
How coronavirus infected my brain: anxiety, the internet, and keeping up to date - karlicoss
https://jborichevskiy.com/posts/corona
======
puranjay
While I've been following all Covid-19 related news and keeping track of the
numbers with near morbid fascination, I've found that being in lockdown has
made me happier. It has also given me perspective on life.

As cliche as it might sound, I've realized that what truly makes us happy is
family, friends and time to devote to hobbies. I've been chatting with my
family everyday, calling friends, playing board games with my wife. I'm
producing music again, learning new things again as opposed to just being
"productive".

I used to order in food 3-5x a week. Now I'm making all meals from scratch and
really diving into what makes good food taste, well, good.

I haven't bought anything except groceries in a month and honestly, I haven't
even missed it.

I really don't know how I'll approach the world post-Covid-19. The thought of
going back to the old life and routines seems a little absurd now.

~~~
kubav
I have exactly opposite feeling than you. I usually spent 7-8 hours at work
and then do hobbies, visit friends and family and usually spent weekends away
from home and computers. Now, I am locked at home and I can't visit anyone and
I work way more and spent way more time on computer (at least I live with my
girlfriend, so I am not completely alone). I am also way less productive as I
am not happy and I am tired all the time from not being able to really relax
my brain. Also I cook at home a lot normally so cooking everyday is not that
big difference.

I prefer meeting people in real life so chatting and video calls are not
enough for me. Many of my friends are not good at tech too so it is sometimes
difficult to connect with them. I look forward to go back to my pre-covid
life.

~~~
schwap
Yeah same, vidoeconferencing with friends is better than nothing but still
doesn't hold a candle to actually hanging out for me.

Basically this whole exercise has lead me to discover that while I assumed I
was pretty introverted because I'm not generally outgoing, I'm really not.

Also I'm a total night owl and being at home all the time has seriously messed
up my sleep schedule. Last night I went to bed at 3AM.

~~~
livueta
It's funny, I've got almost the inverse of your inverse experience. An old
group of friends, formed over IRC/TS2/MMOs, had in recent years traded a lot
of that sort of thing for less-frequent IRL hangouts as lives and interests
developed. Recently, all the old lines of communication have come back to life
and it honestly feels like going home.

That said, I'd probably change my tune after a year or two. I think a lot of
"quarantine is the best thing ever" floating around right now is driven by
various forms of novelty/nostalgia bias.

------
mcphilip
I’ve been following the coronavirus news since mid January, spending hours a
day on twitter and reddit looking at virus and financial news. There are days
I take a break from it all, but overall I feel like I want to bear witness to
the events as much as possible. I firmly believe the outbreak and the economic
devastation are the most important events of my lifetime and it’s worth
staying informed no matter how grim the news.

I don’t recommend everyone do the same, and I definitely don’t pass on all
shear weight of all that’s going on to my wife, but someone’s got to try and
keep up with the zeitgeist and make informed decision for the sake of my
family. My hunch is we’re in for some bad socioeconomic times, worse than most
are predicting, and I’m trying to do due diligence spotting trends as they
start happening.

Ideally I’ll look back at this post and laugh at all the wasted energy chasing
the impossibly fast news cycle...

One thing I’ve been doing is creating a list of predictions about where we are
headed in order to be able to look back and evaluate whether I was able to
process the firehouse of news into consequences. At least that part is fun.

~~~
swerps
> got to try and keep up with the zeitgeist and make informed decision for the
> sake of my family. My hunch is we’re in for some bad socioeconomic times,
> worse than most are predicting

This really resonated with me. While most seem to think that a return to
normalcy is right around the corner, I can't shake this feeling that the world
is in the early stages of multiple, massive (and potentually rapid) once-in-a
lifetime paradigm shifts. Not knowing how to position myself and my family for
the future (and not even knowing where to start) leaves me with this growing
sense of urgency and desperation that ultimately manifests as a frantic,
nonstop search for any and all information that might help.

There's got to be a better way to handle this, and I'm sure there are others
out there that feel the same way. I wonder if its possible to get some sort of
crowd-sourced intelligence platform built that can filter out the noise to
help provide accurate, actionable information and extrapolation into trends
without it devolving into some end-of-days prepper forum.

If anyone's interested in helping build such a thing, or if one already
exists, please let me know!

------
closeparen
I'm so worried about what lockdown is doing to my mental state that I'm taking
better care of myself than ever, and actually coming out ahead.

Running three days a week is now a delightful excuse to get outside, rather
than a chore.

Strength training with bodyweight and exercise bands at requires less
activation energy / admits fewer excuses than going to the gym.

Cooking at home is now the only real option, instead of something I just feel
guilty about not doing.

Accidentally working 24x7 is such a real threat that I'm deliberately ending
my day, switching to the other side of the kitchen table, and working on my
own stuff. Usually I would get home and still be in a half on / half off
state, surfing Reddit and work email at the same time.

I do find that media about the pandemic delivers a lot of anxiety and little
signal. I'm keeping it down to a quick glance over NYT for anything urgent,
and otherwise just bite-sized chunks of The Economist daily at breakfast, plus
an episode of This Week In Virology on the weekends. It seems like a decent
balance.

~~~
GekkePrutser
Yeah well at least you can go out to run. Here in Spain we're completely
imprisoned :( It's a nightmare and really detrimental to our health
(especially mental).

I'm actually trying to work 24/7 as much as possible because it keeps the
anxiety at bay a bit.. But there's 4 days off from tomorrow which is going to
be the hardest yet. And the government just announced they want to extend it
until at least the 10th of May.

~~~
closeparen
I assume that's coming for us too; want to use my freedom while I still have
it.

~~~
GekkePrutser
You're right :'(

The day the lockdown was announced I was gearing up for a big walk in the
mountains but people were already getting scared and my friends advised me not
to go.. Which I followed. I soo regret not going now. Make the most of it
while you can!

------
Protostome
You're describing more or less a classic case of OCD, It's very good that you
are able to identify the rituals/compulsive behavior that comes with it. You
have to stop that immediately. Those compulsions are what's fueling your
obsessions and causing your anxiety. You have to stop checking your news,
disinfecting your phone, etc, and simultaneously stop avoiding your usual
routine tasks (exercise, etc).

I have been suffering for 10 years from OCD (hypochondriasis) which has
debilitated me almost a 1/3 of my life. Only recently I got it under control
with meds and intensive CBT therapy.

~~~
op00to
Your advice is not good for people with health oriented OCD. The typical
advice from health professionals there is to basically stop washing your hands
for a period of time. Not recommended anymore.

------
jborichevskiy
Author here!

It's been a few weeks since I've written this and I'm pleased to say things
_have_ improved significantly with diligent focus on my healthy habits,
consistent exercise and meditation, and less infinite scrolling.

Regarding the title: it was meant to be cheeky but I do apologize if it
confused anyone given how little we know about the virus. I think a better one
would've been `How Coronavirus Infected My Mind` but I didn't think of it
then.

Stay safe and sane everyone!

~~~
vinni2
Ya it is a kind of clickbaity title but I didn’t regret reading it.

------
jokoon
My country's subreddit (france) was already difficult to bear with, but the
pandemic really made things much worse.

It really got to me.

What I'm afraid of is people who spread panic and are negative. I'm really
bothered by people who keep criticizing the government over anything they can.
Government are not superhero daddies.

The news about the economy also seem unnecessary and irrelevant, in my view. I
wish there was more focus on how third world countries are going to fight
this, because I think it's going to be much uglier there.

~~~
makomk
It's amazing how - for example - almost every country's press is managing to
treat a global shortage of every single thing needed to test for coronavirus
caused by massively increased demand as a unique political failing of their
country's government that is literally killing people.

~~~
mercer
Treating it as a 'unique political failing' might be silly, but highlighting
the problems of our JIT economies, and criticizing our governments about that,
is in itself a good thing.

From cursory reading it seems many experts have been beating the drum about
these types of events (global 'catastrophes') and instead of 'wasting' a bit
of money to keep stockpiles up, or implement other types of policies 'just in
case', many of our governments have led us here in the name of optimization,
efficiency, etc. I think it's fair enough for the media to bring that up.

~~~
makomk
One of the things that amazes me is that the US press has also managed to take
their government's attempts to prepare for a scenario like this and twist them
around to attack the government. For example, it turns out the US government
had a really long-term, forward-thinking program to develop and stockpile
cheap, mass-producable ventilators for exactly this scenario - and we're
talking really long-term, with the design contract signed in 2014, FDA
licensing last year, and delivery in the next presidential term. This is how
ProPublica titled their article about this program: "A Company Promised Cheap
Ventilators to the Government, Never Delivered and Is Now Charging Quadruple
the Price for New Ones". [1] They literally took the existence of this long-
term, forward thinking program and used it - together with a more normally-
priced rush order of less cost optimised ventilators - to create a narrative
of corporate and government malfeasance.

[1] [https://www.propublica.org/article/a-company-promised-
cheap-...](https://www.propublica.org/article/a-company-promised-cheap-
ventilators-to-the-government-never-delivered-and-is-now-charging-quadruple-
the-price-for-the-new-ones)

------
cirno
This sounds very relatable to me with other topics.

I have serious problems with obsessions in this vein that I believe to be
pure-O (just the obsessive part of OCD) related, or in other words, an anxiety
disorder. My mind latches onto things that are bad, and assumes that they will
become way worse (as worse as possible), and it paralyzes me with anxiety to
the point that I can't sleep some nights. I can't stop thinking about the
worst possible case. Endless reading up on the subject, constantly trying to
take steps to protect myself from the perceived threat.

I hate it so much. I tried to take medication to deal with it, and it helped
me tremendously to stop worrying so much, but the medication caused quite bad
tinnitus (it is ototoxic), and I had to stop.

I'm not discounting that coronavirus is scary, it definitely is. I wish I
could take my own advice, but it would be far healthier if we could focus only
on the present realities instead of fearing the worst case scenarios. If
anyone knows how to do that, please advise!

~~~
peteretep
Have you considered other medications? I take 20mg of Lexapro a day for it and
it’s no exaggeration to say my life has experienced a sea change for the
better. There are many meds to try all with different side effect profiles and
different efficacies in different people.

~~~
cirno
The one I tried that caused it was Zoloft. I assume the other SSRIs will also
cause tinnitus by way of raising serotonin levels. But for the brief week
before the tinnitus hit, it very much felt like a sea change for the better.

~~~
peteretep
As I understand it, Buspirone might be worth asking your doctor about — it’s
not an SSRI or a benzo, and appears in some studies to lower serotonin levels
in animal brains. Anyway, worth bringing up with your doc if SSRIs are out.

------
fergonco
I am happy that I quitted all social networks before the corona crisis. I
decided that contempt, destructive critic and all that were not the circuits
in my neuronal network that I wanted to activate every day. Even if you have a
very interesting timeline, you read a bunch of negativity mixed with the
interesant bits.

With the crisis in China and Italy I got properly informed in meneame (Spanish
reddit-like site). I could prepare me and my family in advance.

And the keywords are "in advance". It was very useful before the thing blowed
up in our faces. There was a lot of important information about how the virus
is transmitted, etc.

Now we are all full of dirt and social media is about who's fault it is. There
is nothing in there that can be useful anymore. Moving on.

~~~
GekkePrutser
Well, I can't really blame the population for not taking it seriously. Even
the Spanish government talked it down strongly.

And to be fair, it could have fizzled out like SARS version 1 did in the early
2000's. This is SARS version 2 after all.

------
toss1
>> ...at the fact that I get to safely work from home, taking on less risk but
not actually being able to contribute anything useful to the larger situation

Please note and take comfort in the fact that by staying home and taking less
risk, you ARE DEFINITELY CONTRIBUTING something very to the larger situation
by that act alone -- you are actively reducing the risk for everyone else.

If we can also contribute other benefits, that would be a bonus for sure, but
give yourself a break and don't add that unnecessary guilt to your burdens.

Stay well!

~~~
jborichevskiy
This is very true and I’m much more appreciative of that fact now. Thanks -
you stay safe as well!

------
mancerayder
I keep reading from here, "Gosh I'm working so hard all the time because I'm
so bored and locked in all day." Folks, I think I'm crazy, or very different
from you. I'm much more, "Gosh, I can't even BEGIN my work for the day. I'm
drowsy, spending two hours daily chasing delivery, talking to family overseas
because I'm 6 hours behind and they're around during my work day, and WORK IS
MEANINGLESS." And I like my job!

~~~
enchiridion
This is similar to what was happening with me too. Someone had to basically
say "get to work now".

So maybe it will help you to hear too. Sit down, make a list, work through it.

------
boneitis
Hello, fellow native Sacramentan (and the many HNers here finding this post
relatable).

Addressing your items piecemeal might get things started in restoring some
balance. Or, doing something more sweeping... who knows. Anyway, if I may
share my take on one of those pieces:

> And of course, I’ve managed to mix in some guilt:

> at the fact that I get to safely work from home, taking on less risk but not
> actually being able to contribute anything useful to the larger situation

Understandably, one might very well be looking to do more.

In any case, may I suggest the idea that you are, in fact, diligently doing
your part by trying to not unnecessarily put yourself out into public? That's
already more than a start.

I'm not a particularly patriotic person. In fact, I'm also intentionally
unregistered to vote. But, the whole distancing exercise thing is one of
probably a few opportunities I'll ever have to feel like I am meaningfully
serving my country. (Never mind for a moment that I'm running dry and have
been trying to rejoin the workforce :)

There are quite a lot of informal reports out there of the healthcare sector
being slammed.

~~~
jborichevskiy
Hello! (author here)

Great point you bring up about doing my part -- I've definitely come to that
perspective in the time since writing this. There are people much more skilled
dealing with things and my job is to get out of the way and not make their job
harder.

Stay safe. I'd love to grab a coffee/drink once this all blows over if you're
still in Sacramento!

~~~
boneitis
Of course.

Pulled an all-nighter; I'll reach out later to the listed email.

And you, as well. Cheers.

------
notacoward
I know people like this. While it's good to stay informed about some very
significant events, but some people just get sucked in by its gravity (pun
intended). They obsess over every detail, especially numbers and projections.
They can't get anything else done. Probably sleep and eat too much, exercise
not enough. All signs of classic depression, and pretty much expected TBH.

The advice I've seen from the therapeutic community is to check news _a couple
of times a day_ for new information and safety recommendations. Otherwise, do
things that help you and those around you remain calm. For some people that
might be productive work, and good for them, but for most it's a mix of that
with other things. Don't feel guilty about being at less than full strength.
And practice "anxiety distancing" to avoid making others feel more worried
than they probably already are by themselves.

------
yread
If you needed more anxiety: COVID-19 can do that in rare cases:

COVID-19–associated Acute Hemorrhagic Necrotizing Encephalopathy: CT and MRI
Features

[https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2020201187](https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2020201187)

------
tilolebo
I felt this way around mid-March: I was spending hours checking the news and
Twitter and I felt unable to concentrate on work.

After a week of constantly feeling worried and overwhelmed by the situation, I
changed some things.

I now check news online news once a day and watch the local evening news on
TV. I managed to dive again into my work routine and stopped checking twitter
every 10 minutes.

I feel much better now. Of course I'm still worried, especially about the
consequences of this on the economy (because it will affect a lot of people,
obviously).

My CEO keeps repeating a sentence that might sound dumb but which actually
helps a lot: "Focus on the things that are in your control and be thankful for
the things you have".

~~~
draugadrotten
You may like the old Serenity prayer,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer)
and with music by Sinead O'Connor -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LoZqvMryMs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LoZqvMryMs)

------
Fnoord
Yup, and this is why it is a necessary evil that a website like HN penalizes
the subject. I got cured from my obsession after I got the disease [and got
cured] (supposedly, NL government does not have enough tests).

~~~
tomerico
Just pointing out the irony of you being one of the first comments on a
Coronavirus post, and claiming to be cured of the obsession :-)

~~~
Fnoord
Fair enough, but its relative. I was spending hours upon hours on COVID-19.
Now I don't. 15 minutes a day, perhaps.

------
pinopinopino
I really enjoy the lock down, I walk in nature, have time for the kids. The
air is cleaner and there are a shitload of birds. I dunno, I am not anxious at
all. I don't want to go back to the previous state either. I also stopped
buying crap I don't need anyway. Stopped drinking.

EDIT: I have to state, we are not in full lockdown. We are allowed to walk
around outside, as long as we don't have close contact with others. We have
been in lockdown for 3 weeks now.

------
emptyfile
Had a similar experience 2-3 weeks ago when Italy, which is right next to my
country, started blowing up. Going into "lockdown" and starting a new routine
working from home actually calmed me down, just the notion of doing everything
I can to keep safe and keep others safe.

That first week I couldn't sleep and lost like 10 pounds in 5 days, most of my
working day was refreshing the number of cases in my country and smoking
e-cigarettes on the balcony.

------
Avalaxy
This title is clickbait. Some viruses _can_ actually infect your brain, as I
first-hand witnessed by having half my face paralyzed for a month last year.
Being obsessed with the news has nothing to do with that. In times where there
is already a lot of panic-spreading of medical nonsense, please just keep the
headlines accurate.

------
fxtentacle
Since you're American, I believe that your root problem is that you have
bought into the notion that it is good and desirable to be productive all the
time. People then extend this to trying to better themselves by amassing more
knowledge.

Have you tried sitting alone in a room with no music, no TV, and no phone for
an hour? It's actually quite liberating.

And if you call it digital-detox meditation, it's fashionable, too.

~~~
op00to
This has nothing to do with nationality. I work for a global company, and
EVERYONE feels the same stuff no matter where they live.

~~~
lnsru
Well, panicking co-workers are bad. I have quite opposite. My manager keeps
repeating, that this is just another flue.

Personally I don’t care. Isolation isn’t nice, but as long as I sit home,
nothing bad will happen. I am not cashier at understaffed grocery store, not
nurse in failing hospital. Life is good, keep calm!

~~~
yodsanklai
> as long as I sit home, nothing bad will happen.

As long as food comes on your table.

I'm not worried about the virus (because I'm lucky enough to be able to work
from home). I'm worried about the economic consequence.

~~~
lnsru
Trust me, food will come. The riches and puppet governments do not need
revolts. Seasonal field workers will get 10€/hour or even 15€/hr instead of
5€/hr like earlier and it will be all good.

------
FabricioFFC
I usually don't watch the news, but after covid-19 I've started to follow a
similar pattern as you. But in the second week, I felt very anxious and too
much worried, imaging many outcomes that this disease could bring to my family
and me.

So I decided to stop to consume news and to try to put in practice a knowledge
that is very difficult to practice: "don't care about things that are out of
your control."

So since then, I am avoiding the news, practicing social distance, and helping
my family to do the same and trying to keep my work and studies. The only
thing about the pandemia that every day I search on google is: "coronavirus
cure". To know about new vaccines and medications that are under test.

------
luxuryballs
I’ve been tempted to do a week long phone and news fast while I am stuck here.
Maybe I’ll hide my browser and make myself only go online from a computer like
the old days.

~~~
jborichevskiy
Even a period of a few hours of being unplugged has been so relaxing,
particularly if done in the evening before bed.

------
zouhair
That level of anxiety the author feels is what a poor person feels daily about
how the next rent and food money gonna come from. That stuff takes a toll.

------
sci_prog
Are you me? Jokes aside, taking a break from the media helped a lot. I've come
to a conclusion that no comment on reddit can be trusted because I wouldn't be
surprised if the foreign countries spreading misinformation, trying to create
more chaos in the States.

~~~
marcus_holmes
This, well, this except for the US Exceptionalism bit (other countries are
also affected by this).

All I need to do is stay at home and keep myself uninfected (washing hands,
avoiding contact with others, keeping myself healthy, etc). I am not needed to
pass on urgent information to friends or family. I do not need to understand
the science, or how it spreads (though I did enjoy Plague Inc). I'm not part
of the solution, and I can avoid being part of the problem by taking sensible
precautions. I don't need daily updates on the progress of the virus to do
that.

To the OP: I know it's tough, but you need less information, not more. The
product you describe sounds great, but it's not going to solve your problem.
Solving your problem will mean redefining your relationship to social media so
it becomes healthy. That's not going to be something the social media apps
will do for you. That's something you're going to have to work out for
yourself.

------
gameswithgo
sars-cov2 _has_ actually infected some people’s brains, making this title a
bit... awkward

------
freepor
I try to minimize my exposure to non-actionable news. Once we went into total
lockdown almost all news became non actionable so I’ve insulated myself from
pretty much all of it. Just working through the $2000 of food we stocked up.

------
lazyjones
Why all this negativity? It is normal to feel anxious in this situation, to
try to stay informed and to be confused about the consequences and necessary
actions. You're mostly built to act on known facts and there are a lot of new
unknowns right now.

Refreshing HN and Reddit all day isn't any worse than gossiping with the
neighbours (which is what they would have done 80 years ago), considering the
circumstances it's actually much healthier.

You will probably get used to the new situation quickly, like humans do, and
find comfort in small things, like painting.

------
twomoretime
This is a good time to learn to practice meditation.

I recommend the Waking Up app by Sam Harris. It's a good guide for someone
trying to learn.

------
jdnordy
it's been pretty rough. I'm currently part of a software engineering immersive
program for the sake of a career change. In three weeks, I'll be job hunting
to get a job to support my wife and I. The job market has my feeling pretty
anxious right now.

------
egypturnash
so much stress, so little productivity despite optimizing my life around Not
Going In To An Office, definitely relatable.

------
kome
hey yankee, just chill ;)

being improductive is also good. why are you being so anxious about
productivity in the first place? survival, more money, glory?

all fine. just take your measures and whatever makes you feel ok, life is very
very very very short.

a sneeze and you are 60 years old.

------
HSO
Okay.

Now, please leave my head.

------
DoreenMichele
Inaccurate title. This person is not infected.

The post is about anxiety causing them to slip into old bad habits, not about
a brain infection.

It's really more like "How a global pandemic is affecting my mind and personal
habits."

~~~
onion2k
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor)

~~~
DoreenMichele
It's click bait. HN guidelines suggest the title should be changed in such
cases.

Your handle is plenty old enough to understand that much about HN.

~~~
onion2k
The title is a metaphor (or, more strictly, rhetorical hyperbole.) It's not
meant to be taken literally.

~~~
DoreenMichele
Yes. I know that.

There is also absolutely no way to tell that until you click into it.

"Rhetorical hyperbole" is a fancy way of saying "click bait."

Edit:

To be clear, I only read it because I was expecting a medical piece, not the
usual whining about First World Problems where so many people don't know how
to stop wringing their hands about our 24/7 news cycle (which isn't remotely
unique to the current crisis) and then don't actually want reassurances that
"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine."

It was a waste of my time.

My father fought in WW2. My mother grew up in Germany during WW2 and its
aftermath. The world has been on the brink before and come through it.

The same world that was all "Meh, not my problem" when I was homeless also
doesn't want to hear "The world can, in fact, get through this." So I find it
hugely personally grating to read this overwrought nonsense, frankly.

~~~
dgb23
> The same world that was all "Meh, not my problem" when I was homeless also
> doesn't want to hear "The world can, in fact, get through this." So I find
> it hugely personally grating to read this overwrought nonsense, frankly.

I know this was somewhat of a rant, but I still found this statement thought
provoking and it clicked with me.

It can be exhausting to deal with this type of neglect and self limitation at
times.

Being consistently empathic and positive is challenging to say the least.

~~~
DoreenMichele
It's not a rant. It's a very restrained statement of fact.

Given how monstrously callous the world was to me when it was just my world in
the toilet and on the brink and there were adequate resources for me to be
helped but I couldn't access them because fuck me, no, I don't have any
empathy for some privileged person who has remote work and a lot of protection
from the pandemic whining about how they are back to checking the news
constantly and, oh, there isn't even any good discussion anymore on effin
_Twitter._

And this makes the front page and then people have the gall to defend the
click bait title.

Meanwhile, when I posted about actual solutions to help less privileged people
try to access remote work during this crisis, it was dismissed as content
marketing for the service I work for and sometimes write about.

I also spent some time criticizing the emphasis on ventilators and being
attacked for talking about my firsthand experience with lung clearance
techniques. Yesterday, I posted a piece about how some doctors are concerned
with the 80 percent death rate for people on ventilators and trying to do
other things, some of which are very similar to things I talked about. That
got three upvotes and the only discussion was someone letting me know the link
was broken and someone asking me how the pandemic is impacting the homeless
population.

I'm downright disgusted with quite a lot of things. But I also know from being
on HN for more than a decade that people here literally don't care if I'm in
danger of dying and they certainly don't care about my feelings about the
whiny oversensitive BS that very privileged people have ridiculously big
feelings about because they are too fragile to face a real problem, good god.

~~~
dgb23
> (...) I don't have any empathy for some privileged person who has remote
> work and a lot of protection (...)

What I meant is that I think it is self-limiting to be pessimistic about our
future in the way you described. I think we agree on this point. As you said
here:

> The same world that was all "Meh, not my problem" when I was homeless also
> doesn't want to hear "The world can, in fact, get through this."

There are two underlying problems here: lack of empathy / neglect and
pessimism.

Being optimistic, empathic and looking for solutions is challenging. It is far
easier to self-loathe but also destructive.

> But I also know from being on HN for more than a decade that people here
> literally don't care if I'm in danger of dying and they certainly don't care
> about my feelings about the whiny oversensitive BS that very privileged
> people have ridiculously big feelings about because they are too fragile to
> face a real problem, good god.

It saddens me that you experienced this. In the other hand you seem to have
developed an immunity against BS through this hardship. I think many people
crave for this kind of clarity on some level, _especially_ privileged ones. I
don't mean this in a cynical way. I think there is a real, acute need for
people to free themselves of self-induced BS problems.

------
senectus1
do smart people really have this sort of problem partitioning their brains?

It doesn't matter what sort of horrifying stressful shit i read before going
to bed... when I lay down, that stuff gets turned off and I focus on going to
sleep. its never really a problem for me.

~~~
opless
Assuming 'smart people' have a higher incidence of ADHD and Asperger's, you'll
find the comorbids of depression and OCD etc following them.

I learned meditation in my teens, so I can switch a lot of stuff off, but when
I'm particularly stressed - it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid being
overwhelmed.

Imagine trying to go to sleep after being mugged or being in a car accident
and having to deal with that adrenaline rush, then being asked to sleep. It's
that kind of level of stress. Some people are just more susceptible to being
overwhelmed that way.

It's one reason why I avoid TV news, and Twitter ... Too many monkeys
screaming panic

~~~
senectus1
ok didn't think of the ADHA / Aspergers/ Autism side of things... yeah those
with conditions that make it hard to control input would be a problem.

