Ask HN: How did you deal with depression? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How did you deal with depression?

#31

Post by farresito » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 11:35 PM UTC

AndrewMock wrote: post #20

1. Get medicated. 2. Set one small baby-step goal each day. (set an appointment today, etc.) Change the goal every time. 3. Change your environment. Move cities or schools if need be. 4. Exercise. Start with one rep on day 1, two reps on day 2, etc. Baby steps. 5. Ask for feedback on stuff. Any positive feedback helps motivate you to learn and do more projects. 6. Seek a healthy relationship. 7. Be vulnerable. Let so…

I wouldn't be so fast about getting medicated. There are well known side effects. I don't think that is the solution, at least right now. I'm not sure about this obsession with getting medicated for every problem, honestly. If I got medicated for every issue I've had in my life, I would be in debt.

To answer to the original question, one of the easiest and potentially best solutions is to pick up an sport if you don't practice one and to spend more time with other things besides programming. Forget about programming for a few weeks. Do your college duties and don't spend more time than that. Go do other stuff. I've gone (and still do sometimes) through the exact same thing.

Re: Ask HN: How did you deal with depression?

#32

Post by lambdasquirrel » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 11:36 PM UTC

Meditation has helped me more than anything else, maybe even therapy. For years I did it "wrong." You can meditate to train focus, and you can meditate to dive through the layers of the mind. What helped me is the latter. The former helps you get work done, but it actually either makes the depression worse, or cuts you off from the world.

I don't know what the quality and breadth of instruction is, where you are in the world, so YMMV.

Re: Ask HN: How did you deal with depression?

#33

Post by Tossrock » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 11:37 PM UTC

zamalek wrote: post #26

It was hard at times: when you hit a slump you want to stay in that slump - it was hard fighting my way out, but it can be done. "Stop and smell the roses." Take the time to notice the beauty in things around you: both nature and concrete. I'm talking about the most sublime things. I first noticed it one night when I was driving home - the lights were reflecting off this dirty little dam of no significance, but for s…

What a bunch of hooey. Just 'deciding to be happy' is nonsense for someone with major depressive disorder (the medically accepted name of the disorder, as opposed to the term 'clinical depression', which people without experience tend to use...) I'm glad things worked out for you but this is not helpful advice for someone who is actually depressed. It's like telling someone who's short to just decide to be taller.

Re: Ask HN: How did you deal with depression?

#34

Post by bcoughlan » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 11:38 PM UTC

For me it got to breaking point at my job. I quit and moved to a cheap country for a few months. Ditched the laptop and smartphone and just relaxed, exeecised, read and cooked. Diet and exercise played a huge part, but I couldn't have got them in order while being depressed and stressed out. Being stressed meant always taking on a bit more than I could unload, and that feeling of being at max capacity constantly lead to neglecting day to day tasks such as eating well, shaving, exercising, socialising. This feeds back into the stress and it all can get out of control so quickly.

I'd like to say that's the end of the story but I ran out of money and moved home and got another software job. At first I tried not to work too hard but stress slowly accumulated again. Soon after I felt that deflated feeling in my stomach every morning. I do yoga, run and cycle which is a huge help but it goes through phases and is really the prevention, not the cure. I'm convinced now that I need a radical permanent change to stop slipping into burnout and depression. I love programming but 40 hours a week kills me. Your circumstances may differ but its good to examine if prolonged stress is at the core.

Re: Ask HN: How did you deal with depression?

#35

Post by rosser » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 11:39 PM UTC

AndrewMock wrote: post #20

1. Get medicated. 2. Set one small baby-step goal each day. (set an appointment today, etc.) Change the goal every time. 3. Change your environment. Move cities or schools if need be. 4. Exercise. Start with one rep on day 1, two reps on day 2, etc. Baby steps. 5. Ask for feedback on stuff. Any positive feedback helps motivate you to learn and do more projects. 6. Seek a healthy relationship. 7. Be vulnerable. Let so…

There's definitely a place for medication, but for the majority of people, it's probably not number 1.

Re: Ask HN: How did you deal with depression?

#36

Post by eonw » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 11:39 PM UTC

nawariata wrote: post #18

throw_away_555 wrote: post #10

This won't get a lot of votes, but it ended up as diet and exercise for me. When I dropped caffeine and alcohol my anxiety went away. When I exercised my depression went away. I tried a lot of things, but it ended up figuring out that I wasn't eating well or working out. Now I do crossfit. I know, I know. It's a cult blah blah. But go try it. You need to be exercising every day to get all that endorphin goodness and…

Diet and exercise is extremely important if one wants to beat depression.

i have found exercise to be extremely useful when battling depression. diet also, but not nearly as much.

Re: Ask HN: How did you deal with depression?

#37

Post by eonw » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 11:42 PM UTC

Tossrock wrote: post #33

zamalek wrote: post #26

It was hard at times: when you hit a slump you want to stay in that slump - it was hard fighting my way out, but it can be done. "Stop and smell the roses." Take the time to notice the beauty in things around you: both nature and concrete. I'm talking about the most sublime things. I first noticed it one night when I was driving home - the lights were reflecting off this dirty little dam of no significance, but for s…

What a bunch of hooey. Just 'deciding to be happy' is nonsense for someone with major depressive disorder (the medically accepted name of the disorder, as opposed to the term 'clinical depression', which people without experience tend to use...) I'm glad things worked out for you but this is not helpful advice for someone who is actually depressed. It's like telling someone who's short to just decide to be taller.

the mind is the most powerful thing known to man. even with a disorder strong minded people have worked their way through and came back to being productive and happy members of society. alcoholism is considered a disease but people get through it with will power alone.

Re: Ask HN: How did you deal with depression?

#38

Post by oldmanjay » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 11:43 PM UTC

AndrewMock wrote: post #20

1. Get medicated. 2. Set one small baby-step goal each day. (set an appointment today, etc.) Change the goal every time. 3. Change your environment. Move cities or schools if need be. 4. Exercise. Start with one rep on day 1, two reps on day 2, etc. Baby steps. 5. Ask for feedback on stuff. Any positive feedback helps motivate you to learn and do more projects. 6. Seek a healthy relationship. 7. Be vulnerable. Let so…

1. Get medicated. 12. Never do drugs. This just amplifies your problems.

Re: Ask HN: How did you deal with depression?

#39

Post by zamalek » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 11:43 PM UTC

Tossrock wrote: post #33

zamalek wrote: post #26

It was hard at times: when you hit a slump you want to stay in that slump - it was hard fighting my way out, but it can be done. "Stop and smell the roses." Take the time to notice the beauty in things around you: both nature and concrete. I'm talking about the most sublime things. I first noticed it one night when I was driving home - the lights were reflecting off this dirty little dam of no significance, but for s…

What a bunch of hooey. Just 'deciding to be happy' is nonsense for someone with major depressive disorder (the medically accepted name of the disorder, as opposed to the term 'clinical depression', which people without experience tend to use...) I'm glad things worked out for you but this is not helpful advice for someone who is actually depressed. It's like telling someone who's short to just decide to be taller.

I guess you're right. I'll just remove that one paragraph. If you are at a doctor you are more than welcome to weigh in on the 2 opinions I had at 10 after being bullied for 3 years. I might not be able to remember all the terminology, but I do remember not being able to get out of it. I do remember not being able to have more than 1 friend up until I was 20. I do remember drinking myself into a pit at 22 (2 six packs a night, alone for a year, sound healthy?). I do remember digging myself out of it, alone, without help. Because for some reason I can't explain I started believing that I could. I am now happy. The only thing I have left is excruciating existential anxiety, can I beat that too? Fuck yeah.

Bunch of hooey, though.

I can tell you one thing: OP isn't going to win by believing it's impossible because even the best meds only provide symptomatic relief. They don't fix the underlying problem. It's like giving a short person a mirror that makes them look taller. Meds can help you win, meds are good. I would never recommend someone to avoid them. All irrelevant: OP indicated depression is not an illness in his country. He/she supposedly can't see a doctor. No meds. All that's left is will power.

Knowing someone else did it makes all the difference.

Finally, as an expert on the matter, where is your advice? Or are you here tear OP down? I know OP can do it, all you know is what a major depressive disorder is.

Re: Ask HN: How did you deal with depression?

#40

Post by Symbiote » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 11:46 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #17

dreyfiz wrote: post #6

Exercise. Read "The best exercises for mental illnesses": http://www.thementalrunner.org/p/the-best-exercise-for-menta... (Via the "exercise out of depression" subreddit: https://m.reddit.com/r/EOOD/ )

The evidence for exercise as a treatment for depression is weak at best. You should probably not recommend exercise as a treatment for depression. Of course, exercise is important and everyone should be exercising; and it might help with "resiliance". http://www.cochrane.org/CD004366/DEPRESSN_exercise-for-depre... > When only high-quality trials were included, exercise had only a small effect on mood that was not sta…

> The evidence for exercise as a treatment for depression is weak at best.

That's what the link you give says...

> You should probably not recommend exercise as a treatment for depression.

But it doesn't say that.

It does say "When compared to psychological or pharmacological therapies, exercise appears to be no more effective, though this conclusion is based on a few small trials.", in which case, can anything be recommended?

The NHS still recommends exercise for treating depression, at least in some cases: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/pages... & http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Depression/Pages/Treatment.aspx