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The Depression Thing

zachholman.com

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Re: The Depression Thing

#311

Post by Allower »

xnm wrote: post #155
ElatedOwl wrote: post #15

I was diagnosed with "major depression" when I was 14, did the medication and therapy thing for a bit but the medication made me a zombie. Therapy helped me learn to cope a little better, but I was never "cured" of my depression. My 20s have been pretty bad, but in the last year and a half I've lost 100+lbs and have been running and lifting. It turns out the common sense advice to depression was really what I needed…

One of the symptoms of major depression is psychomotor retardation which causes people great difficulty in performing even simple tasks, like brushing one's teeth, doing the laundry, or showering. Advocating exercise as a cure for a disorder marked by the inability to exercise seems short sighted. "I can't get out of bed" "You should exercise" Ugh...

Go for a fucking walk you pathetic sack of shit. touch your toes and twist your hips. You can do these things, stop making excuses and make a decision to do ANYTHING different than what you have been doing.

Re: The Depression Thing

#312

Post by joeblau »

Zach was one of the developers I idolized when I moved to San Francisco in 2011. From what I saw, he had everything going for him. Sub 10th employee at one of the hottest startups, amazing blog posts, amazing talks, great developer, ability to travel the world. He was the man. After the whole GitHub shakeup, I started hearing less and less from him and since I didn't know him personally, I never reached out. After reading this, I'm happy to see that he's in a really good place.

I hope your best days are a head of you and I wish you the best Zach!

Re: The Depression Thing

#313

Post by PeterisP »

Kenji wrote: post #37
ElatedOwl wrote: post #15

I was diagnosed with "major depression" when I was 14, did the medication and therapy thing for a bit but the medication made me a zombie. Therapy helped me learn to cope a little better, but I was never "cured" of my depression. My 20s have been pretty bad, but in the last year and a half I've lost 100+lbs and have been running and lifting. It turns out the common sense advice to depression was really what I needed…

People who can just sleep, diet and exercise and the depression simply goes away, that's not real major depression. I really hate how people spread this stuff so condescendingly. No, it might have worked for you, but it does not work for millions of people who suffer from it.

People aren't saying that depression goes away, but sleep, diet and exercise are known to improve the symptoms of serious clinic depression, and would be recommended no matter if you're doing therapy and medication or not.

Re: The Depression Thing

#314

Post by icc97 »

eswat wrote: post #176

health insurance problems (yay 🇺🇸, home of the brave, land of the shit health system) Not sure about other countries with universal healthcare, but seeking therapy for depression in Canada isn’t exactly that much better. Such treatments aren’t covered by public health insurance so you’ll be spending $100/hr CAD, likely more, out-of-pocket. When I sought therapy, and this is probably due to unfortunate timing or bei…

I could only see a therapist in the UK because my job's private medical insurance gave me £1500/year to spend.

Those I knew who tried to get help on the NHS were just prescribed drugs by their doctor without being referred to a psychiatrist or a psychotherapist.

Re: The Depression Thing

#315

Post by chasd00 »

It's just about impossible to fix your brain on your own. The only tool you have is the one that's broken. How do you fix a hammer with a broken hammer? Seek external help first.

Re: The Depression Thing

#316

Post by yters »

varjag wrote: post #146
yters wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of depression I had to reject is it became part of my identity, that it made me some kind of special. Because part of depression is self pity.

> Because part of depression is self pity. Are you sure you are not one of those people who confuse being moody with clinically depressed? Self pity isn't really high on the list of symptoms.

Looking over the list of symptoms, I definitely had that. Very severe in my teens, got better in college, and now it rarely bothers me. Improvement seems to have come from numerous changes to my life, including the whole exercising thing. Being really fit was a big confidence boost, though I don't need to remain at that level of fitness to retain the benefits. But the biggest impact was my worldview and how it has changed.

Re: The Depression Thing

#317

Post by ElatedOwl »

thinkMOAR wrote: post #299
ElatedOwl wrote: post #15

I was diagnosed with "major depression" when I was 14, did the medication and therapy thing for a bit but the medication made me a zombie. Therapy helped me learn to cope a little better, but I was never "cured" of my depression. My 20s have been pretty bad, but in the last year and a half I've lost 100+lbs and have been running and lifting. It turns out the common sense advice to depression was really what I needed…

So if i understand it you were quite overweight and this was the primary source of your depression?

Overweight child, healthy weight as a teenager, early 20s gained a lot of weight.

I don't know that I'd say I have a source of depression, I'm not sure my circumstances have an effect.

Re: The Depression Thing

#318

Post by thinkMOAR »

ElatedOwl wrote: post #317
thinkMOAR wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if i understand it you were quite overweight and this was the primary source of your depression?

Overweight child, healthy weight as a teenager, early 20s gained a lot of weight. I don't know that I'd say I have a source of depression, I'm not sure my circumstances have an effect.

Hmmm okay, was just wondering, thanks.

Re: The Depression Thing

#319

Post by wu-ikkyu »

nether wrote: post #260
wu-ikkyu wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you define what is "normal" in life? Is it not normal for people to have periods of their lives (weeks, months, years) where they feel constantly miserable/sad due to a variety of reasons?

It's a fair question. The mathematician Ted Kaczynski proposed depression to be largely a modern construct (emphasis mine): > Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy, then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. Science fiction? It is already happening to some extent in our own society. It is well known that the rate of clinical depression had been greatly inc…

Aldous Huxley made the same point in the 1960's:

>there is evidently a whole class of drugs effecting the CNS which can produce enormous changes in sedation in euphoria in energizing the whole mental process without doing any perceptible harm to the human body...a great deal of control could be used by not through terror, but by making life seem much more enjoyable than it normally does. Enjoyable to the point, where as I said before, Human beings come to love a state of things by which any reasonable and decent human standard they ought not to love and this I think is perfectly possible.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24712.htm

Re: The Depression Thing

#320

Post by hycaria »

sparkie wrote: post #227
rmetzler wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been in your shoes earlier this year. Or maybe I didn't come even close. I just want to say, I felt like what you describe. Then I read an article about the microbiome of dirt [0]. In the moment I read this on my smartphone I sat in the grass on a hill and I thought to myself, fuck it, what can go wrong, I'm going to stick my finger in dirt, put it in my mouth and eat a little bit of dirt. And that's what I did.…

Probably not a great idea to start eating dirt because it may contain M. vaccae. Let's not forget that clostridium botulinum is also present in soil.

Let's not forget that Clostridium botulinum produces its neurotoxin only in anaerobical conditions, which are not met in soil.
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