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When You Are Depressed, Make Something

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Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something

#301

Post by pharrington »

komali2 wrote: post #117
sixo wrote: post #80

When you are depressed, see if there's a serious problem in your life that is causing you to be depressed and devote as much time and energy as you can muster towards exploring solutions to that problem, even if they entail dramatic life-changing decisions, because that's the kind of problem we're dealing with here. Examples of such problems: you hate your graduate program. You have no friends in your city and no ide…

I completely disagree with you. I believe you are describing solutions to problems that can make someone sad or frustrated, which is a fine thing. I'm all about being real about your life situation and doing something about it. However, depression is a disease independent of external factors. I had it when I had arguably one of the coolest jobs in my life up until that point. I treated it with medication, got out of…

~~~my anecdote~~~

During my first semester of university, I suffered crippling depression and at some point tried to kill myself. Soon after I entered a mental hospital and started journaling. In one of my first journal entries, I noted that I was fairly smart, had great friends, had parents that loved me, had a full scholarship to university, and yet I hated my life and wanted to die. At the time, my condition certainly seemed like some sudden contingency resulting in brain malfunction.

What I did not then realize, and in fact did not at all realize until last year, was that I spent the first 16 years of my life in a literal doomsday cult. I was raised a Jehovah's Witness, and since that was really all I knew, even when I eventually came to the point where I disagreed with some of the doctrines, it never crossed my mind that there was anything at all nefarious about how that organization treats its members.

What you have to realize is that without exceptional self awareness or being adapt at adopting multiple perspectives, people are mostly blind to context of their own circumstances. That's usually fine; such awareness takes a ton of energy and most people just don't need it to stay alive. But when things do start going seriously wrong, and you're experiencing non-congenital mental disorders, is it really reasonable to believe that your mental state is "independent of external factors"? As if that's somehow the one thing the brain's constant processing of sensory data and immediate experience and past memories isn't effecting?

Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something

#302

Post by throwaway729 »

mack73 wrote: post #129
throwaway729 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. But, I think the key realization is that whenever the incentives are strong enough, a lot of hard-working geniuses will be fighting for the prize. Hard-working geniuses are really hard to compete against, and if you don't realize that natural variation is a real thing , you can get discouraged pretty quickly.

Screw those hard-working geniuses, always turning life into a freakin' competition ffs.

Just to clarify, that's not my opinion at all!

Usually, those people are making disproportionate contributions to the world for comparably small rewards. Usually. We're lucky to have Einsteins and Bachs and Taos and an infinitude of less well-known but probably equally capable hard-working geniuses. I'm very grateful for hard-working geniuses who devote themselves to important problems! Some of them do apply themselves toward more secular ends, such as Gates. That's OK too, although the world takes care of gratefulness for me ;-)

It's just important to realize they exist if you ever get into a situation where you're regularly competing with them.

Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something

#303

Post by cLeEOGPw »

EGreg wrote: post #101
sixo wrote: post #80

When you are depressed, see if there's a serious problem in your life that is causing you to be depressed and devote as much time and energy as you can muster towards exploring solutions to that problem, even if they entail dramatic life-changing decisions, because that's the kind of problem we're dealing with here. Examples of such problems: you hate your graduate program. You have no friends in your city and no ide…

What do you guys think is the point of all our activities if people eventually die? Most mainstream Judaeo-Christian postulates the immortality of the soul. But it seems to come up against mainstream history and science. Hasn't anyone here felt these existential questions? Even if you accomplish so much, in the end you can't even answer basic questions about the meaning of it all. You can consile yourself with the id…

> What do you guys think is the point of all our activities if people eventually die?

For me it's to spend your time being happy. Nothing else really matters. If you spend your life being unhappy and feeling bad, remember that you will die and that will be it.

Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something

#305

Post by tgb »

jackpirate wrote: post #273
tgb wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one feels ashamed of seeking treatment for pneumonia, but there's no way you would say it's independent of external factors. That depression is affected by external factors should neither be controversial nor related to your concerns about society's acceptance of its treatment. You seem to be conflating "dependent on external factors" with "arises due to bad life decisions", which is bizarre as it's kinda the exac…

In a strictly clinical discussion it is fine to use language like "dependent on external factors" with its technical meaning. But when you're talking to someone potentially suffering from depression and not a clinician, you need to be aware of how they will respond to your words. The average person conflates "dependent on external factors" with "arises due to bad life decisions" and so we need to adapt our language a…

I'd think most people would mistake it as implying that depression was caused by, say, lead in your pipes or that time they were mugged and felt powerless. External factors seem to me to push the blame away, not towards, the individual. The alternative of saying that depression is causeless to me sounds more likely to induce people to think it's "just their fault" or "if there's no cause, why can't they snap out of it?" But I don't have much experience dealing with such people to know.

Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something

#306

Post by alimw »

Question1101 wrote: post #284
alimw wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's crazy talk. How good would you have to be before your work was "worthwhile" enough to make you happy?

It would just have to not look ridiculous.

It doesn't take long at all to teach the basic tricks of how to draw. Maybe find a short course of evening classes at your local college? And have fun :)

Edit: I hope that doesn't sound patronising, I am assuming you are a beginner but of course you might just be someone with impossibly high standards

Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something

#307

Post by camtarn »

kzrdude wrote: post #223
jackpirate wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What? No disease is independent of external factors. This statement is true only in the narrowest sense and is actively harmful to people with mental health issues. Let's compare depression and cancer to see why. It is common to say something like "cancer is independent of external factors" to mean that anyone can get cancer. It doesn't matter how healthy of a lifestyle you live. Due to random chance, the guy who re…

The acceptance for cancer is great, but I believe both cancer and depression can be avoided with good chance due to factors you decide yourself. Living healthily, eating healthily.

Er, no. You can reduce your risk of cancer greatly by living and eating healthily, but you cannot avoid it. Being alive is in itself a cancer risk, because there are many different cancers and many different ways they can arise - and some of those ways are pretty much purely random.

Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something

#308

Post by SmkyMt »

entropyneur wrote: post #289

Fascinating how depression is one of the hottest topics in this community. Are hackers particularly vulnerable to it? Or just particularly aware? Or is it simply one of the next big issues entering the public mind?

It touches each of us or someone near us:

"In 2015, an estimated 16.1 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. ...6.7% of U.S. adults."

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/major-...

Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something

#309

Post by SmkyMt »

parthdesai wrote: post #11
pfortuny wrote: post #8

Actually, when you are depressed you should seek some help. First. Then we can talk.

As someone who was in OP's shoes literally, ( my 1st job was a 4 month contract with an option to extend, which never happened) you tend to shut out people. It just happens. I can't explain it why but it does. I consider myself as a social person who can't live without friends, but i ended up just sitting in my room. When i graduated and while i was working i could never imagine me not going to gym but guess what, i…

One of the core symptoms/phenomena of major depression is anhedonia - the inability to experience pleasure.

It’s very difficult to imagine what that would be like - until you experience it. Hope you’ll seek out some effective help. It’s hard to dig out all by oneself.

Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something

#310

Post by edblarney »

komali2 wrote: post #117
sixo wrote: post #80

When you are depressed, see if there's a serious problem in your life that is causing you to be depressed and devote as much time and energy as you can muster towards exploring solutions to that problem, even if they entail dramatic life-changing decisions, because that's the kind of problem we're dealing with here. Examples of such problems: you hate your graduate program. You have no friends in your city and no ide…

I completely disagree with you. I believe you are describing solutions to problems that can make someone sad or frustrated, which is a fine thing. I'm all about being real about your life situation and doing something about it. However, depression is a disease independent of external factors. I had it when I had arguably one of the coolest jobs in my life up until that point. I treated it with medication, got out of…

"depression is a disease independent of external factors."

I'm not sure this is fair.

Depression can often come from bad or non-existent relationships.

Loneliness, being away from family, having toxic relations with family, esp. those with whom you live, can definitely be sources of depression.

I only get depressed when I'm away from family for too long, for example.

I understand one can possibly shape one's view and change that, but often the 'external' issue is a reasonable thing to address.

But of course, often it's not like this.

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