h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not all treatments work for everyone.
I have used Prozac on and off for a long time and I have no complaints. Yes the side effects are a little bit of a nuisance, but they do the trick for me.
Other treatments that people rave about were useless for me but great for them. It's about trying things unfortunately.

Amanda

hey, i'm on Celexa [citalopram]. 40 mg/day. it's an ssri, newer than prozac. it helps me a bit. i've tried zoloft, which worked once, but later trials proved unsuccessful. i've never tried prozac, but i know it's very helpful for lots of folks.
i wonder if people like us tend to be more depressed than god-believing people. maybe.
anywho, NOW, i REALLY have to get out of here.
oh...what did you mean by "other treatments"?

ok, bu bye.

PeteY out!

By other treatments I meant other medicines.
Other types of medicines. Like MOAI's or something.
I fear Electroconvulsive Therapy and do not even consider this a treatment, it's almost inhumane and barbarick.
I think that people that have, like, a direction in life and believe in God and stuff, are more at ease with things. They tend to ponder less and worry less.

Maybe this is our problem.

Amanda Out

compared to those folks who believe in God, purpose, meaning, intrinsic good and evil, afterlife, soul, etc...
When I think about Life, i'm struck by how totally absurd and overwhelmingly dismal everything seems to be. To me, it almost seems impossible not to be depressed about it all.
hey, have you ever wished you believed in God? and, why do you think you've come to not believe in God?
about ECT, your view of it is very common, but i assure you that nowadays, it's very humane and actually is the gold standard for treating severe depression, mania, and/or psychosis!
i've never considered it for myself b/c my depression's never been that bad. What i do have is this smoldering dysphoria with variable anhedonia. it's a sucky way to go about life, actually.

Peter OUT!

I do not know what I believe in.
It would be nice if there was a god but it's convincing myself that this is possible that is the problem.

ECT still sounds nasty to me. I always think of Jack Nicholson in One flew over the cukoos nest. Makes me shiver!

Amanda out

people like us use logic and rational thinking globally. that is why we cannot believe in God. To believe in God is clearly irrational. those folks who do believe in God are able to "compartmentalize" their way of thinking. they use logic for everything, except when it comes to religion Then, they throw everything out the window and have "faith".

hey, did i convince you that the universe coulda went Bang! outta nowhere/nothing? without an "antecedent" "cause"? please, say i convinced you

i think that frontal lobotomies were the worst. it was kinda like, how about we go in and mash around this dude's frontal lobes and see what happens...

Peter OUT!

Your illustration on space made my mind go fuzzy.

We dont know that not having faith is not irrational. It could be?
We will never know until we die. And then if we just die and nothing happens we wont know either.

Amanda out

"We dont know that not having faith is not irrational."

so, you're saying that NOT having faith [like us] could be IRrational?
my problem with having "faith" is that I, as most people most of the time do, base my "reality" and my way of thinking on the world i perceive around me. and, of course, the way our brains have evolved puts constraints on the very WAY we are able to "think"...
so, what I consider logical or rational is whatever is supported by our observations of "reality", with help from mathematics. [btw, i should tell you about my ideas about mathematics sometime...]
now, after the rambling above, i must say that "having faith" in God is not in accordance with ANYTHING we can observe to be "reality" or our best guess of what "reality" is based on what we can observe.
AND, to me, the argument that we created God for comfort seems to be much more plausible.

"We will never know until we die. And then if we just die and nothing happens we wont know either."
i must say that those people who believe in an afterlife seem to have a very immature and child-like way of thinking about it... i mean, these people [you'll note that i now refrain from calling them dumb f*cks ] seem to believe that after they die, there will be continuation of some sort of self-awareness . and, these are the same people who know enough neurophysiology and neuroanatomy to know that self-awareness is dependent on the physical substrate of our brain... is this not illogical and irrational?

all this talk makes me sad
here's something to cheer you up

Peter OUT!