This has made me think about cases where poor impulse control and symptoms of mental health issues are intertwined. For example, I've known a couple of people with bipolar disorder who have to keep a special lock on their credit cards, because " diastrously poor impulse control" is a symptom of mania. I've also, in depressed moments, spent irresponsibly from a place of having a worse-than-usual ability to engage with the future - when I can't access a feeling of caring what happens tomorrow, or next month, or next year, it's too easy to spend money I shouldn't. But I've also seen what you're describing, which is people treating irresponsible spending as a form of self-care, even getting defensive when it's suggested that it's not very, uh, careful.
I do think it's become too easy to blame impulsivity on these things and then treat it as immutable. If you have bipolar disorder, you maybe gotta have that lock on your credit card and someone in your life who will recognize when it needs to be activated. If you're prone toward depression, you have to be able to recognize that your short-term thinking is, in itself, a short-term problem. I think your post gets at a desire to have it both ways: To be able to lay one's impulsivity at the feet of something immutable, but in so doing, to deny one's own agency in preventing the same problem in the future.
Very interesting article! I’m reminded of a man I knew back in the 80s who loved gambling. He would introduce friction at the racetrack by taking cash only--no credit cards or ATM card. Once his cash was gone, he went home. (Or if he actually won anything, he’d take his wife out to dinner.) I always thought this was a smart way to handle it, and maybe our culture needs to raise kids with strategies for leashing their impulses to resist the frictionlessness of the online world.
Then again, it will be interesting to see whether Ozempic and other semaglutides makes this whole problem go away. People on the drug are seeing their addictive behaviors--not just around food, but also with gambling, shopping, drinking, etc--just vanish. I find it fascinating to think that much of this behavior, which we have always moralized, may be a simple matter of hormones.
This has made me think about cases where poor impulse control and symptoms of mental health issues are intertwined. For example, I've known a couple of people with bipolar disorder who have to keep a special lock on their credit cards, because " diastrously poor impulse control" is a symptom of mania. I've also, in depressed moments, spent irresponsibly from a place of having a worse-than-usual ability to engage with the future - when I can't access a feeling of caring what happens tomorrow, or next month, or next year, it's too easy to spend money I shouldn't. But I've also seen what you're describing, which is people treating irresponsible spending as a form of self-care, even getting defensive when it's suggested that it's not very, uh, careful.
I do think it's become too easy to blame impulsivity on these things and then treat it as immutable. If you have bipolar disorder, you maybe gotta have that lock on your credit card and someone in your life who will recognize when it needs to be activated. If you're prone toward depression, you have to be able to recognize that your short-term thinking is, in itself, a short-term problem. I think your post gets at a desire to have it both ways: To be able to lay one's impulsivity at the feet of something immutable, but in so doing, to deny one's own agency in preventing the same problem in the future.
Very interesting article! I’m reminded of a man I knew back in the 80s who loved gambling. He would introduce friction at the racetrack by taking cash only--no credit cards or ATM card. Once his cash was gone, he went home. (Or if he actually won anything, he’d take his wife out to dinner.) I always thought this was a smart way to handle it, and maybe our culture needs to raise kids with strategies for leashing their impulses to resist the frictionlessness of the online world.
Then again, it will be interesting to see whether Ozempic and other semaglutides makes this whole problem go away. People on the drug are seeing their addictive behaviors--not just around food, but also with gambling, shopping, drinking, etc--just vanish. I find it fascinating to think that much of this behavior, which we have always moralized, may be a simple matter of hormones.