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Ask HN: How is your mental health?

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Re: Ask HN: How is your mental health?

#131

Post by apexkid »

JohnFen wrote: post #28
apexkid wrote: post #3

Use the following strategies: 1. Meditate daily for 15 minutes. Try vedic indian meditations. 2. Keep track of your mood using some app. 3. If your mood is bad for consistently 3 days, then open pastebin and write down about everything you are feeling and going in your head. Most small problems with mental health can be dealt by bringing in consciousness. Simple example, whenever you are feeling nervous, force you br…

I love your comment. Especially this: > Most small problems with mental health can be dealt by bringing in consciousness. I think that what I do is, in the end, the same as you -- I just do it a little differently. Years ago, I developed a habit of questioning why I'm doing whatever I'm doing -- particularly if what I'm doing is unusual or emotional. The key, for me, is that the question and answers are intended to b…

Thank you for appreciating my idea and I am glad you are following something similar. However, let me give you a suggestion to improve it. The first step to bring consciousness should simply start by observing what is happening and not question why. Being in a state of observation is a neutral state. When you question something your mind goes into conflict mode. That can aggravate the situation. Hence, simply observe and understand what is going on without any judgement or trying to find solution. Once you find inner peace, then move to the next step of diving deep into the problem and finding solution.

Re: Ask HN: How is your mental health?

#132

Post by apexkid »

Kluny wrote: post #30
apexkid wrote: post #3

Use the following strategies: 1. Meditate daily for 15 minutes. Try vedic indian meditations. 2. Keep track of your mood using some app. 3. If your mood is bad for consistently 3 days, then open pastebin and write down about everything you are feeling and going in your head. Most small problems with mental health can be dealt by bringing in consciousness. Simple example, whenever you are feeling nervous, force you br…

15 minutes is a really long time to meditate. Anyone who's new to it, I suggest starting with 30 seconds and work your way up to 15 in increments of 30 seconds to a minute. It's like starting with an empty bar when weightlifting.

Why don't you try any of these meditation with an open mind and let me know how many minutes were you able to meditate.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=meditation+sri+...

Re: Ask HN: How is your mental health?

#134

Post by sincarne »

raducu wrote: post #35

I'm supposed to use a document template my therapist emailed me, most likely I will search for an app that does the same (too paranoid about printing and filling a document about my mood) -- so I don't track it yet. I was diagnosed 5 years ago with BPD, has gotten better over the years(mostly by just life exposure I guess), I still get huge situational flare-ups, stuff about work or family, but I no longer react like…

Is the template something you could share? I'd be interested in seeing it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

In the paste I've created text expansions for journaling forms I've wanted to use, then just dump them into the app I was using. Unfortunately I don't have those anymore.

Re: Ask HN: How is your mental health?

#135

Post by LegendaryPatMan »

criddell wrote: post #58
LegendaryPatMan wrote: post #29

I really don't to use an app and I don't buy mindfulness in the slightest so for me, I write down important things that are nagging at me at the end of the day or standout negative events etc in a little diary I keep in my bag so it's where even I am and I can keep track of these events Apart from that, I take time to do things that are in no way related work so I go to the Cinema with non-IT people, I joined a cycli…

> I don't buy mindfulness in the slightest > I write down important things that are nagging at me Sounds like you buy it at least a bit.

There can be overlap between methods doing CBT and mindfulness and I need to record my thoughts so I can have an honest conversation with my therapist.

Like maybe I should have been clearer with that specific sentiment because what I really have an issue with isn't the Hindu idea of mindfulness but with a company provided mindfulness program or say the hundred million dollar Headspace App mindfulness idea. I'd personally be deeply uncomfortable with giving that kind of deeply personal information over to anyone but my therapist who treat my data as health records and does everything on paper

Re: Ask HN: How is your mental health?

#136

Post by confidantlake »

sturakov wrote: post #120
confidantlake wrote: post #86

I have social anxiety disorder. My mental health has gotten worse since starting a new job with 100% pairing. I don't want to pair every day and I try to bring up that I would like to pair less but it does no good. I say hey I would like to pair less and the response is always "how can we make pairing better"? No one cares that I actually don't want to pair. I have gone from having panic attacks once every few months…

There's no easy solution to what you are facing. One thing that might be helpful is for you to go to therapy with your wife. When your brain panics at interacting with other people, your perception of others might be skewed. Maybe your therapists meant well and your anxiety got in the way of you continuing with them. Your wife can help provide you with perspective with any therapist you meet. Just a sanity check afte…

That is a good idea. I agree that my therapists likely did mean well but my anxiety skewed my perceptions.

Re: Ask HN: How is your mental health?

#137

Post by punchclockhero »

sanzomebe wrote: post #129
adamnemecek wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be more specific.

I start off in a new job feeling pretty ok, but quickly it just devolves into procrastination and anxiety. I feel to anxious to open my emails so I don't reply to anything and don't get anything done. I actually took a remote job (hah) thinking that maybe getting out of the office environment would help. Nope, now all communication was online it felt even more stressful. They thought I'd been hit by a car or somethin…

My heart goes out to you. I have the exact same problem and it's not just with work. I've been unable to write long form since the beginning of high school. Funnily enough I managed to scrape through most of an English degree program until I dropped out in the fourth year.

IM is usually ok, unless I expect to be criticized.

My remote fiasco is pretty similar to yours. Eventually it got cut from a full time job to an hour a month maintenance gig. I ended it when I started an in-office job and supposedly sign again for easier paperwork. I've been putting it off for like 3 months and old boss doesn't even send reminders anymore.

Current job is very scrummy, very social. Coworkers are a chair roll away, so no email. Right now there's a lot of work and scarcely have time to go inside my head. I hope it helps, I really do.

Re: Ask HN: How is your mental health?

#138

Post by wnkrshm »

I think I have figured out that I have adult ADHD, the innatentive kind, with problems of directing focus where I want it to be. If you give me something interesting, I can commit and spend a day absorbed in it but it's extremely hard to direct my focus where I need it to be - my head is full of ten things at the same time. Once adrenaline hits and the deadline draws near I can focus well but over the last years this always resulted in a crunch-exhaustion cycle, I've been through hundreds of those with a weekly interval and I think I've burnt out on that a little.

I've discovered this in the past months, where, for the first time, I've only had one single project at work instead of more than two. Before, I blamed this inability to focus on the amount of different issues and projects (that were mostly non-related in terms of subjects) that I had but now...

Now I find it's equally hard to focus on the one thing without getting distracted - and adrenaline helps to get the focus, so my weekly productivity looks just like before with more projects, just fewer peaks.

I've only got an appointment in January for diagnosis but since the DSM-V wasn't updated in terms of adult ADHD, a diagnosis involves answering questionnaires about when you were a kid more than the actual situation now.

Edit: typo

Re: Ask HN: How is your mental health?

#139

Post by rswskg »

JohnFen wrote: post #36
rswskg wrote: post #26

Terrible. I bailed out of a contract because not only was the working environment very poor, but I also recognised I was a long way from being useful there. I'm two weeks out and lost.

Bailing on that contract sounds to me like a very healthy action. May I offer a suggestion or two for what to do next? First, keep (or reestablish) the routine you had while working. That is, get up at the time you used to, get ready for a workday as if you still worked there, and work. You didn't really quit working, you just changed your job from whatever you did as a contractor to finding a replacement gig. So do…

Thankfully I have a child and a partner. They really save me, I go to bed before 12 and get up to take baby to nursery.

Weirdly after writing the original message, I had my first good day.

Re: Ask HN: How is your mental health?

#140

Post by Blakestr »

muzani wrote: post #124
muzani wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single meditation expert I know has given a warning with it. For some people, even 5 minutes is harsh. I've been in groups where people just break down and cry at that point. One meditation coach once told me a story of one of his clients who did a 20 minute guided session, and he went out of it with vomiting, diarrhea, and was really angry at the guy. But a few days later, he felt something clear up and asked…

I'm curious why this always gets downvoted on HN with no comment. That's quite a bit of disconnect with other groups. Is it because a difference in terminology? On HN, meditation seems to mean 'relax and do nothing'. Elsewhere, it seems to mean 'concentrate on only one thing', which usually makes people recall traumatic situations. Or does it come across as too prescriptive with little evidence to back it?

People confuse the term meditation and mindfulness. Maybe like development vs programming.

Mindfulness is what has been spreading, but usually it is intoduced as meditation.

I didn't downvote but I can't imagine someone vomiting by simple guided mindfulness exercise. Telling someone to "focus on your breathing" or "if you find your distracted by thoughts, just be aware of those thoughts, and return to your breathing" doesn't strike me as very invasive.

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