Risk taking and mental health

I heard an interesting programme yesterday on BBC Radio 5 about risk taking.
One of the main contributors, Professor Heinz Wolff, suggested that we (humans) need to take and experience regular risks to maintain our mental health.
It was also suggested that one of the reasons for the rise in childhood and teenage psychiatric problems is that children are no longer allowed to take risks. It was argued that because of parental anxieties, schools fearing legal action etc. children were no longer able to take risks.
It was argued that during childhood everything from your first steps to climbing a tree is a calculated risk and taking these risks teaches you valuable lessons about yourself and your abilities. Without taking these risks you do not establish limits or learn that there are consequenses. Thus when you reach your teens, if you have not learned these early lessons, you are more likely to take greater (possibly illegal) risks.
Professor Wolff went on to argue that we need to continue taking risks throughout our lives to keep mentally sharp. Without taking deliberate (calculated) risks we will take unconscious risks with alcohol, drugs, unsafe sex, violence, driving etc.
He argued that the human race depends on risk taking for it's advancement and evolution and without taking (deliberate and calculated) risks society,and your mental health, will suffer.

Does anyone have an opinion on this?
Should we replace psychiatric drugs with rock climbing?

*My apologies to Professor Wolff if I have misquoted him or taken his words out of context.

As kids, we used to take risks all the time, rock climbing, abseiling (down a 350 " waterfall the best) surfing with sharks, catching snakes bare handed, canoeing in floods..... I still ended up with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. But I still think the best risk I took was ignoring the diagnosis of SZ and psychiatric advice, going off my meds and living by my own rules.

Risks are fully provided for by George & Co.

With George Bush as President and US foreign policy, who needs to take risks? Just going to the shops to buy some milk could get you blown to pieces. With globalisation we have no job security anymore, the population explosion and the unsustainable rate we are using resources are huge risks. We're ###$, we here in the West ###$ it by our greed and it’s the realisation of this that causes the anxiety and depression we see in epidemic proportions in the West today.

Here’s an interesting article.

Life Events and Depression
(Eugene S. Paykel et al., Archives of General Psychiatry, vol. 21, 1969)

"While the onset of depression often appears to occur "out of the blue," this 1969 study showed a clear relationship between "life events and depression." The study concludes: "On the average, depressed patients reported nearly three times as many important life events in the six months prior to the onset of the depressive episode as were reported by controls in a comparable six-month period." Such studies are rare today, with the prevailing assumption being that depression is a biological disorders that results from a chemical imbalance of the brain. In fact, as the following study shows, there is a clear link between everyday experience and brain biochemistry."

I wish the West could get rid of our culture of competitive gain at all costs and replace it with meaningful existence. The pill popping spiritually dead West where competitive gain (3 big screen plasma TV's per house to keep up with the norms and feel normal) is a hell hole of misery and despair with no meaning.

It wont happen, there will be no change, it will all end in nuclear war or the effects of climatic change fairly soon. I'm just glad I never breed.

Most people took many risks as a children, but as adults do we still need to take these risks?

I have been thinking about this lately Guest. What you said regarding the risk of going to buy milk is interesting in that it demonstrates how we do not asses risk logically.

The fact is that there is statistically very little risk involved in going to the shops, but many people seem to consider it risky. Indeed many people fear the threat of being blown up by a terrorist bomb despite it being highly improbable. I mean 56 people dying on one day in a single event is statistically negligible when compared to crossing the road or even taking an aspirin.
So perhaps the taking of deliberate calculated risks throughout our adult lives helps us develop a more realistic sense of what is and what is not a risk worth worrying about.

If we were better able to asses risk would we not see fewer people suffering from anxiety related psychiatric disorders?

quiet-loner,

I don't think risk taking to ensure mental health should be applied across the board to all of humanity. If we use Jung’s extravert/introvert hypothesis for example: A good description of the difference between introverts and extraverts is:

Extravert thinking strategy, ready aim fire!

Introvert thinking strategy; ready aim, think about it, think about it, what are the consequences of firing?

Introverts play an important roll in society; we keep the extraverts from taking ridiculous risks.

About 60% of the population are extraverts, the other 40% introverts.

What I am trying to say is, probably 40% of the population would prefer not to take risks as this would/may make their anxiety levels rise.

It's just not a one size fits all situation.

I think Professor Heinz Wolff should read some of Jung’s works.

An excellent point Guest, although I suspect that Professor Wolff is familliar with Jung's work.

Is it possible that risk taking is what leads a child to become a balanced individual as an adult?

I mean if the extreme extrovert eventually goes too far and either seriously injures themselves or dies they remove themselves from the gene pool at a stroke. The extreme introvert on the other hand takes no risks and fails to impress anyone enough for them to reproduce, thereby also removing themselves from the gene pool.

Until recent times risk taking was necessary for survival so a good mate would be one who could balance risks accurately. So perhaps we are psychologically designed to take risks and if we are no longer confronted with daily risks concerning our survival we will subconciously create our own through drink, drugs, crime etc.

I think that this could support the argument that we should take deliberate calculated risks to benefit our mental health.

Also, looking at it from another angle, the endorphins and adrenalin released through taking risks and surviving are surely better than any prescription "happy pill".

quiet-loner,

On your first point of taking risks to impress, I'm not 100% sure taking risks to improve your status within your community was/is the only way to achieve it. The Devil has posted a new thread on Culture Specific Mental Disorders. Here’s a link to the article.

http://anthro.palomar.edu/medical/med_4.htm

As you should be able to see, having symptoms of "schizophrenia" in an indigenous tribal culture would be easily seen as having a direct link with the supernatural world. The entire tribe would envy this gift and the person status in the community would be elevated. Dam it, I'm living in the West in 2005 and am denied my rightful place in the community! I should be wearing robes with virgins throwing flowers at my feet everywhere I go Instead of being labelled mad and forcefully drugged.
I am treated like this because of the Church/Politics and social control. It's ###$! I am no more mad than the non mad staggering around like zombies in their conformity trance.

At present, we certainly live in a competitive gain culture where the need to impress through competitive gain (risks) is the norm. However, this has not always been the case. We just need to look back through history at all the strange and odd belief systems of different cultures to see this. I am also certain than given time and if the human race survives, future humans we look at our present culture and think, how odd.

Now back to the present and our culture. I do agree with your point on the beneficial aspects of taking risks for the endorphins and adrenaline rush. I am a craftsman; I get jobs where I am working with thousands of dollars worth of timber. Some of this timber is worth over $100 a yard. The risk of human error when doing the math’s and cutting, releases heaps of adrenaline. On completion of the product comes the fitting, many customers have commented on my obvious symptoms of stress if they are watching me fit it (hyperventilation-anxiety). All I'm thinking for that 5 to 10 minute period while I’m fitting it to its cavity (to an accuracy of 1/4" is usually necessary) is $#%^ I hope I didn't make any mistakes. I cant afford to give them back the thousands of dollars they've given me for the timber I've cut up. Talk about risk!

Then it always fits perfect; the customer goes wow, that’s beautiful, then hand me my pay, then the endorphins kick in. It’s a great buzz, if I time it right and there is a snooker comp on that night, with the added endorphins/confidence, I am unbeatable.

Believe me this process has most of the elements of standing in the path of a charging Rhino armed with nothing but a spear and taking the Rhino out.

PS: I've been a heroin addict for a 10 year period in the past. The police raids, OD's, bodies, guns n stuff. Very risky. The endorphine rush was heroin. I now prefer the natural effect.

It's interesting that you can relate the endorphin rush of heroin to that of the natural affect. It does, to some degree, correlate with the theory that we will seek high risk illegal thrills if your everyday life does not provide them for you naturally.

As a craftsman I guess that your work depends on your ability to balance risks. If you are reckless you will botch the job or injure yourself and if you are too cautious you would not get the job finished in a reasonable time. So, over time, you become a better craftsman as you learn to balance these factors.

I think that the theory that we should take deliberate risks to benefit our mental health comes down to two factors. Firstly that life is risky and if we do not learn to balance risk we will become either dangerous or we will become paralyzed with caution.
Secondly, the endorphin rush is a great enabler; as you said the rush makes you unbeatable.
Perhaps all this is what makes roller-coasters so popular. There is no actual risk but the perceived risk is high thereby fooling the brain into pumping out high levels of endorphins. All the benefits of rafting down a whitewater rapid or facing a charging rhino with a spear with none of the danger.

Would it not be a good idea if the psychiatric profession looked at providing a natural source of anti-depressants instead of pushing drugs? Maybe we should replace a few psychiatric hospitals with theme-parks?

quiet-loner wrote: Maybe we should replace a few psychiatric hospitals with theme-parks?

They've done it, it's called the USA.

Anonymous wrote:

quiet-loner wrote: Maybe we should replace a few psychiatric hospitals with theme-parks?

They've done it, it's called the USA.

Too right!