Captain Pleasure, Andrés Gómez Emilsson@algekalipso• about 1 year ago

[warning: disturbing thought] Part of the reason why I was close to burning out in 2019 is that I interviewed a bunch of people with cluster headaches. What I learned was that when physical pain goes above a certain threshold it becomes a different kind of situation: It essentially becomes spiritual pain, with all that it entails. At the worst, the person might feel abandoned by God, betrayed by reality, be forced to hate even love for not being there to rescue them when this happened. It's not only a deep depression that ensues, but in fact a kind of spiritual death. At the same time I kept hearing people dismiss the importance of physical pain ("I wouldn't mind it as much, the real problem is mental health"). I think this is simply widespread ignorance about the nature of the phenomenon, and this gap in understanding makes you feel hopeless when you see it up close. Of course this gets compounded by the fact that you know you'll ruin people's days if they actually grasp it (and so you're kind of a villain in the eyes of people who just want to have a good time or help the world in more normie family friendly ways). Since then I've balanced a lot more my activities and research. It's a marathon, not a sprint. But nonetheless, this still burns and needs to be stopped. We ought to become the love that these people need, even if it hurts. But not burn ourselves in the process. It's tricky... And yet, needed.