I don’t want to hijack other threads so I will begin the discussion on how to acquire life skills in a modern world. I’m going to sound horrible, but what most self diagnose as anxiety and depression are infect just regular difficulties faced by everyone. Being given tools to be able to face prob…

I’m a big fan Haidt, he’s kinda like Jordan Peterson but for reasonable and intelligent people [How overparenting backfired on Americans | Jonathan Haidt | Big Think] This is a good time to plug my dormant Big Think thread [image] Best of Big Think Open Forum …

[image] izzy: I dont see in Taiwan the things that used to be an integral part of my childhood: I used to go/come back from school by myself, my parents used to send me to the store to buy stuff (milk/eggs/bread) , go to the park to play soccer / basketball in the afternoon… I have been here cl…

Yes, I live in Taipei so I don’t know what is going on in other regions.

[image] Lost.in.space: what most self diagnose as anxiety are just regular difficulties faced by everyone Anxiety is just that though, regular difficulties. Anxiety is the interplay between three emotions: fear, worry and nervousness. Everyone has anxiety, it’s an evolutionary necessity. I t…

During uni I shared a house with a guy who suffered from panic attacks. I’m not sure which specific life skills could have helped him deal with these. I used to tell him to relax and take deep breaths, but it didn’t work.

Maybe he needs medications for those…

No to medication. Panic attacks are not dangerous and are not physically harmful for the body. CBT and talking therapy is recommended. Panic attacks can be symptomatic of other issues, such a depression, for which medication can be prescribed. However, there’s new evidence to suggest that low level…

Good luck getting CBT in Taiwan. The only treatment that I ever gotten, or rather NHI will pay for, is drugs. Everything else you pay out of pocket. I actually have no idea what CBT is or what it looks like as no doctors in Taiwan will give them.

Cock and ball torture! It’s actually cognitive behavioural treatment. It’s used to treat some types of past traumatic events. I had a friend who had that style of treatment toPTSD. It’s very brutal and not many can suffer it.

Unfortunately Taiwan’s management of mental health is pretty backward. There’s nothing magical about CBT. It basically involves getting people to change their habits (usually stepwise), and over time our brains start filling in justifications for why these new actions are being performed. Eventuall…