3 ms·
"It seems the rest of us should forget as little as possible." Given the realities of life, I would presume most, by the time they reach middle age are mentall
by fsloth 8y ago
"It seems the rest of us should forget as little as possible."
Given the realities of life, I would presume most, by the time they reach middle age are mentally scarred one way or another.
I'm not sure of your life exeriences but as a soon 40 year old I would have enough nightmare stuff to severely mentally handicap me unless I had some way of coping with it. Moving on and not caring too much about ones personal history is sometimes a great strategy.
- Bjartr 8y agoIf you're correct, I'm not looking forward to my 30s. (I'm 29)
- fsloth 8y agoI'm not actually hoping people would suffer :) I don't have statistics, but quite a lot of people are directly or indirectly affected by substance abuse, mental problems, illness, suecides, accidental or natural deaths or just plain bad luck. Unless one lived alone in a padded room I find it unlikely one is not touched by a calamity or another within ones lifetime. But that's ok, just let grief do it's work, try to pick up the pieces and then carry on living.
- spacehome 8y agoI agree with fsloth, but if you've made it to 29 without seeing some shit, I think you're the kind of person likely to make it to 40 without seeing shit either.
- 1000units 8y agoI'm not sure of your life exeriences but as a soon 40 year old I would have enough nightmare stuff to severely mentally handicap me unless I had some way of coping with it. There are some things I have to work hard to properly remember. I'm not sure this difficulty remains productive after the initial phase of emotional reactivity.
- Sileni 8y agoCounterpoint; trauma is so difficult to forget that the relatively small footprint of forgetting random, unessential facts just doesn't compare to the benefit of being able to forget something you would otherwise get into PTSD-style thought-loops over. Don't think about the time a close relative passed away; think about the types of torture John McCain went through. Do you think he could have come back and been the man he was if he couldn't lock some of his memories away? And there is no "initial phase of emotional reactivity". It's a continuous spectrum of reactions and reactions to those reactions. Real trauma is like being hit by a train, or getting cancer. Yeah, you'll recover, but you'll never quite be as healthy as you were before the event even if your recovery is miraculous.
- 1000units 8y agoIt's a continuous spectrum of reactions and reactions to those reactions. That's life, period. Yeah, you'll recover, but you'll never quite be as healthy as you were before the event even if your recovery is miraculous. I'm not quite a former war prisoner, but I'm objectively a more effective person in many ways because of what I went through. I am worse off some ways, too, sure. But again, that's life. Little comes free. I want to remember.