Common sense prevails.

That's why I walk at night and mow the lawn on The Edge of Night (sunset).
Hmmm...wasn't that a soap opera? Yeah, it was. 1975 to 1984
(Another one I'm glad I missed.)

We are at that point in life where we start losing friends a little faster.

I had a period in the early 90's (I was in my early 40's) when the drunks and dopers and psychiatric cases (suicide) were dropping like flies. Five in two years!
I was openly angry about the waste of perfectly good people who made bad choices.
I told one person, "When you get to about 40, you start choosing which bad habits you're willing to give up in exchange for surviving."
Like smoking, drinking, drugging, driving like you have the reflexes of a teenager, and refusing to ask for help.

Now I'm 66 and time is taking them out.
One thing I've noticed: When a person gets to where he (mentally) can't do the things he has done all his life, he will be dead within 5 years.
Have you noticed that?
I'm talking about an A/C guy that couldn't install a relay in 2.5 hours. I called him down off the ladder, fixed his mistakes, and had it running in 25 minutes.
Another one asked me to write down how to calculate superheat because he couldn't remember long enough to drive to the customer's house.
Both of them dead in about 5 years.
I can't blame them for Senile Dementia or Alzheimer's, but I can notice when I see it happening.
AAC = good. Keeps the rust off my brain.

 

AAC = good. Keeps the rust off my brain.

I concur. I was going to like your thread, but I didn't want anything thinking I liked the other morbid facets.

 

I was openly angry about the waste of perfectly good people who made bad choices.
I told one person, "When you get to about 40, you start choosing which bad habits you're willing to give up in exchange for surviving."
Like smoking, drinking, drugging, driving like you have the reflexes of a teenager, and refusing to ask for help.

I think we all go through that. I finally admitted to myself that I can't save people from themselves. Trying just amounts to a frustrating and futile experience.

Ron

 

That's good. Just don't start believing you can stay healthy and never break a sweat.

There's a great book called "Born to Run" that makes the argument that, "We don't stop running because we get old, we get old because we stop running".

A lot of truth in that. My chiropractor is a world class athlete that will be competing in the world championship triathlon in August. So we chat about swimming, running and biking, since I do all three (at about 10% of his level). He surprised me when he noted that my minimal activity level puts me ahead of 99% of his patients. I sensed a twinge of frustration in him, that he's working to help people that do so little to help themselves.

 

Hotter for longer! Heat Index is 110F today. Can't walk to the shed without starting to pant!
If I wait until it's "only" 90F, that will be 8 PM which gives me half an hour before sunset to do yard work.
I guess I'll start about 6:30 when the heat index is down to 93F.
Remember "Hotel California"? "Sweet summer sweat"?
Florida sweat has no taste because we sweat so much we don't have any salts or oils left to flush out.
That's why I don't stop working in a light rain. It's just artificial sweat.
As long as my shoes don't fill up with water, rain makes no difference to me.

 

Mid 80s with high humidity which just turned into a downpour. Pretty ugly out there right now. Thunder, lightening and all that entertaining stuff.

Ron

 

I seem to be acclimating. Haven't gotten comfortable at 103, but 93 is workable.
Somebody on my street has been firing a mortar, once a day, at random times. Probably something about the 4th of July, but early.

I much prefer what sounds like a hundred square mile battle front for a couple of hours on the proper holiday.
This one big, "whump" from about 250 feet away startled me the first time. Now, it's just annoying.

 

Ok hashtag-twelve ... here's another temp reading that might (or might not) effectively annoy you:

​

That's my workshop's ceiling, and I did the measurement while outside the sun was shining directly on the roof, which is nothing more than a solid slab of concrete, to say the least. I live in a rented house, so I'm not going to pump money into it that I cannot later take with me when I decide to move. Temperature outside was 42°C at that moment.

What I did do, though (and this will probably make you want to slap me, if I'm ever within your reach), is I bought a two ton AC unit that obliterates any trace of discomfort only 20 seconds after turning it on. The AC is a chinese brand (Mirage) that has proved to be pretty good, and it comes with inverter technology. It cost me about $800.00 dlls, installation included.

My workshop measures 11 x 8.5 x 7.3 feet ... so yes, I'm cooling a 682 cubic feet space with a 24,000 BTU air conditioner ... feel like slapping me yet? ... in my defense I'll just say that my monthly electricity bill has only climbed about $15 dlls more with that thing on for an average of about 8 hours a day.

 

I'm cooling a 682 cubic feet space with a 24,000 BTU air conditioner

I have an 18,000 in my 10 x 14 shed. Got it for free when I installed a Central.
I can light up the A/C in the shed and it will be comfortable before I break a sweat, even if the inside was 120F.

I usually just dash out there and grind something or drill something, then leave. Quick is good.
Only in the winter, or on a paying job, will I spend all day or all night in the shed.

 

I think today is the end of our record breaking string of 105F plus days. Seventeen I think.

 

With the local heat index above 100F for 9 or 10 hours per day, I'm off to Youtube land to study Personality Disorders.
Curious. I'm finding my parents and a few ex-girlfriends in there.

 

With the local heat index above 100F for 9 or 10 hours per day, I'm off to Youtube land to study Personality Disorders.
Curious. I'm finding my parents and a few ex-girlfriends in there.

---Emphasis Added---

I abandoned that particular 'pastime' when I began seeing way too much of myself in certain others' (ostensibly) dysfunctional behaviour

TTFN
HP

 

---Emphasis Added---

I abandoned that particular 'pastime' when I began seeing way too much of myself in certain others' (ostensibly) dysfunctional behaviour

TTFN
HP

We all have our quirks, HP... learning to identify our weaknesses and strengths can only make us better persons ... it's funny how a highly technical hobby such as electronics can bring together so many colorful personalities...

 

I began seeing way too much of myself in certain others'

Looking at, "The 10 Personality Disorders" in 3 categories, I find one in each category I can relate to. No surprise. It should probably be more like 6. Then I see that "mental illness" is an exaggeration of any one aspect to a level of interfering with daily functioning, like an addiction.

OK. I see "types" I have known, but only a few that needed somebody to throw a net over them.

Edit: 10 minutes with the TV on and I see 2 stock broker "sociopaths", a billionaire "narcissist" and the labile emotions of a "Borderline Personality Disorder". No wonder ordinary people think acting out these disease processes is "normal".

And kudos to myself for being able to spot 3 stereotypes in 10 minutes after maybe 7 hours of study. I only wish I had this education 40 or 50 years ago.

 

We all have our quirks, HP... learning to identify our weaknesses and strengths can only make us better persons ... it's funny how a highly technical hobby such as electronics can bring together so many colorful personalities...

Looking at, "The 10 Personality Disorders" in 3 categories, I find one in each category I can relate to. No surprise. It should probably be more like 6. Then I see that "mental illness" is an exaggeration of any one aspect to a level of interfering with daily functioning, like an addiction.

OK. I see "types" I have known, but only a few that needed somebody to throw a net over them.

Edit: 10 minutes with the TV on and I see 2 stock broker "sociopaths", a billionaire "narcissist" and the labile emotions of a "Borderline Personality Disorder". No wonder ordinary people think acting out these disease processes is "normal".

And kudos to myself for being able to spot 3 stereotypes in 10 minutes after maybe 7 hours of study. I only wish I had this education 40 or 50 years ago.

FWIW I say a lot of it is just pathologizing other ppl's behavior cuz of inability to relate to their tastes! So for on-topic example I prefer cold rainy climate so maybe to you guys in desert SW and tropical SE I'm nutz? But I say we get along just fine anyhow!

to a level of interfering with daily functioning

#12 I say that sounds like a fair test but definition of dysfunction is totally subjective so I agree with HP's definition of behavioral health issue which is _manifestation of behavior or course of conduct that unduly interferes with others_! So _unduly_ can be subjective too but somehow we know that a guy shooting into a crowd to stop extraterrestrials disguised as humans is a bigger problem than someone who thinks they're reincarnation of Catherine The Great w/o an agenda

 

manifestation of behavior or course of conduct that unduly interferes with others

It is clear to me that several of the disorders leave a trail of disaster in their wake. Other people trying to cope with them are still trying after the odd one is gone.

 

someone who thinks they're reincarnation of Catherine The Great

Oh my! I thought you'd finally 'kicked' that delusion! - Don't tell me you're off your meds again young lady?!

TTFN
HP

 

... but definition of dysfunction is totally subjective...

I don't recall the details but psychologists label a mental illness as anything that puts you X standard deviations away from the mean of the general population, in the tails of the bell curve distribution of fellow humans. Calling either tail a dysfunction might be a subjective choice of one side versus the other, but the label of mental illness is objective. As @#12 is noting, if you know what to look for and observe enough people, you'll see there is a distribution of any behavioral pattern you can attach a label to. It's no different than height or hair color. Most people show some sociopathic behaviors. We don't label them a sociopath unless they show many more of the checklist items than most of us do.

 

if you know what to look for and observe enough people, you'll see there is a distribution of any behavioral pattern

I am a strong believer in the distribution of a population. I make up examples, call them opposite ends of a spectrum, with no basis in fact or research, and invite people to examine their beliefs. It's a great tool to get an ignorant person to expand their world. It's a good way to examine how many ways a particular belief or behavior can be described as part of a spectrum. It can be a simple as, "Where does the spectrum of wind loads intersect with a spectrum of nailing methods for this neighborhood?" or as strange as, "How far does the bell curve of sexual deviance shift if the sample population is limited to the inside of a stripper bar?"

ps, It is obvious that I spotted 3 stereotypes because the writers for that TV show were intentionally using exaggerated stereotypes.
Not all that much of an accomplishment, but good practice for a beginner.

That TV show kind of pooped in its gene pool by using exaggerated stereotypes, but the overall theme of that show on that day was about judging the validity of directly conflicting philosophies. (It wasn't all a waste of time.)

 

So for on-topic example I prefer cold rainy climate so maybe to you guys in desert SW and tropical SE I'm nutz?

Weather preference and writing style are not character defects, so I think you have wandered off topic.

Catherine The Great

I think HP is pretty Great, but I don't remember any mention of Catherine.
(I think you're pretty Great, too, just a few years behind HP in how broad your educational base is.)

psychologists label a mental illness as anything that puts you X standard deviations away

That stretches my imagination. The idea of quantifying scores on several personality traits, to the point of locating an average of them on a generalized spectrum seems quite the leap to me. (Probably just showing off my ignorance again.)