

Bored to Death - skennedy
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100208/981/tsc-boredom-can-kill-you.html

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ashishbharthi
Not sure about death but I have observed one common behaviour among my
relatives and friends that once a person retires his/her health starts
deteriorating or in other words they starts complaining about health problems
more.

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dkarl
I wonder if boredom could be a proxy for depression in this case. Boredom is a
normal state, but people who aren't depressed escape boredom by seeking out
stimulation. Depression makes it harder to pursue activities that offer an
escape from boredom and harder to enjoy the activities that you do engage in.

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ShabbyDoo
Causation? Did they really have a large enough sample size of bored people who
otherwise took great care of themselves to show this?

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xenophanes
How would a large sample size have made correlation = causation?

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pbhjpbhj
A couple of days ago there was a story about a guy in a coma for I think about
11 years (from 11 to 22, or thereabouts). He was conscious and described on
his awaking how a day when a fly landed on the ceiling within his gaze was a
good day as there was something more interesting than normal. Frightening.

Watson, google that for me there's a good chap.

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xenophanes
Correlation between boredom and death does not mean boredom _causes_ death. It
could just be that, for example, unhappiness causes:

    
    
      1) boredom
      2) alcoholism

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lsb
When you're bored, you're sedentary, and when you're sedentary, you're out of
shape, and when you're out of shape, you're much less healthy.

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frossie
I think that is a stretch. For every person who is sedentary when they are
bored, there's a person bored by exercise and least bored when sitting in
front of their computer/book/writing/etc.

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TheSOB88
How can you be bored by exercise? You can be bored by the premise of exercise,
sure, but all the chemicals and adrenalines and whatnot make sure you're not
bored when you're actually doing it.

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frossie
_How can you be bored by exercise?_

Easily. What, am I the only person on the planet?

I get bored because (a) I'd rather be doing something else and (b) as for the
endorphins, there are a lot of sedentary ways to release them, like lying
around in the sun, or eating spicy food and (c) not all people respond to
endorphins in the same way anyway, otherwise the world would be full of
joggers. Also, I get bored by the whole pre-exercise/post-exercise hassle,
like having to go to a gym, or shower afterwards, and so on.

EPID, and all that.

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patio11
_What, am I the only person on the planet?_

Even with the endomorphin rush from exercise, I still feel like I'm watching
paint dry, because of the lack of mental stimulation. It varies with what I'm
doing, too -- less taxing exercises like riding a bike or walking let me zone
out into mental exercises (I used to do WoW talent builds at the gym... bad
habits die hard), but if it is something I have to keep my brain on to avoid
physical injury then "Don't drop this 20 kilogram weight on your foot" is the
only thing keeping me awake.

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Poiesis
I can't _stand_ exercise for its own sake. I love playing sports (say,
ultimate disc, the most pretentiously named sport invented), because there's
stuff going on. I love the feeling of exercise. But just lifting, or jogging
on a treadmill or something--I just can't do.

But, man--if anyone else is like us three, you gotta try biking. I bike
commute to a day job, and it's quite sufficiently safe if you're not stupid.
For some reason, even though my brain can totally turn off in the car, in the
bike I'm _totally_ engaged in a way that's quite enjoyable. I've even tried
listening to music/podcasts, but they're of limited utility because I'm not
really paying attention to them. It's all about going faster, and staying
alive. Really a rush; I recommend it for those who can arrange it.

