acceptance

My Experience of Vlogging

/ philosophicaltherapist / Leave a comment

2020 has been a crazy year for everyone, and spoiler alert, it’s probably going to get a lot crazier.

*stares in horror at the warping of the Three Gorges Dam*

During my time in lockdown I started work in earnest on making a video channel on YouTube. If you would like to look at my channel, you can find it here.

I have to confess, it’s been a lot harder than I thought it would be, however, having published nine videos at the time of writing this, I’m starting to feel confident that I can produce regular video content. The hardest part for me was to sit in front of the camera and talk to an empty room. I felt quite silly at first, and worried every time I heard footsteps outside that my audio recording would be ruined. Which, in the first few attempts, it certainly was, and so I had to change my microphone to one that wouldn’t pick up the sounds from outside my apartment. This article is mostly a summary of the trials I’ve had to work my way through in the process of building my vlog channels. Now I’ve got the technique under control I’m going to start posting short articles about the videos I’ve produced with some extra material and notes about them as every time I publish a video I remember a dozen things I wish I had mentioned because I think they’re so important to know: so have a look for those articles on this site over the next few weeks.

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A Brighter Perspective on Depression

/ philosophicaltherapist / 1 Comment

Last night I was chatting to a friend about depression.  As someone who is still recovering from depression she kept referring to it as “her weakness” which bothered me a little.  This lead to her sharing with me a perspective on depression she had encountered recently: that depression was a method by which nature would rid a tribe of weaker members.  Presumably it worked something like this: a person who couldn’t meet the expectations placed on them by their tribe would develop depression and end their own life so that only the strong members would survive.  Thus it is a form of eugenics programmed into our psyche to effectively off ourselves for the benefit of the rest of the tribe.  Now, I am trained as a biologist and such a genetic trait is unlikely to be passed on via natural selection because it actually lowers the probability of an individual passing on their genetics.  Such genes usually die out quickly.  However, this got me thinking about something: if so many people have the potential to get depression – why would such a trait be preserved by natural selection?  What survival advantage does a propensity for depression actually have?  Here is my case on why depression is helpful rather than harmful.

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