Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Are you a *problem* thinker?
*Are YOU a problem thinker?*
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then to loosen up. Inevitably though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.
I began to think alone - "to relax," I told myself. But I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself.
I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"
Things weren't going so great at home either. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's. I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called me in. He said, "Skippy, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job." This gave me a lot to think about.
I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."
"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."
"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors, and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking we won't have any money!"
"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently, and she began to cry. I'd had enough. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.
I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche, with NPR on the radio. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors... they didn't open. The library was closed.
To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.
As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker's Anonymous poster.
Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.
I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed... easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then to loosen up. Inevitably though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.
I began to think alone - "to relax," I told myself. But I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself.
I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"
Things weren't going so great at home either. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's. I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called me in. He said, "Skippy, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job." This gave me a lot to think about.
I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."
"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."
"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors, and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking we won't have any money!"
"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently, and she began to cry. I'd had enough. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.
I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche, with NPR on the radio. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors... they didn't open. The library was closed.
To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.
As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker's Anonymous poster.
Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.
I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed... easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.
Ruminating, mulling, navel-gazing, obsessing, stressing, depressing
New Clues to Women Veiled in Black
Women are almost twice as likely to get depressed than men. This article then chrinocles the busy, busy bees bustling to break the news of "susceptibility genes" in women, doubtless in search for a new pill. The article points out the obvious, mundane truth that women are more likely than men to have been abused, sexually or physically, and to live in poverty. But the clinicians cited in the study have a more evolved approach to treating aggression--get involved.
"In studies over the last decade, Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema has consistently found that women react more strongly than men to such experiences, mulling them over and over without being able to come to a resolution or to simply move on. Dwelling on problems causes the initial sadness to snowball, she said.
"By contrast, men are more likely than women to distract themselves from a problem, often by going off and doing something active, a healthy reaction, Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema said, because it blunts the emotional sting of everyday disappointments and setbacks."
A Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema weighs in with advice from her book, "Women who think too much":
"Staying active can help. For teenage girls, playing a sport or engaging in other extracurricular activities can keep them from brooding about bad grades or broken romances.
""When women ruminate, we blow things up," she says. "It helps to have friends who can help you reflect on a problem and find a solution."
There's a relevant joke I'm going to follow this up with, just to return to the heavy-light-heavy-light posting format I like. Look up! Look up!
Women are almost twice as likely to get depressed than men. This article then chrinocles the busy, busy bees bustling to break the news of "susceptibility genes" in women, doubtless in search for a new pill. The article points out the obvious, mundane truth that women are more likely than men to have been abused, sexually or physically, and to live in poverty. But the clinicians cited in the study have a more evolved approach to treating aggression--get involved.
"In studies over the last decade, Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema has consistently found that women react more strongly than men to such experiences, mulling them over and over without being able to come to a resolution or to simply move on. Dwelling on problems causes the initial sadness to snowball, she said.
"By contrast, men are more likely than women to distract themselves from a problem, often by going off and doing something active, a healthy reaction, Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema said, because it blunts the emotional sting of everyday disappointments and setbacks."
A Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema weighs in with advice from her book, "Women who think too much":
"Staying active can help. For teenage girls, playing a sport or engaging in other extracurricular activities can keep them from brooding about bad grades or broken romances.
""When women ruminate, we blow things up," she says. "It helps to have friends who can help you reflect on a problem and find a solution."
There's a relevant joke I'm going to follow this up with, just to return to the heavy-light-heavy-light posting format I like. Look up! Look up!
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Placebo, meet your evil twin, Nocebo
Newsday.com - Health and Science
Placebo is Latin for "I will please". Nocebo is Latin for "I will harm". While you all might have heard about the mysterious placebo effect, where a remarkably consistent 30% of patients in clinical trials on placebos report improvement in symptoms, less is made of the fact that a similar number experience negative symptoms. Nausea, vomiting, headaches, the ususal suspects.
Improvements or worsenings reported due to placebos and nocebos ususally are vague and nonspecific. Some researchers attribute this to patient misattribution to the drug an effect that they had anyway. Some attribute it to suggestion. Further complicating matters, if someone experiences a nocebo effect, they are more likely to conclude that they are receiving a powerful drug, and that it must also have beneficial effects, increasing their expectation of improvement. This narrows the gap between the effects of the actual drug (presumably more potent than placebo) and the placebo.
The moral of the story? "Doctors should be aware, he said, that troublesome side effects reported by patients may not necessarily result from the pharmacological action of the drug. Physicians and researchers should ask whether patients have had prior bad experiences with drugs or consider themselves especially sensitive to drugs. Patients should be reassured that the side effects, while bothersome, are not medically dangerous."
Bonus link: the placebo effect even works for surgery: "I said: 'It can't be,'" Moseley recalls. "'This is surgery we're talking about.' And she said: 'You're all wrong. The bigger and more dramatic the patient perceives the intervention to be, the bigger the placebo effect. Big pills have more than small pills, injections have more than pills and surgery has the most of all.'"
via The Heartmath Report
Placebo is Latin for "I will please". Nocebo is Latin for "I will harm". While you all might have heard about the mysterious placebo effect, where a remarkably consistent 30% of patients in clinical trials on placebos report improvement in symptoms, less is made of the fact that a similar number experience negative symptoms. Nausea, vomiting, headaches, the ususal suspects.
Improvements or worsenings reported due to placebos and nocebos ususally are vague and nonspecific. Some researchers attribute this to patient misattribution to the drug an effect that they had anyway. Some attribute it to suggestion. Further complicating matters, if someone experiences a nocebo effect, they are more likely to conclude that they are receiving a powerful drug, and that it must also have beneficial effects, increasing their expectation of improvement. This narrows the gap between the effects of the actual drug (presumably more potent than placebo) and the placebo.
The moral of the story? "Doctors should be aware, he said, that troublesome side effects reported by patients may not necessarily result from the pharmacological action of the drug. Physicians and researchers should ask whether patients have had prior bad experiences with drugs or consider themselves especially sensitive to drugs. Patients should be reassured that the side effects, while bothersome, are not medically dangerous."
Bonus link: the placebo effect even works for surgery: "I said: 'It can't be,'" Moseley recalls. "'This is surgery we're talking about.' And she said: 'You're all wrong. The bigger and more dramatic the patient perceives the intervention to be, the bigger the placebo effect. Big pills have more than small pills, injections have more than pills and surgery has the most of all.'"
via The Heartmath Report
