psychology

False Reality and Real Depression

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Quick, what are the signs someone is truly depressed?  How do you recognize them?

I’m not entirely sure and I majored in Psychology (to be fair, a generalist), which really just means I’m better at looking them up.  At least twice I know I missed it in people I was friends with.  This of course doesn’t count times I missed it and didn’t know, which is a bit terrifying when you think about it.

There are many challenges facing us in helping friends, family, and ourselves when dealing with depression and other challenges of mood, personality, and mental functioning.  However one of the greatest challenges is knowing when someone is depressed (or has another issue that needs treatment) in the first place, and our culture is not helping.

It’s not just that our popular culture is giving us terribly wrong ideas about mental illness and issues, as Ed the Sock so brilliantly illustrates.

It’s that our culture, I think, confuses us further.

We’re a culture that has gotten rather into grandiose displays of emotion, from happiness to sadness.  We’re a reality TV culture where everything is spectacle, and we take our cues from media.  We’re a culture where reality TV, sensationalist politics, media megachurches, and the like turn real life into an endless drama.  We’re in a culture where people vie for attention and drama has become normalized.

You’ve doubtlessly heard the term “Emo,” which has nothing to do with the comedian, but evolved out of the music scene, and is often tossed around to mean agnsty over-emotionalism that people affect.  We even have a repurposed term for being overly dramatic and angsty and self-destructive (missing, conveniently that some people may show these behaviors and really need help).

So in a culture of grand drama, how the hell do you sort out when someone has real problems as opposed to putting on an act?  It’s far, far too easy to assume someone is being dramatic or having an affectation from culture because we’re used to our culture pushing that kind of behavior.  We can miss real cries for help because of these assumptions.

Our culture also doesn’t provide people a way to reach out – because it is a culture of drama.  Indeed, those who need help are provided few cultural tools for acquiring it; some may even take on cultural affectations from our overly dramatic culture as it seems to be the right (or only) way to get the attention they need.  We don’t provide methods for people who need help to signal it.

To help those who need it, family and friends, we have to work around our culture.  That’s rather sad.

But work we must.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Cults, Conspiracy Theorists, and Connection

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Well now we have Sandy Hook Truthers, who believe some or all of the shooting was staged, many people involved were actors, and it’s all part of some elaborate scheme to create mild gun safety laws.  Some people have decided to go and harass one of the people who helped the kids out, a 69-year old man.

When I look at the Conspiracy Theorists, the hardcore sealed-in-their-heads types, and certainly in this case we’ve got an already noteable group, something comes to mind: they resemble a cult.

There’s the System that explains everything.  There’s the feeling special as you ‘get it.’  There’s convenient enemies to hate (like a 69-year old pet sitter).  You even get to feel persecuted as everyone is calling you out, often for being kind of a jerk.

Also, if you’re ethically challenged, you can play Cult Leader and make a mint off this stuff.  Just trapse through a book store and look at some of the “political” books.

A conspiracy theory is a cult that’s often decentralized, with a few Cult Leader types taking advantage of a larger miasma of fevered thought.

It’s also like a cult in that it attracts the disconnected – and disconnects people.  It’s easy for people looking for meaning to find it in conspiracy theories.  It’s also easy for those enmeshed in the world of paranoia and fear to become disconnected from others (those political arguments you had over the holidays? Take those, and turn them to 11).  Conspiracy theories build on and build distance.

This is why building and keeping the foundation of civilization and culture is important – and requires a place for people.  The connections, the reliable systems, the meaning, the support structures are important to both our survival as a civilization, but also as they keep people from getting disconnected, and thus being prey to cults and cultic thought.  Much as a cult disconnects people from their connections, cultic though like conspiracy theories (sort of do-it-yourself cuts) can be used to unmoor oneself.

Next time you observe conspiracy theories gone gonzo, think of it as a decentralized cult.  It’ll make things clearer.

Also, remember the value of civilization, culture, and social connection.  It’s easier to appreciate when you see what happens when that falls apart.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Politics and The Psych Degree

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I got a degree in psychology back in college, looking for a science career, though I eventually went back to my first choice in computing.  Still, I don’t regret the degree at all (a psych degree is actually good as a minor or a complimentary degree for most anything), as it helps me get some great insights into human behavior.

One insight that comes to mind this holiday season is that Freud would have a field day with U.S. politics.

First, there’s the bizarre sexual issues, issues that indicate a kind of regressed or immature sexuality for so many people.  We’re actually to the point where rape being a bad thing is something people discuss as opposed to going “yeah, it’s bad.”  People are freaked out over contraception, something you think we’d be used to by now.

Secondly, there’s the daddy issues, and the press is really bad with this.  There’s the bizarre fawning over machismo which is often false machismo – and then just as soon as people show any machismo, there’s fear of angry daddy.  There’s an acceptance of adolescent posturing on war, and little thought on actual repercussions – I mean seriously, if there’s a war with Iran there will be impacts we have to cope with, whether a war is, was, or will be necessary.

Third, and related, there’s really little talk of long-term planning.  How do we get from A to B?  What of the repercussions?  What of sustainability?  What do we really want to do as opposed to say we’ll do.  Is this policy or that real long-term planning or a dodge?

Now I could have a Freudian field day with a lot of politics, but I suspect one of the big issues is that we don’t want to take a look at the pathological state of our own politics.  We don’t want to confront the immaturity, the parental issues, the regressed adolescent sexual issues, etc.  We know it’s there, but it seems we’re happier playing the games.

I’m not.  A lot of people aren’t.  Perhaps we need to get the media and politicians to catch on . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.