I just realized nothing is worth doing

[Kramer]

I'm trying to decide what to do next now that I'm tired of movies and tv. Nothing else seems worthwhile. I used to love reading until my ocd took that from me,

 

[Spitfire]

This made me laugh! It is the title of your thread it sounds accurate to me.

 

[Deleted member 22624]

Yep. What would you read?

 

[Kramer]

Yep. What would you read?

The classics, science fiction, history books

 

[stygal]

Haha...sorry, I had to laugh. You're title made it sound like some kind of epiphany.

I think it's true though - nothing is worth doing it since we all die in the end.

The thing is...we need distraction until our time is there. Starting a new hobby or something you haven't done in awhile will always feel like a chore or kind of annoying in the beginning but if you keep it up you can form a habit and it will be rewarding.
I suggest you try something new that seem half-way interesting to you.

 

[Amumu]

I used to love reading until my ocd took that from me,

I used to have these kinds of ocd as well.
A piece of advice : take a pencil to read. It helps a little bit.

 

[Sherri]

I'm trying to decide what to do next now that I'm tired of movies and tv. Nothing else seems worthwhile. I used to love reading until my ocd took that from me,

Same, I used to be mad about Netflix, havent seen it in ages now.

 

[sadlystillgoing3]

I'm trying to decide what to do next now that I'm tired of movies and tv. Nothing else seems worthwhile. I used to love reading until my ocd took that from me,

ocd sucks. I have it, as well. I love podcasts and audiobooks. also puzzles. jigsaw puzzles give me a lot of joy. no joke, you have to try it. also dot-to-dots. video games (animal crossing is the only one i play), cprewritten is fun and free to play online. research something random and try to learn everything you can about it. try to learn a new language (asl is super cool, japanese, spanish, etc.)

 

[Kramer]

ocd sucks. I have it, as well. I love podcasts and audiobooks. also puzzles. jigsaw puzzles give me a lot of joy. no joke, you have to try it. also dot-to-dots. video games (animal crossing is the only one i play), cprewritten is fun and free to play online. research something random and try to learn everything you can about it. try to learn a new language (asl is super cool, japanese, spanish, etc.)

The language learning sites aren't any good.

I'll try a jigsaw puzzle

 

[sadlystillgoing3]

The language learning sites aren't any good.

I'll try a jigsaw puzzle

I don't use any one site but a bunch of different ones and youtube videos. It's fun to not really focus on learning it "the best way," per say, but just learning different words and sentence structure. Youtube has great ASL ones that are calming to watch, too. Also if you can't afford puzzles (they can be pricey) check out thrift stores!

 

[ForcedLifeResistant]

Whenever you're hungry, thirsty, when you have to piss, shit, when you wanna masturbate, whatever, take some time to do something you'd like to become habitual before satisfying your urge.

Behavior that is likely to reoccur is selected by consequences of variants on behavior (operants) in a way similar to how heritable characteristics are selected by consequences of allele frequency changes from the operation of variants of evolutionary mechanisms (natural selection, genetic drift, etc.). Food, drink, piss, shit, maturbation, whatever you want or need, will act as a reinforcing consequence (a contingency of reinforcement).

Modern behavior analysis describes three-term contingencies, anticedent-behavior-postcedent or anticedent-behavior-consequence (ABP or ABC, respectively, ABP being more accurate for its not assuming that a postcedent is a consequence of behavior). The anticedent is the occasion on which a particular action typically occurs, the behavior is the action, and the poscedent is whatever follows the occurance of the action. If the postcedent is a positive consequence of the behavior (a contingency of reinforcement) it is more likely that the behavior will reoccur (operant conditioning).

You can arrange contingencies of reinforcement on schedules. There are four types of schedules of reinforcement: fixed interval, fixed ratio, variable interval, and variable ratio. Fixed interval and fixed ratio schedules place the contingencies after specific amounts of time or a specific number of occurences of the desired behavior, respectively. Variable interval and ratio schedules place contingencies after random time intervals or occurances of the behavior, respectively.

I've been using my wants and needs as anticedents, the satisfaction of those wants and needs as poscedents, and putting my ABPs on variable interval schedules. I'm getting more done these days than I had been. This may be a demonstration of control but I haven't done much in the way of rigorous analysis of my behavior. I still have a lot to learn.

Take what I've said with a properly sized grain of salt (those few of you actually bothering to read this) but I do think there's efficacy to this approach. In my experience, work hardly feels like work when you're doing things this way. If you consider each thing you do as an instance of behavior, as behaviorists do, you can apply this to watching movies, playing games, reading books, etc. Whatever you'd like to do more of. You just have to work out which contingencies on which schedules will reinforce the behavior desired.

 

[Deleted member 23885]

@Kramer, sounds like anhedonia. It's a common symptom of severe depression.

 

[signifying nothing]

Cut the labels out of your clothes.

 

[Kramer]

Whenever you're hungry, thirsty, when you have to piss, shit, when you wanna masturbate, whatever, take some time to do something you'd like to become habitual before satisfying your urge.

Behavior that is likely to reoccur is selected by consequences of variants on behavior (operants) in a way similar to how heritable characteristics are selected by consequences of allele frequency changes from the operation of variants of evolutionary mechanisms (natural selection, genetic drift, etc.). Food, drink, piss, shit, maturbation, whatever you want or need, will act as a reinforcing consequence (a contingency of reinforcement).

Modern behavior analysis describes three-term contingencies, anticedent-behavior-postcedent or anticedent-behavior-consequence (ABP or ABC, respectively, ABP being more accurate for its not assuming that a postcedent is a consequence of behavior). The anticedent is the occasion on which a particular action typically occurs, the behavior is the action, and the poscedent is whatever follows the occurance of the action. If the postcedent is a positive consequence of the behavior (a contingency of reinforcement) it is more likely that the behavior will reoccur (operant conditioning).

You can arrange contingencies of reinforcement on schedules. There are four types of schedules of reinforcement: fixed interval, fixed ratio, variable interval, and variable ratio. Fixed interval and fixed ratio schedules place the contingencies after specific amounts of time or a specific number of occurences of the desired behavior, respectively. Variable interval and ratio schedules place contingencies after random time intervals or occurances of the behavior, respectively.

I've been using my wants and needs as anticedents, the satisfaction of those wants and needs as poscedents, and putting my ABPs on variable interval schedules. I'm getting more done these days than I had been. This may be a demonstration of control but I haven't done much in the way of rigorous analysis of my behavior. I still have a lot to learn.

Take what I've said with a properly sized grain of salt (those few of you actually bothering to read this) but I do think there's efficacy to this approach. In my experience, work hardly feels like work when you're doing things this way. If you consider each thing you do as an instance of behavior, as behaviorists do, you can apply this to watching movies, playing games, reading books, etc. Whatever you'd like to do more of. You just have to work out which contingencies on which schedules will reinforce the behavior desired.

That's all way over my head.

@Kramer, sounds like anhedonia. It's a common symptom of severe depression.

A psychiatrist said it's because of years of antidepressants.

Cut the labels out of your clothes.

Why?

 

[ForcedLifeResistant]

That's all way over my head.

Did you understand the first paragraph at all? That bit is what I'm suggesting you do. The rest is explaining why I'd make such a suggestion.

 

[Nymph]

I feel the same, I kinda just wanna drift away. I'd recommend trying some new hobbies maybe but I have yet to find new hobbies that aren't expensive af

 

[Kramer]

Did you understand the first paragraph at all? That bit is what I'm suggesting you do. The rest is explaining why I'd make such a suggestion.

Yeah I did. For awhile I would do a series of pushups after taking a piss. It was a good routine.

 

[ForcedLifeResistant]

Yeah I did. For awhile I would do a series of pushups after taking a piss. It was a good routine.

After or before? What I'm suggesting would involve doing the pushups before taking the piss. You might think of the relief associated with pissing as a reward for exercising.

 

[Kramer]

After or before? What I'm suggesting would involve doing the pushups before taking the piss. You might think of the relief associated with pissing as a reward for exercising.

I couldn't do it before. I wouldn't be able to use proper form or do as many as I could like I would be able to if I waited until afterward.

 

[ForcedLifeResistant]

I couldn't do it before. I wouldn't be able to use proper form or do as many as I could afterward.

This is why I said "You just have to work out which contingencies on which schedules will reinforce the behavior desired."

If piss doesn't work, try something else. I used to leave a water or Gatorade on the track while I ran at the park, such that I'd only get to drink after completing a circuit. Be as creative (or uncreative) as you will. I use a well shuffled deck of card to randomize interval lengths for variable interval schedules.

 

[signifying nothing]

If piss doesn't work, try something else.

Good advice.

My own advice: sometimes the hardest thing to do is nothing at all.

 

[ForcedLifeResistant]

Good advice.

My own advice: sometimes the hardest thing to do is nothing at all.

You're never doing nothing. You're always exhibiting behavior. It might be characteristic of being sedentary or otherwise languid but it'll be behavior just the same as any other. If there is something you'd like to do but attempts to do it have failed, that's where behaviorism comes in.

My own aim is not to do the hardest thing. Or, if it is, I'd at least like to do it with the greatest ease achievable. Reading and making Anki decks covering the material I'm reading, given the dryness of what I tend to read and the elaborate decks I tend to make, used to be an unbearably tedious chore. Since I began doing it on schedules of reinforcement, it's like I'm on autopilot whenever I do. The book I've just begun doing this with, The Analysis of Behavior: A Program for Self-Instruction (Skinner and Holland, 1961) , has sections on positive reinforcement, deprivation, and escape and avoidance behavior. As I said, I still have a lot to learn, however I think the approach I'm suggesting would be associated with one or more of the subjects of those sections. In any case, I hope to have refined my procedures by the time I'm done working through it.

 

[signifying nothing]

I'd at least like to do it with the greatest ease achievable.

it's like I'm on autopilot whenever I do.

I think you're trying to achieve what they call 'flow'? Although that is more of a psychological state rather than a physical/behavioural one. I think that's what you're missing when you focus just on the behaviour side of things, making things too simplistic. Unless of course it is your goal to quieten higher brain functions with the approach you're using?

 

[ForcedLifeResistant]

I think you're trying to achieve what they call 'flow'? Although that is more of a psychological state rather than a physical/behavioural one. I think that's what you're missing when you focus just on the behaviour side of things, making things too simplistic. Unless of course it is your goal to quieten higher brain functions with the approach you're using?

I see the science of behavior as something apart from brain and cognitive science. The distinctions are highlighted by the enduring Skinner vs Chomsky rivalry. Here's an accessible video on it. The 11:45 mark of this video is illustrative of why these approaches aren't fruitful, where explaining behavior is concerned. I'm in the Skinnerian camp. That's why you haven't noticed me mention the brain or the mind in my suggestions. I'm merely talking about Skinnerian operant conditioning, which doesn't use explanations from mentalism.

 

[signifying nothing]

I see the science of behavior as something apart from brain and cognitive science. The distinctions are highlighted by the enduring Skinner vs Chomsky rivalry. Here's an accessible video on it. The 11:45 mark of this video is illustrative of why these approaches aren't fruitful, where explaining behavior is concerned. I'm in the Skinnerian camp. That's why you haven't noticed me mention the brain or the mind in my suggestions. I'm merely talking about Skinnerian operant conditioning, which doesn't use explanations from mentalism.

I thought that might be the case and I can see the advantages of this approach. I used to be able to absorb a lot more scientific information (my degree was in biological sciences), but my mind isn't really up to it these days, so I'm sorry that I can't engage in more detailed discussion.

 

[ForcedLifeResistant]

I thought that might be the case and I can see the advantages of this approach. I used to be able to absorb a lot more scientific information (my degree was in biological sciences), but my mind isn't really up to it these days, so I'm sorry that I can't engage in a more detailed discussion.

Thank you for the back and forth.

 

[Deleted member 17949]

Damn, you're right, nothing is worth doing