How can Neutral modify their behavior if they won’t cooperate?
Do they exist as distinct entities or are they ideas? Neutral can unimagine them. Or, rather, you can unimagine all of them. Dictate them out of your head.
Are you actually three agents? Have you tried being four agents or two? Does that make sense as a question to ask?
Have you tried any other treatment for depression as depression, not as bipolar disorder—e.g. cognitive behavioural therapy?
you can unimagine all of them. Dictate them out of your head.
I am not actually three agents, any more than you are actually one (or six, or whatever). However, modeling my behavior is much simpler from a three-agent perspective than a two- or a nine- agent perspective, so it’s a useful tool. I can stop using that model, but that won’t make my aberrant behavior disappear.
Edit to clarify: I was behaving this way, (but much worse) years before it occurred to me that thinking of myself this way might help me understand and remedy my behavior. Your post seems to imply that I could fix the problem by unimagining these agents. If that’s what you mean, I’m a bit insulted, but you might mean something else.
Have you tried any other treatment for depression as depression, not as bipolar disorder
I was originally treated for depression, not bipolar, because my hypomanic states aren’t manic, and weren’t originally noticed as contraindications for certain standard treatments. This is very common for type II bipolar.
Regardless, non-pharmacological treatments for depression have helped me, and continue to help me more than the subject of my post—they’re just less relevant to the Less Wrong community. Cognitive behavioral therapy has helped a little, but my most successful treatments have been habitual and environmental changes. Notably, regular early morning sun exposure, omega-3 fatty acid supplements, more sex and more frequent exercise.
Mood stabilizers also work, but at the cost of my mind, so I don’t take them any more. I’m lucky that my disease is mild enough that it can be controlled with the methods above. There are plenty of people who simply have no choice other than their mind or their life.
Your post seems to imply that I could fix the problem by unimagining these agents. If that’s what you mean, I’m a bit insulted
Not “could” in the sense that it’s an ability you have but choose not to use, nor in the sense that you could “if you were a better person”, nor in the sense that your illness is imaginary.
Only ‘could’ in the narrow literal sense that it answers the question “how could neutral modify their behaviour without their cooperation?”—if you aren’t really three entities and “you” are the greater whole then you ‘could’ ignore their lack of cooperation and alter their behaviour by fiat. (Whether you actually could in real life, or if it would be helpful to do so, is another matter).
Do they exist as distinct entities or are they ideas? Neutral can unimagine them. Or, rather, you can unimagine all of them. Dictate them out of your head.
Are you actually three agents? Have you tried being four agents or two? Does that make sense as a question to ask?
Have you tried any other treatment for depression as depression, not as bipolar disorder—e.g. cognitive behavioural therapy?
I am not actually three agents, any more than you are actually one (or six, or whatever). However, modeling my behavior is much simpler from a three-agent perspective than a two- or a nine- agent perspective, so it’s a useful tool. I can stop using that model, but that won’t make my aberrant behavior disappear.
Edit to clarify: I was behaving this way, (but much worse) years before it occurred to me that thinking of myself this way might help me understand and remedy my behavior. Your post seems to imply that I could fix the problem by unimagining these agents. If that’s what you mean, I’m a bit insulted, but you might mean something else.
I was originally treated for depression, not bipolar, because my hypomanic states aren’t manic, and weren’t originally noticed as contraindications for certain standard treatments. This is very common for type II bipolar.
Regardless, non-pharmacological treatments for depression have helped me, and continue to help me more than the subject of my post—they’re just less relevant to the Less Wrong community. Cognitive behavioral therapy has helped a little, but my most successful treatments have been habitual and environmental changes. Notably, regular early morning sun exposure, omega-3 fatty acid supplements, more sex and more frequent exercise.
Mood stabilizers also work, but at the cost of my mind, so I don’t take them any more. I’m lucky that my disease is mild enough that it can be controlled with the methods above. There are plenty of people who simply have no choice other than their mind or their life.
Not “could” in the sense that it’s an ability you have but choose not to use, nor in the sense that you could “if you were a better person”, nor in the sense that your illness is imaginary.
Only ‘could’ in the narrow literal sense that it answers the question “how could neutral modify their behaviour without their cooperation?”—if you aren’t really three entities and “you” are the greater whole then you ‘could’ ignore their lack of cooperation and alter their behaviour by fiat. (Whether you actually could in real life, or if it would be helpful to do so, is another matter).
Interesting. Thank you.