Getting out of your own head. Focusing on others, and doing things that keep you busy even if you don't feel like you want to.
Ask HN: How do you handle your depression?
21–26 of 26 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you handle your depression?
#22[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you handle your depression?
#23I'd recommend starting with therapy and going from there if it's available to you. I've been going to cognitive behavioral therapy for years and feel like I've received a ton of value from it for a couple reasons.
1. the therapist is a trained professional that can help me unpack and normalize my experience.
2. the therapist can recommend strategies to try and potentially refer me to a psychiatrist if they think medication might be worth considering
3. having a regular cadence of structured communication with a professional gives me the time to reflect and think, when I'm depressed this feels almost impossible on my own
There are so many factors that go into depression and in my experience its very difficult to go about finding something that helps alleviate it alone. If you aren't able to go to therapy for any reason than I would definitely recommend trying out some of the strategies mentioned in this thread, but I'd also suggest trying to find a family member or friend that you trust to talk to about your experience as well. Depression is so isolating and it will likely feel difficult to get the strength and courage to talk about it, but it's been extremely helpful for me and I'd recommend it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you handle your depression?
#24EXERCISE EVERY DAY! Follow these steps: 1 - Get outside and exercise. (it's free, simple and has immediate and long term effects) 2 - Get out of your context, travel to a new town or a new country for a few days. 3 - Read or listen to this (the audiobook free for a new account): https://www.audible.com/pd/Cant-Hurt-Me-Audiobook/B07KKMNZCH https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1544512287/ref=dbs_a_def_r... Talk to people…
Evidence for exercise as a treatment for depression is weak at best, and most of the research fails to show direction of causal effect: do people who exercise recover from depression, or do people who recover from depression become well enough to do exercise?
People who exercise recover from depression, definitely.
For these reasons and more:
- If you get outside consistently you will start facing reality from a different perspective. (being at a desk or closed office constantly sucks and contributes to mental and emotional atrophy)
- You start getting free endorphins that will make you feel better instantly.
- Also you relieve stress and pressure by burning energy.
If you mix that with travel, example running in a different place, town, country, it makes wonders.
Re: Ask HN: How do you handle your depression?
#25Today so many people are facing the depression problem. Lots of people are struggling with minor depression problem and few of them are struggling with the major depression problem. But this problem is simply overcome by following some of the natural methods. Many times people are not following natural methods and also not maintaining their body health. It is also one of the main reason for the depression. So we can naturally overcome this health issue. http://www.angelmeds.com/blog/natural-ways-to-master-depress...
Re: Ask HN: How do you handle your depression?
#26You don't handle depression. That's where everyone fails. You come up with- and handle anything else - ideas, work, gym - whatever. The moment you "handle depression" or "fight depression" - you feed it. You kill it by lack of attention to "depression". You kill it by focusing attention to anything else. Most effective is helping other people with whatever they need. That's because it de-focuses attention from your o…
I couldn't disagree more with this advice. It's important to address your mental health problems, not ignore them. Trying to help others, while you're barely surviving each day, won't work out well in the long run. Just to be clear - "lack of attention to depression" kills you, not the depression.
I also think using the word "handling" is appropriate. Maybe "managing" is even better, because very often it's something that you need to take care of for the rest of your life.