It is common sense that the loudest politician is rarely the wisest. That the child who cries the loudest is rarely the one suffers most. That the friend who criticizes most harshly rarely has the best advice. If anything, the volume of a voice negatively correlates with its value.
But the other day, I tried taking a nap instead of watching anime, and it satisfied the same urge. That’s when I realized what I was really looking for: the fast-forward button.
Alternative hypothesis is you were just sleep-deprived? I also find it harder to resist superstimuli when I’m not getting enough sleep, not eating well, etc.
Although it’s also true that in my experience watching anime etc. is usually a combination of various kinds of pica and a desire to escape from parts of my experience (usually emotional pain). So I was explicitly trying to introspect as little as possible.
Although it’s also also true that one of the key interventions that helped finally solve this problem for me was improving my diet (avoiding gluten + drinking pedialyte). What can I say? Everything is related.
Alternative hypothesis is you were just sleep-deprived? I also find it harder to resist superstimuli when I’m not getting enough sleep, not eating well, etc.
This is definitely a huge part of it, and taking naps every so often really does reduce what I thought was nihilism.
I’m still not sure how many of my psychological problems have purely physiological causes and cures. Every outside data source suggests “way more than I think.”
In some sense this whole post is just saying “lots of things are escapism from pain,” but somehow I found the idea of the “fast-forward button” a fresh and more resonant statement of the problem than “escapism.”
Cf. The Loudest Alarm is Probably False.
Alternative hypothesis is you were just sleep-deprived? I also find it harder to resist superstimuli when I’m not getting enough sleep, not eating well, etc.
Although it’s also true that in my experience watching anime etc. is usually a combination of various kinds of pica and a desire to escape from parts of my experience (usually emotional pain). So I was explicitly trying to introspect as little as possible.
Although it’s also also true that one of the key interventions that helped finally solve this problem for me was improving my diet (avoiding gluten + drinking pedialyte). What can I say? Everything is related.
This is definitely a huge part of it, and taking naps every so often really does reduce what I thought was nihilism.
I’m still not sure how many of my psychological problems have purely physiological causes and cures. Every outside data source suggests “way more than I think.”
In some sense this whole post is just saying “lots of things are escapism from pain,” but somehow I found the idea of the “fast-forward button” a fresh and more resonant statement of the problem than “escapism.”