Lindsay Lohan and Rehab

[katyseagull]

Sniper,

I know two people who do oxycontin and it weirds me out. They are such intelligent exceptional individuals. Everyone who knows them can tell they have such promise and unique offerings and yet they seem either bored or very troubled. Obviously it's addictive as hell. When I urged one of them to seek treatment, he goes "that will never happen." Really sad in my mind but he certainly didn't see it that way.


Context -

[ QUOTE ]
I wonder if the more active your brain is (and possibly having a higher IQ), the more likely you are to take drugs or take silly risks that in hindsight look stupid. If humans need to push boundaries, the more active brain will surely seek the further boundaries to push against?

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I've wondered this myself. Basically I've given up trying to figure it out but the only conclusion I can come to is that the brain is incomprehensible. There are different kinds of intelligence. One of the smartest guys I know is a total pot addict and prescription pill popper. We can talk to him 'til we're blue in the face and it has no impact. He's probably a genius in IQ. His parents are really frustrated with him because he refuses to get a job and yet he is clearly no idiot. I've decided that I need to stop asking myself why an intelligent guy would choose to abuse drugs. The areas of the brain that govern this kind of decision making process seem to be separate from the area of the brain that is logical.

[Sniper]

katy, have they described the experience to you?

As I understand it, oxycoontin is a pain killer, with possibly euphoric effects.

[Sniper]

On Britney Spears website, in a letter to fans, she describes rehab as a humbling place. But she doesn't think she was there for alchohol or depression, she thinks she was just "a bad kid running around with ADD".

Sounds like she has more work to do.

Nicole Richie is apparently also in an outpatient program.

[katyseagull]

[ QUOTE ]
katy, have they described the experience to you?

As I understand it, oxycoontin is a pain killer, with possibly euphoric effects.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, not really described it. But i've gathered it has euphoric effects from the way they act. want me to tell you a typical convo with them? i could cuz i've had enough beer to probably reenact it.

[Sniper]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
katy, have they described the experience to you?

As I understand it, oxycoontin is a pain killer, with possibly euphoric effects.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, not really described it. But i've gathered it has euphoric effects from the way they act. want me to tell you a typical convo with them? i could cuz i've had enough beer to probably reenact it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Go Go Go...

[Wires]

On Britney Spears website, in a letter to fans, she describes rehab as a humbling place.

She's now dating her rehab counselor. Go figure...

[Big Poppa Smurf]

I've just been skimming this thread, but the argument that smart people are inherently better able to feel pain or dispair or whatever really, really irks me. I don't see how being intelligent has any real impact on your outlook on life or your ability to feel pain, and honestly it always sounds like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo thrown around by "smart" people to make themselves feel better when they get depressed or something. "I'm depressed because I'm smart" just sounds like more lame excuses for not fixing your life or taking charge of a situation.

[Blarg]

You're probably making too much of it. Look at it this way -- the more you expose yourself to life in any form, the greater chance of taking damage. That goes for anything from thinking to bungee jumping to taking that long walk across the gym in high school and asking that cute girl to dance. You cannot expose yourself more and risk less.

I'm sure you yourself have found some issues and developments at some point interesting, alarming, or maybe distressing or depressing, only to find some people you know blessedly indifferent or ignorant of those issues and developments and thus unable to get bothered about them. Heck, maybe even after explaining those matters to them, they still wound up incapable of realizing their importance because they couldn't think long-term, truly understand the implications, or be bothered to care for anything that didn't immediately impact upon them, right in their face in the most overt manner. Being closed off to certain thoughts and experiences can save you from a lot of distress and unhappiness.

Take a job situation as another example. Two reasonably ambitious guys in the identical job. Who do you think is happier, the guy who thinks he has a future in the job, or the guy who, for the sake of this example, correctly understands that it's a dead-end?

I suppose I could have said all of that as "ignorance is bliss," but since it's such a simple concept that for some reason wasn't working for you, I guess I felt I had to be more explicit.

[Big Poppa Smurf]

You're equating a lack of sympathy or people being douches with people who are dumb. And the two guys example is silly, one of them already hates his job and the other one will soon, no one feels less pain or anything, just different types.

[cambraceres]

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I've just been skimming this thread, but the argument that smart people are inherently better able to feel pain or dispair or whatever really, really irks me. I don't see how being intelligent has any real impact on your outlook on life or your ability to feel pain, and honestly it always sounds like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo thrown around by "smart" people to make themselves feel better when they get depressed or something. "I'm depressed because I'm smart" just sounds like more lame excuses for not fixing your life or taking charge of a situation.

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You're right and wrong here; correct in your assertion that all people feel sadness the same, and the only variant is the degree. That said, despondence is just as painful to a less intelligent individual as a smart one. My elation at a new lover will probably feel just like anyone else's, and vice versa. The euphoria we all feel is euphoria, the characteristic is delerious joy. The horrible life shattering pain of significant personal loss would leave a genius in despair just as much as a retarded person. In this point you have a meritorious argument, but I sense your understanding stops there. Perhaps we can better avail you of the knowledge of this concept.

It seems that a risk averse nature, if not the rule, is then at least quite prevalent for those of extreme intelligence. The reason for this is nuanced; by being possessive of greater powers of apprehension and extrapolation, the intelligent can better sense the impending disadvantages in every course of action. That said, consider also that another prevalent characteristic in the pathology of the aware is that they are often very insecure. The template for this is the eccentric math professor who stares at his shoes and reads the book aloud in lieu of actually teaching. The intersection of these two qualities produces a situation wich is conducive to the dimunition of initiative that a prosaic man simply can not relate to.
The uncertainty contained in a certain situation will affect one's mind in a way that can be understood by simple analysis in terms of the two aforementioned qualities. In a situation where there is a large amount of uncertainty, an intelligent person may well grasp the nature of the situation, but as a result of being risk averse and insecure, action is arrested. Plato's republic can largely be explained by one quote. "The better part of human wisdon is what we do with our uncertainty, not with our knowledge."

Smart individuals, due to idiosyncratic aspects of their personality can not, on the average, deal with these situations as well, that is, they cannot deal with uncertainty. I must cut this off in order to return to work, but consider how what I have said "levels the field".

Often much is made of a person's apparent transcendent understanding, but this is not always as valuable in utility as most individuals within normal parameters of intelligence would surmise.

My apologies for the rambling incoherency of this post, hopefully this helps.

Cam