These are good points, Gwern, but the psychology industry and suicide hotlines fail a lot more often than you’d think (support for this point is included). If Slade has not tried them, they may still be useful for Slade. It is also possible that Slade has tried a few different psychologists, a few different prescriptions, and a few different hotlines without relief. Here are a few problems that one may run into when attempting to utilize the standard forms of help:
Note to Slade: You may not want to read this. This is for people who don’t have a clue why anybody would be asking here. It consists of a list of problems. It’s useful for the purpose it’s serving, but not particularly uplifting for a person in your situation. I’m writing you a separate response.
Psychologists failing to practice science. I’m sure you, Gwern, are aware how common this is but I’ll include a link for others.
Prescription drugs to treat moods not working. (See “A link for others”.)
Prescription drugs to treat moods causing intolerable side effects. (The FDA doesn’t approve drugs based on them being safe. It approves them based on whether the problem caused by the drugs is better or worse than the original affliction. I will use tardive dyskinesia, a neurological disorder resulting in involuntary body movements like repeatedly sticking one’s tongue out, as my example. Anti-psychotics can cause it.)
If Slade is gifted (not unlikely according to these numbers and Slade may have a 50% chance of not knowing (“about half of our country’s (America) gifted students are never identified”)) then they may find themselves being misdianosed with disorders they don’t have (happens to 25% of the gifted population (Citation: Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children and Adults) let alone the portion of the gifted population which actually shows up in a psychologist’s office).
If Slade is gifted, they might find that getting help from a psychologist who does not specialize in gifted clients is useless, frustrating or harmful. This can feel like taking a space ship to a car mechanic. Gifted people may need psychologists who have experience with gifted clients.
Suicide hotlines are non-profit organizations. As such they can end up understaffed. The following scenario does happen: Can you imagine how it would feel to call a suicide hotline and be told “Hold on a minute, I’m getting another call.” What if it kept happening over and over again throughout the call? If you look past the obvious annoyance that this is likely cause during your important conversation about this life or death matter, you’ll also see that you may begin to wonder how many other people are killing themselves while you receive the help. Total survivor’s guilt.
It is quite possible that Slade has attempted to get help using the stereotypical options and has run into one or all of these issues.
I don’t blame Slade for asking here. In the event that Slade’s main problem is that the psychologists don’t seem to get it—that Slade is gifted and they’re targeting their help to non-gifted clients, or that Slade is receiving unscientific advice from psychologists—one of the places where Slade would have a decent probability of finding these things out is by asking here.
If Slade has been failed by the ordinary methods, would you agree that the situation is important enough to “throw spaghetti at the wall” by posting on the internet asking for help, and that LessWrong would have a significantly better chance of producing a useful response than most websites?
Personally, I think the best approach when dealing with a problem this big is to talk to as many different people as possible about it—including both professionals and laymen that are either knowledgeable about the subject or generally smart. Nobody is infallible, and the more information you have, the better.
These are good points, Gwern, but the psychology industry and suicide hotlines fail a lot more often than you’d think (support for this point is included). If Slade has not tried them, they may still be useful for Slade. It is also possible that Slade has tried a few different psychologists, a few different prescriptions, and a few different hotlines without relief. Here are a few problems that one may run into when attempting to utilize the standard forms of help:
Note to Slade: You may not want to read this. This is for people who don’t have a clue why anybody would be asking here. It consists of a list of problems. It’s useful for the purpose it’s serving, but not particularly uplifting for a person in your situation. I’m writing you a separate response.
Psychologists failing to practice science. I’m sure you, Gwern, are aware how common this is but I’ll include a link for others.
Prescription drugs to treat moods not working. (See “A link for others”.)
Prescription drugs to treat moods causing intolerable side effects. (The FDA doesn’t approve drugs based on them being safe. It approves them based on whether the problem caused by the drugs is better or worse than the original affliction. I will use tardive dyskinesia, a neurological disorder resulting in involuntary body movements like repeatedly sticking one’s tongue out, as my example. Anti-psychotics can cause it.)
If Slade is gifted (not unlikely according to these numbers and Slade may have a 50% chance of not knowing (“about half of our country’s (America) gifted students are never identified”)) then they may find themselves being misdianosed with disorders they don’t have (happens to 25% of the gifted population (Citation: Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children and Adults) let alone the portion of the gifted population which actually shows up in a psychologist’s office).
If Slade is gifted, they might find that getting help from a psychologist who does not specialize in gifted clients is useless, frustrating or harmful. This can feel like taking a space ship to a car mechanic. Gifted people may need psychologists who have experience with gifted clients.
Suicide hotlines are non-profit organizations. As such they can end up understaffed. The following scenario does happen: Can you imagine how it would feel to call a suicide hotline and be told “Hold on a minute, I’m getting another call.” What if it kept happening over and over again throughout the call? If you look past the obvious annoyance that this is likely cause during your important conversation about this life or death matter, you’ll also see that you may begin to wonder how many other people are killing themselves while you receive the help. Total survivor’s guilt.
It is quite possible that Slade has attempted to get help using the stereotypical options and has run into one or all of these issues.
I don’t blame Slade for asking here. In the event that Slade’s main problem is that the psychologists don’t seem to get it—that Slade is gifted and they’re targeting their help to non-gifted clients, or that Slade is receiving unscientific advice from psychologists—one of the places where Slade would have a decent probability of finding these things out is by asking here.
If Slade has been failed by the ordinary methods, would you agree that the situation is important enough to “throw spaghetti at the wall” by posting on the internet asking for help, and that LessWrong would have a significantly better chance of producing a useful response than most websites?
Personally, I think the best approach when dealing with a problem this big is to talk to as many different people as possible about it—including both professionals and laymen that are either knowledgeable about the subject or generally smart. Nobody is infallible, and the more information you have, the better.