TEDGlobal 2012
Ruby Wax: What's so funny about mental illness?
鲁比·怀克丝(Ruby Wax)：精神疾病有什么可笑的?
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Readability: 3.1
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身体疾病可博取同情，喜剧演员鲁比·怀克丝说到，除了那些大脑生病的。为什么会那样？活力四射幽默感十足的怀克丝，十年前被诊断出临床忧郁症，她敦促我们杜绝精神疾病的污名。
Ruby Wax - Comedian and Mental Health Activist
Ruby Wax is a loud, funny woman -- who spent much of her comedy career battling depression in silence. Now her work blends mental health advocacy and laughs. Full bio
Ruby Wax is a loud, funny woman -- who spent much of her comedy career battling depression in silence. Now her work blends mental health advocacy and laughs. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
One in four people suffer from some sort of mental illness,
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每四个人中就有一人患有某种精神疾病
00:19
so if it was one, two, three, four, it's you, sir.
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如果说是一二三四 就是你了先生
00:24
You. Yeah. (Laughter)
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对 是你（笑声）
00:25
With the weird teeth. And you next to him. (Laughter)
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牙齿有点怪的那位 还有旁边那位(笑声)
00:29
You know who you are.
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你自己可清楚了
00:30
Actually, that whole row isn't right. (Laughter)
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事实上那一整排都不大正常(笑声)
00:32
That's not good. Hi. Yeah. Real bad. Don't even look at me. (Laughter)
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这不太好 是的 真的很糟糕 拜托别看着我 (笑声)
00:37
I am one of the one in four. Thank you.
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我就是四个人中的那一人 谢谢
00:42
I think I inherit it from my mother, who,
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我想我这病是从我妈妈那里遗传过来的
00:45
used to crawl around the house on all fours.
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她常四肢着地在房子里四处爬动
00:48
She had two sponges in her hand, and then she had two
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她手里拿着两个海绵 还有两个
00:51
tied to her knees. My mother was completely absorbent. (Laughter)
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绑在膝盖那里 我妈妈具有完全的吸水性(笑声)
00:56
And she would crawl around behind me going,
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她会跟在我身后爬来爬去喊着
00:58
"Who brings footprints into a building?!"
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“谁会把脚印带到屋子里!”
01:02
So that was kind of a clue that things weren't right.
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这算是个线索 有点不太对劲
01:04
So before I start, I would like to thank
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在我开始之前 我想感谢
01:09
the makers of Lamotrigine, Sertraline, and Reboxetine,
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拉莫三嗪(Lamotrigine) 舍曲林(Sertraline) 帕罗西汀(Reboxetine)的制药商
01:14
because without those few simple chemicals, I would not be vertical today.
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因为如果没有这几种常用药物 我今天就不会站在这里
01:19
So how did it start?
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我的病是怎么开始的呢
01:24
My mental illness -- well, I'm not even going to talk about my mental illness.
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我的精神疾病 我都根本不想谈论它
01:28
What am I going to talk about? Okay.
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那我谈些什么好呢 好吧
01:30
I always dreamt that, when I had my final breakdown,
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我以前常常会想自己最终会在什么时候发病
01:34
it would be because I had a deep Kafkaesque
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可能因为我有深深的卡夫卡式
01:37
existentialist revelation,
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存在主义的启示
01:39
or that maybe Cate Blanchett would play me and she would win an Oscar for it. (Laughter)
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或可能是凯特•布兰切特扮演了我的角色并赢了奥斯卡(笑声)
01:44
But that's not what happened. I had my breakdown
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但这些都没发生 我发病的时候
01:47
during my daughter's sports day.
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正是我女儿的运动会日
01:49
There were all the parents sitting in a parking lot
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所有家长都坐在停车场
01:53
eating food out of the back of their car -- only the English --
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在车背上吃着食物 只是英国人
01:57
eating their sausages. They loved their sausages. (Laughter)
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吃着他们的香肠 他们可喜欢他们的香肠了(笑声)
02:03
Lord and Lady Rigor Mortis were nibbling on the tarmac,
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大家都在讲些闲话和八卦
02:07
and then the gun went off and all the girlies started running,
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突然枪声响了 所有的女孩都跑了起来
02:10
and all the mummies went, "Run! Run Chlamydia! Run!" (Laughter)
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所有的妈妈都喊着 “快跑！快跑Chlamydia(人名 谐音衣原体)！快跑！”(笑声)
02:15
"Run like the wind, Veruca! Run!"
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“像风一样跑 Veruca(人名)! 快跑！”
02:19
And all the girlies, girlies running, running, running,
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所有的女孩都在跑啊跑啊跑啊
02:21
everybody except for my daughter, who was just standing
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所有人除了我的女儿 她就站着
02:24
at the starting line, just waving,
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在起跑线的地方 光顾着挥手
02:27
because she didn't know she was supposed to run.
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因为她不知道她应该跑起来
02:30
So I took to my bed for about a month, and when I woke up
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我因此卧床一个月 当我醒来的时候
02:34
I found I was institutionalized, and when I saw the other inmates,
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我发现自己住院了 看到其他病人的时候
02:38
I realized that I had found my people, my tribe. (Laughter)
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我意识到我找到自己的同类了 我的群落(笑声)
02:43
Because they became my only friends, they became my friends,
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因为他们成了我唯一的朋友 他们成了我的朋友
02:46
because very few people that I knew -- Well, I wasn't
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因为我本来就认识不多人 而我也没有
02:49
sent a lot of cards or flowers. I mean, if I had had a broken leg
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收到很多问候卡或鲜花 我的意思是 如果我是摔断了腿
02:53
or I was with child I would have been inundated,
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或者我有了孩子我也许就被大家的关心所掩埋了
02:55
but all I got was a couple phone calls telling me to perk up.
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但我只接到了几通电话叫我振作
02:59
Perk up.
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振作
03:00
Because I didn't think of that. (Laughter)
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因为我没想过要振作呢(笑声)
03:05
(Laughter) (Applause)
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(笑声)(掌声)
03:08
Because, you know, the one thing, one thing that you get with this disease,
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因为有一样东西 得了这种病你会得到它
03:13
this one comes with a package, is you get a real sense of shame,
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这是整套附送的 就是你会感到很羞耻
03:16
because your friends go, "Oh come on, show me the lump,
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因为你的朋友们会说 “来 给我看看肿块
03:19
show me the x-rays," and of course you've got nothing to show,
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给我看看X光片” 当然你什么都没有可以拿来展示的
03:21
so you're, like, really disgusted with yourself because you're thinking,
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你就会变得很厌恶自己因为你觉得
03:24
"I'm not being carpet-bombed. I don't live in a township."
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“没有很多人来看望我 我不是在城镇里生活”
03:27
So you start to hear these abusive voices, but you don't hear one abusive voice,
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你开始听到很多谩骂声 不是一声两声
03:31
you hear about a thousand -- 100,000 abusive voices,
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你能听到近千个万个谩骂声
03:33
like if the Devil had Tourette's, that's what it would sound like.
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就像恶魔患了抽动症 听起来就像那样
03:37
But we all know in here, you know, there is no Devil,
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但我们在座的都知道 并没有恶魔
03:40
there are no voices in your head.
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你的头脑中并没有声音
03:42
You know that when you have those abusive voices,
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当你听到那些谩骂声时
03:44
all those little neurons get together and in that little gap
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所有那些小神经元会聚在一起 在那个小小的狭缝
03:47
you get a real toxic "I want to kill myself" kind of chemical,
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你就会产生“我真想杀了自己”有毒的化学物质
03:50
and if you have that over and over again on a loop tape,
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如果这种情况屡次发生
03:53
you might have yourself depression.
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你可能会让自己得抑郁症
03:55
Oh, and that's not even the tip of the iceberg.
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那还不到冰山一角
03:58
If you get a little baby, and you abuse it verbally,
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如果你有一个小婴儿 你常口头辱骂它
04:01
its little brain sends out chemicals that are so destructive
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它的小脑袋会发出非常具有破坏性的化学物质
04:05
that the little part of its brain that can tell good from bad just doesn't grow,
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以致它脑袋里面分辨美好事物的部分不再生长了
04:09
so you might have yourself a homegrown psychotic.
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你就自己培养了一个精神病者
04:12
If a soldier sees his friend blown up, his brain goes into
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如果一个士兵看到他的朋友被炸了 他的大脑会进入
04:15
such high alarm that he can't actually put the experience into words,
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高度警戒状态以致他无法把所经历的东西用语言表达出来
04:19
so he just feels the horror over and over again.
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他只是一次又一次地感受到恐惧
04:22
So here's my question. My question is, how come
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那么我有一个问题 我的问题就是 为什么
04:24
when people have mental damage, it's always an active imagination?
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人们有精神创伤的时候 总被认为是主动想象造成的
04:28
How come every other organ in your body can get sick
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为什么其它身体器官生病时
04:31
and you get sympathy, except the brain?
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你会得到同情 而大脑除外呢
04:34
I'd like to talk a little bit more about the brain,
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我想谈多一些关于大脑的东西
04:37
because I know you like that here at TED,
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因为我知道TED在座的各位喜欢听
04:39
so if you just give me a minute here, okay.
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请给我一点时间好吗
04:42
Okay, let me just say, there's some good news.
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我就这么说吧 有些好消息
04:44
There is some good news. First of all, let me say,
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有些好消息 首先 我想说
04:47
we've come a long, long way.
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我们一路走来经历了很多
04:50
We started off as a teeny, teeny little one-celled amoeba,
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我们从非常非常小的单细胞变形虫
04:54
tiny, just sticking onto a rock, and now, voila, the brain.
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很小的 贴在一块石头上 现在 看啊 到了大脑
04:58
Here we go. (Laughter)
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我们开始吧 (笑声)
05:00
This little baby has a lot of horsepower.
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这小东西有很大马力
05:03
It comes completely conscious. It's got state-of-the-art lobes.
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它是有完整意识的 它有新生的脑叶
05:07
We've got the occipital lobe so we can actually see the world.
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因为有枕叶所以我们能看到世界
05:11
We got the temporal lobe so we can actually hear the world.
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因为有颞叶所以我们能听到世界上的声音
05:13
Here we've got a little bit of long-term memory,
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这里是我们有长期记忆的部分
05:15
so, you know that night you want to forget, when you got really drunk? Bye-bye! Gone. (Laughter)
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你很想忘记某天晚上真的喝醉了 拜拜 忘记了(笑声)
05:20
So actually, it's filled with 100 billion neurons
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事实上 大脑有1000亿个神经元
05:23
just zizzing away, electrically transmitting information,
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带电吱吱吱地传导着信息
05:27
zizzing, zizzing. I'm going to give you a little side view here.
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吱吱吱吱 我来给你们看看一些侧观
05:29
I don't know if you can get that here. (Laughter)
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我不知道你们能不能看清楚(笑声)
05:33
So, zizzing away, and so — (Laughter) —
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吱吱 那么(笑声)
05:37
And for every one — I know, I drew this myself. Thank you.
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对每个 这是我自己画 谢谢
05:41
For every one single neuron, you can actually have
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对每一个神经元来说 你事实上可以
05:44
from 10,000 to 100,000 different connections
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有1万到10万种不同的连接
05:48
or dendrites or whatever you want to call it, and every time
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或神经树突或不管你怎么叫 每一次
05:51
you learn something, or you have an experience,
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你学到东西或经历了一些事
05:54
that bush grows, you know, that bush of information.
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树突就会成长 就是信息的树突
05:56
Can you imagine, every human being is carrying
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你可以想象么 每个人都有
05:59
that equipment, even Paris Hilton? (Laughter)
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那样的装备 甚至是帕丽斯·希尔顿(笑声)
06:04
Go figure.
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想想看
06:06
But I got a little bad news for you folks. I got some bad news.
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我这里也有些坏消息想对你们说 我有些坏消息
06:09
This isn't for the one in four. This is for the four in four.
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比例不是四分之一 而是四分之四
06:12
We are not equipped for the 21st century.
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我们还没准备好过21世纪
06:16
Evolution did not prepare us for this. We just don't have the bandwidth,
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进化并没有帮我们做好准备 我们没有相关的连接
06:20
and for people who say, oh, they're having a nice day,
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对于那些人说他们过了美好的一天
06:23
they're perfectly fine, they're more insane than the rest of us.
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说他们过得非常好 他们比我们其他人还要疯狂
06:26
Because I'll show you where there might be a few glitches
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因为我会给你们看哪里会有些
06:29
in evolution. Okay, let me just explain this to you.
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进化的故障 好 让我解释给你们听
06:31
When we were ancient man — (Laughter) —
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当我们是古人的时候(笑声)
06:35
millions of years ago, and we suddenly felt threatened
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几百万年以前 我们突然受到
06:39
by a predator, okay? — (Laughter) —
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捕食者的威胁 好吗 (笑声)
06:42
we would — Thank you. I drew these myself. (Laughter)
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我们会 谢谢 我自己画的(笑声)
06:45
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause)
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非常感谢 谢谢 谢谢 (掌声)
06:49
Thank you. Anyway, we would fill up with our own adrenaline
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谢谢 不管怎么说 我们会激增自己的肾上腺素
06:53
and our own cortisol, and then we'd kill or be killed,
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和提脂醇 然后我们会展开杀戮或被杀
06:56
we'd eat or we'd be eaten, and then suddenly we'd de-fuel,
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我们会进食或被食 我们会瞬间发泄出这些化学物质
06:59
and we'd go back to normal. Okay.
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然后我们回到正常 好的
07:01
So the problem is, nowadays, with modern man— (Laughter) —
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问题是 现在的现代人(笑声)
07:06
when we feel in danger, we still fill up with our own chemical
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当我们感到危险时 我们依然激增身体的化学物质
07:10
but because we can't kill traffic wardens — (Laughter) —
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但因为我们不能杀掉交通管制员(笑声)
07:15
or eat estate agents, the fuel just stays in our body
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或吃掉地产经纪人 这些物质一直在我们的身体里面
07:19
over and over, so we're in a constant state of alarm,
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反反复复地 所以我们一直处在持续警惕的状态
07:22
a constant state. And here's another thing that happened.
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一个持续的状态 然后发生了另一件事
07:24
About 150,000 years ago, when language came online,
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大概15万年前 语言开始形成
07:27
we started to put words to this constant emergency,
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我们开始把这种持续警惕的状态用语言表达出来
07:29
so it wasn't just, "Oh my God, there's a saber-toothed tiger,"
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不止是 “我的天啊 有只剑齿虎”
07:32
which could be, it was suddenly, "Oh my God, I didn't send the email. Oh my God, my thighs are too fat.
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它可以突然是 “我的天 我没发邮件 我的天 我的大腿好粗
07:36
Oh my God, everybody can see I'm stupid. I didn't get invited to the Christmas party!"
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我的天啊 每个人都知道我犯蠢了 我没被邀请去圣诞派对！”
07:40
So you've got this nagging loop tape that goes
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你不停地有这唠叨的卷带放着
07:42
over and over again that drives you insane, so,
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一遍又一遍地把你逼疯了 那么
07:45
you see what the problem is? What once made you safe
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你看到问题所在了吗 曾经让你感到安全的东西
07:48
now drives you insane.
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现在正把你逼疯
07:50
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but somebody has to be.
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我很抱歉做了坏消息的信者 但有人得告诉你
07:53
Your pets are happier than you are. (Laughter)
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你的宠物比你更快乐 (笑声)
07:59
(Applause)
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(掌声)
08:02
So kitty cat, meow, happy happy happy, human beings, screwed. (Laughter)
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小猫咪 喵 快乐快乐快乐 人类 完蛋了 (笑声)
08:07
Completely and utterly -- so, screwed.
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完完全全 彻彻底底地 完蛋了
08:09
But my point is, if we don't talk about this stuff,
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我认为 如果我们不谈论这些问题
08:12
and we don't learn how to deal with our lives, it's not going
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如果我们不学会处理我们的生活 那就不会再是
08:14
to be one in four. It's going to be four in four
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四个中一个有问题 而是四个里面全都有问题
08:16
who are really, really going to get ill in the upstairs department.
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他们真的会生病住进高层病房
08:20
And while we're at it, can we please stop the stigma?
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如果真的发生了 我们可不可以不再冠以污名
08:22
Thank you. (Applause)
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谢谢（掌声）
08:29
(Applause) Thank you.
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（掌声）谢谢
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ruby Wax - Comedian and Mental Health ActivistRuby Wax is a loud, funny woman -- who spent much of her comedy career battling depression in silence. Now her work blends mental health advocacy and laughs.
Why you should listen
Winston Churchill called it "the Black Dog" -- a depression that settled over him and drained the flavor from life. Ruby Wax knows the Black Dog well; throughout the '80s and '90s, during a flourishing career as a brash comedian and interviewer in the UK, it trotted at her heels, even while she was interviewing the Duchess of York and sorting through Imelda Marcos' shoes.
After taking a timeout to learn how to manage the condition, Wax produced a stand-up comedy show called "Losing It" that directly addresses her mental health experiences, hilariously but powerfully. And she's started up a new social network called the Black Dog Tribe, which offers a community and support to people with depression. Meanwhile, she's working on her Master's in cognitive therapy.
Also, this year, Ruby was honored as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her mental health work.
As she says: "I've always said to myself, if you've got a disability, use it." Read our Q&A with Ruby Wax >>
Ruby is also a visiting professor at The University of Surrey.
Ruby Wax | Speaker | TED.com