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How I’m Handling My Depression Using an App

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Re: How I’m Handling My Depression Using an App

#21

Post by rl3 »

The author's approach is brilliant in that it exists at a layer above the productivity tools and techniques themselves, to check if they're being employed effectively (if at all).

I can also relate to his experience. Momentum is everything.

Getting into a productive state is hard, and once you start losing momentum, the deceleration tends to snowball. Next thing you know, you have no momentum, and depression is there waiting to pick you apart like a vulture. Becoming productive again is now harder because you're depressed from not being productive. It's a vicious cycle that feeds into itself.

Re: How I’m Handling My Depression Using an App

#22

Post by p4wnc6 »

I used to use Moodscope to record daily subjective ratings in some key areas, like whether I felt "strong" or "productive" or "powerless" or "scared".

The process of entering the data about myself each day actually made me significantly more depressed, because it was like a constant reminder of how depressed I was, and how the external circumstances that caused my depression weren't changing (even when I was doing all of the things I could do from my end, like exercise, see friends, listen to music, and so on).

So we should keep in mind that this sort of thing isn't a panacea. In some cases, at least, it could make things worse rather than better.

Re: How I’m Handling My Depression Using an App

#24

Post by spdionis »

hightechlowlife wrote: post #13
doomrobo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might mean to say that it's worsened when they're not busy with something. Actively working on a task that one finds rewarding can definitely help with depression.

Sure, but from reading the article it seems that social isolation as a matter of lifestyle is the elephant in the room. If he has to be held accountable through an app, it would suggest that there's no people present throughout the day to hold him accountable. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it's less absurd than assuming we just need a whip when we're down. This isn't an unemployed person feeling like they're not contributin…

My first thought after reading that he's a freelance web developer was "get an office job". I know from experience that working alone for an extended period of time can get you down easily.

Re: How I’m Handling My Depression Using an App

#25

Post by meesterdude »

I have built something similar, but don't have it configured to do quite the same things, although it certainly could. It's more a generic platform that these kinds of things could happen if you configured them to, so it could work for individuals as well as companies, for example. But I don't have a support structure in place that will come to my rescue when i'm feeling blue. It's just me, my emotions and my behavior.

A lot of people find benefit in quantification; I do not. While I have my house wired with doorbells that correlate to todos in my app so it knows when i have/have not done something; its really my own psychology or philosophy that has the biggest impact on when I do something. Everything else is more for management.

Re: How I’m Handling My Depression Using an App

#26

Post by corndoge »

"I do know the solution. And many of you healthy thinkers will be way ahead of me on this. In its simplest form the solution is to do stuff. Do the basic stuff like getting up, cleaned and dressed promptly at a sensible time, keeping on top of my laundry etc...

The flip side of feeling awful when I don’t do these things is that I feel incredible when I do."

If the author feels incredible when he accomplishes a task -- any task at all -- I wonder as to the severity of his depression.

Neat concept for the app though.

Re: How I’m Handling My Depression Using an App

#27

Post by wicker »

LordHumungous wrote: post #23

I made an app to help me with my problem. I open it and it says "Don't drink, fuckface"

Just ignore me if you were joking, but do I have a serious question about exactly this. I've considered doing something like this for myself. Not an app, but I thought I might wrap my credit card in a bit of cardboard that says "Wait! Think! What are you doing?" as a speed bump against my compulsive spending.

Does this actually work for you? Do you open the app and it says "Don't drink, fuckface." and you're like "oh, right, OK. I won't." Or do you just blow right past it? I used to work in a shop with gruesome safety posters on the wall at work but after a couple of weeks, I stopped noticing them. I figure this would turn out to be something like that.

Re: How I’m Handling My Depression Using an App

#28

Post by Karunamon »

hightechlowlife wrote: post #3

"For me, depression is caused by a lack of productivity". It is beyond me that such a statement can be expressed seriously. I strongly suggest the author look beyond "I'm not working hard enough" as the key reason for his mental illness.

As someone that can sympathize with the author on a number of levels, this is a tremendously insensitive comment - I wouldn't expect to see such glibness with regard to someone's mental health posted on this site of all places.

First, note that he said "for me" - you don't and can't know what makes him tick better than he does, full stop.

Second, I can tell you with complete certainty that realizing that you're not getting shit done is a legitimate initiator (both to me, and apparently the author) of a spiraling cascade of negative thoughts that lead to feeling useless and terrible - and once that mood has been achieved, pulling yourself out of it takes either massive amounts of willpower (a limited thing) or a mental reset of some kind (sleep, chemicals, really deep meditation).

It sucks. It really, really, sucks. Please think more carefully before remarking in this way in the future.

--

All that said. I kind of had an idea like this a while ago[1], but never thought to mate it with a system that actually pings friends for help! Quite clever, and more importantly, it appears to work.

[1]: https://tkware.info/tsas/

Re: How I’m Handling My Depression Using an App

#29

Post by c23gooey »

corndoge wrote: post #26

"I do know the solution. And many of you healthy thinkers will be way ahead of me on this. In its simplest form the solution is to do stuff. Do the basic stuff like getting up, cleaned and dressed promptly at a sensible time, keeping on top of my laundry etc... The flip side of feeling awful when I don’t do these things is that I feel incredible when I do." If the author feels incredible when he accomplishes a task -…

The word depression is just as over used as the word startup. It was only a matter of time before the two came together.

Re: How I’m Handling My Depression Using an App

#30

Post by evincarofautumn »

wicker wrote: post #27
LordHumungous wrote: post #23

I made an app to help me with my problem. I open it and it says "Don't drink, fuckface"

Just ignore me if you were joking, but do I have a serious question about exactly this. I've considered doing something like this for myself. Not an app, but I thought I might wrap my credit card in a bit of cardboard that says "Wait! Think! What are you doing?" as a speed bump against my compulsive spending. Does this actually work for you? Do you open the app and it says "Don't drink, fuckface." and you're like "oh…

This used to be my home page, for a while: https://www-zeuthen.desy.de/~nkelhos/focus/

It was a useful reminder, not to avoid online distraction, but to address the issues (primarily stress) that made me distracted in the first place. Similar tactics have helped me abstain from drinking excessively.

I imagine this sort of thing would work for any compulsive behaviour—interrupt the symptom, but mainly so that you’re more mindful of fixing the cause.

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