Probes and television

Remember that kids telly programme from the 70s/80s - Why Don't You? or Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead? Well, the main message from that programme, which is pretty self explanatory, is one I have mostly managed to ignore over the years.

But in recent times I have begun to question my TV-watching habits and their impact on my mental wellbeing. The Happy Blog is thinking along the same lines:

"What causes us to sit in front of the TV night after night, weekend after weekend is inertia. Inertia is that force which causes an immobile object to stay at rest until something sets it in motion. We sit in front of the TV for hours and complain we just don’t have enough time to do the things we enjoy. Well stop. Turn off the TV. Get up and go do something."

TV-watching is just too passive. Our minds need activity and I have found they reward us for active use with better mental health.

There are obviously lots of debates about the use of drugs in the mental health field but what about deep brain stimulation? It involves sending electrical signals to a small device implanted directly into the brain and if this article is to be believed it could be the next big treatment for depression.

Is it a miracle cure or another quick fix that ignores wider societal and political issues and a person's past experiences. It's very difficult to know where to stand on issues like this. I am in favour of anything that alleviates people's suffering of course but will growing numbers of us be walking around with probes in our brains just to help us get through the day? Doesn't that indicate a wider problem that we don't want to face?