There’s a few studies that link low self esteem and depression with accurate understanding of the world and oneself. Lookup depressive realism. It’s actually mildly depressing!
Incidentally, using high self esteem may also lead to looking down on others, defensiveness, inability to critically analyze oneself, among other things. That’s just kinda how it goes when you think highly of yourself…
I am sorry, but this is nonsense. Even if the world sucks, the logical, smart response would not be dispair and depression, because that fixes nothing.
Also things like looking down on other or defensiveness are symptoms of low self esteem, not a high one. If you really are confident in yourself, you don’t need to feel better than others, because you feel good about yourself.
You can understand the world and still try to enjoy your life. The world always sucked and people found ways to cope with it. But that is a skill, that doesn’t always come naturally, but you should always strife towards that.
I am sorry, you are going through this, but don’t try to rationalize it. It is nearly rational, nor is it an inevitable outcome of high intelligence (this is not a judgement of you personally by the way).
Even if the world sucks, the logical, smart response would not be despair and depression, because that fixes nothing.
How logically do most people act, in your estimation? How logically would they act, if an unbearable depression descended upon them through looking at the shape of the world today? How many active genocides are taking place? How quickly will climate change destroy our way of life, and is there anything you, as an individual, can do to stop it? What about food and water insecurity being faced by millions of people? Millions of Americans, even? Lack of healthcare, the widening income gap between the 1% and everyone else? What can you logically do to address these global, ever worsening issues?
Perhaps the fact that you can’t do anything about these very real issues can also be a source of depression? Especially when you’re struggling just to keep your head above the metaphorical water?
One of the last vestiges of hope is a belief in karma. That the evil people perpetuating these evil things will one day face justice. But that’s not true, is it? kissinger never faced consequences. Somehow I doubt trump or netenyahoo will either.
I imagine your answer is probably something along the lines of “focus on your immediate needs and community.” Which boils down to, ignore these problems, because there’s nothing you can do. Kinda like telling an employee aboard a star ship to tidy their working area as the main computer counts down the self-destruction sequence.
I, for one, cannot imagine that Sisyphus is happy.
I partially agree. Depression has nothing to do with logic and Depression is kind a Symptom of messed up brain or hormones i think. People dont decide to be depressed.
And i would like to throw in the theory that high and low selfesteem does not really exist, but rather stabile and fragile ego. People with high or low self esteem tend to struggle with critic and be defensive or tend to feel bad about themselves. But that is gross generalisation and fragile/stable ego makes a lot more sense to me
There are a few conflicting frameworks, plus what I describe is normative behavior rather than people with diagnosable conditions (depression in abnormal psychology tends to be more a dysfunction of the brain). I teach social psychology to undergraduates, so I’m familiar with the other frameworks at a fairly broad level-- the one the person you responded to is a bit of an older perspective, but the direction you’re taking I’ve heard discussed.
Still, it’s difficult to get into the details in a Lemmy comment on a shower thoughts thread.
None the less, I mostly don’t like the fragile/secure ego approach because it’s harder to measure something like that, meaning there’s less evidence that’s what’s going on.
I will say more generally though, our brains seek out acceptance and avoid rejection, much like we do physical pain (fMRI confirms it’s the same part of the brain). That includes good things, like behaving cooperatively, and bad things, like confirmation bias. Self-esteem, similarly, cuts both ways-- it makes us feel better without needing external sources of esteem, but it also rejects external threats to that self esteem.
I simply worry that excess of anything leads to bad outcomes, like certain politicians we’re dealing with now. But now we’re getting more into my opinion and less about the research.
There’s a few studies that link low self esteem and depression with accurate understanding of the world and oneself. Lookup depressive realism. It’s actually mildly depressing!
Incidentally, using high self esteem may also lead to looking down on others, defensiveness, inability to critically analyze oneself, among other things. That’s just kinda how it goes when you think highly of yourself…
Sounds like a very mild case of “billionaire syndrome”
I am sorry, but this is nonsense. Even if the world sucks, the logical, smart response would not be dispair and depression, because that fixes nothing.
Also things like looking down on other or defensiveness are symptoms of low self esteem, not a high one. If you really are confident in yourself, you don’t need to feel better than others, because you feel good about yourself.
You can understand the world and still try to enjoy your life. The world always sucked and people found ways to cope with it. But that is a skill, that doesn’t always come naturally, but you should always strife towards that.
I am sorry, you are going through this, but don’t try to rationalize it. It is nearly rational, nor is it an inevitable outcome of high intelligence (this is not a judgement of you personally by the way).
How logically do most people act, in your estimation? How logically would they act, if an unbearable depression descended upon them through looking at the shape of the world today? How many active genocides are taking place? How quickly will climate change destroy our way of life, and is there anything you, as an individual, can do to stop it? What about food and water insecurity being faced by millions of people? Millions of Americans, even? Lack of healthcare, the widening income gap between the 1% and everyone else? What can you logically do to address these global, ever worsening issues?
Perhaps the fact that you can’t do anything about these very real issues can also be a source of depression? Especially when you’re struggling just to keep your head above the metaphorical water?
One of the last vestiges of hope is a belief in karma. That the evil people perpetuating these evil things will one day face justice. But that’s not true, is it? kissinger never faced consequences. Somehow I doubt trump or netenyahoo will either.
I imagine your answer is probably something along the lines of “focus on your immediate needs and community.” Which boils down to, ignore these problems, because there’s nothing you can do. Kinda like telling an employee aboard a star ship to tidy their working area as the main computer counts down the self-destruction sequence.
I, for one, cannot imagine that Sisyphus is happy.
I partially agree. Depression has nothing to do with logic and Depression is kind a Symptom of messed up brain or hormones i think. People dont decide to be depressed.
And i would like to throw in the theory that high and low selfesteem does not really exist, but rather stabile and fragile ego. People with high or low self esteem tend to struggle with critic and be defensive or tend to feel bad about themselves. But that is gross generalisation and fragile/stable ego makes a lot more sense to me
There are a few conflicting frameworks, plus what I describe is normative behavior rather than people with diagnosable conditions (depression in abnormal psychology tends to be more a dysfunction of the brain). I teach social psychology to undergraduates, so I’m familiar with the other frameworks at a fairly broad level-- the one the person you responded to is a bit of an older perspective, but the direction you’re taking I’ve heard discussed.
Still, it’s difficult to get into the details in a Lemmy comment on a shower thoughts thread.
None the less, I mostly don’t like the fragile/secure ego approach because it’s harder to measure something like that, meaning there’s less evidence that’s what’s going on.
I will say more generally though, our brains seek out acceptance and avoid rejection, much like we do physical pain (fMRI confirms it’s the same part of the brain). That includes good things, like behaving cooperatively, and bad things, like confirmation bias. Self-esteem, similarly, cuts both ways-- it makes us feel better without needing external sources of esteem, but it also rejects external threats to that self esteem.
I simply worry that excess of anything leads to bad outcomes, like certain politicians we’re dealing with now. But now we’re getting more into my opinion and less about the research.
If you’re curious, the textbook I use is open source. https://opentextbc.ca/socialpsychology/
It’s not perfect, though. I find it covers the topic well enough not to need to force my students to buy a text.