When Waking up After Decades Turned out to Be Temporary
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Around 1917, an unknown illness dubbed "sleeping sickness" caused people to suffer severe sleepiness and delirium. Some even became paralyzed for decades until a temporary cure was discovered in the 1960s. The story of this illness is tragic but offered new insight into how our brains function.
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And the award for literally my worst nightmare goes to this disease.
Seriously, this episode is nightmare fuel.
Insofar as it's similar to locked in syndrome?
I would say this is close second to locked in syndrome. Parkinsonism itself is pretty scary as well. It seems having a body is a terrible liability. It's pretty terrifying when you give serious consideration to the human body's capacity for feeling pain and suffering.
Like sleep paralysis which causes complete immobility and often hallucinations during. I had only one event as a youth, but even without any of the sensory illusions, It was horrifying beyond belief.
This is one of the scarry diseases I've heard of. Righr up there with in treatable tuberculosus.
I read his book. One of the patients was able to overcome her resistance to a degree by throwing paper balls on the ground in front of her. She would have a clear goal, get to the ball. It helped her successfully walk. When she ran out of balls, she would freeze again. The brain is a magnificent but scary thing.
Is that suggesting that you have to do something that seems like you're completing the task but your not accomplishing anything but something of nonsense like childish style?
@Ungregistered User it feels like they lack motivation to do complex tasks other than basic.
@Cat Magic "Do you have to do childish nonsense tasks that seems like your completeing your goals but, you aren't really?" Sorry Its very difficult to be rephrased because it's a deep rhetorical question. For some reason just observeing complex tasks seems to be very difficult for good motivation reasons but, easy to do basic tasks for bad motivation reasons seems to be a thing from what I understand in my opinion.
This is... terrifying
Yep, one of the worst parts of learning about our brains is finding out just how fucked things can get if something breaks.
Devin West
it's what moderators deserve
Not really... If I got diagnosed I would probably just kill myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
lol
Bloody Hell, I feel so bad for those poor people
Yeah that sucks pretty badly.
Ya D: Imagine just waking up finding that your 40 years older and everyone pretty thought you were dead, at least they felt like suddenly they had access to the future suddenly
That sounds horrific. it must have been a living nightmare for these poor people! decades of just laying there unable to do anything, I can't even imagine how terrible it must have been for the families as well.
It's bad enough when it's only for a few minutes at a time. I have ADHD and occasionally when I'm off my meds I can get to the point where I'm borderline panicking because I know I need to go somewhere or do something and still not be able to get myself to move. The weirdest part is that I know I'm perfectly capable of moving. It's not like I'm paralyzed. My brain just doesn't bridge the gap between desperately wanting to move and actually sending the signal to my muscles.
throw a ball at them and they'll catch it very quickly
"Imagine you woke up tomorrow to discover that 40 years have passed"
But you said it was *tommorow*
aj labue It was a looong day
Your "tomorrow" = Our "in 40 years"
@Dog lol
TIME MACHINE DRUG CONFIRM
From your pov it would be tomorrow, but in reality it would be 40 years.
My Notifications:
Infographics Show: What Happens When You get knocked out?
SciShow Psych: When Waking Up after decades turns out to be Temporary
That was one hell of a Temporary Knock out
US Yo that happened to me too! Such a weird coincidence.
We're all subscribed. :D
Be careful w/ infographics show, they're not good on their information at all and show some bias or don't use enough sources. I used to watch them but their quality and informative nature has fallen apart and I no longer watch them. It is a shame, all count down channels are a sham, now infographics show, that leaves me with Sci Show, Kurtsgezat (or whatver) and PBS Space Time ;c
Kenneth Starling
Yeah, still a good "background video" to play due to their quantity over quality, emphasis. A lot of 'citation needed' factoids.
LMFAO nice! 😂
Yo I haven't watched SciShow for a while but this new(ish?) lady must be a teacher or something. She's a natural presenter! A+!
MattShnoop >> I think she's been around for a while, but don't hang me up on it 😊
She's super articulate and well spoken! More!
She’s only on scishow psych
Nah it’s cause this is SciShow psych- it’s a different channel
Oliver Sacks is a wonderful writer. Not only he's written about EL, but about many neurological conditions and even music and the brain. Highly recommended author for anyone interested in neuroscience or psychology.
Wonderful books such as "The Man who mistook his Wife for a Hat".
He was himself "face blind", unable to associate faces with people, and wanting to know why (and if anything could be done) is what pushed him toward neuroscience.
Love his books!
@@mal2ksc Didn't know that! Thanks for the fun fact!
Oliver Sacks was face-blind? Had no idea.
Aspiring writers, if you needed an example of why describing your character’s face is not that important, this is it.
I wonder what led to someone initially throwing a ball at a person who appeared comatose.
See if they're faking.
Probably because the catch/dodge reaction is an unconscious reflex and they wanted to test if bypassing actual conscious thought would allow movement.
I believe it was because that was a common practice in therapy for Parkinson disease. A doctor noticed the similarities in the diseases' acute symptoms and decided to see if it would work for latharigica.
so wait does this lack of dopamine also explain why clinically depressed people lack motivation to do things? Like they want to do something, but simply can’t get their brain and body to work with them.
executive dysfunction is a special hell my guy
Not necessarily. Often times it’s a reduced amount of serotonin. However, dopamine plays a strong role in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
Yes it can be linked to a bunch of symptoms in depression. We sometimes use pro-dopaminergic drugs as add-ons to classic antidepressents
What about generally lazy people, who hate that about themselves, like those who have felt that way all their life for no good reason, but not sad or feeling depressed, but feel like they need to be super pumped or excited just to do a lot of normal things, even without distractions around? Could there be a grain of relation to brain chemistry here too, or is it 100% mental habits/training?
I assume generally lazy people don't go to find help (or have the bad luck of not getting proper help) and so they don't find out if it may be depression or adhd or thyroid issues or something else or just absolute laziness.
For someone who lives contiously through those times what ever the reason you get certein thought patterns and you don't allways recognize the reason. Some people with chronic pain issues have trouble recognizing that the pain is inhibiting them because that is their normal. And part of their coping may be to ignore their symptoms.
What ever the cause, in the long terms the thought patterns will probebly become part of the problem even though they may not be the cause.
Most of those patients have since died, so studying this disease in that incarnation is nigh impossible now. A re-emergence of this disease is horrible to contemplate, but indeed not unlikely.
Whyyy would you say that… no thank you
The lack of motivation is kinda what ADHD-I (ADD) feels like, at least to me. The lack of dopamine means you don't do anything. You know you should, hell you want to, but you don't. You can't. You can't motivate yourself run errands, to get off the internet, even to get out of bed. You're paralyzed.
And then they call you lazy, even though the few things you were able to accomplish took all the effort and willpower you had.
Rocket Socks you think that's the result of ADHD-I? That sounds similar to things that I've gone through, but I've always chalked it up to depression.
Eddie O'Rourke I think that it can be both. Depression, like ADHD, is a neurotransmitter deficiency, albeit with different neurotransmitters. Those with ADHD often suffer from depression. Psychologists call it comorbidity. Such a cheerful word.
Are there studies linking ADHD and dopamine deficiency? I've never heard of that connection. I've always seen ADD as having good and bad sides. On the one hand you have the ability to hyperfocus on things you are passionate about and make great progress on them for hours on end without getting tired. But if you aren't passionate about something you can barely motivate yourself to do it. It is like a more extreme version of how everyone feels: that doing things you are interested in is easy, but doing things you aren't is harder.
yeah danaphanous, it's basically what ADHD is.
Rocket Socks The more you know :D thanks.
Let's just look at the initial question as a thought exercise. In 40 years time, I'll be 80. If I were to contract something that were to cause me to lose consciousness in the intermediary, well, that would be terrifying. If, on the other hand, I could somehow regain consciousness in 2058 _without having aged,_ well, there would be a period of adjustment of course, but then I could set out every single day with an incredible _adventure_ ahead of me, as an _antique,_ not a _relic._
I would, of course, have to spend I don't know how much time in school learning how to work with the pieces of technology that have yet to be developed.
lazyperfectionist1 sorry I'm a bit late but wouldn't most people you know be old or ded? Any way sorry I just like ruining things...
Alejandro Heredia I don't have friends. My life has been ruined by my parents and they will be _gone._ So I will awaken into a strange world, but at least _they_ won't be a part of it anymore.
lazyperfectionist1 That’s sad... who hurt you?
His parents, aparently
Thanks for the writing ideas!
My grandfather had this. My father told me Grandpa was a very strong man because he'd had sleeping sickness and polio at the same time and survived. I was three, but I remember that he didn't move or speak or look at me. He drooled and shook in a way I later learned looked like Parkinson's.
I know how horrifying being catatonic for an hour feels, I can't imagine a whole day. Weeks, months. That's the worst feeling ever when some describe they new what was happening but felt held back. It's so scary, and I hope we learn more before more cases happen again
This remind me of junji Ito manga where a patient would spend decades in its dream but actually he's been sleeping for hours. The dream got long and long although the sleep doesn't. He then start to dream for 30-40 years. It's not normal dream. It's literally living in the dream for 30 years.
Ooohh that was a great one!
And If I remember correctly, the patients were starting to have trouble accepting the _real_ reality they would wake up to, after "so long" living a different life. They had basically forgotten their _real_ life and come to believe the dream was actually real life.
Indeed a great manga, not only sucking you into a great and creepy atmosphere like Junji always does, it also touched on a very interesting dilemma of "perception vs reality". A dilemma of how we don't actually live in the universe that surrounds us - but in our *perception* of it.
Yes, I remember that.
I felt as though the ending cheapened the story, but it was a decent resolution.
Cheng Hoo Sew That's cute, but totally irrelevant
Isawa De La Pradera their dream might as well HAVE been their real life.
haha I was about to post this too. It's like reverse sleeping sickness. really creepy story
Great job, Brit Garner! Your tone and flow of the dialogue was clear, informative, and pleasant. Keep it up!
Didn't Robbin Williams do a movie based on this story?
Awakenings
David Just thought of that, the Awekenings.
I Was just about to point that out. Good call.
David Yes that was a good movie. Robert De Niro played the patient Leonard, who was mentioned in this video.
I legit thought you were talking about Jumanji 😂😂
L Dopa sounds like a legendary spanish marijuana deity xD
Corey McCammon
no fun zone
u made my day with this comment
It's also a bad ass Big Black song.
El Dopa lol
Carl Koree Ochah
Sounds like something Nendo would say
How have I never heard of this disease? This is freaking terrifying.
Sandman felt this time pass by. While held captive.
I’ve always found the cases of those patients heartbreaking and unsettling
The aspect of this that concerns an inability to turn desire into action sounds a lot like the phenomenon of Sleep Paralysis.
The causes are very different, of course, but how it relates to the concept of free will is quite interesting.
Sleep paralysis is actually you being in REM sleep. Your brain recreates your room while your eyes are closed. It’s quite amazing really. You only think you are paralyzed while you’re awake. In reality you’re paralyzed in your dream, and if only you’d realize it’s a dream you’d be able to move in the dream. Often times you’ll wake yourself up though, because your anxiety gets to such a high level. @ImplodedAtom
4:47 it says that one of the reasons the drug didn’t work for EL patients was because they had suffered from the disease for decades and their neurons had been severely degraded, so if the treatment was applied very early on would they still suffer the side effects just as fast, not suffer them at all, or take a long time to suffer them like in Parkinson’s?
Danny Boy +
The issue was likely that, as degraded as they were, they had to start at the same dosage late stage parkinson victims build up too. Hence experiencing the same side effects earlier. It's about the dosage. So perhaps earlier in their disease they'd have had less degradation and been able to make use of lesser dosages. However it sounds as though this disease progressed rapidly, the window for a manageable life was likely very short.
Locked in Syndrome is the absolute worst type of hell. I'd literally die in any fashion. It scares the hell out of me.
This lady's voice is perfect.
No it's bad
Easy on the eyes too 😏
Why does this sound like my experience taking Adderall+Vyvanse for ADHD?!?! The quotes by the patients about how the disease feels, how the medication worked, and how it stopped working could have come from my own mouth. And these medications are amphetamine-based, working by stimulating the brain to produce more dopamine. Just like L-DOPA.
Not throwing mud on stimulants in general because I know many people whom it helped and continues to help, but I’m becoming suspicious of the way lots and lots of people with problems in executive brain functioning are being lumped together under one diagnosis.
Because it's a closely related condition, neuro chemically. Dopamine is used to treat executive dysfunction in both.
Wow, sci hub hired a presenter that is is capable of speaking with a pleasant voice, and without seemingly drug induced euphoria. Good job
Agreed. Some of these presenters are so hammy with all the "look kids, I am totes cool and so is science!" schtick, bouncing around and gesticulating wildly with exaggerated facial expressions. Makes me wonder if they are marketing to 6 year olds sometimes...
I think most people are able to watch these videos without scrutinizing the presenter. It must be fun interacting with you in real life.
@@seankennedy5074 I think they are just excited to share the topic...
She’s been around for a long time, and is one of the main presenters of his channel, and has been since day one.
I think a lot of presenters just try and match Hank’s... Hankiness... and not really do their own thing. Or that one chick with dreads who literally acts like she’s terrified the camera is going to murder her, or is so baked that she can’t process reality and just goes all deadpan and lifeless. 🤷🏻♂️
@@wokeupinapanic lmao that makes sense. Maybe they just need to find their groove. I personally love Hank's hankiness.
I knew Oliver Sacks was going to come up after seeing the title. Seemed like such a genuine person, love his books and talks. RIP.
Is this about the movie Awakenings from 1990 with Robert de Niro and Robin Williams ?
Yes.
That movie is a year older than me, but I watched it when I was like 12 and mostly forgot about it, then I started watching this video and my brain was like "Hey, wasn't there a Robin Williams movie about this?". Thank you for proving to me that I'm not going crazy and that it was an actual movie.
Yes! I watched it in my psychology class.
Yes, that movie inspired this disease to become real. You are correct.
No. It wasn't mentioned once in this video
The severe case of M.E. myalgic encephalomyeltis (also badly named chronic fatigue syndrome) like me often find themselves suddenly unable to move. Not just because energy runs out but it's too hard to think and move due to the autonomic system in the central nervous system not functioning properly. Autonomic system then puts you in charge instead of doing things like heartbeat, breathing, bladder control on its own. You think of what you want to do with your body, but unless someone initiates the movement for you, it just won't go. When that happens, I try to 'will myself to move' but nope. So I get why this lady said it was like a lack of will but I don't see it that way at all. The nervous system's autonomic responses have just shut down partially and you have to think real hard to move. Unless something hot or that hurts me causes me to need to move when I'm in that state, like a reflex, it feels just like EL. One day we might find out that EL was caused by something similar to what is, now still unknown, virus that seem to trigger over 80% of cases of M.E. It's not confirmed yet it is virus-triggered but when more then 80% of patients report it starting with a fever or a flu-like disease that wasn't a flu, it makes you wonder.
"So I get why this lady said it was like a lack of will but I don't see it that way at all."
You're talking about two entirely different conditions. Experience with one does not neccesarily familiarise yourself with the other.
Shiroi Hana Why are you bringing up M.E./C.F.S? This video is about encephalitis lethargica, a completely different and much RARER disease. I don't think there are any surviving cases of E.L. It seems to have just vanished with a trail of dead in its wake.
My mum has this and the medical, judicial and DWP communities on the most part still don't believe her even tho she can hardly walk to the kitchen most days. Still a huge stigma on it not existing sadly. No clue if the disease's are related but EL certainly has a lot of similarity's to how my mum describes ME .
Flu is a general immune response to infections, it means literally nothing.
@@tuubas2 How did the situation evolve with the medical/juridical system?
So the kids going to sleep for decades at the start of Neil Gaiman's 'Sandman' series was based on a real outbreak? My mind is blown
This was an amazing episode. Great job - and thanks!
I thought that the sleeping sickness at the beginning of Preludes and Nocturnes (the first Sandman comic) was fiction. It was a real event? Crazy. Neil Gaiman is amazing.
I'm honestly sad I had to scroll this far to find a Sandman reference.
yeah, Sandman was a first thing I thought of. :)
EYYY
This makes me wonder if the virus could've mutated to a form that causes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Research is pretty far behind, since it's only in the last decade or so that it became recognized as real, with a lot of doctors who still say "It's all in your head". So, even though it started being talked about in the 90's, it's only recently that all avenues of the disease have started being explored - viral, bacterial, environmental? Which is so sad for the millions affected by it. I think the words "It's all in your head" are code for "I have no idea, but my ego is too big to admit that, I don't really want to look this up and research it, so I'm going to gaslight you instead."
L 1 Well, except if that was true, then why wouldn't doctors take that seriously? That someone would "make up" these kinds of severe symptoms, severe enough to interfere with their life, severe enough that the physical symptoms are overwhelming them? That is some powerful nocebo effect, and would indicate a severe psychiatric issue, to produce physical symptoms that severe purely from their thinking. Shouldn't that warrant an immediate referral to psychiatric care?
Most of the time, that's not what happens. It's dismissive and communicates "I don't believe you".
While it's true that some people exaggerate symptoms, even on purpose, the vast majority of people go to the doctor because something is actually wrong. Feigning illness for attention is rare. Whether the symptoms are physical or mental, patients deserve to be treated with compassion. Having a doctor gaslight you is terrifying for most people, as they're supposed to be the authority.
L 1 Your English is perfect. 😊👌😊
And point well-taken, about how if someone goes to three doctors for the same thing, and they're hearing "I can't find anything physically wrong with you", then the nocebo effect should be considered. And lol, yup, people freak out when they look up symptoms on WebMD, because inevitably cancer comes up. It's never cancer (saying that tongue-in-cheek).
I have a friend with CFS, too, and she's gone through the gambit over the last two decades, going through doctors that didn't believe her, didn't think it was that serious, thought she was hysterical, etc. While there have always been doctors that listened to their patients and reported CFS cases to medical journals, some actively working on treatments, it's just taken way too long for it to be taken seriously in the medical community. And it took it being recognized by the doctors on the front lines, en masse, for that to happen. Dismissing it with "It's all in your head" is a direct cause of the delay.
I have my own health issues, and have been through my fair share of doctors. Finding a compassionate doctor who takes you seriously is like winning the lottery here. I will take a Nurse Practioner any day of the week because of this. A friend of mine works as a lab diagnostian in a local hospital. She told me "They literally are trained in medical school to have those inflated egos, especially the surgeons". Her experience working with doctors (both professionally and as a patient), my experience as a patient, nurses I know, and those I know with health issues, we're all seeing the same thing - that inflated egos and dismissive attitudes in doctors are incredibly common. So, I didn't make that statement flippantly.
Of course, that's not all doctors. I have recently had an incredible string of luck in my health care team, where they are compassionate, they listen, and they take my statements seriously. As in, I really did win the health care lottery. What's frustrating for me and so many others is that this is an exception, not the rule.
SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE ONES IN THE BACK!
Aw, where did L1 go? Their comments are gone. We were having a proper discussion about doctors being dismissive vs. patients over-exaggerating. I mean an actual exchange of ideas, versus the usual name-calling in UA-cam comments. Not that name-calling happens much on SciShow videos, but still, it was nice.
Come back L1! I appreciated your take on this!
Yeah, the ego too big to admit you don't know is something we're all familiar with in the invisible illness community.
Just a heads-up. Waking up to discover 40 years have passed happens to everyone eventually.
What if you die at 39?
Reached my 40th birthday last year.
I really loved this episode, it was fascinating! Thanks Brit ❤️
Read more Oliver Sacks books. My favorite is Musicaphilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is my second favorite. The book she is referring to, of Dr. Sacks, is Awakenings which was made into a movie starring Robin Williams.
Jay Viescas you look like Santa Claus on the off season
Hallucinations
It’s been 20 years but I’m tired I need to go back to bed....
Didn't they make a movie about this with Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro, called Awakenings? I'm surprised y'all didn't mention it.
Yes,they did.It was called"Awakenings"and did star the late Robin Williams,God bless him,and Robert De Niro.
Not available on Stan
This epidemic is what the first tome of "Sandman" by Neil Gaiman is all about.
I've got a low-grade version of sleeping sickness. I can barely go 16 hours without losing all my energy and drifting off into oblivion. And usually I don't regain consciousness till after sunrise the next morning. I need to talk to a specialist. No one should have to live like this!
It works in a similar way to clinical depression where sufferers are probably milder cases of this as most patients with depression have chemical imbalances that affect motivation, emotional regulation, etc. In some cases, the lack of motivation is so strong most people do not want to do anything for a certain period of time despite their logical side of their brain telling them that they need to run certain errands
Just watched the movie awakenings a couple of days ago. Really cool that there is now a video about it
One of the more interesting episodes as of late. Thanks!
I had a dream that I was a chicken. Needless to say, I ate myself.
I was delicious! :D
I also had a dream that I was a chicken. These kids fed me hand sanitizer and sand so that when my eggs hatched they were horribly disfigured... I think I need to see a therapist.
It is weird. I, too, have this recurrent dream of being a chicken but that dream is usually terrifying for me. And in my case, I am not eating myself but someone else eating me.
I have weird dreams every night. Last night I had a dream that I was Jerking off in plain sight and my mom caught me going right at it in the kitchen and I don't even live with my mom. The night before my entire dream was swimming around a lake and catch giant bullfrogs and throwing them back in the water and searching for the next bullfrog
Gravijta did you put hotsauce on the chicken
only one consequence may arise
become vegan, join the religion
jk
Dream Theater wrote a song about this! Look up Octavarium, it's a five part song, but one of the songs is DEFINITELY about this.
"A doctor sitting next to me
He asks me how I feel
Not sure I understand his questioning
He says I've been away a while
But thinks he has cured me
From a state of catatonic sleep
For 30 years
Where have I been?
Eyes open
But not getting through to me
Medicate me
Infiltrate me
Side effects appear
As my conscience slips away
Medicate me
Science failing
Conscience fading fast
Can't you stop what's happening
A higher dosage he prescribes
But there's no guarantee
I feel it starting to take over me
I tell them not to be ashamed
There's no one who's to blame
A second shot
A brief awakening
I feel the relapse
Can't break free
Eyes open
But not getting through to me
Medicate me
Infiltrate me
Side effects appear
As my conscience slips away
Medicate me
Science failing
Conscience fading fast
Can't you stop what's happening? "
I read the book awakenings, by Oliver Sacks where he tells the stories of his patients. It's very interesting I recommend it.
Well that's terrifying, I'm glad I watched that in the middle of the night
Robert Sapolsky spoke about this in his Behavioral Biology lectures. If you are interested they are on the Stanford UA-cam channel for free.
Good video. Good presenter. Deeply unsettling topic.
Cheers.
Damn, that would really suck.. i think I'd rather just die than be in a bed for 40 years
I'm 72, don't think I have to worry about it.
I know everyone already knows this is terrifying but actually imagine it. If your to old your dreams will never be accomplished, you don't have kids, you will be so confused and have missed so much. It actually makes me shake to think about it.
Wait so do people with that decease go to sleep or are paralised ? if they are asleep they consume less energy, but if they are paralised then how did they survive for so long ? Even in hospitals why would you feed a dead body for 40 years
Victor Popov Compassion and humanity? Someone in a coma isn’t dead, and people do stay in that state for years, because there is hope that they might wake up one day. This wasn’t actually a coma, but quite a bizarre state. Many of them could sit up and even walk around, but they couldn’t talk.
I watched the movie Awakenings, which was about the people with this disease. In the movie, the some of the people could walk and eat, but they had to be helped a lot. They were kind of like zombies? Like the speaker said in the video, they also had reflex reactions, like catching a ball.
I'm pretty sure the movie Awakenings is mostly factual, at least the part about the patients, (I watched it in my psych class) so you could watch clips of it if you want to get a good idea of how the disease effected them.
Thank you for recommending this at 2am UA-cam.
Have to wonder if severe forms of depression aren't similar to this.
MakeMeThinkAgain >> Same here. It also makes me think whether Autism, ADHD and ADD may be affected by lack of Dopamine too. If Dopamine is essential for motivation, wouldn't lack of it explain one of the core difficulties in people with those mental disorders? Although I doubt it's because of deterioated neurons in any of them (including depression) as it is possible to learn how to get that amount of motivation.
I think motivation is too vague of a word, since it refers to both the desire to act and the impulse to act. For normal people, desire and impulse are directly correlated, but for people with certain mental illnesses, they aren't. That's why normal people assume you just have to want something really bad (desire) to take action to get it (impulse). But people with depression, ect. can want something a lot and yet never act to get it.
Eventually, the constant frustration and disappointment with their own inability to act results in those people giving up, so their desire-motivation is reduced as well. But the loss of desire-motivation is an effect, not a cause. The real cause was a lack of impulse-motivation. (Pure speculation here, but that's what it feels like to me.)
It's possible the dopamine part is linked, but the neuron deterioration isn't? I wonder if it's because people w/ those disorders have different synapse links/neuron wiring, too. I doubt they're deteriorated, but if they differ from neurotypical wiring, then that could explain something.
SKB Artistry I have ADHD, here’s my two cents on your speculation based on my experience + research.
To preface, task initiation/task switching (“getting around to it”) and motivation are two mental processes I struggle massively with. So I’m a gold medalist in procrastination. However, I do not have as many issues with focus. In fact, hyperfocus is one of the issues I face more often than zoning out, as I’ll be focused but unable to switch tasks and thus find myself playing video games for fourteen hours straight.
The first line of treatment is stimulants, so the first medication I was put on was Adderall. It was WOW OMG IM SHARP I CAN DO THINGS and then within a few hours I was too tired to move. The crash went away after a while but adderall continued to strengthen my focus. What it didn’t do, however, was help me be more motivated and make smarter decisions. It worsened hyperfocus to the point where I skipped classes to do more homework because I still just couldn’t switch tasks. I was trapped. Turns out adderall works primarily by stimulating the brain to produce massive amounts of dopamine. Kind of like drinking six cups of coffee in two seconds - and I was on a low dose. This works great for many people but it actually made me worse.
The second medication I tried was called Strattera and is similar to many antidepressant medications. It acts not on dopamine but on norepinephrine, the neurotransmitter that controls the fight-or-flight response in the brain, among other things. What I felt on this one was like I had been holding a gallon of milk in the air my whole life and somebody had drained all the milk out. I no longer had to consciously struggle and devote lots of cognitive resources to “where am i” “what’s the time” “am I working efficiently” “am I doing what I need to be doing” “what am I doing next” “am I gonna be late for something” any time I need to function in society. I also took another medication which was an antidepressant which allowed me to be more motivated. It works on both norepinephrine and dopamine. I did not feel sharper or more focused on these medications, but I function better in society and that’s all I really want lol.
Severe sleep disorders are similar to this
The movie, "Awakenings" with Robin Williams as Dr. Sacks, and Robert Deniro as patient Leonard Lowe, tells this whole story.
...a FANTASTIC movie nominated for several Academy Awards.
Literally "black substance". Very creative, scientists.
Drugs in Paris
Extremely informative! Excellent job!!!
Wasn't there a movie about this? Awakenings?
Yes, the movie is based on the book "Awakenings" by Oliver Sacks, the doctor mentioned in the video. Robin Williams plays Oliver Sacks in the movie.
I get that resistance and inability to move in dreams sometimes, I've always assumed it was caused by my brain picking up on the fact that I'm paralyzed irl and translating that to the dream.
I don't suppose anyone ever seen Awakenings from 1990 huh?
philosoaper Only everyone who commented on this video
Utterly fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
Reminds me of the Junji Ito story “long dream”
Neil Gaiman's Sandman has an awesome mythological/fantastical spin on this. It's an amazing series in general, but I love the take on modern mythos :)
Anyway, have fun with all the learning here!
How can you see into my eyes like open doors?
Leading you down into my core where I've become so numb
Without a soul my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home
(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become
Now that I know what I'm without
You can't just leave me
Breathe into me and make me real
Bring me to life
(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside)
Bring me to life
Frozen inside without your touch
Without your love, darling
Only you are the life among the dead
All this time I can't believe I couldn't see
Kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
Got to open my eyes to everything
Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul
Don't let me die here
There must be something more
Bring me to life
(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside)
Bring me to life
Fascinating episode. I’m surprised you didn’t mention the Robin Williams movie about Dr Sacks. This host did a good job telling the story.
That's what happens when you keep the Sandman in captivity
I was wondering if anyone would point that out
I just saw this on Netflix last night with Robin Williams! Great movie! I had to look it up on youtube to get more info. And I think this is where the Sandman series got their idea for the "Sleeping Sickness" too. The brain is just a magnificent thing! Lets hope something like this doesn't happen in our lifetime.
It's like some weird Doctor Who episode.
Thank you! Well explained
is this related to why depressed people often find themselves unable to force themselves to get out of bed?
well depression does cause transmitirse damage. I was catatonic for 3 moths once because of my complex ptsd
Yes. Dopamine is involved in executive functioning.
Thanks for making my anxiety worse....and right before bed too
So... why is there no mention of the movie Awakenings with Robin Williams about this exact subject?
Film about this: AWAKENINGS, with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
would psychedelics like psilocybin or LSD help?
Why should they? As far as I know, they only interfere with perception, not with motor control.
I wonder if they've tried drugs like Adderall, which includes increased motivation among its effects.
Jason Akers like stated earlier, it wouldn't address the problem with motor control
Sari Yordi You've never heard of NGF... Yes it can help, no the substance doesn't directly effect the motor system but it increases NGF and plasticity in the brain which could help. Please learn about the effects of psychedelics before speaking on them.
Ludix147 You too!
OOH. Curiousity led me from this down the rabbithole to finding a name for what happened to me years ago when they gave me Metoclopramide (Reglan) in the hospital... An intense nightmare of an experience that I've never quite been able to describe to satisfaction when I'm asked about medications.
Oculogyric crisis! Haha. Thanks PsyShow! :)
This is horrible
I had a seizure trying to read the title of this video.
Interesting.
And wow. ):
I have dreams like Rose where I see a future event days to months later, after a while the dream will come true and would be an exact copy of what happened in real life. Anyone else like this?
Reminds me of Octavarium.
Domdrok THIS
It helped in that it helped us start to understand the roles of neurotransmitters and synapses in brain activity, so it wasn't a loss. Science, especially health science, works like that.
No hetero tho, her voice is so soothing damn
mad lad no hetro, 😂I like that
You are a very good lecturer. This is a good venue for you but I see you as a great effective college lecturer too.
So the virus literally made it so that they didn't care to move to the point where the last motionless for decades. Even though they could. Isnt this an argument against free will and for detrminism.
mwalsher 2:11 - 2:16
so be a moron then
stickloaf I'm so sorry, your superior logic of be a moron then had convinced me.
Well that's the prevailing theory for the disorder (as given in the video), but all that means is that that is our current best guess to explain sleeping sickness. Cognition is a complex thing to study. There is currently a huge drive in the medical field to understand the brain and we have decades of work left. Personally I don't care if free will or determinism is true. People get all bent out of shape about it, but regardless of which is true, it isn't going to change your life dramatically. You still have the ability to pursue and go after the things in life that you value. All living things appear to have this ability.
People seem to misunderstand that even if living things are deterministic, it doesn't mean we are like robots in the sense that we have set programming. Living things clearly have a unique ability to change, adapt, grow, respond, etc. as they live and are more akin to genetic learning algorithms with only very broad set goals. We can't even predict how those will develop and we programmed them, and the only thing that limits them is what we tell them to work towards or value. So depending on what you value or what you want, you can basically do anything. So to me, the important take away is to not limit myself by thinking I can't do things. If you think that you are deterministic and that you can't do something, that belief makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy for you. On the other hand, if I believe that I have the ability to work towards whatever I want, regardless of if I am deterministic in a material sense, I can do that. That's just the way living things appear to be. You can argue that what I want was not my choice or predeterminable, but at that point it just doesn't matter to me. I'm still getting the things I think I want, so it feels free to me. So in the end it doesn't matter at all to me which is true. because if we are deterministic, it is not in the sense of set programming like we think of in deterministic computer programs. All it means is that given enough information, possibly so much information we will never be able to perfectly simulate, someone could predict you. That person would have to have god-level powers of observation though, particularly if the information needed to predict is on the order of quantum effects, because of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. You could never know enough at one time to start the simulation. I think that this is probably unlikely though. Cells do seem deterministic and are much larger than this scale.
Okay you got something wrong. The disease felt like a resistance, making it impossible to move when you want to. Consciously, you were motivated, but the motor control part of the brain wasn't.
Taking into account these correct facts, your argument doesn't work anymore. If you had been right in your assumptions about the virus, there would still be many reasons why the argument might fail. They mainly depend on your definition of "Free Will" and I recommend you watch the Crash Course Philosophy episodes about it.
:)
No movie has ever made me cry as much as Awakenings did. :
Doesn’t sound too bad tbh
You're nuts, tbh. XD
Thank You for highlighting what happens when the Dopamine system doesn't work properly. I suffer from a brain that produces less dopamine also known as ADHD
please cut your hair evenly
I sometimes wake up and wonder for a split second if this has happened
Damn, I thought Sandman made this up. This is scary.
Great Booʼs up, Edmund‼️
Dr. Sacks was a wonderful man. We need more doctors like him.
There’s a film about this called “Awakenings” with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. So powerful. I highly recommend it
I heard about this before, but I totally thought Neil Gaiman made it up for The Sandman comics, lol
Thats pretty nice just like those 3 three seconds when you wake up where you do not now if you are dead or alive
I smoke a lot of weed, and this happens to me a lot, I'll just sit down and take a nap.
The premise for the book Lock-In was a lot more real than I thought.