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My suspicion is that many people going to therapy are lacking in one or more items from the basic hierarchy of needs. I went to therapy once. In hindsight I'd

My suspicion is that many people going to therapy are lacking in one or more items from the basic hierarchy of needs. I went to therapy once. In hindsight I'd have been better off with a girlfriend and friend companionship. I'd ask myself. 1. Am I getting good quality sleep? 2. Am I getting good quality food? 3. Am I interacting with people socially? 4. Am I sexually active? 5. Am I physically active to the point of breaking sweat? The mental and physical are intertwined and it is easy to forget to take care of yourself. Your machine requires maintenance. I don't only mean sometimes take it easy - that too - but also people can grow very neurotic by ignoring their social and sexual needs, and like a machine - we are meant to perform functions - without which we can suffer aka a certain amount of physical or mental stress is good for us and we can err by doing too little or too much.

themodelplumber 8y ago
For a lot of people, deeply subjective-analytical thinking of this sort is very brittle, and they lack the experience that would teach them what to do even if they knew they were lacking some important thing on the hierarchy. It also happens that some very depressed and anxious people will e.g. read only the "criticisms" portion of the Wikipedia page for the hierarchy concept, and determine in the end that what they need is an experienced professional rather than a possibly-unscientific concept. This is really sad to observe, because their inability to be open to certain kinds of information can make them more dependent, not less.
- bachbach 8y ago
  It is easy to dismiss 'get laid' as boorish and interpret 'did you get enough sleep?' or get out more' as semi-accusatory, because we're prone to thinking crude feedback is less apt for us, we must be more complex than this. Look at the rise of ASMR videos. Millions of people desire an experience,a simulation, of being touched in a non-sexual way. This isn't a critique of ASMR - it's fine - but there's this simple need at the heart of it - little different to those gorillas grooming each other. There's a running gag in AMSR circles where the ASMR viewer is interrupted by somebody and reacts by <laptop lid slam> pretending they were watching porn. Hackerspaces and makerspaces are a great thing. I heard a quote recently "Women communicate, men shoulder to shoulder".

themodelplumber 8y ago

For a lot of people, deeply subjective-analytical thinking of this sort is very brittle, and they lack the experience that would teach them what to do even if they knew they were lacking some important thing on the hierarchy. It also happens that some very depressed and anxious people will e.g. read only the "criticisms" portion of the Wikipedia page for the hierarchy concept, and determine in the end that what they need is an experienced professional rather than a possibly-unscientific concept. This is really sad to observe, because their inability to be open to certain kinds of information can make them more dependent, not less.

bachbach 8y ago
It is easy to dismiss 'get laid' as boorish and interpret 'did you get enough sleep?' or get out more' as semi-accusatory, because we're prone to thinking crude feedback is less apt for us, we must be more complex than this. Look at the rise of ASMR videos. Millions of people desire an experience,a simulation, of being touched in a non-sexual way. This isn't a critique of ASMR - it's fine - but there's this simple need at the heart of it - little different to those gorillas grooming each other. There's a running gag in AMSR circles where the ASMR viewer is interrupted by somebody and reacts by <laptop lid slam> pretending they were watching porn. Hackerspaces and makerspaces are a great thing. I heard a quote recently "Women communicate, men shoulder to shoulder".