Live data from Hacker News

What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

nytimes.com

201–210 of 233 posts

Re: What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

#201

This is the quintessential video for understanding clinical depression. A Stanford lecture given by Dr Sapolsky: https://youtu.be/NOAgplgTxfc I highly recommend watching it to better understand the disease.

Someone else (maybe it was you) shared this recently on hn and I watched it and don't regret a single minute. Insanely informative and the style of presentation where one covers the history of our understanding of a topic is possibly my favorite.

Re: What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

#202
post #94

I was thinking about this this morning and couldn't help but notice the apparent correlation between high profile people who have committed suicide recently and their profiles. All from arts/creative fields (Avicii, Kate Spade, Bourdain, Robin Williams, Heath Ledger, I'm sure there are more). Is there any scientific research that has explored the possibility that the wiring in the brain that makes people creative has…

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6525a1.htm

> The frequency of suicide in different occupational groups was examined, and rates of suicide were calculated by sex and age group for these categories. Persons working in the farming, fishing, and forestry group had the highest rate of suicide overall (84.5 per 100,000 population) and among males (90.5); the highest rates of suicide among females occurred among those working in protective service occupations (14.1). Overall, the lowest rate of suicide (7.5) was found in the education, training, and library occupational group.

Re: What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slight nitpick, but Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose [0]. 0. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heath_Ledger

Accidental is rather bold. I'm sure Ledger was aware he was playing with fire. I've taken hard drugs for chronic pain -- and the threshold of difference between pain relief, sedation, and ultimately death- it is a stark dosing and feeling difference, not easily overlooked. I'd garner 90% of overdoses from clean drugs (not fentanyl swap/cut with other things), 90% are people who have an existing death wish. The risk i…

Well there was no indication he was depressed or wanted to die, just very wound up and unable to sleep. Certainly combining multiple drugs is asking for problems as many people have found out the hard way.

Re: What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

#204
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It took me 4 tries In other words: less than 25% of them are right. About the same experience here. My personal gripe: Most psychologists are feminists. If you explain them a problem you have, they’ll percieve it in a gynocentric way. They are in denial that men can be on the receiving end of a problem or injustice, so much that one of them posited to me that male and female suicide rates were the same. Which tells…

See if you can ask your family doctor if you can get a male psychologist then? Mine was quite lenient, at least, and talked me through the options, wanted my opinion, etc.

Men are feminists too, and often more eager and agressive feminists than female ones; as much as top MRAs are often women. Like any ideology, it is not a question of gender, surprisingly.

Re: What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

#205
post #106
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was cynical about talking to people for the longest time. I figured I would forgo seeking the "cookie cutter" advice and went to see my priest -- expecting him to tell me "well you are weak in faith, pray more, say these prayers" etc. He begins by telling me, "If I take this baseball bat, and smash your knee, would you come tell me, or would you go tell a doctor?" I said, well obviously the doctor. He said "Ok, go…

> It took me 4 tries In other words: less than 25% of them are right. About the same experience here. My personal gripe: Most psychologists are feminists. If you explain them a problem you have, they’ll percieve it in a gynocentric way. They are in denial that men can be on the receiving end of a problem or injustice, so much that one of them posited to me that male and female suicide rates were the same. Which tells…

I wish people would not down vote this. It's actually really common for people who identify as feminists to basically be hating on men. I wrote about something similar here (and I'm a woman, if that matters to anyone):

http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/11/having-sad.h...

Re: What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWWkUzkfJ4M

Ironically, had that woman lived in a country which forces people to live, the result would have been, as she put it, "a grusome and lonely death".

Fortunately, that speculation has little merit, not just because it's a sample size of 1 (aka anecdata) but, more importantly, because it was made by the depression sufferer herself.

Also, characterizing a country that doesn't support physician-assisted suicide as one which forces people to live strikes me as a non-sequitur. Merely decriminalizing suicide is enough to remove any "force".

This is why I, again, object to your glossing over the details when speaking on this issue. The details matter, especially if you're not just trying to gratuitously stir up emotion or controversy.

Re: What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

#207
post #95
post #94

I was thinking about this this morning and couldn't help but notice the apparent correlation between high profile people who have committed suicide recently and their profiles. All from arts/creative fields (Avicii, Kate Spade, Bourdain, Robin Williams, Heath Ledger, I'm sure there are more). Is there any scientific research that has explored the possibility that the wiring in the brain that makes people creative has…

Doesn't really answer your questions, but I'd point out that it's possible that we only hear about these suicides precisely _because_ they are from professions that tend to produce high-profile celebrities. I'd counter your apparent correlation with the fact that apparently suicide among doctors is extremely high: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/what-...

That doesn't counter it, though.

It could be true that "the wiring in the brain that makes people creative" increases the risk of depression while also being true that there are other things that increase it too.

Your comment also implies that whatever that wiring is, doctors don't have it, and I don't know if that is an assumption we should make.

Re: What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

#208
post #95
post #94

I was thinking about this this morning and couldn't help but notice the apparent correlation between high profile people who have committed suicide recently and their profiles. All from arts/creative fields (Avicii, Kate Spade, Bourdain, Robin Williams, Heath Ledger, I'm sure there are more). Is there any scientific research that has explored the possibility that the wiring in the brain that makes people creative has…

Doesn't really answer your questions, but I'd point out that it's possible that we only hear about these suicides precisely _because_ they are from professions that tend to produce high-profile celebrities. I'd counter your apparent correlation with the fact that apparently suicide among doctors is extremely high: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/what-...

The suicide rate in doctors is not higher than the general population.

Suicide is common. There are lots of doctors. Some doctors die by suicide.

Re: What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect this is a driver of the increased suicide rate. People are afraid to tell others because they don't want to deal with the police/authorities, so they don't get the help they need. My sister attempted suicide as a teenager and the police that responded spent hours ransacking our home and further tormenting my family for no good reason. Then to think of her being locked up in the hospital (I wasn't able to se…

There also seems to be this weird stigma about admitting that you have ever contemplated suicide. People seem to take that as some sort of signal that you are completely unhinged. Maybe I'm a nutcase, but I've taken the time to prepare a set of scenarios under which I would no longer want to live, and think about what would need to be taken care of to exit the world without undue burden on those that depend on me. Th…

We need to decouple the concepts of "assisted suicide in cases of terminal illness" (may not be assisted, may not be terminal) from other types of suicide.

The public health responses to you should be very different to the people who experience rapid onset despair.

Re: What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed

#210
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I survived my deepest depression by showering and shaving every day. Then forcing myself to get dressed and go be with other people, even sitting in a coffee shop and feeling miserable, hiding it behind a smile and a book. Being home, alone, unshaven, unclean, in an unkept house made me feel worse because of all the things I saw that needed to be done, and the isolation allowing me to think about that and only that.…

Excuse me if I stray out a little (I wholeheartedly agree with your comment) and ask you how is that your bed needs making. Are these things uncommon over there? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duvet I hate making my bed so I can't be happier now :)

People need to change the sheets and pillow cases and duvet covers. When some people are depressed they find these habits harder to maintain. After a while they've become deconditioned, and they're still unmotivated, and it can be hard to get back into a routine.
Post reply on HN