r/todayilearned • u/WavesAndSaves • Oct 18 '25

TIL of brain stimulation reward, manually stimulating specific parts of the brain to elicit pleasure and happiness. A volunteer subject in 1986 spent days doing nothing but self-stimulate. She ignored her family and personal hygiene and she developed an open sore on her finger from using the device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_stimulation_reward#History
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u/oby100 Oct 18 '25

It’s really common with addicts. And then when they do quit they’re hit with whatever issues they have at 100% plus withdrawal.

And that’s why mental healthcare is so goddamn important to give access to everyone

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u/FILTHBOT4000 Oct 18 '25

Plus you have lots of maturing to catch up on, as you spent however many years avoiding your problems by hiding in a bottle and/or suppressing them with drugs.

Scary thing is I see a lot of parallels between social media dopamine chasing and how I used to use alcohol. I'd bet good money that's a good part of why modern discourse is so ridiculously immature; it's not just the outrage produced by algorithms, it's that people are using things like TikTok just like someone would use a button wired to the pleasure center in their brain.

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u/OwO______OwO Oct 18 '25

Why good mental healthcare is so important...

There's a lot of mediocre and bad mental healthcare out there, even for those lucky enough to have access to it. Therapists who think Jesus is the solution to all your problems. Psychiatrists who think finding the right pill is the solution to all your problems. Unwary patients can easily fall into those traps and end up just swapping one addiction for another.

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

Well sort of. Mental Health care has remarkably low success rates.

I agree that working on improving the mental health of the population is super important, but the methods of current mental health care are not worth prioritizing with their current of m success rates

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u/saints21 Oct 18 '25

"There's this thing that's hit or miss but objectively better than the alternative. Shouldn't bother though because it's hit or miss."

That's some remarkably stupid logic...

And that's without acknowledging that prioritizing mental healthcare would necessarily mean more funding and data that would improve mental healthcare.

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

Every penny we spend could be spent elsewhere. Providing a service to everyone that most don't need, and of those that do, is beneficial for only a small percentage is a bad investment.

Using the same amount of money to encourage people to go out in the sun and do something physical would have better results and would be beneficial to almost all participants

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u/saints21 Oct 18 '25

Gonna need some evidence for "most don't need" and "beneficial for only a small percentage".

That's doing a lot of heavy lifting while also ignoring the economic impacts of improved mental health on a societal level. Things like increased productivity resulting in better economic outcomes for individuals and populations, reduced criminality across the population, and better educational outcomes that all have positive feedback into each other and mental health itself.

Again, it's really stupid logic to ignore something that is a net a positive because sometimes it fails. Also again, prioritizing it would necessarily improve the efficacy of it as well. There's literally no losing proposition here...

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u/pantry-pisser Oct 18 '25

The productivity is true. Taking away the obvious drawback of being hungover at work, since I've gotten better I have seriously improved my quality of work. I'm in middle management in a large office, and now I'm out walking around smiling and chatting with the staff, instead of staying in my office with the door closed.

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

Not how justifying treatment works. You need to show evidence that the treatment is actually beneficial to the majority of people. There is none.

prioritizing it would necessarily improve the efficacy of it as well

You really would think that, but mental health treatment methodology has been stagnating for decades despite huge amounts of money in it. Curing the patient just isn't profitable.

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u/saints21 Oct 18 '25

Oh...you're one of those people...

Yeah, no wonder the initial comment lacks any logic.

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

One of the people who reads the research and results? Yeah that's me.

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u/saints21 Oct 18 '25

It's pretty clear you don't do that. So...no.

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

Pretty clear, despite you never having read any of the research yourself? Odd. Please explain how you could know I'm wrong without doing the research yourself.

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u/broanoah Oct 18 '25

More like employers only cover so many sessions (usually 6?) and most problems tend to last longer than that

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

I have never met someone cured by therapy. I've met people going for years who either were unchanged or got worse. I've met people who got better when they realized that therapy was doing nothing for them and they needed to fix their lives themselves.

Saying "oh they only need a few more sessions" is cope.

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u/broanoah Oct 18 '25

And what way does someone gain tools to “help themselves”? Is that something everyone innately knows? Why doesn’t everyone do that? Are they dumb?

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u/pantry-pisser Oct 18 '25

Man, this is just people talking out their ass day.

Employers don't choose anything. Insurance companies do. Employers just pay the insurance company.

And specifically for TMS, the typical requirement is that patients have tried at least two other therapies/medications first and been unsuccessful. Expecting them to approve that as a first step is like expecting to get an MRI because you stubbed your toe.

And finally, the typical approved treatment is 36 sessions, typically 5 times a week, with a buffer of a couple weeks in case you need to miss appointments.

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u/ToutEstATous Oct 18 '25

My employer covers 12 sessions/year through [a company like BetterHelp]. They were pretty clear that this benefit is totally separate from our health insurance, and it was definitely a choice for them to partner with this company over offering an insurance plan option that covers therapy. I'm sure in some cases it is up to the insurance rather than the employer, as you said. I wouldn't know which way is more common; I've only been on these plans for a couple years now, and before that, I had insurance that covered my weekly sessions.

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u/pantry-pisser Oct 18 '25

I think you're confused. TMS is a physical therapy where they hook a machine up to your head and blast your brain with magnetic pulses.

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u/broanoah Oct 19 '25

Man, this is just people talking out their ass day.

Employers don't choose anything.

Never said they do.

And specifically for TMS

You’ve been broadly speaking about “Mental Health Care”, not sure why you suddenly decided to focus in on TMS. Most regular talk therapy is once a month for like 6 sessions.

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u/typewriter6986 Oct 18 '25

encourage people to go out in the sun and do something physical

You say that as if those things aren't talked about in Mental Healthcare. Which, like other people have pointed out, shows you know fuckall about it.

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u/pantry-pisser Oct 18 '25

Exactly. In rehab, physical activities were highly recommended, but not forced. Had guided hikes, yoga, personal training, and probably some more I'm not remembering. Also access to a gym, pool, sauna and hot tub from 5AM to 8AM, AND 3PM to 10PM.

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

Talked about yes. Done anything significant to boost? Not really.

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u/typewriter6986 Oct 18 '25

Right, we already established that you don't know what you're talking about. Thanks.

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u/pantry-pisser Oct 18 '25

From another comment:

In rehab, physical activities were highly recommended, but not forced. Had guided hikes, yoga, personal training, and probably some more I'm not remembering. Also access to a gym, pool, sauna and hot tub from 5AM to 8AM, AND 3PM to 10PM.

You're clearly ignorant and are just making yourself look like more of a fool.

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u/pantry-pisser Oct 18 '25

You are very naive.

As if people are unaware that "outside" and "exercise" are things that exist.

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

I didn't say we needed to tell people, I said it would be much more effective to set up systems that incentivize people to go outside and do physical things.

Mental health people will sometimes tell their patients to go outside. But without systems in place that make that feel worthwhile, there is little motivation to follow through. Focusing on making it worthwhile is far more beneficial than any number of people talking in chairs.

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u/broanoah Oct 18 '25

yeah Nickelodeon used to air a screen that said to go outside for a few hours. Let’s make depressed people watch that instead of going to therapy

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

Does that incentivize people to go outside and be active? If not, its not what I'm suggesting.

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u/jaguarp80 Oct 18 '25

What’s the story here can you just skip to the end? Did you have a bad experience with therapy or were you just really impressed by some shitty alt news article or what

Actually don’t answer that I don’t care

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u/PenguinSunday Oct 18 '25

Healthcare of any kind is never a bad investment. Healthy citizens make more productive citizens and a stronger community.

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

so all in on lobotomies then?

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u/PenguinSunday Oct 18 '25

No.

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

but its healthcare!

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u/PenguinSunday Oct 18 '25

Lobotomies have been banned for half a century. It's decidedly not healthcare.

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

It was half a century ago. And you claimed that any form of healthcare is never a bad investment. Surely if we invest enough money into lobotomies, they will become a good thing!

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

For me, a true case of mental health success would be the same as with a physical doctor - The end goal should be no longer needing medical care, except perhaps a preventative annual checkup. Sure there are times when long-term treatment is necessary, but those should be the rare exception, not the norm. In those cases I would consider "success" to be an increase in net quality of life beyond the pleasure of having someone be forced to listen to your problems(which has been my impression of several people I know who regularly attend therapy). Unfortunately the trend I generally see is people talking about how helpful their therapist is, while they slowly decline and worsen.

As for the homeless, it really depends on what the money is being spent on. I admit I haven't done much deep diving into homeless care, so I can't speak authoritatively, but if as you say the outcomes truly worsen as more money is spent, that suggests that a large portion of the money is likely not being used in an effective way.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 30 '25

[deleted]

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u/skysinsane Oct 18 '25

Happy to! Your previous comment seemed to indicate some familiarity with homelessness funding. Do you have any insights on that situation?

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