Education
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing"


How true.

I'm disappointed in the number of people (me included if I'm honest) who have a bit of information and the intelligence to put two and two together, figuratively speaking....

Where do they end up?

Miserable and living in their caves watching the fire and the shadows on the wall.



I was listening to Radio 4 (of course) earlier today, this morning actually...and they had a debate on about whether money should be given to dementia or depression (I'm simplifying as it's not entirely important). One person explained that dementia was diagnosed after an MRI scan was carried out.

"We should all have them on a yearly basis" I thought to myself, "Then we'd all know if we were ill or not"


You see, this is how I think - prevention is better than cure and all that.

I have a pain in my back - bone cancer, heart attack, start of a stroke....maybe it's just the physical manifestation of severe depression.


Why?

Because I read magazines, newspapers, the internet, I watch documentaries, I love words like necrotizing fasciitis - in fact I even knew someone who'd had it.

And I'm not alone....most, if not all of you reading this now will have far, far more medical knowledge than the average doctor did a couple of hundred years ago.

So suddenly we're all hypochondriacs and sadly depressed because of it.


Don't get me wrong...I'm not belittling the very real symptoms that many of us feel...but I can't help thinking that the more knowledge we have the further we get from a solution.



I honestly wonder if people were happier in simpler times when life was nasty, brutish and short....at least they didn't have to worry if they had the illness du jour.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 17:44, 17 replies)

fair point
but i dont think illness is the crux of the problem, its just general apathy.

we're a culture of stress, debt and shit jobs, and its wearing everybody down.

thats what i reckon anyways, but what do i know?
i convinced myself i had meningitis the other night...
(Catch21, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 17:48, closed)

I honestly think
we've all got far too much time to ourselves, time in which we can worry about *everything*.

Maybe if we honestly had to go out and fight that sabre-toothed tiger in order to get supper instead of avoiding the chavs at the chippy, maybe, just maybe we'd all feel a little more alive and happier.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 17:52, closed)

Gunter, aged 10
*coughs* "Muuuum"

*coughs more, then sneezes* "Muuuuuuuum"

*huge bout of coughing interspersed with sniffing, sneezing and sobs* "Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum"

Mum: What.

G: Mum, I've got pneumonia and bronchitis and that thing that Johnny at school had too.

Mum: Wasn't it Johnny that had appendicitis?

G: Yeah, that too. I've got all of them.

Mum: Are you going to get ready for school or will I have to come up there and make you?

G: I'll get ready myself.

*coughs*
( Moey, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 17:56, closed)

true
plus these sabre toothed tigers could take care of the chavs aswell.

but arent we meant to be evolved from primitive behavioural aspects like hunting.

i can only imagine evolution being a near pefect process.
(Catch21, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 17:57, closed)

No!
it's unlikely those with nasty, brutish and short lives are generally happier. It is likely, however, that they are too preoccupied with not dying, starving, being tortured, etc to wonder aloud about how happy they should.

Under what circumstances would the unhappy people under discussion prefer to swap some period of misery for an alternate one consisting of "thank god they didn't get me yet" followed by being beaten to death?

I couldn't actually claim to be Mr-little-ray-of-sunshine. I do hope I can maintain a sense of perspective, however.
(haberman is singing in the changes, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 18:02, closed)

That's my point
Not that they had short lives, but that they were too busy *living* to worry about whether or not they were ill - mentally or physically.

Far too many of us don't live our lives to the full - we're all waiting for the rainy day or when x,y or z has happened and then our lives will be perfect.

That ain't gonna happen.

I think far too many people waste their lives that way - me included.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 18:07, closed)

^
THIS!

And it's hard not to. I'm trying. I'm not very good at it though.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 18:13, closed)

I spent years waiting
for this or that to happen, and when it did nothing really improved overall- so I've taken a fuck-it attitude and started enjoying things NOW. Much better.

As to too much time on our hands making us crazy- no. We all have the Good Ol' Days glasses on when we think that. Go back a hundred years- almost everyone had the one aunt or uncle that no one talked about, who lived in the attic and you were told to leave alone. Go back a thousand years and the Danes were taking their homicidal maniacs, giving them boats and sending them to attack England.

We've always had this level of crazy in society. The only difference is that now we talk about it and try to treat it.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 1 Jul 2008, 18:29, closed)

This illness 'de jour'
I've googled it and can't find it.

What is it and what are the symptoms because I think I may have it.
( girlinthehole, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 18:32, closed)

@ TRL
No, I don't think that having too much time on our hands is making us crazy, but I do think often we have too much time to wonder if we might be crazy....and now we have a more open society and the education to find out more about it...So everyone these days has some sort of 'illness'....

And the 'illness' (real or imagined) too often becomes our excuse to stop living our lives because we end up so self-centred.


That said...there are plenty of people I'd love to stick in the attic and forget about...
;)
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 18:34, closed)

I know what you mean
I don't consider myself a hypochondriac but when I get a really bad migraine I worry I've got a brain tumour or a sharp pain in my chest means I'm having a heart attack
( Roxy_Hart is so so old, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 18:38, closed)

<pedant>
It's a "little learning", not knowledge. Alexander Pope. And that's my problem - a little learning which turns me into a pedant.

But on the subject of being down at what life *can* throw at you - well, yes, sooner or later you'll die, and for most people it' not pleasant. Either old age with the erosion of dignity and independence, or sudden death, or lingering illness.

So for God's sake - until it hits - Carpe Diem ! Who wants a bloody pension - I'd rather have memories. The sun is shining, STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER, go out, have a drink, tell someone you love them, all that stuff.
( I_Was_Mordred, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 18:39, closed)

I think a lot of B3TA'ers
drink whilst posting after work. Time of our lives! Im enjoying an organic pinotage AS WE SPEAK (type). Oh and the Bob Dylan soundtrack of Billy The Kid is playing in the background.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 18:48, closed)

^Italian red and Tom Waits.
Yay!
( girlinthehole, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 20:01, closed)

It's South African but no harm
Tom's not though!
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 20:11, closed)

Waits and Pinot Noir here
woo!
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 20:43, closed)

Black Crowes and water for me
Gotta drive later.
So no drinking for Kaol.
( Cawl, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 20:45, closed)