I've noticed that a number of posters have a very negative attitude toward Thailand. My first reaction would be, if you hate Thailand so much, why do you stay ? But then I realized negative attitude is a sickness and most of the time people afflicted by it don't even realize they get it.

But first I want to make the point that negative attitude is a real sickness. Numerous studies have proved it affects your health and when you're sick it affects your recovery. It also negatively affects your social and family relations.

Here I would like to collect advises on how to maintain a healthy, positive attitude toward life in general and any specific problem in particular

Think what it would be like back home in Farangland.

But first I want to make the point that negative attitude is a real sickness. Numerous studies have proved it affects your health and when you're sick it affects your recovery. It also negatively affects your social and family relations

I think in a fair few number of cases the family relations are the root cause of the negative attitude.

Always Look On The Bright Side of Life

OP,

What is wrong with complaining about things you dont like. Should we just shut up and accept everything ? I voiced my complaints in Holland too. I love it here but it is not perfect. Nothing wrong with complaining at all. I am quite a positive guy.

I think there is a tipping point with regards to life here.

For me the first 10 years were when I had an attitude towards living here which varied from extremely positive to very negative.

Now I just accept the rough with the smooth and there are far more smooth times.

It's not a sickness; it's a personal choice. A sickness is something you have no control over and was caught through some sort of infection.

A negative attitude CAN be changed by only thinking positive thoughts. I can turn just about any negative into a positive if I concentrate hard enough. I can ALWAYS see the bright side of anything... even a tragedy.

My brother is a negative person and I am a positive person. I can usually get my brother turned around when I take the time to do so. But, he is happy in his own misery and likes to blame everyone else for his problems. We grew up in the same household with identical problems. If anything I got the worst of it because I was the older brother. My brother's one major problem is he is a perfectionist and expects other people to be perfect... which of course they aren't ,so my bother writes them off as losers... which they aren't.

But first I want to make the point that negative attitude is a real sickness. Numerous studies have proved it affects your health and when you're sick it affects your recovery. It also negatively affects your social and family relations

I think in a fair few number of cases the family relations are the root cause of the negative attitude.

Or ex family. Think it'd be healthier for those people to move on

JurgenG, it’s only my opinion, I feel a negative attitude comes in two forms first there is the “bitch” I love a good bitch, nothing wrong with it. Then there the “serial dripper” winding oneself up over the smallest thing, and going on and on and on and on and on! I think this is born out of an individual’s inability to affect their situation, a feeling of very little control of their situation, (past incidents or present) and then bitching grows over time into comfort blanket, a way to divert feeling of frailer.

Having spent some periods of my life in some very dark places mentally, I have found that a negative attitude comes with the territory; I understand it’s a way of trying to transfer some of the load the mind is under. There is a danger, as you pointed out, one of physical wellbeing, and if unchecked can lead to some more serious mental health problems………..Good new! It’s self-treatable, first take back your life, get a grip….get control, change your life Patton, (the one you’re on….it put you where you are now) stop thinking of yourself so much, think of others, help someone less fortunate every day, just one person, it will make you feel good about yourself! And the big one….Stop bitching, to yourself, to others and even listening to it!

Please feel free to take what I say with a pinch of salt, it’s only my experience, may not suite everyone.

Edited February 18, 201115 yr by Tonto21

What is negative to one person

can be positive to another.

Freedom of speech - the right to express all sides of a discussion from Negative to Positive and all that is in between.

Just as a point of reference this is a true clinical disorder which may require professional intervention:

Generalized anxiety disorder Classification and external resources

ICD-10 F41.1

ICD-9 300.02

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to

the actual source of worry... (enough for now -- from Wikipedia)

If you really want to see some instances of what may possibly be this condition on ThaiVisa just look at the 'Financial Crisis' or 'Where is gold Going ..." topics elsewhere

... and just about the worst thing you can do with anyone who is in the midst of a clinical depression is to suggest that they just 'snap out of it.'

Edited February 18, 201115 yr by jazzbo

OP- I agree. Lifes a beach, we should play in the sand.

Just as a point of reference this is a true clinical disorder which may require professional intervention:

Generalized anxiety disorder Classification and external resources

ICD-10 F41.1

ICD-9 300.02

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to

the actual source of worry... (enough for now -- from Wikipedia)

If you really want to see some instances of what may possibly be this condition on ThaiVisa just look at the 'Financial Crisis' or 'Where is gold Going ..." topics elsewhere

... and just about the worst thing you can do with anyone who is in the midst of a clinical depression is to suggest that they just 'snap out of it.'

Every part of normal life is a genuine disorder nowadays and in fact has been for many years remember hysteria? never hear much of it now. There is a very interesting programme on the BBC discussing the illness of life or somesuch thing, apparently these everyday things have been catagorised by drug companies trying to find a new use for something they have on the shelf. One in five kids in America has something wrong with them, even not wanting to have a facebook account means you are ill, a loner, a weirdo. Allowing advertising of drugs has increased these illnesses. Get over it is mostly the right advice and get them away from dwelling on it. The aboriginal people in Australia had 'walkabout' the Americans something else, which I forget the name of, we apparently have pills, Bhuddism and religions have the answer too.

Feeling down depressed etc. is like toothache in later life, if you rush to the dentist it will cost you thousands but if you wait, you will see that it comes and goes.

What amazes me is the nagative attitude of some posters on this forum.

There are those who can only see bad in this country.

Every little thing is wrong, the Govt is crooked, corrupt, a disaster.

The army is running the country.

The elite are running the country.

PAD is running the country

The police are crooked, corrupt, a disaster.

The economy is a mess.

The trafic is horrendous.

Polution is out of control.

ETC,ETC.

Then once they have had a go at everything, sometimes in the most derogatery terms the come out and say there is no freedom of speech.

To see this you only have to look at some posts in the last hour on the news forum.

I like it here, the place has never done me any harm and I get smiles and good service everywhere I go.

Hay Ian, I think you and I have things in common, think I'll go fishing now.

And don't forget the psychological effects of air pollution and lack of oxygen.

.

Edited February 18, 201115 yr by KhunChay

What amazes me is the nagative attitude of some posters on this forum.

There are those who can only see bad in this country.

Every little thing is wrong, the Govt is crooked, corrupt, a disaster.

The army is running the country.

The elite are running the country.

PAD is running the country

The police are crooked, corrupt, a disaster.

The economy is a mess.

The trafic is horrendous.

Polution is out of control.

ETC,ETC.

And all true i might add..but if you look beyond all that Thailand is not a bad place to live

After reading this I feel very negative, I think I'll go for a Chang beer :lol: .

After reading this I feel very negative, I think I'll go for a Chang beer :lol: .

Can't do that today. I heard the bars are all closed today. Better you come on over to my place and have a beer here. There's more than enough pretty girls to go around.

After reading this I feel very negative, I think I'll go for a Chang beer :lol: .

Can't do that today. I heard the bars are all closed today. Better you come on over to my place and have a beer here. There's more than enough pretty girls to go around.

Dont suppose you got a spare one there for me

Try living in the dire straits (i feel a song coming on) of Europe this last winter...

I would give everything to be able to live the lives that you lot do, warm weather, beaches, even the pollution up thataway. Just to not have to go to sleep in socks, pj's etc. One night i even had to wear a hat it was so cold...

Count yourselves lucky. And don't complain.

Signed,

Jealous Pats. xxxx

Edited February 18, 201115 yr by Patsycat

I get up every day and think how lucky I am , there are an awful lot of less fortunate people here in Thailand and worldwide who will never have the opportunitys that we take for granted !

#13 Get over it is mostly the right advice ... and some very well might get over it but not before bashing your f-ck-ng head in with a 2 x 4.

I realize there are lots of designer illnesses and parents these days almost brag about their child's Attention-deficit disorder but The Anatomy of Melancholy was published in 1621 and the term 'manic-depression' dates to the late 1800s.

Edited February 18, 201115 yr by jazzbo

Shit happens, everywhere. Thailand included.

Somebody is clearly doing a magnificent trade in rose tinted specs.

For many guys there is little or no opportunity to provide for themselves or their family the lifestyle they desire and this manifests itself in this incessant negative attitude towards life here.

For many guys there is little or no opportunity to provide for themselves or their family the lifestyle they desire and this manifests itself in this incessant negative attitude towards life here.

I pity those who associate happiness with income, life has so much more to offer.

And anyway, having a moan about an incident that has happened or a situation that they are not keen on doesn't make a person unhappy. It just means that they are speaking their mind.

Of course though, some people are just plain miserable, whether they are rich or poor.

Edited February 18, 201115 yr by Moonrakers

Of course though, some people are just plain miserable, whether they are rich or poor.

Yes I agree with you and there are plenty guys here who just don't know how lucky they are.

A pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist. If we fall into one of those two groups the good thing is that both groups must be strangers to disappointment each in their own manner, its the people who take the middle road who are in trouble.

I'm one of the realists mentioned above. Every time I head back to Thailand I tell myself that I will not let it get me down but it does. I can find almost nothing positive about Thailand anymore. I feel sorry for my wife because I complain way to much.

I can find almost nothing positive about Thailand anymore.

Don't fool yourself, if you can not find anything positive about Thailand, you are not a realist, you are a pessimist of the highest order. There are plenty of good people and good things here.

Edited February 18, 201115 yr by Ulysses G.

What amazes me is the nagative attitude of some posters on this forum.

There are those who can only see bad in this country.

Every little thing is wrong, the Govt is crooked, corrupt, a disaster.

These are usually the guys that have been robbed by their wife or are in the process of being robbed by their wife