time. And prior to this, interestingly, they had many months of inactivity due to school strikes and covid. In Gaza, 80% of people are unemployed as Gaza is getting welfare money from abroad. This mass passivity/inactivity/mediocrity precedes everywhere chaos bursts. I am beginning to connect the dots. A leisure society is doomed to fail. It would actually be a nightmare.
I’ve been this passive person for 26 years. I’ve got severe health anxiety, and I suspect more than that but I won’t say before a therapist does. Tbh, last week I reached mylowest point. I couldn’t sleep for 3 nights because I felt like I was having a stroke everytime I started to fall asleep… I talked with my parents about my anxiety, which was the hardest thing I could do, I went to the hospital, and now I’m waiting to see a therapist. I’m so tired of living like this, really. It has been 5 years since it started, and it’s just terrible. Tomorrow I’ll have an audition for the first time, to join a musical theathre school. I don’t know if that’s my answer, cause to be honest, I feel like I was molded to a point that I don’t even know what I really want. But I always loved musicals and singing. I hope all goes well. I hope that’s my turning point 🙂 I’m glad this article was in my suggestions, cause it came right on time. Good luck, yall! And sorry for the personal essay xD
Problem is why happiness or pride should be mandatory. Most people are mediocre and many have some kind of mental illness or deficiency to begin with, while being very active, active in the way an ant is active, being compelled by instinct, by an irrational need to be happy, to have pride or to belong.
I hate it when I find myself bored with no energy and end up scrolling on social media, it only makes it worse and seeing how well other people seem to be doing in life only makes me more miserable and has me feeling like feeling like a failure. However, when I distance myself from the wicked screen, I feel so much more peaceful, even though I’m not constantly indulging in pleasure.
Having had 2 months staying at home and been unemployed, I could tell you just really connected the dots and showed my a clear picture of what has low-key impacted me. This time truly drove me insane. Crazy thoughts and actions took place without me being able to control. Some of the worst habits have been developed, not to mention me ruining the relationships with Mom and Dad. Thank you for the beautiful message it had to offer, I am definitely going out there and starting to get myself a job. Can’t stay idle for too long!
I don’t know why you re saying that leisure time didn’t exist or was extremely restricted prior to 200 years ago….the fact that philosophy religion ideas arts and many other things of that nature existed…proves that there was free time to ponder these things….I highly doupt that people only worked on their survival for most part of the day and there is actual evidence of very old native American civilizations working for their survival for about 12 hours a week contrary to the 40+ people work nowdays.
You know what’s interesting. My college semester went online during the COVID-19 lockdown, and I noticed that I was doing less and less of my schoolwork, and I’m in graphic design. It’s my passion, but for some reason, I just couldn’t be as productive as I used to be. I got into this lazy rhythm of getting up, eating, perusal TV, eating, playing article games, eating, jack off (also counts as leisure), eating, spending time on phone, eating, then sleeping. You get the picture. I got to the point where I ignored deadlines and didn’t turn things in, yet I was still get C’s, B’s and A’s on everything, because I at least participated in the Zoom meetings, which was enough for them to appreciate me making the time to still participate, because I guess none of my other classmates were doing it. I was one of the very few. Anyway, fast forward to today, where my semester is officially over. I got straight A’s…from not doing much. I got great grades, so why am I not feeling more happy? It makes sense though. I got a good grade from not doing much, so what was really the point? This article really made me reevaluate myself.
I left school in the early 70s. I went for 80 job interviews and then gave up. I joined the ranks of the long term unemployed and was on welfare for 10 years. But those ten years were spent learning to play music and were anything but idle. In the 90s I turned professional and made a decent living out of music. Then the state government legalised poker machines and turned this state into a giant casino profiting off the misery of low income earners. Where I live now has 20% of the world’s poker machines. Almost over night the places where we used to play got rid of us and installed poker machines. Then the rise of the internet completely changed how people consume music. It’s a problem that was created by the business world in the 70s when it realised how silly it was to keep on giving workers in developed nations pay rises when you could relocate to Saipan and pay the locals a pittance instead. Now you can buy a house in Detroit for a dollar but you’d be crazy to want to live there. Gee it’s great to live in the free world.
“A zoologist who observed gorillas in their native habitat was amazed by the uniformity of their life and their vast idleness. Hours and hours without doing anything. Was boredom unknown to them? This is indeed a question raised by a human, a busy ape. Far from fleeing monotony, animals crave it, and what they most dread is to see it end. For it ends, only to be replaced by fear, the cause of all activity. Inaction is divine; yet it is against inaction that man has rebelled. Man alone, in nature, is incapable of enduring monotony, man alone wants something to happen at all costs — something, anything…. Thereby he shows himself unworthy of his ancestor: the need for novelty is the characteristic of an alienated gorilla.” – Emil Cioran.
This presentation was a mess. Yes, intellectuals and philosophers thought this way 100-200 years ago, but these ideas and the way the author assembled them are out of date. The author is thinking like someone from 150 years ago. Passivity does not bread mental illness. Yes, creativity and activity (either physical or mental) is great for everyone. Mediocrity is born out of people who have low goals, physical or mental disabilities, or people who are too distracted with trivial matters (who might be too poor, ill, or addicted, to have time to think of better things. Anyone can rise above mediocrity by setting some goals and doing them, even it if is just to walk in the park, to discuss a movie with a friend, cook a fun meal, or raise thoughtful children.
This is whats stupid about these articles. Whos to say what a persons aspirations should be? We now have all of these people who are “non conformists” telling people to “conform” to their principles of what to aspire to. The self help hilters. Free time spent by a person will generally be spent doing the things they want to do in life. And, no. Most people dont have lots of leisure time as you claim it. Most kids do, but hardly any adults i know. 40-80 hours a week is how long most work, and when they get home, its more work before bed. The only free time is the weekend. Should they be achieving more? Like what? We should all study math in our free time? Science? Philosophy? What exactly should everyone be trying to become in their free time? Risk above what? I could complain about a capitalists drive to not rise above greed and making money in his free time. But that doesn’t mean its a fact. Its just my opinion. Could people be spending their time doing more healthier and more productive things? Yes. But free time is leisure for a reason. Often people need to do mundane and entertaining things because they are so switched on during the day it helps them relax.
Or perhaps Wilson needed to keep his mind occupied so as not to confront the true reason(s) he was gloomy or depressed. Compartmentalisation is common in depressives and perhaps he always needed the distraction. No one will ever know his mind but I feel if you need to constantly distract or have tasks to do in order to feel mentally well then maybe you’re not comfortable sitting with your depression. Depression is there for a reason. Suppression through activity is not a long term strategy.
i didnt expect the message of this article to be so contentious… so i decided to comment to share my agreement with this article. ive had depressive episodes for years (not clinical depression, just depressive episodes on and off) and its true that most of it arose from a feeling of wasting my life, of not rising up to my potential. so i absolutely get the ideas in this article. the only thing that i want to add, tho: i think community is a big factor in mental health as well. ppl who have a tight knit group of friends and family members and feel like they are a valuable part of their community also have less mental health issues. it doesnt always come down to self improvement and creation.
‘You are miserable because you are free.’ – Otto von Bismarck “individual psychological suffering is merely a reflection of the collective dissociation and neurosis of modern life itself. Jung’s cure for this split laying deep within a state of deep meaninglessness and alienation for those in the modern world is to find a personal symbol, myth, and meaning for the individual life that brings the total psyche a sense of purpose and coherence to the cosmos.” We’re not sick. We live in a sick society, and many of us who are depressed are simply better able to see it than others.What we need is not an individual cure, but a collective cure. We need a ‘true myth’ to restore meaning and purpose to our civilisation as a whole. National Socialism is that myth: unlike the other great political myths of our time, it is not only attractive, heroic and romantic, but empirically grounded and objectively true. People scream that they want rights, but what they need is responsibilities. Duty is the sternest antidote to all evils, spiritual and social. People need to believe that they are part of something greater than themselves, that their lives are not mere blips on the cosmic radar, but serve some higher purpose. People need to matter, and we live in a world where nothing truly matters. Not all the therapy sessions and awareness campaigns in the world can fix that. Only a National Socialist state that unites us in the common goal of the preservation, advancement and expansion of our civilisation can provide that.
I am pretty sure that this is a waste of time, but here it goes: I don’t agree with what Richard Taylor says (at 8:12): “But to do something truly original, and do it well, whether it is appreciated by others or not – that is what being human is really all about, and it is alone what justifies the self-love that is pride.” I’m just going to say that you should be proud of yourself regardless of what “you have done”. That on itself is a trap (albeit a cultural one, and really common in our capitalist world, especially because it benefits our system). You are going to be always a great human being regardless of your actions. Doing something truly original should come from enjoyment and having fun in the process, not from self-imposed duty.
Well put together article, but I 100% disagree with the sentiment of this. These are just the opinions of a few, and a few that I doubt ever had to do laborious stressful work. These are opinions, not backed by studies; take a look at positive psychology studies to gain understandings of the conditions that are conducive to human happiness. The idea that you have to create something “worthwhile” to be happy is a delusion in and of itself, and in an effort to do so may lead you to isolate yourself, which will definitely make you miserable. Not saying your work shouldn’t be meaningful to you, only that you SHOULD spend your free time with loved ones and doing enjoyable activities, that is if you want to be happy.
There is no thing greater than simply existing. Mediocrity isn’t bad in any way. There’s no argument that can be provided that proves mediocrity is bad. Mediocrity is subjective and dynamic, so even using the word the way this article does proves that it’s just enforcing an opinion without a valid point. Boredom was recently discovered to be a crucial part to the growth and development of psychological health, so it’s actually healthy. Quoting some guy no one cares about doesn’t prove a point. Also, just because you’re working doesn’t mean you’re not bored, have you ever worked the line or done a repetitive task.
This is fascinating. As a Christian, I am leery of “self love” and “pride,” though I understand what he means by them in this article. That said, I believe there is something to the link between mediocrity and depression. I have noticed it myself. Add in lack of sleep and a bad diet, and I’ve got the perfect recipe for depression and overwhelm.
This is not at all about clinical depression. For someone suffering from it, merely going out of bed, and washing and taking a little food in the morning is a big achievement and something to be proud of. This elitist view of people having more worth then others is quite worthless. The man who cares for a crying little child on the street is more worth then this kind of ubermensch.
You can be a relevant person and life-changing for those close to you, maybe even having more impact in the world, ultimately, than if making youtube articles or writing books, honestly! I’m not saying this as criticism or to provoke who made this article – which is a good article. Just saying that not everything has to be big and great and recognized by others.
While I generally agree to the notion in this article, it takes away from people who are suffering from depression. The passivity of a human being that is suffering from depression can’t be compared to the free time or leisure of a healthy human being. People who are suffering from depression usually do not enjoy the amount of time they have on their hands and become passive as a result of their symptoms. This doesn’t mean that they are suffering 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, but they are unable to perform on the same level as healthy human beings. Mental illness is not a decision. Mental illness is not always self enduced. It has nothing to do with lazyness or not being able to fulfill one’s dreams or not having purpose in life. It is an illness. Not a crisis or a mood swing.
What this article totally omits is socializing and love! Being around family, friends, people you love, community, etc is what brings meaning to life. This article is so focused on introspection and the self, or being ‘edgy and unique’. Fuck that. We can just exist and be around people that make us happy. There are also things you can do that are passive and not productive but good for your mental health, and don’t rely on other people: eating good food or cooking for yourself, exercising, going outside, taking a long drive, dancing by myself, painting shitty pictures at the beach, and listening to music are some of my faves. Yall will be sad if you try to force yourself to do things that make you SEEM cool instead of doing things that make you FEEL GOOD. ALL WE HAVE ARE EMOTIONS IN THE END GUYS. Life might be meaningless, but the only thing that is real is how we feel, and we feel good when we make other people feel good, or make ourselves feel good. What we need is a balance between spending quality time and being present with ourselves and doing the same with others or supporting our commubity/giving back.
To anyone who reads this: Stop perusal self help gurus (this includes Peterson) and just be content with who you are. If you’re not content with yourself, think about all the positives you have in your life and amplify them. If you need to improve in certain areas, don’t feel as if it’s a race to the finish line. Just take your time. As Bruce Lee said: “The mind is a fertile garden – it will grow anything you wish to plant – beautiful flowers or weeds. And it is with successful, healthy thoughts or negative ones that will, like weeds, strangle and crowd the others. Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind, for they are the weeds that strangle confidence” No, I’m not a perfect follower of this philosophy as I have bad self esteem issues, but I’ve noticed that just having an optimistic mindset has gotten me through otherwise miserable experiences.
Wilson assumed that the quality and quantity of work remains constant. But when intellectual work overwhelms capabilities, the remaining “leisure” time is then relegated to healing rather than being usable, creative time and THEN results in depression because we see the results of the massive inequity in resources and despair of the life lost in the bargain. We have not moved as far beyond the struggle just to survive as we would be led to believe.
Some people (a few) will emerge from the lockdown madness having developed extraordinary skills. But this article outlines an eternal theme, one of the rise and fall of civilisations. With luxury comes inertia and just like the ancient Roman society our Western world will be gone in a few years, replaced with the more vigorous ones. We are already in the process of destroying everything in an effort to ‘protect each other’, people’s brains will be gone to mush through idleness, isolation and worse – the repression of ability to express themselves in life and work
If everyone was afforded the opportunity to cultivate their own intricate skill in their prefered domain then, potentially, there would be equal rights and equal worth. However, we don’t even have equal rights yet, so you cannot justify superiority on the grounds that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, it simply isn’t so. Also all your sources are white men, before venturing into the topic of supremacy you should consider the perspectives of marginalized and oppressed peoples. Supremacy is a concept born in the mind of a group to justify their actions towards the outgroup, not a platitude. There are some good thoughts and ideas here but we cannot continue justifying calling the uneducated idiots, because it is the fault of the educated that not everyone is educated or is misinformed (especially since we have the means to do so in the age of the internet) not the fault of the uneducated.
This is wonderful. I would hope that everyone could have the chance to absorb this and take it to heart. Mental illnesses like depression are at catastrophic levels (as claimed by the mental health awareness community) and I can’t help wonder if it has something to do with the fact that many people prefer passive activities over active ones; using our minds to seek the life-long pursuit of growth.
There’s a huge disparity between an individual who spends long hours of its day doing absolutely nothing which leads them to question their state and become depressed vs an individual who works or studies or does any kind of physical, mental, emotional through their days and seek leisure as a way to balancing work and life. There’s nothing wrong with leisure too much or working too much, it depends from person to person. I know people who constantly desire to fill their schedule with obligations, jobs, appointments, chores, etc because that’s how they seek validation and feel good about themselves; as I also know people who need longer periods of time doing nothing and enjoying themselves. I do believe however it is a very classist thing to say that enjoying leisure and ourselves makes us less than those who don’t. Our preconceived ideas of what is right and how long is enough rest comes from a society that benefits from the labor of the lower and middle income classes, so of course the idea that leisure = bad = being depressed is something ingrained in our brains in order to make us into more “productive” laborers.
I don’t believe there are good or bad activities.Reading is not a passive activity, seeing a good film is not a passive activity, exercising is not pointless. Playing article games with moderation is not a passive activity. Working excessively is almost a curse to those who done it. We are privileged to have some time to spend with ourselves (because still we need to work of course)and also having access to knowledge almost for free.The point is to set some boundaries in order to be able to live the life to the fullest-if its possible. There’s no reason to feel shame. Just we need to evaluate our choices and actions from time to time.
It’s nice to see a lot of thoughtfulness in the comments when it comes to the overly simplistic viewpoint of this article. What I’d like to add is this: Correlation does not imply causation. The quote from Colin Wilson on too much inactivity breeding unhappiness and psychological problems, and his personal account of his times of depression being caused by times of inactivity is really simplistic. I believe that much of the time it’s actually the other way around. Psychological problems like anxiety and depression aren’t caused by simply ‘doing nothing’, they’re real issues, much of the time caused by past trauma. Many people find occupying their time being productive to be a ‘cure’ for their neurosis whereas it is simply a distraction from it. And this is exactly why so many people find that when they are ‘too idle’ and waste their time on unfulfilling activities they feel more anxious or depressed. It’s because they’ve taken away the distraction, they’ve given room to what they’ve been ignoring, or trying to ignore, by occupying their time with ‘productivity’. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with productive activity, it is simply to say that is not the key to ‘being human’ or what “being human is all about” as stated in the last quote of the article. Once one has faced the underlying trauma from their past, they can truly move onto the present, and they will likely find that there is no ‘need’ to constantly be accomplishing something and going frenetically from A to Z and disregarding all of the letters in between.
This is something I have always felt to be true. That having too much extra time can also have a negative impact on mental health. This is not to say that leisure is not important, but one should ponder over how they want to utilise their free time. That is why I always have something to keep me occupied- reading, writing, drawing, cooking, or simply being in nature and contemplating. And leisure time well spent in rejuvenating yourself can feel very fulfilling- you get better at your job/work, helps you have a balance in life, you start looking forward to free time and keeps your mind from falling into the pits of sadness. Therefore, have a healthy leisure time and don’t waste it in pure consumption of things that don’t contribute to your well being.
i dislike this piece for a couple of reasons but the main one being that it feels as if it was written by someone who would consider themselves exhumed from passivity. i think it’s so stupid to just say that people’s worth is based on how much they make or acomplish passive or not. everyone has value in some way and simply deciding to not do “stupid” things like watch tv or browse the internet doesn’t dictate that. i hate this weird hiearchy the writer has created
To me, this way of thinking is just exhausting. Why are we not allowed to relax, chill and just enjoy the great sunset? Why must we rush into something, excel at that thing and be above everyone else? Why is this race to the top? I think, this is a really one sided opinion from a very ambitious man, who is just in a delusion to rise above everyone else in order to feel superiorism. And to do that, I think he chose the easiest option by calling himself a philosopher and publishing this idea of his as doctrines to success (success, which defined also by him in a idealistic, one-sided view) Just chill bruh, enjoy the life. If you really inclined to go into depression when you don’t do anything, do whatever you want to do. Just don’t tell me that I am inferior because I like to chill and enjoy my free time relaxing in my thoughts. Peace…
Is working a menial job where you spend everyday doing meaningless work (like being a seat filler in an office to make the boss “look” important, for instance) the same as passivity? Or knowing that your job can be done by a robot, and likely will be done by a robot in a few years, also be considered mediocrity? There are a lot of jobs like that in America today. If you spend 50 hours a week doing basically nothing just to keep a roof over your head, that sounds much worse than spending the day bingeing on Netflix. At least when you are perusal Netflix, you are enjoying the art of others.
I don’t know, but I don’t like this website anymore. At least not the way I used to do. It seems that they can see the world only in this arrogant Nietzschean perspective, way too individualistic, looking at everybody else like mediocre sub humans who will never achieve true greatness. Way too much power fantasies for me.
“Reviews the life and works of the man who defined neurosis as a blocking of man’s evolutionary and instinctive tendencies” originally published in 1972. 1972!!! We didn’t understand shit about mental illness then. As someone with bipolar I can safely say that this is bullshit. My most major episode was in a time when I had too much going on at once, not in a time of “passivity and boredom.” And what is your proposed solution? To make life artificially harder and more difficult? To take away key advancements in pursuit of solving a problem that may not even exist? And this gibberish set of quotes sounds more like pseudo intellectual elitist ideology, saying basically “all the normal people are worth nothing, accomplish nothing. Only me and the rest of the people who actually try hard matter.” “Just hard work your way out of mental illness.” “If you’re passive or common you’re worthless.” Bootstrap bullshit and elitist attitude at its finest. Edit: I love how most of the people commenting on this article do not like these ideas either.
To me, many people around me think I am mentally ill. But you know what is funny/ironic? I feel the same about them. Except I, know I will take it to my grave. Whereas they, will do everything to try avoiding their grave. Paper men, will crumble. Buddha says to be inspire to be like a rock. He means in the spirit of ones self. The self. Conformity gives power to those in which they plan to conform. E pluribus unum.
I feel like this article is really lost in the western trappings of capitalism. Whether you like it or not, working 40 hours a week (or more) leaves us with very little extended free time, and that’s something that can be traced back to serfdom, not the hunter-gatherer era. And guess what? Work is tiring. Most people do not have the privilege of having their interests and their life aspirations be their careers, and doing other jobs that they consider unfulfilling, and having to do it almost everyday to survive really tired you. I’m tired. And when I’m tired making money to live another day, then I’m not gonna spend my free time reading philosophy or creating history-changing works of art. I’d love to do that if I had more time, but I’m tired, and I want to spend the few hours I have away from work with the people I love, doing pleasant things. And to say “you don’t need more time off, you just need to stop being lazy or passive, otherwise you are less intelligent and creative as others” is to be completely out of touch with reality. People will be creative when they don’t have to work meaningless jobs for most of their days each day. People will make art and write and read and learn important things if you give them the time to do so. But right now a lot of us don’t have that time. We are tired, and until something changes, we’ll be too tired everyday to live out the lives we want to.
Jesus love you, he died on the cross for you, accept him as your lord and savior he can change everything. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (Jn 3:16″ But you must repent too. From that time Jesus went about preaching and saying, Let your hearts be turned from sin, for the kingdom of heaven is near. (Matthew 4:17)^
The first half of this article felt like an overly pretentious way of saying “if you don’t do anything you’ll end up depressed” which could, evidently, be said much more easily. Furthermore, most people contemplate this question of “what are we free for?” in some form or another. It’s hardly uncommon or indicative of some special flower to try to find meaning in their lives, id argue it’s part of growing up.
People are idle mostly because the system we live in doesn’t make it easy but harder for us to take our ideas and make them a reality. We’re under a constant mental assault so in our “free time” or time away from the jobs and bosses and coworkers and people we have to deal with so we can pay our living expenses so we aren’t wallowing in filth on some corner, we prefer to quell our miserable lives in nonsense that doesn’t challenge us.
Richard Taylor “Restoring pride”. I believe I have found my next book to read. I am by all accounts a mediocre Human being, but nevertheless I wish to seek and strive for my own personal greatness capacity. Kudos on your articles AOI, The highlights of wisdom and knowledge you weave together is indeed inspirational.
I disagree, I would say the expectations of society breed mental illness, not passivity inherently. The expectation of success is what leads to passivity as people begin to procrastinate in the face of other people’s achievements. People perceive themselves to be progressing in life when they are merely rounding the same circles over and over. This leads to burnout and leaves the person feeling more lost than they did when they started. I think the true answer is one must allow themselves to be lost to be found. Not live in some arbitrary timeline of expectations and cycle of disappointments. We are left free to discover who we truly are. Instead of being trapped in a cycle of monotonous work that is meaningless. Not to mention, a lot of jobs aren’t productive. A lot of people sit doing the same thing over and over mindlessly. I imagine it’s a very small portion of workers that do meaningful, original work. I would say free time is more conducive to finding yourself and finding purpose. Learning new things and having new experiences. From birth, we are brainwashed to be corporate cogs with college degrees that chase societal expectations. This doesn’t lead to self fulfillment in any way shape or form. Just more profit for corporations and richer CEO’s.
Wow that is so interesting to see how humans can be so vastly different. I personally feel the COMPLETE opposite of what he is describing, whenever I’m free to sit and do nothing for days on end without any kind of work I feel Elevated, Happy, A sense of meaning to my life. While on the other hand after just 2 days of working my brain begins to get foggy, I get thoughts of suicide and struggle to see a purpose to the suffering of doing the same boring tasks over and over.
Billions of your ancestors gave their lives for you, who is here now, to be able to experience certain time for leisure and twiddling. Which is often the time where you can observe yourself and your mind patterns; which in turn, turns into knowledge of oneself, ideas for growth and goals to pursue. Also into the beautiful moments you will remember on deathbed, I mean I seriously doubt you’ll look back at *insert repetitive office desk task in here*, smile and think “life well lived” when you’re dying. So enjoy your free time; remain observant, stay awake. Do what you want.
When you started talking about “the superior ones” you lost me. I do think that passivity and boredom breeds mental illness but the idea that some people are worth more because they have higher functionality is elitist and disgusting. Based on your logic a blind person or a person in a wheelchair has less inherent value than a healthy individual. Equal rights implies equal value. We need to separate people from their abilities in our minds. We are not our abilities, our bodies, or our functionality. Concepts of superiority also change greatly with circumstances.
I think your claim that the workers in early industrial societies had an excess of free time is highly dubious and I don’t see you substantiate this claim. Futhermore, your main argument about passivity causing depression appears to be based on one writer’s judgement of his own condition, followed by a number of other who simply proclaim the truth of this conclusion as if it is self-evident. It is certainly inculcated, but your argument that it is necessary is unconvincing.
I must admit I feel this touches me because I feel I have something special to offer the world but I am passive when it comes to being creative. I work long hours in information technology, I sleep and exercise a little. But when I was younger I always had goals. I am finding my way out of this slowly and want to give back to society and be more creative. I have many skills that I don’t use regularly and I am working my way through this time in my life. These articles really resonate with me and make me ask questions about how I am using my life. Looking inside to cultivate more of me in life for myself and others.
Not a fan of this worldview. It puts way too much emphasis on the individual somehow being at fault for not reaching some arbitrary standard of enlightenment, instead of recognising that societal ills are caused by the systems under which we live. In the modern world, it is true that we have more leisure time on a average than previous generations. However the money we earn, while not being worthless is certainly worth less. The idea of owning your own home and raising a family seems like an unachievable dream for a lot of people my age. We also have to live with the knowledge of mass existential threats such as nuclear war and ecological collapse, which doesn’t exactly help. I’ve rambled on a bit here, and there are plenty more factors besides those mentioned above. In a nutshell: this article is a parroting of tedious blowhard “philosophers”, who scapegoat working and middle class people, without any consideration that these issues are not only complicated but, crucially, structural.
Hello Academy of ideas. How about a article on how to build an inner fortress, about being mindful and aware even in the heat of the moment so as to always beat temptation, always make the right decision, always being rational, reasonable and self sufficient. I would love to see a article on what it would take to be a Stoic, creative, and self reliant super man. A hero.
Some Jared Padalecki quotes: “Alway remember that no matter how useless you feel, you are someones’s reason to Smile” “There’s always gonna be someone smarter. There’s always gonna be someone better looking. There’s always gonna be someone who works harder. *What you have to offer is YOURSELF so don’t loose it, focus on it and try to bring it out*” “The hardest battle are given to the Strongest soldiers. You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it” “When life beats you down, Never Give Up and Always keep fighting” I admire Jared with all my heart. He suffers with depression himself and he tries to help people like him with their struggles, he had help people and that’s beutiful <3 "We may don't have a solution today, but maybe we will find one tomorrow. But if you give up today there will be no tomorrow" -Sam Winchester. Love and support for everyone who may be suffering depression. Maybe you feel lonly, that no one cares about you, but look closer because there is always someone by your side who will give you it's hand if you need it. Even if you close your door to the world there will be someone waiting outside for you to open it again <3 <3
Ever since lockdown, I have been feeling like literal hell. I’ve constantly been self doubting, over- working myself and feeling emotionally numb.. I don’t know if those are signs but I really don’t know what to do anymore. The only thing I know for sure, is that I’m here to support the people who feel the same way or just aren’t feeling good. And also, thank you Psych2Go. Your articles have helped to make me realise som things about my mental health, that I didn’t even know. So yeah, thank you <3