"Therefore, there is no healthy explanation for using [ADHD stimulant medications] for a social event. None. If you’re too tired to make it to that opening take a nap, not a pill. If the event seems insufferably boring then don’t go; stop accumulating soporific social obligations. Go read a book or ta[ke] a walk or visit with someone you actually do want to see. But taking speed so you can participate in a social event, whether it’s crystal meth or Adderall, is a warning sign of a serious problem developing."
From "Adderall In The Workplace: 7 Warning Signs You've Crossed The Line And Need Help" (Forbes).
Imagine wanting to set aside your power of boredom! That's dangerous. I wonder how many people I've been around in my life who were using a drug that gave them a drive to go on and on at what was boring. It would explain those awful meetings, which got longer and longer and duller and duller over the years. So bad for us who have kept our power of boredom intact.
Of course, there are many explanations for boringness, but I'm disturbed by the notion that non-boring people would take Adderall so they can put up with boring people and in doing so become boring too and become part of the reason more people take Adderall so they can keep up with the boredom.
April 5, 2019
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Levinas, Existence and Existents, is an extended philosophical work on the phenomenology of boredom. The guy is a poet, noticing there's something to be said that's right on the mark.
Excite me.
...but I'm disturbed by the notion that non-boring people would take Adderall...and in doing so become boring too...
My boringness is not chemically induced. It is a combination of innate talent and many years of practice.
Imagine wanting to set aside your power of boredom!
Since I hate being bored, I would love this. (not enough to do meth or Adderal)
What upsets me are the people who set aside reason to indulge their emotions.
What drug do people take to watch talk news shows?
The "Seven" Warning Signs of Christmas are:
dizziness
diarrhea
increased thirst
insomnia
headache
fever
irritability
trouble breathing
vomiting
hallucinations
confusion
chest pain
irregular or fast heartbeat
uncontrollable muscle movements
convulsions
+
"Of pilots who were surveyed, 65% used amphetamines during the deployment to the SWA AOR and/or during Operation Desert Storm. Pilots who used amphetamines in air operations described it as "occasional." The most frequent indications for amphetamine use were "aircrew fatigue" and "mission type." Of pilots who used amphetamines, 58-61% considered their use beneficial or essential to operations. Dextroamphetamine (5 mg every 4 h) was used effectively and without major side effects in tactical flying operations. Amphetamine use enhanced cockpit performance and flight safety by reducing the effect of fatigue during critical stages of flight."
This is so 1970's.
"What upsets me are the people who set aside reason to indulge their emotions."
Funny use of "upsets."
Emotions are important cues about which thinking paths to take. That's why boredom is a power. It makes us human. Find an off switch for it and you're robotizing yourself. You should feel upset about that, not make a long list of the pros and cons of turning off boredom... which, ironically, would be very boring. And inefficient. And in the end, you'd probably look at the lists and instinctively choose the one that feels right.
I think drugs are dangerous when they blunt and numb and erase emotion. They're also bad when they exaggerate and amp up emotion.
Emotion is simply part of your nervous system and brain. You need it.
Emotions are important cues about which thinking paths to take.
In women it's a short-circuit of thinking. Extra-fast connection to the other brain hemisphere. Where the guy is abstracting from details the woman is beginning to them.
One is structural thinking, the other is dealing with complexity by averaging short term stuff.
Man Admits Ghost Did Not Plant Meth In His Home
Boredom keeps me creative.
So no news on drugs. What about music on drugs?
I'm going to duck a meeting today because it sounds boring..but if I keep ducking it will be embarrassing to just show up again.
It's a political club with mostly old people. Most of us have to force ourselves to socialize, I think, because what we really want to do is stay home with a book or tv or internet and do nothing.
We could end up like that guy in Germany who sat dead in front of his tv for 10 years before anyone found him.
When my kids used to complain about the tedious boredom they suffered in government school classes, I tried to teach them that handling boredom was an important part of growing up. In the overdeveloped Western cultures we have lots of money for stimulation to avoid boredom. I suggest simply learning to deal with boredom is more profitable in the long run.
You're using emotion whether you admit it or not.
Your resistance to the reality is emotional.
You're using emotion whether you admit it or not.
Your resistance to the reality is emotional.
You can't think like a man.
What Camille Paglia had going for her was a gender-switching imagination.
I have long wondered if the increasing use of these drugs is changing the nature of work. As more people use pharmaceuticals to adjust to the boring nature of certain kinds of work, does work become increasingly boring?
Maybe I'll open a meeting-running business for people who want short meetings. Just walk in, run the meeting, go home. Improve people's quality of life.
Emotion is simply part of your nervous system and brain. You need it.
True. However you should be the master of your emotions and not allow your emotions to master you.
Years ago, a roommate and I would have grand philosophical discussions. We argued that the perfect life is lived right on the edge of boredom. We didn't discuss if it was OK for this to be drug induced, of course.
We argued that the perfect life is lived right on the edge of boredom.
as opposed to the 'chinese curse': May you live in interesting times
Taking a powerful psycho-active drug like Adderall just because you expect to be bored for a while seems, uh, insane. Unless you don't give a damn about your brain, but maybe I am just repeating myself...
Nuvigil is pretty good if you want to get stuff accomplished. But it works best if you use it sparingly.
You can't think like a man
I know, women's brains are different and women are in a kind of political denial about it.
"Of course, there are many explanations for boringness, but I'm disturbed by the notion that non-boring people would take Adderall so they can put up with boring people..."
I think that the inference that the people using the Adderall are "non-boring" is incorrect. I believe, in general, people that abuse, (use might be the more appropriate term), prescription drugs are more likely to be boring than those that abuse(use) illicit drugs. As Keith Richards said when speaking about prescription drug use, "Drugs are not interesting these days. They are very institutionalised(sp) and bland." They are indicating, by their use of drugs like Adderall - Crystal Meth is a whole different story, especially if you're smoking or shooting it, that they are still constrained by the rules and norms that they grew up with and though they are pushing their own boundaries, they are still, at heart, boring.
Part One of Heidegger's, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphyisics (about 180 pages worth) is an analysis of boredom. He regarded boredom as (what he called) a basic mood (Grundstimmung): a feeling that opened a window into the being of the human being rather than into the nature of things out there in the world. The most famous of his basic moods is anxiety (Angst).
Essential Zen. Do nothing and see what happens.
The only thing people taking performance enhancers are doing is enhancing other, better narrators' narratives of them.
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