2/19(Sat) Why we're depressed or anxious (Host:Kooper)

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Kooper
YOYO member
文章: 2725
註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

2/19(Sat) Why we're depressed or anxious (Host:Kooper)

文章 Kooper »

Hi all,

When I was searching for a proper topic for the meeting, I came across an incredible Ted Talks speech on depression and anxiety. I then decided to use it as the watching material. Here you go.

Speaker: Johann Hari Transcript: https://singjupost.com/this-could-be-wh ... nglepage=1

Questions for Discussion:
Session One:
One of the causes of depression and anxiety that the speaker mentioned is loneliness. The solution to this problem, according to the speaker, lies on reconnecting with something bigger than you. To put it another way, “Don’t be you. Don’t be yourself. Be us, be we. Be part of a group.”

1. Overall do you consider yourself susceptible to loneliness? When feeling lonely, what do you usually do to get it out of your system?

2. Is there any group that you have strong connection with and that helps preventing you from feeling lonely?


Most of the factors that have been proven to cause depression are not in our biology, but in the way we live. For instance, if when you work you don’t have any control over your job, you’ve just got to do what you’re told, or if you very rarely get out into the natural world, you’re more likely to become depressed.

3. In your personal experiences or observation, what is the most common source of depression and what is the best non-chemical antidepressant?

Some of the comments the speaker made really hit me. Such as,

- This culture we built has been getting less and less good at meeting our deep, underlying psychological needs.

- If you think life is about money, and status and showing off, you’re going to feel like crap.

- Just like junk food doesn’t meet your nutritional needs and actually makes you feel terrible, junk values don’t meet your psychological needs, and they take you away from a good life.

- Your depression is not a malfunction. It’s a signal - a signal that you have unmet needs. We need to stop insulting these signals by saying they’re a sign of weakness, or madness, or purely biological and start listening to these signals because they’re telling us something that we really need to hear.

4. Which of the above statements, or any other statements by the speaker, resonate best with you?


Session Two:
Let’s simulate the experiment that Professor Kasser has done with the purpose of disrupting the machine that we live in and that is designed to get us to neglect what is important about life.

1. Please think about a moment in your life you had actually found meaning and purpose. What is it?

2. How could you dedicate more of your life to pursuing these moments of meaning and purpose, and less to, say, buying crap you don’t need and putting it on social media and trying to get people to go, ‘OMG, so jealous!’


Professor Kasser found that just getting people to have these meetings, articulate these values, determine to act on them and check in with each other, led to a marked shift in people’s values.

3. Now that you’ve dipped your toes into it, please evaluate how this might work to you.

The speaker said, "Every human being has natural psychological needs. You need to feel you belong. You need to feel your life has meaning and purpose. You need to feel that people see you and value you. You need to feel you’ve got a future that makes sense."

4. Which of the psychological need mentioned above do you consider most important, or do you think you lack most?


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Agenda:
3:45 ~ 4:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
4:00 ~ 4:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
4:10 ~ 4:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
4:50 ~ 5:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
5:10 ~ 5:15pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
5:15 ~ 5:55pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
6:00 ~ 6:20pm Summarization (20 mins)
6:20 ~ 6:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements

Meeting Date: As shown on the Subject Line
Meeting Time: 4:00pm – 6:30pm
Meeting Venue: 丹堤咖啡 Dante Coffee (Minimum Order $80)
Address: 台北市濟南路三段25號[MAP]-捷運忠孝新生站3號出口步行3分鐘

Important Notes:
1. We advise participants to print out the discussion questions and bring them to the meeting for reference. As for the supporting articles, feel free to print them out, as well, according to your preference.
2. We suggest that participants read the articles and think about the questions in advance.
3. Newcomers should prepare a two-to-three minute self-introduction in English to deliver when called upon by the host before the start of the discussion. The host may also ask you to give brief feedback about the meeting at the conclusion of the meeting.
4. We conduct the entire meeting in English. All participants should have at least moderate English-conversation skills and be able to articulate your ideas for each discussion question.
5. We welcome newcomers and other guests to attend the meetings and join the discussion freely for three times. After that, we hope you will consider becoming a YoYo English Club member. We charge a NT$1000 lifetime membership fee.
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Leon
YOYO member
文章: 256
註冊時間: 週日 5月 30, 2004 9:55 am

Re: 2/19(Sat) Why we're depressed or anxious (Host:Kooper)

文章 Leon »

Join an echo chamber group can help since People’s ego are confirmed
When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Kooper
YOYO member
文章: 2725
註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

Re: 2/19(Sat) Why we're depressed or anxious (Host:Kooper)

文章 Kooper »

Hi all,

I've just updated and completed all the questions. If you've checked out the questions earlier, please do it again so that we're all on the same page. Thanks.
Iris Wu
YOYO member
文章: 894
註冊時間: 週二 5月 20, 2014 4:33 pm

Re: 2/19(Sat) Why we're depressed or anxious (Host:Kooper)

文章 Iris Wu »

In a hurry, just a few thoughts: (For the sake of debate exercise... :) )
1) Agreed on the point that depression and anxiety are not just biological or self-made deficiencies. Relying on antidepressants is not a solution.

2) But is “be us” or “be part of a group” an antidote? I am not sure. Being alone and being lonely are quite different. If relying on acceptance by the group, recognition by others, there will always be time and occasions that we are not in the same league as others. Our mood will be always ups and downs. Any human groups could be double-edged sword to anyone.

3) Don’t blame technology and social media. They are just same stuff in different forms. Were people in ancient India or China more connected than people in modern world? I am not so sure about that. Maybe we are more independent or independently living now, but ancient tribesmen's mind and soul were probably as lonely as ours, not so much less, I would say.
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