Requiem For Our Dreams: Did my father and I just discover a 21st-Century Broad Street Pump?

cricketfig6.jpg

To make a long, miserable story short:

I have been suffering under the yoke of life-ruining mental illness for longer than I care to relate. It has only gotten worse with time. Some of it is quite outside the normal experience, but other parts seem similar to some increasingly "popular" diagnoses - most notably, PTSD. Public/pop cultural/pop-psychological attempts to address much of this have been nothing short of stupid and destructive. Moral panic is in the air.

What if, like Nasreddin Hodja searching his front yard for something he lost inside the house because the light's better outside, we've all been looking in the wrong places for the wrong reasons?

There is a PTSD 'epidemic' that is being fairly well-trumpeted - to counterproductive effect, as alluded to above. I know enough to know that all this recent business (which I admit may be hyperbolic Internet scuttlebutt, for all I know) with 'safe spaces' and 'trigger warnings', however pure the intentions, is the worst thing that one can do for this. You're dealing with PSYCHOSIS and PHANTASMAGORIA here, and the goal should be to DISPEL it, not VALIDATE it.

What is hardly being discussed at all is something even creepier:

https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/were-in-a-dream-deprivation-epidemic.html
https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/a-dream-deprivation-epidemic-has-this-...
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23731700-200-why-dreaming-is-vita...

Clearly, Dr. King's dream isn't the only one we're struggling to remember - and I, for one, used to get some whoppers from time to time! Seeing a terrarium of dancing Egyptian sarcophagi, reenacting some kind of creation myth on a newly-formed distant planet, watching a herd of weird vacuum-cleaner-like animals bouncing down the street, finding secret passages in places like subway stations and attics to Hell and Heaven (SPOILER: Satan runs a steak/BBQ/Mexican kind of place, but if you'd rather sell a bit of your soul for, say, a good bowl of clam chowder, you certainly can, and YHWH is some kind of giant potato-thumb hybrid who meekly confesses to Ugly-American tourists that no, everything DOES NOT necessarily happen for a good reason), getting to see my cat again...I used to get all this, and so much more I literally cannot remember now.

Anyways, beyond that is this:

http://news.berkeley.edu/2011/11/23/dream-sleep/

PTSD's on the rise, dreams are on the wane, the latter is instrumental to preventing the former, see where this is heading?

I was just discussing this with my father, who mentioned something he'd heard about: These new things people refer to now as "phones" (many call them SmartPhones, I call them StupidPhones because I think they are to Star Trek tricorders what Wayans brothers movies are to Zucker brothers movies) are demonstrably deleterious to sleep.

I don't use such a "phone", myself - but of course, countless others are (perhaps literally) addicted to them.

Perhaps instead of shouting at each other on social media about competitive victimization, we should shut the damned shit off?

My father mentioned that he has an "app" that changes his StupidPhone's light emission at night to something much lower on the spectrum (I should mention he's the only member of my family who ISN'T depressed/traumatized/clinically demented/etc); it couldn't hurt to start there.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

I have a recurring dream that I thought was weird but turns out to be very common. I get lost in a building and can't find my way out. When I do, I can't find where I left my parked car.

Less often your car can represent a direction you are headed in. To lose it may mean you are losing your motivation or are feeling directionless and just don't know how to proceed. In addition, being lost in a dream means something in waking life is causing you to feel directionless and/or uncertain as to what to do.

I've been craving a major change in my life direction. I love change.

up
0 users have voted.

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

mimi's picture

@dkmich
getting lost in a building and forgetting where you parked.

I used to do that all the time when I was still in DC.

And if you crave for change, be careful what you crave for. I am now in a small town I grew up in and it is so overcrowded with the cars of the fat, rich, guys, it takes me longer to find a parking space than in NYC. And the drivers are darn rude. And I dreamt I know my fellow German brothers... heh, that dream was far, far from anything resembling reality. Smile

Good luck for a change to your liking.

up
0 users have voted.
detroitmechworks's picture

was because of my SO, who wanted to text, and doing it with a 10 key is a nightmare and a half.

As far as dreams go, well, I've got my share going right now, and I'm enjoying them immensely. I don't think I'm dreaming big, just attainable, and that is what makes me happy.
If I were crushed down by a 9-5, I don't think I'd be able to truly see what is important.

However, my PTSD is quite real. But instead of trying to make the world adjust to me, I'm trying to adjust to the world. There are days that instead of going out I stay in with a joint and a Nightwish Mix Tape. The dread fields of Iraq are only a fingerlength away, but I'm getting better. Even bought the same food I had over there and ate it recently.

It's... Ok. I mean, If there had been anything else I would have preferred it, but it didn't take on that air of "Over There" that it used to. I feel better, but I didn't ask the other guy to change for me, rather I accepted my own limitations and worked through them.

Maybe it's just my Judo talking, because I had a GREAT session last night. It's really great to finally let go of that obsession of making yourself be strong, and instead just being strong. Yeah, I know, sounds like it doesn't make sense, but it works for me.

I still have trouble in public, and every time I need to prepare for it. Hence the small little rituals I incorporate into my life in order to deal with the unpredictability of the world. Smoke before leaving. Head straight home if things get bad. Have an escape plan for every building, and if you can't get there fast, find a place where you can...

I know, stupid crap, but it helps me deal with the dread.

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

WaterLily's picture

@detroitmechworks It works for you. And that's what matters.

(Never mind that I hate you even have to deal with it, thanks to our fucking government).

up
0 users have voted.
detroitmechworks's picture

@WaterLily treats veterans like they do because they WANT us to just commit suicide and save them the trouble. The entire system seems designed to maximize despair.

Just glad to step away as much as I can.

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@detroitmechworks

My experience is that soldiers in this country are treated like cast-iron Christ-figures who can just about get handjobs-on-demand from any elected official. There was a time, decades ago, when the country's most iconic comedian said "military intelligence is a contradiction in terms" - and people laughed. TIME's Person of the 20th Century (a competitive field if ever there was one!) got away with saying something light-years even more damning. Now the best we've got are the likes of Stewart and Colbert, who, for all their value, are utter sycophants when it comes to soldiers.

I'm very much with you on "the system is designed to promote despair" - ever since sElection 2000, the MO seems to have been a relentless blitzkrieg of outrage after outrage, until we can't even keep track.

up
0 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Alligator Ed's picture

@detroitmechworks your poetry survives it. Whether unhappiness enhances creativity I don't know. Beethoven, thought by some modernist head-shrinkers to be bipolar, was--and still is--the greatest musical composer in recorded history.

Clapping

up
0 users have voted.
detroitmechworks's picture

@Alligator Ed And I do absolutely adore Beethoven's work, even though many people think it's played out. I actually really love hearing how different soloists cover the Choral Portion of the 9th, because it's still to this day one of my favorite pieces.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZEfUsoVImw]

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

LeChienHarry's picture

@detroitmechworks Many of us have some form of need to overcome what we have experienced in our culture/society. Not very pretty if you are not rich, young, good looking, well dressed, in a super neighborhood.

Ordinary (moyen) people have a hard time. And most don't even know why or where it comes from. Lives of quiet desperation.

Thank you again. Listening to Herbie Hancock. And growing my own.

up
0 users have voted.

You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce

If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.

mimi's picture

and I pray he doesnt get someone a bloody nose. I like your Father, who recognizes the stupidity of smart phones…

heh, don't give up. What does it mean if one never dreams. I sleep like a half-dead
alligator and never bite.

up
0 users have voted.
Alligator Ed's picture

@mimi

Air kiss

up
0 users have voted.

experts say that all of us dream nightly. So, I say that I very rarely remember dreaming. With two exceptions, though, I cannot remember ever waking up and feeling rested. So, I assume my dreams are exhausting. Perhaps it is just as well that I don't recall having dreamt.

up
0 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

I love the saying about "most people die at 25 and aren't buried until they are 65, because they lose their dreams. They sell out, give up, etc. You have to keep the dream alive. Like the Stones said in 'Ruby Tuesday', "lose your dreams and you will lose your mind, in life unkind." One key is never lose the yearn to learn.

Carlos Casteneda in the Don Juan books had some dream excercises they used and taught where you can suggest to your mind what to dream about. I practiced it, and it worked. Not all the time, but you only remember the ones you partially wake up during so maybe it worked all the time. I used to want to dream about things like Black-throated Blue Warblers and such. I actually have notes on some of the birds I saw in my dreams.

Say Ed, but would you bite a Crocodile (the pic looks like a Crock snout shape), or are all manner of gators off limits? Caimans, Gharial (Gavial), etc.?

up
0 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Oh man, I had no idea this essay was about the social media diseases, glad I finally read it thanks a lot. It's not funny to watch dumb people get what they ask for, like this: Health care giants offer video doctor’s visits in Sonoma County

“This is really where health care will go, where we kind of already are,” Boyle said.

Where ever you go, there you are. "That's the system." "We're capitalists" CEOs of the non-profits can be millionaires too why not.

Morgan Liti, a spokeswoman for St. Joseph Health, said the virtual visit service is now being used as a pilot to replace follow-up visits.

“Virtual visits have definitely been a growing trend over the past several years — all part of the larger industry shift to a more consumer-driven care delivery model,” Liti said.

Because who needs real doctors? Consumer-driven Idiocracy achieved. Nothing more powerful then the dopamine click right now I think, better than the opioid epidemic for making dumb ass ideas go viral. They make a lot of money, anything defined as "consumer-driven" is suicidal please proceed. lol just kidding but not really

Peace

up
0 users have voted.
LeChienHarry's picture

@eyo in there own private mini entrepreneur businesses. They expect to come to your house if you need them. Doctors also do often. This is France. The doctors keep a can or some box where they take your 27 euros and sign your 80% Carte Vitale return directly to your bank account. So let's see: a half hour with your medicine traitant (GP in charge) is 27 and the specialist is 50 or maybe 75 with a direct reimbursement of min 80%.

We are so not used to this type of treatment. ERs are empty because the traitement doc is there for you without a wait almost anytime.

up
0 users have voted.

You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce

If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.