Tag Archives: Mental Health

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Andrew Huberman’s interview series with Dr. Paul Conti from 2023

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Andrew Huberman’s interview series with Dr. Paul Conti dives into the complexities of mental health, trauma, and human behavior. Dr. Conti, a psychiatrist specializing in trauma, provides deep insights into how trauma impacts the brain and body, the importance of recognizing and addressing it, and practical strategies for healing. Across the episodes, they explore the role of early-life experiences, stress, and how unresolved trauma can shape a person’s life. Dr. Conti also discusses the power of self-awareness and compassion in overcoming mental health challenges.

Episode 1 Summary: Dr. Paul Conti introduces foundational concepts of mental health, defining the self through the unconscious and conscious mind. He discusses how to address anxiety, negative thought patterns, and defense mechanisms, offering tools for self-assessment and improvement, either through personal reflection or professional guidance. This episode lays the groundwork for understanding mental health and reshaping emotions and behaviors.

https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/guest-series-dr-paul-conti-how-to-understand-and-assess-your-mental-health

Episode 2 Summary: Dr. Paul Conti presents tools for overcoming challenges by exploring defense mechanisms, behaviors, and self-awareness. He explains how to align internal drives and cultivate positive aspirations, offering strategies to overcome intrusive thoughts and self-limiting beliefs. The episode focuses on adjusting internal narratives and fostering personal growth.

https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/guest-series-dr-paul-conti-how-to-improve-your-mental-health

Episode 3 Summary: Dr. Paul Conti explores building healthy relationships, including romantic, professional, and friendships. He provides a roadmap for navigating conflicts and setting boundaries, while discussing common issues like insecurity, manipulation, and past trauma. The episode highlights how healthy relationships foster mutual growth and support.

https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/guest-series-dr-paul-conti-how-to-build-and-maintain-healthy-relationships

Episode 4 Summary: Dr. Paul Conti discusses true self-care, emphasizing the mental health benefits of self-awareness and introspection practices like journaling and meditation. He explains how unresolved trauma can hinder personal growth and the importance of relational support systems in the journey to mental well-being.

https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/guest-series-dr-paul-conti-tools-and-protocols-for-mental-health

The following is the full description for episode 1 taken from the huberman.com site

“This is episode 1 of a 4-part special series on mental health with psychiatrist Dr. Paul Conti, M.D., who trained at Stanford School of Medicine and completed his residency at Harvard Medical School before founding his clinical practice, the Pacific Premier Group. Dr. Conti defines mental health in actionable terms and describes the foundational elements of the self, including the structure and function of the unconscious and conscious mind, which give rise to all our thoughts, behaviors and emotions. He also explains how to explore and address the root causes of anxiety, low confidence, negative internal narratives, over-thinking and how our unconscious defense mechanisms operate. This episode provides a foundational roadmap to assess your sense of self and mental health. It offers tools to reshape negative emotions, thought patterns and behaviors — either through self-exploration or with a licensed professional. The subsequent three episodes in this special series explore additional tools to further understand and improve your mental health.”

Feel free to also check out the podcast series here via Apple Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953110?i=1000626920013

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953110?i=1000627705248

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953110?i=1000628545319

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953110?i=1000629317045

Browse Podcasts on Hubermanlab.com

https://www.hubermanlab.com/all-episodes

 

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Meta Response

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Does the interaction of social and emotional data with the power of social and emotional data translate into positive results?

Recently I was given a Meta Survey via Facebook and I replied with this…

What is your biggest concern about Meta?

I work with ML/AI and I know it is possible to steer people with it to get a given outcome in very subtle ways. My concern is that companies like Meta are steering people towards content that produces a psychological reaction that then produces addictive behavior in order to keep them engaged with the goal of gathering personal data for the purposes of sale of such data and targeting people with advertising that encourages them to consume more than they would under normal circumstances. Generally with social media the corporations running it are extracting a resource, as in data, time and attention from people in a way that tilts the scales in favor the social media platform providers. To improve this would require more transparency with regards to the data that is collected and an ‘open book’ policy where individuals must give consent to all elements of data harvesting and are allowed to access the records that are kept on their personal data. Also, to have tools built into the platforms that allow people to block things as simple as using keywords to black/whitelist content and optimize the user experience in a way that allows them to override algorithmic control of the content that they are presented with, including advertising. AI/ML works best when it is collaborating with the user and not in the role of an invisible hand that exercises control over their experience from beyond their control.

What do you value most about Meta?

The fact that there has been some open source release of code such as PyTorch which I use on a regular basis.

Meta Survey
Meta Survey

 

Extremism and Mental Illness and Social Media

There is something that is pushing extremes and actually it is in both directions. This seems to have happened ever so slowly, it has crept in. Someone I heard on a podcast said once “Almost everyone is in Wokeistan or Trumpistan and there are like 7 people left on Earth that are like WTF???” It is an exaggeration but makes a point. There are disturbing things in the realm of mental illness, one of the worst is the fact that there is now a catagory for suicide in pre teens. There was no such category at one point as it was too rare of an outlier to keep track of, since 2007 there is. What happened around that time? Smartphones with social media apps, correlation is not always causation but, it does make you wonder. If anything the issue pushing extremes can be found in the media, both traditional as it grapples with loss of market and pushes more extreme ‘bait’ to keep viewers. And, lastly you guessed it, social media in which the invisible hand of algorithms feed us content determined by large corporate interests. I think that it will, and this is the hope, that it will selfcorrect, the pendulum when it gets to an extreme will eventually go in the other direction. This is the blessing of free, democratic countries, change is possible. Democracies are a mess but, they are the best we have as of now,considering the alternatives have generally turned out worse for people.