What's with all these bi-polar people?

[Kev]

You clearly don't fully understand your own world view Miles.

There is no natural self. Man is merely a collection of molecules arranged into a carbon based organism that takes in food in order to generate energy for movement and sexual reproduction and has an anus to excrete said waste. It's 'purpose is to live to sexual maturity, mate and reproduce and maintain its offspring long enough so that it can fend for itself. As the original organism is no longer needed once successors have been born it can expire.

Thought processes and emotional feelings are all controlled by chemicals in the brain. Some people release more or less of certain chemicals than others.

To better regulate and control an organisms emotional wellbeing pills can be administered to return chemical balance to normal. This will hopefully better enable it to function more efficiently regarding reprodution and survival, of course only needed to until younger ofspring are able to spport themselves independently.

I'm confused on what grounds you object? Maybe you belive treatment of the weak is wrong as it is natures way of weeding out those genes unfit for existence? That makes sense but I havnt heard you speak out against medical care before, even though it is against nature.

[Gandalf]

There is a natural self. It is the me that is typing these thoughts and the me who reads what I read and the me who plans my lessons etc. This is what makes me an individual. I am an individual who is capable of making conscious decisions quite distinct from others. It is finite and limited, but while it lasts it is what I am.

I just don't understand how we can say that a gloomy or depressed disposition is not natural. To the person predisposed to that condition surely that is a normal state of affairs? That is what they have been born and raised with and that is what they must work through. If they cannot procreate then that is their hard luck. They should at least have pretended to be cheerful on a date.

As one who has no particular desire to pass on genes to any other poor little chap, I don't really have too many opinions regarding the need to create offspring. I don't really see the need for that and probably think more like the resourceful panda than a rabbit. I have probably learned from my parents in that regard...to resist and reject it all.

I just think a natural condition is the way that one was intended to be so why interfere with that process? If they can't pass on their genes? Well, who cares? Maybe it's better for the world that more depressed people don't get pregnant as the world is getting rather full as it is.

[JazMerkin]

Ok, seriously Bilbo/Miles, it's getting damn tiring of you guys trying to turn every thread into a debate about your respective beliefs regarding God. This is actually a pretty interesting topic & it doesn't need to be about Miles lack of belief in God rather his lack of understanding for people with mental illness. So what if there are some contradictions in it, we're all contradictory in our beliefs.

[Gandalf]

Ok, seriously Bilbo/Miles, it's getting damn tiring of you guys trying to turn every thread into a debate about your respective beliefs regarding God. This is actually a pretty interesting topic & it doesn't need to be about Miles lack of belief in God rather his lack of understanding for people with mental illness. So what if there are some contradictions in it, we're all contradictory in our beliefs.

I agree with that and in my defence I didn't bring it up.

As I said before, I started the thread ad hoc and am working my views out bit by bit. But when the whole god thing comes up I do get defensive and try to defend myself somewhat. If Bilbo will be a gent then I shall too. I am more than happy to stick to only this topic and have another thread for if anyone wants to debate something else.

[JazMerkin]

Ok, seriously Bilbo/Miles, it's getting damn tiring of you guys trying to turn every thread into a debate about your respective beliefs regarding God. This is actually a pretty interesting topic & it doesn't need to be about Miles lack of belief in God rather his lack of understanding for people with mental illness. So what if there are some contradictions in it, we're all contradictory in our beliefs.

I agree with that and in my defence I didn't bring it up.

As I said before, I started the thread ad hoc and am working my views out bit by bit. But when the whole god thing comes up I do get defensive and try to defend myself somewhat. If Bilbo will be a gent then I shall too. I am more than happy to stick to only this topic and have another thread for if anyone wants to debate something else.

Thank God (it's an expression, let's not use it as more means for debate on that), I would send you some rep but need to spread it like Big H does STDs.

As it is, we can all have some pretty uninformed views on things we don't come into contact with. I remember up until I went to university, I genuinely believed that all gay people should be put on an island somewhere away from 'normal' people, a kind of 'Gaysrael'. Although worryingly that marked me out as a real liberal on the issue in my area

[Fenster]

Ok, seriously Bilbo/Miles, it's getting damn tiring of you guys trying to turn every thread into a debate about your respective beliefs regarding God. This is actually a pretty interesting topic & it doesn't need to be about Miles lack of belief in God rather his lack of understanding for people with mental illness. So what if there are some contradictions in it, we're all contradictory in our beliefs.

I agree with that and in my defence I didn't bring it up.

As I said before, I started the thread ad hoc and am working my views out bit by bit. But when the whole god thing comes up I do get defensive and try to defend myself somewhat. If Bilbo will be a gent then I shall too. I am more than happy to stick to only this topic and have another thread for if anyone wants to debate something else.

Thank God (it's an expression, let's not use it as more means for debate on that), I would send you some rep but need to spread it like Big H does STDs.

As it is, we can all have some pretty uninformed views on things we don't come into contact with. I remember up until I went to university, I genuinely believed that all gay people should be put on an island somewhere away from 'normal' people, a kind of 'Gaysrael'. Although worryingly that marked me out as a real liberal on the issue in my area

[ryanman]

[Youngblood]

Having bipolar disorder is akin to having diabetes or cancer, or any one of a number of human ailments. One that can often be treated and controlled. It should not be understood any differently. Yet there are terrible stigmas, and mainly bred by ignorance. No one will ever condemn a cancer patient for being sick. They didn't choose to be, right? Same goes for diabetes. You get sick, there are treatments, sometimes they work, other times they don't.

Let's look at cancer. There are different types of treatment to choose from, and no one will look at that person as some dreg of society if they choose something different then the norm. Just a person faced with the most difficult of situations. And whatever call they do make, you can be sure that call will affect the lives of those around them. This is the nature of bipolar disorder. But yet, people really view them as weak or flawed, almost no matter the outcome. It's sad really.

The problem with the treatment of mental illness is, and particularly bipolar, the side affects of the treatment make it difficult for many of the people taking the drugs to stay on them. Imagine you are an artist or scientist, and you have a wall of inspiration in front of you draw from. That at times there is a portal there, that opens up and burns bright giving you energy, inspiration, understanding of the world around you, heightened senses of the world and feelings so powerful they are hard to rationalize not experiencing them. w/e the cost.

For example, if you were say a God believing person, and you truly believed you were close to touching the face of God and understanding everything only ever speculated on, proving his existance to humanity for once and all...could you really choose not to? If you were an atheist with an interest in science and space, and felt you were about to unravel the universes deepest secrets could you really choose not to, because of some spinoff effects of outcome, or causality to others? THE MOTHERFUCKING SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE FOR ONCE AND FOR ALL!! When you get to those points the costs become irrelevant. And these are the types of things that mania and delusion bring on. Extremely powerful feelings, things most of us will never know.

And then there is the cost. When the portal closes, when that burning bright light begins to fade, to close and becomes but a pinhole, a trickle of it's former all knowing all being self, through medication or simple chemical changes in the brain. And all that is left is the reality it was all but a dream. It wasn't real. And the cost is all that is left. That terrible cost, that is usually to those around you.

You've just went from master of your known universe, to the villain of your reality. That's a big and bitter pill to swallow.

And why so many of them will not swallow their pills for long.

And they didn't ask for it. To have to make these choices. Fate just jumped in and said YOU, this is your existance. No different most often then the cancer patient, the person with diabetes.

[CFH]

Ok, seriously Bilbo/Miles, it's getting damn tiring of you guys trying to turn every thread into a debate about your respective beliefs regarding God. This is actually a pretty interesting topic & it doesn't need to be about Miles lack of belief in God rather his lack of understanding for people with mental illness. So what if there are some contradictions in it, we're all contradictory in our beliefs.

This x1000. It's seriously fucking annoying, so much so that I almost always automatically stop posting in any thread that you guys turn into a philosophical wack-off contest.

[Kev]

Ok, seriously Bilbo/Miles, it's getting damn tiring of you guys trying to turn every thread into a debate about your respective beliefs regarding God. This is actually a pretty interesting topic & it doesn't need to be about Miles lack of belief in God rather his lack of understanding for people with mental illness. So what if there are some contradictions in it, we're all contradictory in our beliefs.

This x1000. It's seriously fucking annoying, so much so that I almost always automatically stop posting in any thread that you guys turn into a philosophical wack-off contest.

Such intolerance, hostility and anger issues.

To be honest I only really post nowadays to talk to Miles. Post's I'm not interested in I just skip past and ignore.

There are many threads I don't even enter as the subject/poster don't interest me. I don't go in to complain though, that would just be rude.

[ryanman]

Ok, seriously Bilbo/Miles, it's getting damn tiring of you guys trying to turn every thread into a debate about your respective beliefs regarding God. This is actually a pretty interesting topic & it doesn't need to be about Miles lack of belief in God rather his lack of understanding for people with mental illness. So what if there are some contradictions in it, we're all contradictory in our beliefs.

This x1000. It's seriously fucking annoying, so much so that I almost always automatically stop posting in any thread that you guys turn into a philosophical wack-off contest.

Such intolerance, hostility and anger issues.

To be honest I only really post nowadays to talk to Miles. Post's I'm not interested in I just skip past and ignore.

There are many threads I don't even enter as the subject/poster don't interest me. I don't go in to complain though, that would just be rude.

Yeah but they came into a thread that was seemingly about Bi-Polar disorder. Not religion. I personally don't mind but can see their point.

[CFH]

Ok, seriously Bilbo/Miles, it's getting damn tiring of you guys trying to turn every thread into a debate about your respective beliefs regarding God. This is actually a pretty interesting topic & it doesn't need to be about Miles lack of belief in God rather his lack of understanding for people with mental illness. So what if there are some contradictions in it, we're all contradictory in our beliefs.

This x1000. It's seriously fucking annoying, so much so that I almost always automatically stop posting in any thread that you guys turn into a philosophical wack-off contest.

Such intolerance, hostility and anger issues.

To be honest I only really post nowadays to talk to Miles. Post's I'm not interested in I just skip past and ignore.

There are many threads I don't even enter as the subject/poster don't interest me. I don't go in to complain though, that would just be rude.

I wasn't trying to be mean, just honest. It's something that happens in almost every off-topic thread you guys participate in and it has just gotten to be a bit much.

[Gandalf]

To be fair, I am willing to keep to thread topics unless someone else deviates from it. I've no issues with anyone, but can see why me and Bilbo going off on the god thing can seem a bit annoying. We should probably keep all that in some super thread somewhere.

[Kev]

Ok, seriously Bilbo/Miles, it's getting damn tiring of you guys trying to turn every thread into a debate about your respective beliefs regarding God. This is actually a pretty interesting topic & it doesn't need to be about Miles lack of belief in God rather his lack of understanding for people with mental illness. So what if there are some contradictions in it, we're all contradictory in our beliefs.

This x1000. It's seriously fucking annoying, so much so that I almost always automatically stop posting in any thread that you guys turn into a philosophical wack-off contest.

Such intolerance, hostility and anger issues.

To be honest I only really post nowadays to talk to Miles. Post's I'm not interested in I just skip past and ignore.

There are many threads I don't even enter as the subject/poster don't interest me. I don't go in to complain though, that would just be rude.

I wasn't trying to be mean, just honest. It's something that happens in almost every off-topic thread you guys participate in and it has just gotten to be a bit much.

Fair enough, actually you're never really a rude person just very blunt sometimes.

Also I've had a niggle with you ever since you reprimanded for my calling a Japanese man by an abbrievated form. I know you edited it afterwards but the veiled banning threat made me simmer slighty as I was thinking to myself how many fucking years have you known me to suddenly suggest I might have a racist attitude towards the Japanese? I mean it's not like I create threads weekly about their imperialistic aggression or right to exist...

And then the site went down and I checked with downforeveryoneorjustme.com and it said the site was up so I thought you might actually have banned me.

I almost had a Miles moment when he had his second mental breakdown on Saddo's after Youngblood stealth sad clicked (his first being the Yuri Forman incident) and I was thinking what I could do to express my righteous indignation. And all I could think was unfriending you on facebook so that you would feel the loss. And then I thought you might not even notice and it would get to me if you didn't mention it and I'd end up being tormented about why you didn't notice and refriend request me.

And then the site came back and I realised you hadn't banned me after all and I was annoyed because I had invested a lot of energy into the fall out in my head and didn't want to give it up.

So I when you called me boring I thought it was an opportunity to be beligerrent and tetchy and maybe have a public spat. But then you went and followed up in a sane and non hostille way and took the wind out of my sails a bit and now I'm not sure that you are so unreasonable after all.

But I'm still a bit tetchy and annoyed that once again I wasted energy on an imaginary feud in my head

[Kev]

There is a natural self. It is the me that is typing these thoughts and the me who reads what I read and the me who plans my lessons etc. This is what makes me an individual. I am an individual who is capable of making conscious decisions quite distinct from others. It is finite and limited, but while it lasts it is what I am.

I just don't understand how we can say that a gloomy or depressed disposition is not natural. To the person predisposed to that condition surely that is a normal state of affairs? That is what they have been born and raised with and that is what they must work through. If they cannot procreate then that is their hard luck. They should at least have pretended to be cheerful on a date.

As one who has no particular desire to pass on genes to any other poor little chap, I don't really have too many opinions regarding the need to create offspring. I don't really see the need for that and probably think more like the resourceful panda than a rabbit. I have probably learned from my parents in that regard...to resist and reject it all.

I just think a natural condition is the way that one was intended to be so why interfere with that process? If they can't pass on their genes? Well, who cares? Maybe it's better for the world that more depressed people don't get pregnant as the world is getting rather full as it is.

How so? You don't have a soul right? The thinking processes are just a part of your physical brain, so if somebody has a different chemical balance they would think differently and effectively be somebody else.

You are merely a chemical receptor and responder with a big haddrive of memories of past experiences.

You are not you, it's just part of your brain that has memories of past events stored and the current receptors in your brain give meaning to that in order to learn from past events which gives you the illusion of having a personality thought. But you don't really, how could you? The atoms andmolecues that made up your body 10 years ago have virtually all died and been replaced now. You are no longer who you were 10 years ago, your brain merely has stored that organisms past experiences to learn from and to be able to interact within the world today.

Stop talking about self, its a religious concept, not a scientific one. You are a very confused man...