Feeling depleted? Willpower is a finite resource.

[Bill Peckham]

I found this article fascinating http://youarenotsosmart.com/2012/04/17/ego-depletion/ , there is an interview with Baumeister here


I think this idea of ego depletion has a lot of relevance for those of us using dialysis. Every time temptation is resisted it makes it harder to resist the next one.


I can see it in myself, my willingness to let a lot of things slide. How does one nourish ones will power?

[jbeany]

You just have to wait it out, like not being able to use your phone until it recharges.

I've seen this study before.  It explains an awful lot, doesn't it?

[Bill Peckham]

You just have to wait it out, like not being able to use your phone until it recharges.

I've seen this study before.  It explains an awful lot, doesn't it?

It really does explain a lot. In the interview he mentions research showing that regular exercise might nourish your will power but making the decision to exercise is the sort of thing depletion makes harder. Calories. Calories matter. So for people facing various permutations of the "renal diet" first thing is first, you have to get regular calories.

[iketchum]

I find my wife to be the added will power I need when the temptation gets to be too much. Her gentle reminder and a warm hug makes the right choices easier. going it alone through this would be so much harder. I know I would be much less compliant with my diet without her help. 

[Bill Peckham]

"In one study, college students divided into three groups. One group had to give a speech supporting raising tuition at their college. A second group chose between a speech for or against tuition hikes. A third group proceeded directly to the second stage – those devious, unsolvable puzzles. This time, the no-speech group and the group that gave the speech with which they likely disagreed both lasted about twice as long as the people who got to choose what they spoke about. The results suggested it wasn’t just restraint in the face of desire that could deplete your ego, but any choice at all. The subjects who didn’t have to choose a topic were able to allow their volition to take a break, and their ego energy reserves remained intact."
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2012/04/17/ego-depletion/


Is this one reason conventional dialysis is so embedded? Conventional, incenter, is the 'no choice', choice. Physiologically this study suggests that by going along with the default choice you are saving energy for other battles; in that context conventional incenter makes sense.


So really doctors should just make better choices for people.