I agree that there is a cohort of people out there who are so lacking in self-awareness and introspective ability, that they are unaware that their own lifestyles and maladaptive habits, like over-use of internet, porn, video games, and substances, is the root cause of chronic psychological or even physiological problems. Ultimately, from what I've intuited, these folks also tend to have some deeply ingrained biases or other blinders on, so that when you point out poor lifestyle choices and maladaptive habits, the advice falls on dead ears. The very lack of self awareness and introspective ability that traps people in such a cycle also makes those people unable to consider obvious advice like this.
On the other hand, I think that cohort of people, for whom this thread is aimed, is relatively small in percentage of the total population whose lives are a mess. I think a far larger cohort of people do have some sort of poorly-understood cause for their psychological issues, like immune-related issues, disadvantageous genetic predispositions or epigenetic changes, other primary biological issues, or mistreatment due to misdiagnosis. For them, lifestyle interventions won't make much if any difference. And thus, if this larger cohort of people just so happens to make poor lifestyle choices and maladaptive habits, it is a coincidence or natural consequence of reward and stimulation seeking due to leading an inherently crappy life.
Of course, there is also the 3rd option that choices can be a contributing factor for people who are ill by no fault of their own. Here, choices don't create the problem but reinforce or contribute to some degree. So, it's important for people to realize that living the lifestyle of a shut-in internet neckbeard is not good; but this truth is so obvious and common sense, surely few are surprised to learn it. In essence, suggesting lifestyle interventions is highly disingenuous a lot of the time, because people whose issues are chronic are likely to already understand and already have explored and exhausted lifestyle interventions and not seen improvement.
Edited by Dichotohmy, 02 December 2018 - 06:11 PM.