Learning Lessons When It’s Too Late

Mistakes can be costly. The damage of a single mistake can cost a few dollars or an entire livelihood.

In an ideal world, we’d learn our lessons before we had the chance to make any mistakes. That way, we could avoid ever making them. It’s like going to school, where kids are placed in a controlled environment to train for real life without having to experience the harsher consequences of making mistakes as an adult.

Then again, learning is a process. As long as we are alive, we continue to gain knowledge about things that matter to us. Although there are many lessons to be learned in school — both academic and practical — sometimes, the real world is more instrumental in teaching us the more valuable ones.

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My husband, Jared, and I have just learned an extremely important lesson — perhaps the most important lesson we’ve learned in our entrepreneurial careers. It’s something school never prepared us to face. For the first time since starting our small business, we fell victim to an elaborate online scam. An anonymous person hacked into a trusted business partner’s social media and contacted us, pretending to be our partner. The hacker managed to swindle a large amount of money from us.

We haven’t experienced anything nearly as dire as this in our four years as entrepreneurs. Though we’ve heard stories of our own clients falling victim to seemingly legitimate vendors who turned out to be fake, we always thought our business experience would give us the edge over anyone trying to scam us. We became complacent in dealing with people we trusted. Yet, we failed to realize that the online channels through which we communicate aren’t always secure. This weakened our self-defense and left us vulnerable to an attack.

No matter how competent we think we are, everyone has weak points, because no human being is perfect. In order to deal with our weaknesses, we need to be aware of them. Jared and I failed to do that.

Looking back, Jared and I encountered many warnings about how scams are often conducted, but we never took them seriously because we didn’t think it could happen to us. It serves as a reminder for us not to be complacent, and to always be prepared for the worst.

We should approach health conditions, like Jared’s hemophilia and seizure disorder, the same way. Though they aren’t causing any major problems right now, unexpected incidents can happen. And if something troublesome does happen (knock on wood!), we need to be ready to face it.

Jared and I both admit that we are a pair of fairly hardheaded people. Jared is aware of his subconscious desire to prove to himself and others that he is capable, despite his disabilities. Sometimes, this lures him into dangerous territory and causes him to exceed his limitations by an unhealthy (or outright dangerous) amount.

My own mental health struggles give me similar tendencies. From a young age, I was primed for achievement and excellence. High standards were set for me after I became known as a “child prodigy” for being able to read at age 2 and getting high scores on a standardized IQ test. I brought my desire to overachieve far into my adult years. I always wanted to do more, more, more. I developed a heightened sense of focus that let me zoom in on one thing at a time, but also made me oblivious to my surroundings.

While being stubborn has its benefits, it also exposes us to certain risks. And one grave risk is ending up learning lessons only after we’ve made our mistakes. By then, it could be too late.

One haphazard move could cost Jared his good health, or worse, his life. And in my case, being too excited about earning money could deeply endanger my family.

Finding middle ground is a must in our respective and combined situations. Jared needs to respect his chronic illnesses as a part of himself, whereas I must learn to slow down and think twice or thrice before making business transactions. We also need to listen to other people’s (and each other’s) well-meaning advice so we don’t end up making serious mistakes and only learning our lessons when it’s too late.

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Note: Hemophilia News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Hemophilia News Today or its parent company, BioNews Services, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to hemophilia.

His post was met with scathing replies from employees who blamed the company for what was happening. 

“I’m struggling to match my values to my employment here,” an employee wrote in a comment. (The employee’s name was redacted in a version seen by NBC News.) “I came here hoping to effect change and improve society, but all I’ve seen is atrophy and abdication of responsibility.” 

Another employee asked, “How are we expected to ignore when leadership overrides research-based policy decisions to better serve people like the groups inciting violence today?”  

The comments openly challenged the company’s leadership with a not-so-subtle message: Facebook’s well-documented problems in abetting violent polarization and encouraging the spread of misinformation weren’t getting fixed, despite the company’s investments and promises. 

The comments are in thousands of pages of internal Facebook documents given to NBC News detailing Facebook’s internal debates around the societal impact of its platforms. Together the documents offer the deepest look provided to outsiders at the internal workings of the world’s largest social media company. 

They are a small fraction of the internal communications over the past several years at Facebook, where employee message boards that started as a way to embrace transparency have become an outlet for reflection and advocacy on the impact of social media.

The documents show employees — many who were hired to help Facebook address problems on its platforms — debating with one another on internal message boards free of public relations spin. Many tried to figure out how to turn stalled bureaucratic wheels and steer a company that now has so many departments that employees sometimes aren’t aware of overlapping responsibilities. Some employees defended management, with one calling Facebook executives “brilliant, data-driven futurists like many of us.” 

For the study, each of the 24,699 participants completed questionnaires on two occasions. For these questionnaires, they recalled all the foods they had eaten during the previous 24 hours.

The participants who were most likely to be mushroom eaters were college-educated, non-Hispanic white women.

The overall incidence of depression among the entire study cohort was 5.9%.

Mushroom eaters constituted 5.2% of the participants. The researchers divided these mushroom eaters into three groups according to the extent of their mushroom consumption.

Those who ate a median amount of mushrooms (4.9 grams [g] per day) were the only group to experience a reduction in the likelihood of depression.

Curiously, the researchers did not observe a similar reduction in depression for those who ate the most mushrooms (19.6 g each day), suggesting that a median intake constitutes the sweet spot for relief from depression.

On the other hand, Dr. Muscat speculated, “The number of study participants [who] consumed a half-a-serving size of mushrooms or more was quite small, so it could just be statistical variation.”

“Alternatively,” he added, “if mushrooms prevented depression, you would expect to see a greater effect in those who consumed the most, so either the protective effect in the middle consumption group is not real, or there are other factors that are obscuring the association in the highest tertile that we just don’t know about.”

Possible underlying mechanisms

The researchers hypothesize that the antidepressant properties of mushrooms may be related to specific compounds present in the fungi.

As lead study author Dr. Djibril Ba, Ph.D., M.P.H., suggests: “Mushrooms are the highest dietary source of the amino acid ergothioneine — an anti-inflammatory, which cannot be synthesized by humans. Having high levels of this may lower the risk of oxidative stress, which could also reduce the symptoms of depression.”

Mushrooms also contain antioxidants, which — according to the authors of the study — some believe have antidepressant qualities.

Another possible influence may be the presence of potassium. This is present in button mushrooms, which are the most popular mushroom variety in the United States. Some research links potassium to a reduction in anxiety.

The researchers also explain that some mushrooms, such as lion’s mane, or Hericium erinaceusTrusted Source, “can stimulate the expression of neurotrophic factors, such as nerve growth factor (NGF)Trusted Source synthesis, which could have a potential impact on preventing neuropsychiatric disorders including major depression.”

MNT spoke with Dr. Uma Naidoo, a Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist, professional chef, nutrition specialist, and author of the national bestseller This is Your Brain on Food. We asked Dr. Naidoo, who was not involved in the study, which other foods can support mental health.

She replied, “In regard to depression, the three key nutrients or foods to be included in the diet are folateTrusted Source, omega-3sTrusted Source, and fermented foodsTrusted Source.”

“Additionally,” said Dr. Naidoo, “I encourage everyone to be getting plenty of fiber in their diet through a variety of colorful vegetables and berries, and to be cooking with herbs and spices, for overall improved mental health and reduced risk of cognitive decline with age.”