Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Please Give Me Advice

news.ycombinator.com

51–60 of 121 posts

Re: Ask HN: Please Give Me Advice

#51

Been there, it gets better. If you want somebody to talk to drop me an email at pavlo@malynin.com about anything thats on your mind. If you want to talk to somebody at this current moment you can also text HOME to 741741 to speak with a counselor.

What made it better for you?

There isn't really any one thing, its been a combination of having a support network that understands, figuring out what I care about and working towards that, sharing with my brother, being grateful for the little things in life that I took for granted -- depression and feeling shitty, especially in current times is more common than you'd think. I don't really want to air my laundry in an open forum, but I'd be happy to chat more with you over email or a phone. Hell, if you're in the Bay Area we can even go grab a coffee, beer, or boba...

Re: Ask HN: Please Give Me Advice

#52
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK number one thing to understand first and foremost: you are not a ‘broken person’ if you take medication. It’s a tired trope, but only because there’s some truth to it: a person with kidney, heart, or other organ issues isn’t a broken person because they take medication for their condition, right? Same applies to any of your conditions.

Instead of going through this and fixing my life, i'm outsourcing it on pills

This comes from a belief that you could fix the problem via some thought process.

Is a type 1 diabetic simply outsourcing their disease to injectable insulin "instead of going thorough this and fixing [their] life"?

Depression doesn't work like that.

You asked for advice because what you were thinking/trying isn't working. Don't be surprised if some of the suggestions are going to be things you haven't tried yet.

Re: Ask HN: Please Give Me Advice

#53

First: appreciate where you are and what you already have. There are people out there who are struggling to get a single meal during the day . Second: check your diet, sleep and health. A good mind needs all of those in proper order. See an expert if any of those is not in place. Third: Do you work part-time/full-time? If yes you are already contributing something to the world. If not, are you a student? You will hav…

I'm freelancer and have a startup

But i don't find that fulfilling anymore

My entire life is making others rich, i'm tired being a cog

Re: Ask HN: Please Give Me Advice

#55
Hmmm wanna send me some money?

I don't have money, and I may not be as miserable and unhappy as you, but I also dream of making a contribution. At the top of my head I've been wanting to do the following:

- Guide local undergrads in learning web dev. Giving them access to quality learning materials means a lot, let alone letting them access free linux servers (there are $5 cheap ones at hetzner / digitalocean / vultr but I was thinking if I could maximize those by using firecracker vm's which was used by fly.io)

- Create a local startup community platform. Our local community have a sub-par index of the local startup ecosystem and its resources, could use a lot of organization.

My work doesn't pay a lot, I don't have inheritance, I still struggle on bills. But I guess any man in my position would welcome some free beer and cigs money, hahaha.

Realtalk: if you're sitting on your hard-earned money, I don't see any reason to feel bad about it. If you're sitting on inherited money, maybe it's your parents' fault for giving you too much of a safety net. If you can't manage your resources efficiently, maybe the challenge is finding that person that could execute those well for you.

Lord Kelvin once said, "if we can't measure it, we can't improve it". What are your metrics for your impact-focused pursuits? At those two examples I've given above, my metrics are 1.) amount of undergrad developers we get to help each quarter, and 2.) amount of new local startup founder / employee we see each quarter. What are your metrics bro?

And what drugs are you on, uppers, downers, psychedelics, deluriants?.. Reminds me of that Alan Watts guy who said "If you get the message, hang up the phone.". Ain't saying they're good nor bad, but what's your end game with that? Maybe try dropping them for a while to get some clarity? Haha, ball is on your court

Re: Ask HN: Please Give Me Advice

#56

> I have money, yet i’m miserable and unhappy if you're putting this in one sentence try not having the money and see how it feels

Certainly it wouldn't feel better, but what i was implying that no amount of money has cured my misery and unhappiness

Re: Ask HN: Please Give Me Advice

#57
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK number one thing to understand first and foremost: you are not a ‘broken person’ if you take medication. It’s a tired trope, but only because there’s some truth to it: a person with kidney, heart, or other organ issues isn’t a broken person because they take medication for their condition, right? Same applies to any of your conditions.

Instead of going through this and fixing my life, i'm outsourcing it on pills

That’s not at all accurate. Blaming yourself for having depression is like blaming yourself for having epilepsy. It’s not your “fault”.

It’s important to note that while you might be taking meds, but you might not be taking the right meds, in the right amount.

It took me a while to find the right combination for me. This is very, very common. Everyone is different. People react differently to different antidepressants. Finding the right med(s) is a process. It sucks but it’s worth it. You are worth it.

Re: Ask HN: Please Give Me Advice

#58
Do you know if you are actually depressed? I ask because it sounds more like you've stumbled upon a common problem of being conventionally successful. Though trite, the saying that money doesn't bring happiness is mostly true, and it doesn't make up for a lack of spiritual fulfillment, which you seem to be facing.

You see, there's this thing called being sad that you all might have heard of. It's what happens when someone has good reason to feel bad. Before you assume you are broken, figure out whether you are sad or if you actually are clinically depressed. Maybe that means getting a diagnosis, or figuring it out on your own. A lot of people here are jumping to the conclusion that seeking therapy is the only answer for you and that's pretty messed up.

If you aren't achieving anything, and it's achievement in and of itself that you care about, then either focus on what will help you reach your current goal or find something else to achieve instead of doing what you are doing now. You don't have time to wait and find out if you'll get lucky going with the flow. Someday you will get too tired to change, and eventually you will die just as we all will.

So you're not happy with your current station in life. Well, there's likely a reason for that. You're unhappy because whatever you are doing to make money sucks. And yes, all work sucks to some extent, but the point at which you become sad and frustrated is the point at which a part of you realizes the futility of your situation. It sounds like you have an image of what you are supposed to be, and are concerned with how dead people would think of you. Give yourself a break. Nothing you said suggests that you are a bad person, and your grandparents lived most of their lives in a world entirely different from the one you and I share.

Before you go down the road of treating clinical depression, consider that you could be legitimately sad. It's okay to be sad as long as you eventually work your way out of it. There is no easy answer to addressing your problem. You can either stay sad, or you can throw the book out the window and try literally anything (within reason) that might give you a new purpose. Try something you think you might not even like, at least at first. Seeing as it doesn't sound like you are particularly worried about money, you may not have much to lose by quitting on the choices that are making you miserable.

And if you still don't find fulfillment, then you might need to lower your standards. In this day and age, it's way too easy for us to expect too much from ourselves. We can't all be heroes, else there would be no heroes. Some of us aren't meant to achieve anything meaningful besides perhaps raising children, and that's okay. Rather than achieving something meaningful, maybe you can just do something meaningful. Whatever said thing is, if there must be something, depends on what you do next.

But perhaps you've already tried. Maybe therapy would be the right thing for you, and you could even start with therapy. I don't care. I just don't hope that you are too quickly convinced that what you are going through is a pathological problem what it may really be a life problem.

No matter what, at some point, you just need to stop feeling sorry for yourself. In the grand scheme of things, you're still a winner in some respect. You could be sitting in a bare studio apartment for all I know and you're better off than millions of people in the world, and you are better off than many of our ancestors. Yes, a life devoid of satisfaction sucks, but you have time to find fulfillment that others don't. That's at least something to feel good about. You could fail over and over but at least you had the opportunity to do so.

Lastly, if there's anything you currently believe that is disempowering, learn not to believe such things. Ideas that aren't empowering are often wrong and serve you no good.

Re: Ask HN: Please Give Me Advice

#59
My advice is to sit yourself down and try to write about some of the things that you are thankful for. If you can sit down and make the post that you just did telling us all about how you feel, you also have the ability to try sitting down and finding a few things that you are thankful for. Maybe just start it out as a little practice a few times. No pressure. Start writing and just let it flow for a little bit but try to focus on some of the things that you feel like you might be thankful for. Even if it's the silliest things. I bet you can find a few things that you are thankful for... It may sound corny and to be honest, it's truly an obvious ploy to trick your mind away from feeling the way you wrote about into finding the foundation of at least something that you like and feel good about even if it's just in this moment. Perhaps maybe there's something that you can focus on that does make you feel good. Start there. You might even find some things that you are passionate about. If you're not already, I also recommend getting some fresh air and exercise. Even if it's just going for a walk.

Re: Ask HN: Please Give Me Advice

#60

Your perception of yourself and your life is being distorted by depression. The intellect tries to make this about "meaning," or who you are, but it's not really about that. You're not a parasite, and the people who care about you don't think you're a loser. You're okay, and it sucks that you're going through this, but nothing is wrong with you. You're just having a rough spot, which is normal and common, especially…

The saddest thing is that nobody seems to understand having depression is not my choice I don't want to be depressed no more than anyone else I don't want to be that person of which everyone thinks as depressed, it hurts

I don't know, but have you considered taking some of your time to contribute somewhere helping others, either humans, animals, or nature around you? There are even things like the Rewilding movement where you don't really need to interact with anyone in person, and you can make a very tangible meaningful change, at your own pace.
Post reply on HN