[Ayoob]

I'm studying depression this semester, and found some interesting things about worry. Worry is an anticipatory thing. People who are into peak oil might share some of the traits of people who are depressed with worry being the dominant feature. It seems as though COMT might have an effect on worry due to lower dopamine in the prefrontal and frontal cortex in the brain.

This is kind of new information for me, so I'm going to dig around in it over the next couple of months and see what I can make of it.

Science and mental health are making huge strides right now.

[Newfie]

COMT?

In your digging did you come up with research that says optimist are happier but pessimists more realistic?

[dohboi]

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014- ... this-stuff

Recent evidence suggests that a state of good mental health is associated with biased processing of information that supports a positively skewed view of the future. Depression, on the other hand, is associated with unbiased processing of such information.

That is--delusion is good for your mental health!

[Shaved Monkey]

Being proved right isnt depressing, people not believing is.
Not worth worrying about what you cant change though.

[KingM]

If you're prone to depression, I would highly recommend avoiding this site. It's not just PO that will do us in, it's global warming, nuclear meltdowns, ebola, solar flares, etc. This is a site where a solid chunk of the participants are convinced that billions are about to die any minute, they just don't know how it's going to go down.

[Ibon]

This is a site where a solid chunk of the participants are convinced that billions are about to die any minute, they just don't know how it's going to go down.

If you are not able to hold and compartmentalize the threats of overshoot and still maintain a healthy mental state then you should absolutely avoid confronting the systemic weaknesses. There are mental health issues here that are very important. A recent article

Let me translate: If you fool yourself about what you are really seeing in the world and convince yourself that it will lead to a good future for you and whomever else you care about, you'll maintain good mental health. If, on the other hand, you look reality squarely in the eye, you are more likely to get depressed. Life, as it turns out, isn't a bed of roses.


http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014- ... this-stuff


On the other hand Buddhism often mentions that human suffering is the result of not accepting the impermanence of life, grasping an clinging in relationships with others and with stuff.

Buddhism in a 21st century context of human overshoot could very well be telling us that seeing everything as rosy and not confronting the impermanence of our industrial civilization is the real "suffering" we are imposing on ourselves.

Keeping ourselves ignorant with a shield of rosy denials is not making for a very happy and resilient human experience here in the 21st century.

In conclusion I would argue that for any individual pursuing truth the only real sense of deeper harmony with ones fellow species and the planet can only come from accepting the precarious nature of our times keeping this in balance with enjoying family, friendship, mother nature and celebrating every day we can continue to dance unscathed at the knifes edge.

[Sixstrings]

If you're prone to depression, I would highly recommend avoiding this site. It's not just PO that will do us in, it's global warming, nuclear meltdowns, ebola, solar flares, etc. This is a site where a solid chunk of the participants are convinced that billions are about to die any minute, they just don't know how it's going to go down.

You know, I actually don't worry about peak oil or climate change like that. It doesn't get me depressed or anxious.

Slow-moving doom doesn't affect me.

Sudden things, sudden sh*t hitting the fan, affects me. 9/11 was rough. I'm the kind of person that has this sense of just how things are supposed to be, a secure existential normality about the world. Then one day I'm having coffee and planes are going into buildings and the Pentagon and Bush was circling in the sky in Air Force one and it was like Defcon whatever.

I think everyone has forgotten that, but at the time, *it was just so bizarre* -- *it was the kind of thing that is only supposed to be in novels and movies* -- that it affected a lot of people. That's what's so horrible about terrorism, the unpredictability of it, it strikes at existential security about the world.

But -- there were no more attacks like that. If there had been, people can actually get used to it, as the Israelis are.

Only thing that could get me rattled and panicked is the Russia stuff, or terrorism. Things will never go that far with Putin -- Russians after all don't want to be a nervous wreck either, living on the edge.

I tend to worry about local things now, lately. My community is getting more ghetto and rough. I'm concerned about crime and crazyness and just how things are falling apart. Everyone with money has moved out in the east county, in gated communities.

And things are falling apart in the USA, and we're becoming like a Mexico, because our politics serves the rich elite and we had nobody looking out for our country as a whole -- we gave all the good wage working class jobs away, whereas a place like Germany did not do that.

We American voters are idiots. We made our bed with how we vote, and we're laying in it. It affects the rich and upper middle class too. They can get mugged too, they will have to look out their gated community walls and see poverty and crazyness, too.

Ross Perot warned everyone a long time ago. Nobody listened.

Ultimately whatever the big issue is that's beyond your control, all you can do is "get used to it," accept, and do what you can and accept what you can't do about it, look out for yourself and yours.

I never give money to street people. I did the other day, though. The poor guy was just so wretched. It was 90+ degrees out too, he was sitting there crippled on asphalt. His sign said he's a vet. I gave him five dollars. He had a bad leg and was clearly weak and limped to my truck. He actually apologized for being slow.

Then after I broke the ice and showed some kindness, a young woman in the SUV behind me came rushing out and handed him a pile of clothes.

If I had done nothing, I think the whole line of cars I was in would have just kept ignoring the guy until the light turned green.

You do have to accept things, and can't save the world or change the world, but you can do what you can, I suppose.

And then other people may notice, and do something too.

[dohboi]

Good points, all around, 6S. But I have to say, when your write:

If there had been, people can actually get used to it, as the Israelis are.

I would say it is the Palestinians that are really getting used to 'it.'

[Pops]

My thought is to mitigate the worries you can and let go of the worries you can't.

or

Plan for the worst and hope for the best.

[dohboi]

Well put. That's why I don't worry too much about things like meteor strikes.