The Perils of FDS: Fun Deficiency Syndrome
Modern cosmetic pharmacology focuses so heavily on eliminating depression that it entirely misses one essential point: depressed people are suffering from a lack of fun. Nobody ever describes depression as a “Fun Deficiency Syndrome,” but lack of fun is clearly the root cause of all depression. It is impossible to be depressed when you are having fun, yet modern therapies for depression seek only to minimize depressive symptoms while doing nothing to maximize the daily intake of fun. This backwards approach to treating fun deficiency syndrome — or FDS — is not only dangerously ineffective, it will be viewed by future generations as one of the greatest failures of medicine.
While depression has been studied under a microscope, science has barely scratched the surface on fun. The scientific study of fun is considered to be a frivolous exercise, and this assumption would be correct because fun is frivolous. The mistake made by science and academia is in underestimating the value of fun, treating fun as a non-serious diversion instead of a rational goal worthy of scientific examination. This oversight is unfortunate because fun is arguably the greatest thing a human can have. Everyone likes to have fun... no, we love to have fun. When we are having fun we forget ourselves and become one with our actions in a moment of pure playful enjoyment. Having fun goes beyond being happy. Happiness implies a baseline level of contentment and good feelings but it does not include the amusement, exhilaration, laughter and joy associated with fun. If depression is the illness of our age, fun is the cure.
The roots of FDS can be traced through human developmental stages. Most people have plenty of fun as children, but the onset of adolescence and high school creates a perfect storm of jaded anxiety that dampens the levels of fun easily found in childhood. The onset of FDS in adolescence leads teenagers to naturally seek extremes of fun behavior to counteract their social anxiety. These extremes include partying, fighting, competitive sports and mating behaviors where risk is maximized to produce the most fun. Most people do not consider this adolescent fun-seeking activity to be a neurologically-wired behavior to cope with developmental anxiety and depression, but it obviously is. This fun-seeking stage lasts well into early adulthood when chronic FDS becomes more problematic. By middle age, most people are chronically low on fun and this is when depression becomes most acute. If lack of fun is constant and goes untreated it can lead directly to mid-life crisis and, eventually, grumpy-old-fart syndrome.
Fun can be scientifically reduced to two distinct variables: risk and reward. It is easy to understand why reward is fun, but risk is the key to maximizing the impact of reward to produce fun. The most extreme examples of this dynamic can be found in compulsive behaviors that can become highly addictive, like sex and gambling. Sex and gambling are both fun and risky, and the higher the risk the more satisfying and more fun the reward. Also, consider horror movies or amusement park rides where a constant level of fear and anxiety is sustained throughout the experience until the resolution brings a safe and satisfying reward. Fun is thus the science of using risk to build tension, and then strategically releasing that tension with a pleasurable reward to maximize enjoyment. Fun is therapeutic because it reduces anxiety and produces neurochemicals that combat depression. Fun is one of nature’s best and most powerful medicines. If you could put fun in a pill it would almost certainly be illegal.
The onset of FDS in adolescence leads teenagers to seek extremes of fun behavior to counteract their social anxiety... partying, fighting...
The major pharmacological variables of the risk/reward fun dynamic are adrenaline and dopamine, the key catecholamines produced in response to stress. By now we should all be familiar with the manic exhilaration of an adrenaline rush and the self-satisfied clarity of a dopamine high. Of all the drugs in the world, amphetamines may be the best at stimulating this specific chemical cocktail. It is no mystery why amphetamines lead to risky behaviors. Risky behaviors are even more rewarding under the influence of amphetamines and thus more fun. One side of the dopamine cycle leads the subject to seek out new and fun activities; the other side stimulates the satisfying feeling of reward in response to new experiences. Increasing the levels of risk in these fun-seeking behaviors increases the adrenaline rush and thus increases the sensual intensity of the reward and emotional impact of the resulting memory. The experience of intense fun is therefore more than a trivial diversion: it is a pivotal psychological landmark in the lifetime of an individual which can create long-term changes in selfimage, mood, and behavior.
If we follow a simple clinical spectrum for FDS, it can be assumed that the longer individuals go without fun, the more depressed they will become. Chronic lack of fun over time will always result in low self-esteem and the inability to enjoy activities that were once fun when they were new but have now become mundane. People suffering from chronic FDS will claim to lack the time or motivation to seek out new activities, and at the extreme end of the disorder, subjects will claim that seeking fun is a complete waste of time. This is a chronic lack of dopamine talking, and the only cure for people with FDS is to force them to go out and have fun. Unfortunately subjects with undiagnosed FDS may actually think they don’t deserve to have fun, and that they don’t even deserve to have friends, so snapping someone with chronic FDS out of their cycle is not always easy. In extreme cases the only solution may be dancing, a surprise party, or a spontaneous and poorly-planned road trip. Bring beer.
People are the final component in fun... other people. Fun is always more fun when it is shared with other people. This is why partying is an essential human behavior for regulating feelings of self-esteem and social worth. Having fun with other humans in a social setting stimulates serotonin and oxcytocin, two neurochemicals essential to feelings of security and being loved. So if you’re feeling depressed and nothing seems to be working, the only solution is to call some friends and go out and have some fun. It is clinically proven to make you feel better.
James Kent is the former publisher of Psychedelic Illuminations and Trip Magazine. He currently edits DoseNation.com, a drug blog featuring news, humor and commentary.
The Perils of CFSS (Compulsive Fun-Seeking Syndrome)
On the flip-side of FDS, we find people who suffer from Compulsive Fun-Seeking syndrome (CFSS). People with CFSS are commonly referred to as adrenaline junkies, thrill seekers, compulsive risk takers and teenagers. While this syndrome is viewed as valuable by the gambling, prostitution, dope, and extreme sports industries, it should be noted that CFSS is a legitimate pathology with a distinct pharmacological profile. CFSS can be artificially simulated by dopamine agonists, including amphetamines, pot, caffeine and alcohol. More oddly, dopamine agonists used to treat Parkinson’s Disease or Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), which selectively stimulate motor pathways and selectively avoid the reward pathways, can also cause compulsive behaviors such as gambling or financial risktaking (See Resource). As the result of CFSS, we find people who chronically seek risky behaviors in the hopes of finding fun, but who fail to feel any long-term satisfaction from the rewards they receive. This syndrome is also called attention-deficit disorder (ADD), or it may be categorized by particular compulsions or addictions, but in actuality these are all symptoms of an underlying CFSS disorder. People with CFSS will become depressed in the absence of fun faster than people who do not have this syndrome.
Medical therapy for restless legs syndrome may trigger compulsive gambling
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/mc-mtf020807.php
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This reminds me of a paper i read yesterday. Perhaps the author of the above article has spotted a real trend in human behavior as we age, perhaps its a human brain parasite causing the fiction syndrone "FDS". Toxoplasma gondii (from raw meat, cat feaces,unpasturised goats cheese/milk) which infecs between 5% and 66% of different countries population ,with older people having greater incidence of exposure. It can cause low novelty seeking, neuroticism and guilt proneness among other things, with a difference between men and women. A yugoslav reasercher- Jaroslav Flegr -can identify with high accuracy those who have been exposed to it through personality experiments then confirm his guesses with with blood tests. Exposure to it in the womb has a strong statistical corelation to later developing schitzophrenia. see downloads at "leftinthedark" website
This article has a strong element of satire, but to be clear FDS is not depression nor the root cause of depression. FDS is a depressive condition caused by lack of fun. This article is not intended to malign depression or depression studies but to point out the poor attention paid to fun and fun related syndromes, equally as important as (but different than) depression. Failure to perceive satire is a symptom of FDS, but not necessarily a symptom of depression.
Also, on a more serious note, anhedonia and the inability to experience fun is a real syndrome which is not widely studied or understood. There are also very intelligent and bright people who for some reason don't have visceral fun or even get humor. The restriction of fun and experimental play in childhood is known to have emotional repercussions in adulthood. FDS is often a core component of low workplace morale, a depressive syndrome which is not related to any larger chronic issue other than boredom, tedium, and lack of new stimulus.
After reading this article, it seems that the author of said article is lacking ethos: Has the author actually studied depression, being far more in depth than just a lack of "having fun"? In fact, it is in this deficiency to take incentives to "have fun" that manic depressive & bi polar people exhibit symptoms pertaining to their conditions.
I detest the terminology used in application to said conditions by the author, for the sake of debasement of complex psychosomatic conditions to some elementary condition in which it can be mitigated by equally elementary methods is not only unacceptable, but strictly unprofessional. Albeit the author, a James Kent, may have some sort of knowledge of the field of psychology or neurology by making references to commonly known neurotransmitters, it seems that this article is merely an attempt at a sophomoric approach to an incredibly higher level of psychosomatic conditions. If one cannot tell by this comment, as well as those listed hitherto by other users who note similar fallacies inherent within this article, then take a cue & do a little research before asserting a claim that people who are depressed are just not having enough fun.
Again, I feel an emphasis must be put on the fact that those who suffer from manic depression & bi polar cannot control their conditions & in spite of encouragement of family, friends, doctors &c. their deficiencies cannot simply be expunged completely in light of encouragement.
Yes, please take your risk and fatally overdose on soma. Depression is not a cause, it's a sociological effect. When the afflicted are perceptive enough to recognize this and mature enough not to revert to puerile chemical compensation- it becomes an important neurological function that hones analytical perception further and along with the ability to empathize, becomes a necessary sociological catalyst...
To suppose the cause of all depression is a "lack of fun," as is implied by James Kent, is to insult the numerous depressed individuals whose condition has a cause deeper and more complex than a lack of amusement parks, casinos and parties.
Unjust societies, terminal illnesses and serious psychological trauma can and do cause individuals to experience a more profound depression than "the onset of adolescence and high school" that "creates a perfect storm of jaded anxiety." To suggest that "depressed people are suffering from a lack of fun" is to make a grave, almost culpable, omission of much of human experience.
Mr. Kent would do well to describe the parochial character of his definition of depression, if what this article is describing can even be called so much.
This is a most keen observation
"It is impossible to be depressed when you are having fun ... the only cure for people with FDS is to force them to go out and have fun."
You're basically saying that depressed people need cheering up, James. But depression isn't ennui. My experience with a clinically depressed partner was that she wasn't merely suffering from a lack of exposure to environmental "fun" or risk/reward scenarios. Pushing her into "fun" situations actually triggered feelings of anxiety and alienation, and contributed to rather than alleviated her depression. As I understand it, her brain simply wasn't releasing the chemicals you're talking about in this article. To have fun, you don't just need to be exposed to fun, you need a brain that's balanced in such a way as to respond to such exposure.
I don't think the dichotomy of "risk vs. reward" as the two factors in fun is remotely adequate.
In fact, in the innocence of youth, it seems much of what children perceive as fun need not have any risk at all. Much of the more unstructured playing, for instance. In fact, that may be WHY they have more fun. They don't equate risk as a neccessary factor.
Risk certainly CAN be fun, but I don't think fun requires risk followed by reward.
Interesting. To trace in a backwards fashion, "fun" can be that which excites & that which we relate to our libidinal ego, whereas its antithesis can be seen as that which causes aversion, split into our antilibidinal ego (ref. Object Relations for further information on these two critical concepts of the human ego) - Though what is the purpose of furthering a dichotomy of something into two attributes of motivators - that of attaining a reward v. that of taking a risk - that really do not hold much relation to each other unless taking a risk is, in itself, intrinsically a reward to the ego (as is noted to be of "risk takers") & in much fact, on the contrary those who are not considered to be risk-takers would not find such rewards in doing such. An extensive, 300 question long test categorized as the Meyers-Briggs personality test is a great way to measure this.
So what would you assert as being the dichotomy of this abstract concept of "fun"?
This reminds me of Brave New World
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