1. a) How do you cope with major disappointments, ill health, misfortune and adversity in life?
Various forms of escapism is a common coping mechanism that distracts our attention from the mental or physical pain: From usually benevolent activities to ones that sometimes lead to problems of their own. Day-dreaming, listening to music, reading books, watching TV, participating on Internet forums and social media, immersing oneself in computer games, and then alcohol, cigarettes, drugs - legal and not. Sometimes these distractions are so attractive that they become addictions. Sometimes the addictions can result in lasting damage to a person's health, and eventually, sometimes, at the final stage, death. Before that, though, they have usually ruined the person's life anyway. So in a sense, their demise could be counted as suicide.
1. b) How should we cope with such major life challenges?
2. a) How is your life and fate impacted by the socio-economic class of your parents?
We like to think we are unique snowflakes, somehow independent from our origins. But usually the apple doesn't fall so far from the tree. Our parents' finances has an impact on where we grow up, therefore what sort of friends we have (at least in early life), what sort of education we get and increasingly on what sort of housing we can afford.
2. b) How can working-class people realistically improve their lives despite their backgrounds and limited means?
Just trying to make sense of these topics.
Any and all comments and thoughts even remotely relevant are welcome!
--
This post was very loosely inspired by this article in Washington Post about the life and fate of Anna Marrie Jones:
‘We don't know why it came to this’: An American health crisis plaguing white women
Various forms of escapism is a common coping mechanism that distracts our attention from the mental or physical pain: From usually benevolent activities to ones that sometimes lead to problems of their own. Day-dreaming, listening to music, reading books, watching TV, participating on Internet forums and social media, immersing oneself in computer games, and then alcohol, cigarettes, drugs - legal and not. Sometimes these distractions are so attractive that they become addictions. Sometimes the addictions can result in lasting damage to a person's health, and eventually, sometimes, at the final stage, death. Before that, though, they have usually ruined the person's life anyway. So in a sense, their demise could be counted as suicide.
1. b) How should we cope with such major life challenges?
2. a) How is your life and fate impacted by the socio-economic class of your parents?
We like to think we are unique snowflakes, somehow independent from our origins. But usually the apple doesn't fall so far from the tree. Our parents' finances has an impact on where we grow up, therefore what sort of friends we have (at least in early life), what sort of education we get and increasingly on what sort of housing we can afford.
2. b) How can working-class people realistically improve their lives despite their backgrounds and limited means?
Just trying to make sense of these topics.
Any and all comments and thoughts even remotely relevant are welcome!
--
This post was very loosely inspired by this article in Washington Post about the life and fate of Anna Marrie Jones:
‘We don't know why it came to this’: An American health crisis plaguing white women
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