Why do ?

Why do people do what is bad for them? Ran into a buddy the other day, he was smoking a butt outside an office, chatted for a few minutes catching up and shit...he told me he has an appointment with a pulmanologist because they found a spot on his lung...He's been smoking for years...It could be food, cigarettes , women, drugs, gambling, bad reltionships, etc...it all comes down to self destructive behavior, do we all have a death wish,,,,fear of success, what do you think drives destructive bahavior?

 

Honestly I think what drives destructive behavior is depression and sometimes anger. Perhaps both.
The lack of caring whether or not the decisions he/she makes are good or bad.
Doing whatever makes them feel happy.

 

things that r bad for us r usually fun, amazing, exciting, entertaining, ect. i sometimes think gods a troll for mostly making pleasures bad.

4 example, the tastiest foods r usually not good 4 ur health relative to healthy foods. id take a greasy chili cheese dog over boiled broccoli cuz of the taste and flavors alone







theres an episode of simpsons where homer finds out flanders is over 60 and looks amazin 4 his age because he abstains from pleasures and sins. the ppl @ the church were shocked & said flanders u havent lived a day in ur life

anyways the motto live fast & die young still holds

 

flanders is right yo, the moral philosophy of resisting physical pleasures in the pursuit of universal truths is as old as plato, if not older yo

 

stupid sexy flanders

 

Life will kill you.

 

What's the,point of living like Flanders though? I guess you gotta find a happy medium which is different for everyone. On a semi related note I find the flandereses type are usually the most judgmental

 

Why do....

?

 

The brain is an interesting thing, that each owns.
Some of the most brilliant guys that I know, and history has mentioned, were totally psychotic.
Just lean back and enjoy it.

 

Thank you, I'm glad i wasn't the only one to think this.

 

Spoiler

On the day that you were born

the angels got together and decided to create a dream come trueeee~~

So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair

Of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue... wuuuu

Spoiler

 

Is being born bad for you? Always wondered this seeing as I recall little to nothing before birth.

 

Well this is why I think it's a waste of time for governments to pour money into telling people how dangerous cigarettes, drugs, alcohol and certain foods are.
Ok we need to inform children at school but at the end of the day people are going to consume what they want.

People have known how dangerous smoking can be for years, it says on the damn packet that there is a good chance it might kill you for gods sake, but people still choose to do it.

Then addictive personalities come into things.
I've certainly got one, whether it be drugs or food.
I completely over-did it with alcohol over the years, I didn't see the point in drinking it at all unless I drank as much as I could.
With food i'd go from one extreme to the other - go days eating shitloads or days eating absolutely nothing.
I've never got into drugs, pretty sure if I did I would have died years ago because there is no way I could have just done them socially or whatever.

 

Genecop, you were a real cop, right? So you must have taken basic psychology and/or sociology at one time right?

Remember how people act in patterns that are psychologically taught to them through childhood and formative years, and without fully consciously recognizing NOT ONLY the problem that afflicts them but also understanding the mechanisms (how it works on them psychologically), it is very difficult for their subconscious patterns (and resulting behavioral manifestations) to change?

Cultures are extremely powerful in determining individuals' behavior, but all have different ideas of what is right and wrong (stories, norms/values), some radically different. And not just racial cultures, but also subcultures. Lower class cultures are never taught properly why impulsive acting (following the ID) is wrong, but that's all they've witnessed and done themselves. Good luck breaking that streak without them at least recognizing AND accepting the rational underpinings of their expressed behavior.

 

A lot of people don't know how to self soothe when they are suffering, and there are a lot of people who want to make money selling vices (which help in the short term) to those people. Sesame Street is teaching kids basic mindfulness meditation techniques, so there is a start.

 

So people understand it, then what, they still feel depressed, powerless, and hopeless to change it? That is the hard truth, and the latest depression research shows that psychotherapy and medications don't help a lot of people, and those are people with access to health care and the ability to pay their co payments, and therefore more ability to change their external circumstances.

 

As people are saying, things that are bad for you often provide some powerful, pleasurable incentive. When it comes to things like smoking cigarettes or engaging in unrpotected sex or what have you, it's the idea of people thinking of immediate gratification vs. long-term.

The biggest barrier that the anti-smoking crusade faces, in my opinion, is the fact that most people operate under the, "that will never happen to me," mentality. So I am horrified when I see those depressing PSAs with real-life people, but I would assume that many smokers watch that and operate under the notion that such a thing won't happen to them. Everybody has a "my 90-year old grandfather smoked every day since he was 20," type story to cite.

 

My question was more about hearing what people think and less about what a textbook says....Beneath every textbook answer lies something else, IMO something deeper, maybe even more insightful than findings found in a lab, classroom , or by compiling numbers and stats...

 

they don't have the will power to stop doing what's bad for them