Author Topic: We must be crazy... :)  (Read 8898 times)

nyxst

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We must be crazy... :)
« on: September 30, 2014, 07:17:47 AM »
Ok, my friend forwarded this to me... which I guess isn't saying much about her opinion of me?  haha!  Still, it made me giggle...

http://www.everydayhealth.com/news/are-you-sensibly-frugal-mentally-ill/?xid=aol_eh-emo_1_20140929_&aolcat=HLT&icid=maing-grid7|maing9|dl36|sec1_lnk1%26pLid%3D537399

While I am sure there are legitimate mental issues that cause the hoarding of money, I have to question the quote  “People with OCPD are people who are very preoccupied with details, making lists, workaholic, very frugal. People with OCPD do not have intrusive thoughts, so they don’t worry about their symptoms. To them, they wonder, why is everyone else not as organized and as neat as I am?”

I wonder "why doesn't everyone else save money"  and "why does everyone else add debt and suffering?"  I guess I am one of those people they are talking about... and I guess I will embrace my mental illness :)

Tai

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2014, 08:03:13 AM »
Are you sure she's a friend? :)

 I think people are so lost in consumerism that people who are conscious of their spending get labeled as excessively frugal. For me excessively frugal is more the extreme cheapskate thing though. For instance someone with millions of dollars in the bank (in cash) who lives in a run-down rooming house and only eats canned beans everyday sort of cheapskate. I don't think most people on these boards live a deprived lifestyle at all.

I do have a friend who sort of fits the profile, she is somewhat frugal but more than that extremely organized and neat. I've never met anyone more organized, and it is a compulsion. I don't think that anyone around her sees that as a problem though, most people admire her. Although we do tease her!

dios.del.sol

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2014, 10:22:33 AM »
It seems like in our day and age we want to turn everything into a diagnosable psychological disorder. Doesn't it seem like the main goal of present day psychotherapy is to help us adjust to a messed up world when what we really should be doing is changing the world to be less messed up?

Sure, I agree, if all you do is hoard for the sake of hoarding, then that sounds problematic. Why build up a stash of $5m if a stash of $1m will sustain you just fine? On the other hand, if you avoid spending superfluous money because it doesn't align with your values, then that sounds fantastic! If that means that you happen to spend a few sigma below the consumerist average that does not mean you have a disorder. Maybe it just means that the rest of the world has FID (Financial Illiteracy Disorder), a close cousin of CSBSD (Can't Stop Buying Shtuff Disorder). Who's to say?

Preaching to the choir here, I'm sure.


eyePod

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2014, 11:33:41 AM »
I'd like to see Madeline's portfolio before I take her advice... But yeah, we're all crazy and we're perfectly fine with it. It won't be crazy as more people get involved in the movement! Soon it can become normal!

nyxst

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2014, 12:41:29 PM »
Doesn't it seem like the main goal of present day psychotherapy is to help us adjust to a messed up world when what we really should be doing is changing the world to be less messed up?


I love this!!!! Very well put!

I always feel pretty normal :) what scares me is I think most crazy people usually feel pretty normal...

RunningWithScissors

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2014, 03:08:36 PM »
Only slightly off-topic...a former co-worker used to have a sign in his cubicle that applies to this thread:

I don't suffer from insanity...I'm enjoying every minute of it!

So I say, let's all enjoy being Mustachians!  Every minute!

sheepstache

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2014, 04:52:19 PM »
It seems like in our day and age we want to turn everything into a diagnosable psychological disorder.

That's exactly what I thought! God forfend someone have a personality; obviously it's a personality disorder.

At the risk of over-using this quote I will cite Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections:
“I’m saying the structure of the entire culture is flawed. I’m saying the bureaucracy has arrogated the right to define certain states of mind as ‘diseased.’ A lack of desire to spend money becomes a symptom of disease that requires expensive medication. Which medication then destroys the libido, in other words destroys the appetite for the one pleasure in life that’s free, which means the person has to spend even
more money on compensatory pleasures. The very definition of mental ‘health’ is the ability to participate in the consumer economy. When you buy into therapy you’re buying into buying. And I’m saying that I personally am losing the battle with a commercialized, medicalized, totalitarian modernity right this instant.”

Or it's people taking a real problem and watering it down by applying a diagnostic label to it everyday things. "I ordered from the brunch menu but it's lunchtime! I'm so retarded!" "My favorite show ended, I'm so depressed!" "I saved a dollar by using a coupon I'm so OCD lol j/k!"

(edited for confusing antecedent)
« Last Edit: October 01, 2014, 01:11:11 PM by sheepstache »

SwordGuy

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2014, 06:06:28 PM »
So many people today want to be a victim instead of taking responsibility for the consequences of their own actions.

That way, they get to blame someone else instead of themselves.

Zikoris

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2014, 09:11:36 PM »
A mental illness that leads to boatloads of cash, retiring in your 30s, and spending your entire life having an absolute blast? Sign me up!

MgoSam

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2014, 12:20:54 PM »
Hmm, I don't know about you crazy people, but I am certainly not neat nor organized! Still am frugal, yes indeed I am!

nyxst

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #10 on: October 01, 2014, 01:10:44 PM »
Hmm, I don't know about you crazy people, but I am certainly not neat nor organized! Still am frugal, yes indeed I am!

I will have to agree.  My piles of projects seem to be everywhere!  But that is only because I waste so much time at work.....

LalsConstant

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #11 on: October 01, 2014, 01:38:10 PM »
Except in extreme cases like refusing to buy food to eat entirely,  how in the blue hell would you diagnose this?

I know a lot of people who tell me my lifestyle is Spartan but that's nonsense.  There are people on this site spending $1500 a month and no more.  I admire this but I bet the people who think I am cheap think those people are nuts.

Or what about someone who saves 90% of their income?  Sounds crazy right.  But if they earn $300,000 a year...

I recently downsized my apartment and bought a more economical vehicle and people thought I was suffering hard times.  The concept that I reevaluated my priorities and decided I wasn't any happier spending money on those things (in fact I am enjoying those decisions immensely already) is foreign to them.

And the thing is I say this as someone who has gone from serial debtor to someone who should manage to save half of his expenses every month next year.  I am not crazy now I was crazy back then and got better!

dios.del.sol

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #12 on: October 01, 2014, 09:58:25 PM »
At the risk of over-using this quote I will cite Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections:
“I’m saying the structure of the entire culture is flawed. I’m saying the bureaucracy has arrogated the right to define certain states of mind as ‘diseased.’ A lack of desire to spend money becomes a symptom of disease that requires expensive medication. Which medication then destroys the libido, in other words destroys the appetite for the one pleasure in life that’s free, which means the person has to spend even
more money on compensatory pleasures. The very definition of mental ‘health’ is the ability to participate in the consumer economy. When you buy into therapy you’re buying into buying. And I’m saying that I personally am losing the battle with a commercialized, medicalized, totalitarian modernity right this instant.”
Love it. I've never seen this one before, so I suppose it's not *that* overused.

deborah

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #13 on: October 02, 2014, 12:19:25 AM »
Treatment: Read MMM. retire early. Enjoy lifestyle.

Leisured

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #14 on: October 02, 2014, 02:30:13 AM »
I am reminded of Aldous Huxley's 1930 novel 'Brave New World', where people were encouraged to spend money to keep the economy going. 84 years on....  Diagnosing spendthrift behavior as a personality disorder would make more sense.


MandalayVA

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #15 on: October 02, 2014, 11:04:56 AM »
I've always been crazy.  That's what keeps me from going insane. >:D

Kaspian

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #16 on: October 02, 2014, 01:33:10 PM »
Odd that it's socially acceptable to understand eating in expensive restaurants and staying at fancy hotels but not acceptable for someone to enjoy eating brown beans while living in a rooming house.  "Oh, they must be unhappy---they can't possibly enjoy living like that."  Here we all know it's true--luxury and decadence don't create happiness.  If anything, they drag you down.

Tai

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #17 on: October 03, 2014, 07:22:50 AM »
Why is living in a run-down rooming house socially unacceptable? I think it's the cockroaches and bedbugs personally. Could also be the high risk of violence, theft and fire. I'm not referring to student housing btw, but the kind of sub-standard housing that the really poor sometimes have to live in.

MMM isn't about coming from a place of not having enough, it's about coming from a place of abundance. If you have such anxiety that you can't spend money on basic self-care and food not straight out of a can when you have millions in the bank I'll take the risk of thinking that there's a problem. Maybe people who choose to live like this are happy, maybe not, I don't really know, but their anxiety rules their life.

BTW I've eaten at one expensive restaurant in the last 20 years, is that ok with you?

Squirrel away

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #18 on: October 03, 2014, 07:47:57 AM »
I actually do have a diagnosed personality disorder called BPD. I have OCD (but not OCPD) but I think having OCD is helpful in some ways to adapt to the MMM way of life. I love lists, planning, organising.:D OCD also came in handy when I've needed to revise for exams as my brain will remember a lot of information very quickly if it needs to, in the short term anyway lol.


Elderwood17

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #19 on: October 03, 2014, 09:23:48 AM »
It wasn't long ago if you filled your house with unnecessary gadgets, owned more than one credit card, had a mortgage in your fifties, or in general didnt live within your means, that people would say you have a problem!!  Now it is reversed.

Sylly

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #20 on: October 03, 2014, 09:58:46 AM »
I actually do have a diagnosed personality disorder called BPD. I have OCD (but not OCPD) but I think having OCD is helpful in some ways to adapt to the MMM way of life. I love lists, planning, organising.:D OCD also came in handy when I've needed to revise for exams as my brain will remember a lot of information very quickly if it needs to, in the short term anyway lol.

This is what I like to tell people

Squirrel away

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Re: We must be crazy... :)
« Reply #21 on: October 03, 2014, 10:24:06 AM »
I actually do have a diagnosed personality disorder called BPD. I have OCD (but not OCPD) but I think having OCD is helpful in some ways to adapt to the MMM way of life. I love lists, planning, organising.:D OCD also came in handy when I've needed to revise for exams as my brain will remember a lot of information very quickly if it needs to, in the short term anyway lol.

This is what I like to tell people

Hahaha, precisely.