When I rewatched this old vid I was immediately reminded of I_NO's fave image reply.

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Entropic_Fire wrote:

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Bars wrote:

IMO SSRIs are like painkillers - they treat the symptom, not the cause. They also tend to exacerbate the problem with prolonged use. That's entirely my personal opinion and should, of course, be taken with a grain - or a few ounces - of salt. I'm not a qualified professional.

Most psychiatrists would tell you the same thing (maybe not the exacerbating part), while conveniently avoiding the implication that successful antidepressant treatment becomes a life sentence.

Yeah, well, Americans in particular seem to be incredibly trigger happy with pills. I, on the other hand, am intensely suspicious of pills and think they should be taken only as a last resort for anything.


@Raics: lol at the magic wand rule, first time I hear this and I love it.

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Since there aren't many other threads in the forums that interest me right now, I'm probably going to drag this out longer than it needs to be.

Everybody operates with a different set of facts with which they are familiar. I loved the recent article being passed around Facebook about the mom who was anti-vaccines until every single one of her 6 or 7 children got whooping cough. Because many of my Facebook friends are lovers of science, the response from them was basically "You don't say!"

Fact: therapy alone did fuck all for me.
Fact: I feel better after taking pills and continuing therapy with a person that fit my needs.
Fact: The doctors did, in fact, mention that the pills are best accompanied with in-person therapy, and the encouragement of good exercise, diet, etc.
Fact (debatable): Rumours are that brain scans of people with depression are objectively different from people without depression in a major way that goes down when they take SSRIs. Or so the industrial-medical complex claims? Who can really read peer-reviewed medical science journals, eh?

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Entropic_Fire wrote:

I also can't remember what this has to do with sword fighting.

Sick people can't fence as well as not-sick people

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Bars wrote:

@Raics: lol at the magic wand rule, first time I hear this and I love it.

You were a good student then, "son, I hope you got a magic wand there that will fix your grades with a flick" is somewhat of a staple in most cultures :)

A bit more up to date version is "there is no African prince". No idea if anyone ever fell for that but I'm certain a real African prince will be in deep shit if he ever needs help to transfer his money on a foreign account.

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Entropic_Fire wrote:

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Bars wrote:

Yeah, well, Americans in particular seem to be incredibly trigger happy with pills. I, on the other hand, am intensely suspicious of pills and think they should be taken only as a last resort for anything.

Prescription data suggests that America has exported this particularly unsavory aspect of our culture throughout much of the developed world already. On the other hand I have similar suspicions and I suffered needlessly from allergies without antihistamines for years because of it.

I blame the problem mostly on direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising, but I also can't remember what this has to do with sword fighting.

We're living up to offtopic's name :) About allergies, yeah, we've got to apply our best judgement and remain flexible. Speaking of which, I went through a three-year desensitization course with subcutaneous injections as a kid and it worked pretty well to bring my hay fever to tolerable levels.

About sword fighting, flawless transition: how insane is it that we're here discussing issues which would seem laughable and ridiculous to people from 98% of human history where they had more legitimate concerns like how to defend themselves against swords?

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raics wrote:

You were a good student then, "son, I hope you got a magic wand there that will fix your grades with a flick" is somewhat of a staple in most cultures :)

A bit more up to date version is "there is no African prince". No idea if anyone ever fell for that but I'm certain a real African prince will be in deep shit if he ever needs help to transfer his money on a foreign account.

I was totally unfair at school, barely had to study to get straight As :/

Actually, the way I translated this to myself is 'if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is'.

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Bars wrote:

About sword fighting, flawless transition: how insane is it that we're here discussing issues which would seem laughable and ridiculous to people from 98% of human history where they had more legitimate concerns like how to defend themselves against swords?

I think some people blame nuclear radiation fallout, and others blame Western culture's obsession with cleanliness. The idea behind the latter being - if you're not exposed to certain physical stressors when you're young, you react harder against them in the future.

Isn't that what allergies are, anyways? Left with no natural enemies (bacteria) to attack, the immune system begins to attack the very body it is meant to protect?

Perhaps also relevant: Wasn't average life expectancy in the time of swords and spears about 30 years?

EDIT: Also, there's probably something to be said about natural selection here. IF I were born in the time of swords and spears, there's a good chance I would have just died. In that case, what reason would history have to write about me? Not much - and I wouldn't have passed on my genes, so prevalence of people with my weaknesses would be low.

On the flip side, the modern age tends to hold higher sanctity for life in general. We defeated Hitler because he tried to breed the better humans and cut out the chaff. Apparently, it is because we believe the chaff deserve to live - for which I should be thankful, the way I see it (I see myself as part of the chaff). With a greater range of life-types available to breed, we'll naturally run into people with diseases and disorders and allergies and flaws more often.

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Bars wrote:

Actually, the way I translated this to myself is 'if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is'.

Exactly, a very good rule to follow when in a doubt about PoE mechanics, for example :)

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Entropic_Fire wrote:

So keep the dead salmon in mind any time you see some amazing finding from a brain scanning study.

Dead salmon rule? I like it.

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adghar wrote:

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Bars wrote:

About sword fighting, flawless transition: how insane is it that we're here discussing issues which would seem laughable and ridiculous to people from 98% of human history where they had more legitimate concerns like how to defend themselves against swords?

I think some people blame nuclear radiation fallout, and others blame Western culture's obsession with cleanliness. The idea behind the latter being - if you're not exposed to certain physical stressors when you're young, you react harder against them in the future.

Isn't that what allergies are, anyways? Left with no natural enemies (bacteria) to attack, the immune system begins to attack the very body it is meant to protect?

Perhaps also relevant: Wasn't average life expectancy in the time of swords and spears about 30 years?

Yep, that's how it goes. AFAIK early childhood is crucial for the development of the immune system. It was up to about 7 years if I remember correctly, more or less the same as the age until which it is thought that innate IQ can be developed - or stunted - to a certain extent depending on environmental factors.

On a related note about average life expectancy up until recently - yep, somewhere around thirty, but that's a typical case of statistics distorting the picture. This is average life expectancy because childhood mortality rates were extremely high. If you managed to not die in childhood, your life expectancy suddenly improved by a lot. People didn't actually die at thirtyish. Also, not as many people died from violence as Game of Thrones would have us think.

And here we arrive at the slight disadvantages of letting the immune system build itself up: if it works, it's great - but it sometimes doesn't.

edit: Jesus, I can't keep up! People keep posting while I'm typing. Lol at the dead salmon debacle.