Difference between chasing happiness and chasing satisfaction. Satisfaction: accomplishments, time with friends, meaning, purpose.

Tim Castle - Junk Values Intrinsic motivations- play piano because you love it. Extensive motivations- do it for money (not necessarily bad) or because you want the applause, need the positive feedback loops.

The more you are driven by extrinsic values the more likely you are to be distressed. Advertising. “We live in a machine designed to make us want to be different.”

We’ve created a world where people’s basic needs aren’t met. We can’t be surprised when they say burn it all down (Trump people).

“We work to buy things we saw in advertisement, display it on social media, and we’re still unhappy.”

Importance of situational factors rather than pathological...it’s not a brain sickness. It’s a reaction to environment.

Drug Company Research

FDA submission requirements require all of the data companies have to be submitted with the application. But the burden to get approval is only that it works for some people some of the time.

Even in the drug companies’ research antidepressant drugs mostly didn’t work. They did, however, always include the side effects.

The placebo was overwhelmingly as effective. It’s sort of like that magic pain wand in the book.

9 causes:

1. Disconnection from meaningful work
   1. When work is fulfilling that spills over into the rest of your life. No control, no feeling of why, no feeling of empowerment, sit on the couch.
   2. Higher instance of depression, heart attack, the lower you are in a control hierarchy.
   3. Despair often happens when there or s lack of balance between efforts and rewards. Even for doing bad stuff. The message is you’re irrelevant.
   4. Importance of control, in the sense that you have some say in your future.
   5. Lack of security in your job creates negative mindset.
2. Disconnection from other people.
   1. Being deeply lonely caused as much stress as acute physical attack. Heart rate and cortisol levels.
   2. Evolutionary base of isolation to make us feel insecure.
   3. When you feel isolated you’ll have lots of microawakenings at night.
   4. No correlation between quantity of interactions and loneliness. You also need connection on something with others. This was my problem with Vegas. If you don’t share anything that matters with them it’s like they aren’t there.
3. Disconnection from meaningful values
   1. The more you value external factors like things the higher your instance of depression. Materialistic. Feel sicker, angrier
   2. Intrinsic motives vs extrinsic motives.
   3. When people who achieve extrinsic goals they don’t experience any improvement in daily happiness.
   4. Opposite for intrinsic.
   5. Our whole culture is setup to focus on extrinsic values. But stuff, get big job, have things. Shoe then off.
   6. Anxiety increases too.
   7. Shifted from meaningful values to junk values. Like shift to junk food. Instead of giving us nutrition it gives us toxins.
   8. Materialism is kfc for the soul
   9. If you are materialistic, why does this happen
      1. Thinking extrensicly leads to shorter relationships.
      2. Intrinsic motives create flow states that extrinsic doesn’t. Stop liking playing piano because you’re wondering if you’re best.
      3. External forces you to constantly look at other people’s judgment or your scoreboards.
      4. Most important. Materialistic people are chasing things that don’t help us. You are told you need stuff and superior status. What you really need is connection. There’s just no room for the intrensic motives. It’s a zero sum game.
   10. Boys playing with toys in commercials.
   11. Advertising is designed to make you feel inadequate and this if the only thing that will solve it.
4. Disconnection from childhood trauma
   1. Story about women who started eating after trauma. Obesity wasn’t the problem, it was the solution.
   2. Analogy to when I stopped focusing on health, it made me not attractive. So I didn’t have to interact. Reduces expectations for you.
   3. For every category of traumatic experience you had as a kid, you are radically more likely to become depressed as an adult.
   4. Emotional abuse showed the greatest causality. Even more than sexual abuse.
   5. You take ownership of the trauma instead of recognizing that you were vulnerable. You want to be in control. And that narrative also means that at some point you think you deserved it. Like I excuse John for his abuse because the situation was hard to take. You engage in addictive behaviors because you think you deserved it then?
   6. Some of these things can also not be trauma but just psychological pressures.
5. Disconnection from status and respect.
   1. Baboon low status they don’t eat, head slouched, stress levels are highest.
   2. Baboons are most stresses when status is challenged or status is low.
   3. Depression is a response to humiliation, etc. celebrity makes you see low status, Instagram gives you body low starts feelings, work hierarchy humiliation.
   4. Having insecure status is the only thing that stresses you more than low status.
   5. Inequality in society triggers this status anxiety.
6. Disconnection from the natural world
   1. Bonobos in zoo do find massive mental issues when in captivity.
   2. Major changes in people who move to/from natural heavy environments.
   3. Even cities with lots of green space even showed improvement.
   4. Why is this true?
      1. As animals, we have to move. Language cannot replace this. It’s hard for an animal in its natural environment that moves and has a decent sense of social status to be depressed.
      2. When you are depressed you get stuck in your head. A prisoner of your own ego. The natural world creates a mind that you are a part of something bigger. Some people avoid this because it challenges your ego.
      3. Depression robs you of desire to feel joy
7. Disconnection from s hopeful and secure future.
   1. When depression came, thinking goes short term.
   2. Tribal example.
   3. Extremely depressed people had become disconnected from their future. You can’t define yourself in several years for example. (ZW: this is a function of the shut down of the hippocampus, loss of planning and spacial time reference, can't think past right now...triggers short-termism)
   4. Lose the sense that a positive future protects you.
   5. Story of feeling helpless in your job leading to inability to think about future self, to see an optimistic future. Led to depression. Then alcohol to solve it.
8. 8-9 real role of genes and brain changes.
   1. How does your brain change when you are deeply distressed.
   2. Neuroplasticity is your brain changing to adapt to experiences.
   3. Depression is an output of brain changes related to circumstances.
   4. Your brain sheds synapses for joy and hardens those for fear,etc. because it thinks it needs to be prepared for this.
   5. You can force yourself out of it but it will feel wrong.
   6. Some genetic susceptibility but aren’t the cause. Your genes can make you more vulnerable.
9. Above