Bored to Death

Not sure about death but I have observed one common behaviour among my relatives and friends that once a person retires his/her health starts deteriorating or in other words they starts complaining about health problems more.

I wonder if boredom could be a proxy for depression in this case. Boredom is a normal state, but people who aren't depressed escape boredom by seeking out stimulation. Depression makes it harder to pursue activities that offer an escape from boredom and harder to enjoy the activities that you do engage in.

Causation? Did they really have a large enough sample size of bored people who otherwise took great care of themselves to show this?

A couple of days ago there was a story about a guy in a coma for I think about 11 years (from 11 to 22, or thereabouts). He was conscious and described on his awaking how a day when a fly landed on the ceiling within his gaze was a good day as there was something more interesting than normal. Frightening.<p>Watson, google that for me there's a good chap.

Correlation between boredom and death does not mean boredom <i>causes</i> death. It could just be that, for example, unhappiness causes:<p><pre><code> 1) boredom 2) alcoholism</code></pre>

When you're bored, you're sedentary, and when you're sedentary, you're out of shape, and when you're out of shape, you're much less healthy.