5 ms·

It's hobby and home stuff that needs the biggest stimulant push for me. At work there's social pressure to provide motivation, but when I'm alone there's no so

It's hobby and home stuff that needs the biggest stimulant push for me. At work there's social pressure to provide motivation, but when I'm alone there's no sources of motivation. SSRIs make me even more lazy, which results in anxiety about not doing anything and failing responsibilities.

pxc 2y ago
> when I'm alone there's no sources of motivation. I've found this to be most true for myself when I'm pouring a lot into work and don't have much time to recover. I've started reading a lot of books for pleasure in the past 1-2 years, which I also used to do a lot when I was a kid. But after I finished college (which took a long time for me— my undergraduate 'career' was a sometimes rocky eight years or so), I didn't read for pleasure at all for years and years. If your hobbies overlap in some way with your career, or you're coming home very tired, I wouldn't be surprised if that's a factor. You might have some success incorporating gentle social pressure into your hobbies as well. Most of my side projects right now are essentually book clubs or study groups with close friends. We're all busy and tired. 'Deadlines' slip, meetings are cancelled. But we want to stay connected to each other, and that provides a positive through-line that keeps us showing up and doing our best, whatever that may be. It's still a form of social pressure, and I won't lie to you and say it never involves feelings of guilt for me. But it feels different from the work pressure. Its rootedness in sharing thoughts and experiences with people I love makes it feel more like something that emerges primarily from a positive desire, even if my commitment to it generates secondary feelings of obligation. > SSRIs make me even more lazy, which results in anxiety about not doing anything and failing responsibilities. I understand. Even genuinely useful medications often help with one aspect of a condition (usually one that inhibits participation in society or the economy— an aspect whose costs are substantially external) and actively exacerbate others (typically aspects whose costs are primarily internal to us). I'm afraid I don't have any advice for dealing with such tradeoffs. I have struggled and do struggle with that kind of thing myself. :-\
- squidgedcricket 2y ago
  Thank you for the thoughtful comment. I completely agree that finding social hobbies would help and it's something I should work on. > I understand. Even genuinely useful medications often help with one aspect of a condition (usually one that inhibits participation in society or the economy— an aspect whose costs are substantially external) and actively exacerbate others (typically aspects whose costs are primarily internal to us). This internal/external trade-off is an interesting viewpoint that I've never really considered. It aligns with some of my negative experiences with the mental healthcare system.
- GuerrerOscuro 2y ago
  > > SSRIs make me even more lazy, which results in anxiety about not doing anything and failing responsibilities. > I understand. Even genuinely useful medications often help with one aspect of a condition (usually one that inhibits participation in society or the economy— an aspect whose costs are substantially external) and actively exacerbate others (typically aspects whose costs are primarily internal to us). I've had the same notion on societal participation, nice to see that same thought brought up by somebody else. That said, from personal experience, I've had SSRIs bring me back to normal without significant downsides starting from a pretty bad starting point. (Where normal does still involve ups and downs but with a pretty solid bottom to the downs at a more or less acceptable level.) So that is a possibility. There needn't be a trade off. What I can imagine is that the perceived negative effects by the original commenter are actually a result of the medication doing its work. Elsewhere in these comments others have pointed out the use of what I would call their negative gas pedal: i.e. powering through tasks based on anxiety, negative self talk and/or shame. I've used that "pedal" a lot in my life, always with positive short term effects ("getting things done") and negative long terms effects ("burning out" or more precisely blowing out my motivational faculties). I suppose SSRIs by virtue of dampening the anxiety, negative thoughts and shame, could cause this negative "gas pedal" to falter, resulting in a feeling of having no aim at all because the main means of moving forward has stopped functioning. Going back to the article, I think it is ineffective to label that as "lazy". I think it is better to see it as a period that allows motivational faculties to restart based on what another commenter called "desire". That is a term which I personally dislike based on my philosophical convictions, so I'd prefer to call it "inspiration" or "drive".

pxc 2y ago

> when I'm alone there's no sources of motivation. I've found this to be most true for myself when I'm pouring a lot into work and don't have much time to recover. I've started reading a lot of books for pleasure in the past 1-2 years, which I also used to do a lot when I was a kid. But after I finished college (which took a long time for me— my undergraduate 'career' was a sometimes rocky eight years or so), I didn't read for pleasure at all for years and years. If your hobbies overlap in some way with your career, or you're coming home very tired, I wouldn't be surprised if that's a factor. You might have some success incorporating gentle social pressure into your hobbies as well. Most of my side projects right now are essentually book clubs or study groups with close friends. We're all busy and tired. 'Deadlines' slip, meetings are cancelled. But we want to stay connected to each other, and that provides a positive through-line that keeps us showing up and doing our best, whatever that may be. It's still a form of social pressure, and I won't lie to you and say it never involves feelings of guilt for me. But it feels different from the work pressure. Its rootedness in sharing thoughts and experiences with people I love makes it feel more like something that emerges primarily from a positive desire, even if my commitment to it generates secondary feelings of obligation. > SSRIs make me even more lazy, which results in anxiety about not doing anything and failing responsibilities. I understand. Even genuinely useful medications often help with one aspect of a condition (usually one that inhibits participation in society or the economy— an aspect whose costs are substantially external) and actively exacerbate others (typically aspects whose costs are primarily internal to us). I'm afraid I don't have any advice for dealing with such tradeoffs. I have struggled and do struggle with that kind of thing myself. :-\

squidgedcricket 2y ago
Thank you for the thoughtful comment. I completely agree that finding social hobbies would help and it's something I should work on. > I understand. Even genuinely useful medications often help with one aspect of a condition (usually one that inhibits participation in society or the economy— an aspect whose costs are substantially external) and actively exacerbate others (typically aspects whose costs are primarily internal to us). This internal/external trade-off is an interesting viewpoint that I've never really considered. It aligns with some of my negative experiences with the mental healthcare system.
GuerrerOscuro 2y ago
> > SSRIs make me even more lazy, which results in anxiety about not doing anything and failing responsibilities. > I understand. Even genuinely useful medications often help with one aspect of a condition (usually one that inhibits participation in society or the economy— an aspect whose costs are substantially external) and actively exacerbate others (typically aspects whose costs are primarily internal to us). I've had the same notion on societal participation, nice to see that same thought brought up by somebody else. That said, from personal experience, I've had SSRIs bring me back to normal without significant downsides starting from a pretty bad starting point. (Where normal does still involve ups and downs but with a pretty solid bottom to the downs at a more or less acceptable level.) So that is a possibility. There needn't be a trade off. What I can imagine is that the perceived negative effects by the original commenter are actually a result of the medication doing its work. Elsewhere in these comments others have pointed out the use of what I would call their negative gas pedal: i.e. powering through tasks based on anxiety, negative self talk and/or shame. I've used that "pedal" a lot in my life, always with positive short term effects ("getting things done") and negative long terms effects ("burning out" or more precisely blowing out my motivational faculties). I suppose SSRIs by virtue of dampening the anxiety, negative thoughts and shame, could cause this negative "gas pedal" to falter, resulting in a feeling of having no aim at all because the main means of moving forward has stopped functioning. Going back to the article, I think it is ineffective to label that as "lazy". I think it is better to see it as a period that allows motivational faculties to restart based on what another commenter called "desire". That is a term which I personally dislike based on my philosophical convictions, so I'd prefer to call it "inspiration" or "drive".