Ask HN: What are you doing for your mental health?

I see a really great and not too expensive psychiatrist who has worked wonders for me and takes a very holistic approach - he'll often suggest something for one problem but actually it solves two others and I realise years later. Anyone in the Hants area I can wholeheartedly recommend Lars Hansen.

I take the bare minimum medication such that I don't get side affects and just about notice my cycling is over a reduced range.

I drink very little nowadays and as a rule stick to a particular niche beer style for a period and only drink beer I haven't already tried. Having managed several craft beer bars and worked with most local breweries it's rare a pub has something I don't know. I don't take drugs outside of prescriptions and haven't for a few years.

I have one coffee a day, first thing, and again stick to a particular origin for a long period so I don't find myself grabbing a starbucks for the sake of it. I go to bed at a sensible time and never let myself lie in.

I don't eat much sugar, or carbohydrates generally. I don't eat beef or lamb either. I try and include something like spinach or kale into every meal. I don't eat takeaway food very often any more, last year it was twice.

I try and get outside for an extended period each day. I sit down as little as possible. We have one television and it mainly stays off apart from the odd bit of kids TV or Formula 1.

When I don't feel like doing something I need to, I try and challenge that and prove to myself I can do it and that my fears were unfounded. If I'm worrying about something I ask myself what am I really afraid of and then I can reassure myself that if that situation occurred I could handle it.

I volunteer a day a week helping young people with mental health problems challenge themselves.

I keep extensive notes on ideas I have, things I need to do, etc, so that I'm not trying to remember things needlessly. My wife and I have strictly delegated tasks like monthly budgeting, meal planning. If I'm struggling with something I know to communicate that.

When I need to take a break mentally I'll put on an album I'm familiar with and play along with it or write down some recipe ideas or similar. My garage is where I can go to be alone when I need that.

Probably there's a hundred more things that aren't springing to mind right now

Making food for oneself is such a wonderful way to spend time. It lets us focus on what we put into our bodies. It’s amazing to do this for yourself if you have time.

Prepared foods are proven to be as bad for us as smoking but it’s not well publicized by the mainstream media.

https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/world-health-organization...

Are you seriously comparing the two? Psychology is nothing more than a pseudoscience where most of the time the solution is to take some pills that will turn you into a zombie, sometimes even permanently.

Would you mind to share your experience with developing open source software so others can learn? Is it the same one can read elsewhere like unthankful and demanding people or just sheer amount of work, or something totally different?

Gave away most of my furniture and electronics, packed the rest in a cheap storage unit and fled London to a pristine and mostly unoccupied south Indian beach, where I spent 5 months worth of mornings going for a swim before sitting down to remote freelance work, at a table overlooking the ocean.

It wasn't a perfect move (the working holiday part), but damn it's by far the best winter I've had in a decade. 10/10 would flee again!

Currently writing from Bangalore, had to head central for good Internet and power, and a quiet desk, but that's a story for another time.