This evening's topic arises out of causes and conditions - in this case specifically the 100+ notifications on my personal account.

There is a tremendous brawl in the DramaZone™ tonight, and I keep getting tagged.

Social media is similar to gambling and sex in terms of its addictive potential. I picked those two because they are experiential - you don't have to ingest anything to participate.

One time in the past I let this account go idle for a five years period. I'm keeping it up now due to a combination of enjoying writing these little dharma threads, and out of a desire to ensure nobody decides to start signing my name to their misbehavior.

Twitter is, for a not insignificant number of users, a sort of adult daycare. There are people whose brain chemistry alienates people IRL, while here they can act out as much as they want with little risk of suspension and no IRL consequences.

Some common disorders I've observed over my years here:

Bipolar

OCD

schizotypal, schizoaffective, or schizophrenic

BPD

And substance abuse is a very common comorbidity.

BPD is more properly a character disorder, and Dark Triad Psychopaths are another significant problem along those lines.

Long ago, when I was naive, I tried to be kind to such people, but over the years I've learned the skillful action is ignoring them.

I recognize that being different can be very lonely, but combining that with an experiential addiction is NOT a recipe for glorious success.

Twice in the thirteen years I've had this account I had my own troubles, both times triggered by intolerance to medication/supplements.

One of the treatments for Lyme is hydroxychloroquinine.

A significant number of users develop some degree of paranoia. For me that manifested as making a nest of bedding in an interior closet, because I didn't want to be in my bed, near a window.

I put up with this situation for two weeks, finally called my Lyme specialist, and he suggested a better course of action.

Lyme affects one's mood and it causes joint pain. SAM-e is a supplement used in half of all depression cases in Europe.

SAM-e works on mood and joint troubles, and it does so swiftly. Positive results start by the second day.

But I learned the hard way that long term use brings a grim hazard - hypomania. That was me in 2012 - no off switch.

That reaction is different than bipolar, there's no euphoria to it, you're just stuck in fast forward mode. I couldn't afford my usual dose in January of 2013 and I was dreading the crash.

Day one was OK

Day two was OK

And every day thereafter.

I still have joint troubles so I've tried it on two occasions since then. Both times a single minimum dose was all the reminder of old troubles I needed. It's just not for me any more.

So I can understand what a person whose own brain chemistry causes those things is facing.

And there is nothing to be done to help them in this environment. Compulsive gamblers should stay out of casinos, and I think the same rule applies to social media.

Writing this thread took fourteen minutes, during which time I got fourteen new notifications.

Which I am going to ignore. @RabbitMQ high availability queues are much more interesting than the rehashing of stale drama of yesteryear.

Namaste.