unanswered questions and late night thoughts

[sathor]

How much of a person is tied up in their biology?

If I am given a drug which changes the amount of a chemical, or chemicals, that exist at their current levels as a result of my biology, am I a different person as a result of that?

If being given a drug such as the one described changes a person and their experience of reality (a formerly depressed individual becomes one full of levity) are they now normal or are they instead modified abnormal?

If we define normal in this context as the most common temperament expressed by a given population, and give the opposing trait (depression as opposed to happiness) the stigma of a mental disorder, must we not also attach a stigma to having any trait which falls outside of the most common in a given population? For instance, high or low intelligence? Exceptional physique? Could we not use the term exceptional to define extreme temperament? Why are there negative connotations attached to depression - is it really a case of negative and positive, or is it more like the difference between two colors, or the difference between day and night?

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Well... here's my take on it:

All of a person is biological. You're not a different person when you alter your brain-chemistry; the 'you' of you is more than the sum of your parts - anyway, your brain-chemistry is always changing from moment to moment.

Normal is just the middle of the Bell curve. It doesn't mean healthy, natural or desirable. Do you remember what Henry David Thoreau said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation"? Certainly in times like our own, it's not 'normal' to go around filled with levity.

If you're still thinking there is any validity at all in the 'chemical imbalance model', you need to read the links I posted here: the whole thing was thoroughly discredited long ago. Psychoactive drugs do not make the brain work better. They do not restore any natural balance. What they do (when they work) is the same thing chocolate, cannabis, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, codeine, peyote, opium, heroin and methamphetamine do: make the user feel like he wants to feel. Unfortunately, there are some serious down-sides to chemically managing one's moods. The natural state of the brain is drug-free.

"If we define normal in this context as the most common temperament expressed by a given population, and give the opposing trait (depression as opposed to happiness) the stigma of a mental disorder, must we not also attach a stigma to having any trait which falls outside of the most common in a given population?"

The opposite of deppression is not 'happiness'. The opposite of depression is mania, and it certainly is stigmatized as a 'mental disorder' much more than depression is, because depressed people tend to be unobtrusive.

"must we not also attach a stigma to having any trait which falls outside of the most common in a given population? For instance, high or low intelligence? Exceptional physique?"

I don't know that we 'must', but certainly humans often do: Tall Poppy Syndrome. But, again, normal is not the same thing as healthy. The reason why both depression and mania are seen as undesirable is because they are unhealthy; they're signs of something gone wrong enough to disrupt a person's natural, healthy balance - often, seriously enough to endanger the person's life. There's a big difference between having a naturally intense, somewhat mercurial temperament, and being bipolar, cycling helplessly between mania and depression. For such people, medication can be the only way they can be functional, and functionality is a good thing. regardless of how 'normal' it may be.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

The Tall Poppy link in particular is really appreciated. I'd never heard of that euphemism before...and it might explain some of my life, and although I'd shy away from saying I'm exceptional or would be perceived as a tall poppy, I did outstanding in academics without much effort and always suffered from a terrible social standing/constant attacks, and still do to this day in the workplace. I thought it all ended after school.

I always had a bit of an intuition about the chemical imbalance model, but I never really researched or looked into it - it was enough for me, even as a young teenager, to tell myself, "no psychiatric medicine, I'll deal with this myself." I question that decision at times, but I'm still at least /mostly/ functional - I can hold a job, I'm civil with people, I try to keep close to the few friends I have. I'm not very talented at making new friends or keeping relationships together, I do suffer from anxiety and don't really like being in large groups or in public much, but I can handle it. I'm probably eccentric, but I survive, and some of my role models (Thoreau is one of them) were as well.

I know all too well that psychological disorders can get /way/ worse than anything I've experienced. What's hard for me is the loneliness at times, and feeling trapped with no way out. But that's just part of the economic class I'm in, the area I'm in, the experiences I've had. Life can't be the same for all of us, it's our job to try and find the good in whatever it is we're dealing with at the time.

Really glad to have met you, I've needed fresh insight for a long time :) Hopefully some of these ramblings have you thinking as well, because they've no real purpose besides producing thought.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Glad to have met you too, and I am indeed enjoying reading your thoughts here - Livejournal is where I come for more intellectual conversation than I mostly have with my local circle, who are intelligent but not so well educated.

There's nothing wrong with realizing that one is exceptional in some respects. Nobody can be exceptional in all respects, and usually being 'better than normal' at some things means also being 'worse than normal' at others, but self-acceptance means owning both one's strengths and weaknesses.

For sure, times iz hard; I think the majority of people in this country are feeling trapped and anxious; even those whose personal lives are going well. Loneliness is just part of the human condition, like physical pain: nobody wants it, everybody has it, some more than others.

Hey, do you read greatpoets? My bro posted a poem there today that I think you'll like, 'A Brief For The Defense'.

I'll probably be offline till Monday, so have a good weekend!

[sathor.livejournal.com]

I haven't frequented LJ communities in a long time, but that poem is quite good. Your brother is talented, and I think the message is spot on. There's a lot of art out there, but I feel like today more than ever, a lot of it lacks valuable substance. Your brother's poem doesn't seem to lack there.

Trapped, anxious...surrounded and succumbing to decadence and avarice. Warning signs of declining civilizations.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Ah, he did not write that poem - greatpoets is specifically not for Lj users to post their own poetry, but for published poems by known poets. He and I are both members of greatpoets; he's also the maintainer of war_poetry.

In these times, it's well to remember that Robinson Jeffers wrote Shine, Perishing Republic in 1925, and we're still here. For sure, decadence and avarice are very popular - as they always have been, wherever people can find an excuse to indulge them, and the past century has provided a plethora of excuses. What we have now is a global civilization, and so we have the usual threats to civilization on a global scale too. but that doesn't mean we're doomed.

It's up to us to save civilization. The antidote to feeling trapped is to find some useful action to take, and then take it, even if one doesn't believe it will do any noticeable good. The taking-of-action belongs to you, like an archer releasing an arrow; the effect of the action does not, as the archer can do nothing further once the arrow is released.