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Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

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Re: Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

#91

Post by wincy »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #32
fredley wrote: post #28

If your depression is serious, and it's preventing you from living your life, or if you're feeling suicidal, see a doctor or call a hotline. Now. If you have mild depression, or want to not get depressed in the first place, I'd recommend the following: Do exercise, do it outside if at all possible. Even light exercise like going for a walk is better than none. Don't take your phone. Turn off and shut away your electr…

> Under no circumstances have your phone by your bed. Buy an alarm clock if need be. Disrupting sleep is the best way to get depressed quickly. I hope a lot of people are making a correlation between their friends who have recently had young children, and why they often tend to look tired, miserable and depressed.

Which is caused by the western notion that it makes sense for a helpless infant to sleep away from its mother. We got rid of our bed frame (to prevent falling accidents) and cosleep. We all (including our daughter, who is now three with another on the way) sleep happily through the night.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

#92

Post by akuji1993 »

inetknght wrote: post #75

There are many people here who say, see a doctor. But, how do you find a doctor? What kind of doctor is appropriate? How do I even know what sort of doctor I could afford?

You want to look for psychotherapist (talk therapy) and a psychatrist (medication therapy). If and how you can afford that depends on your country. For me, I haven't paid a single cent for the last two years seeing both and getting medication. I feel way way better and probably wouldn't do so good without both of them.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

#94

Post by thomaslangston »

Being consistent, healthy, and regular with a number of things.

Attending professional talk therapy and taking prescribed dosage of psychiatric medication.

In therapy they will probably mention the following as well:

Sleep schedule (same bedtime and wake up time each day, long enough, restful, no screens in bed)

Exercise (helps with sleep and stress management, almost any routine aerobic or strength done to exhaustion will work if done multiple times a week)

Socializing (hanging out with a group of close friends at least once a week socially is the goal)

Diet (veggies, whole fruits, possibly vitamin B supplements)

Moderation or abstinence from legal recreational drugs. Abstinence from illegal recreational drugs.

Meditation and other forms of metacognition aka thinking about what you are thinking, often right in the moment when you are thinking the original thought to help manage your emotion response to internal or external stress.

Moderation or abstinence from social media, news, and most ad driven media

Re: Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

#95

Post by dionidium »

A few mental tricks I've mentioned here before that help me:

1. I once heard Sam Harris talking about this process. Most people sort of are their thoughts. That is -- this is tough to describe plainly -- their thoughts and feelings are primary, driving their actions as if mechanically linked. But you can in a certain sense become aware of your thoughts and view them as an outsider, as something that's happening independent of you, that you can see and choose how you react to. It's not just about self-assessment (although it is about that). It works during acute "attacks" too.

It's crazy, but hearing him say that made a huge impact on an anxiety problem that had been getting worse for me. Thinking of it this way has without exaggeration changed my life.

2. A second sort of ridiculous trick that works for me, for some reason:

There may be a billion universes in which I die this week, but it can’t be this one, because I am subjectively alive and experiencing this one. I can only experience the timeline in which I live. There may be other timelines, but I wouldn’t know about them, because I’m alive in this one. I can only experience living.

I don’t experience the timelines where I do/did die, by definition. I can only enjoy the one in which I don’t/didn’t.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

#96

Post by collyw »

dkns wrote: post #64

There is no hacks to beat depression. This is what is so hard about depression. You need the strength and courage to seek therapy and then stick to it. Sometimes therapy takes years and the result is not guaranteed. And when you're in the worst possible place mentally, trying to go to therapist and then trying to open up to him is incredibly tough. And then you have to keep doing it again and again and again.

As there are many causes of depression it's probably a bit much to say that there are no hacks. There are plenty of lifestyle changes that will possibly have a positive effect - exercise, diet and sleep being three obvious ones. Even if they don't lift depression they are going to be beneficial to health.

I cut out refined sugar from my diet and started taking turmeric in the form of golden paste (as a natural cure for tendinitis) a couple f months back. I noticed an improvement in my mood and outlook as a pleasant side effect.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

#97

Post by taurath »

thomaslangston wrote: post #94

Being consistent, healthy, and regular with a number of things. Attending professional talk therapy and taking prescribed dosage of psychiatric medication. In therapy they will probably mention the following as well: Sleep schedule (same bedtime and wake up time each day, long enough, restful, no screens in bed) Exercise (helps with sleep and stress management, almost any routine aerobic or strength done to exhaustio…

This is so cart before the horse though. All of those things can keep you out of depression, but they don't address the underlying problems if other things are going on.

It seems like the advice is "just be healthy and do healthy habits". None of them are hacks - they're just what everyone tells you to do. If they worked and this was the advice that was needed, we wouldn't have an epidemic.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

#98

Post by acetoxy »

tranchms wrote: post #87

One option is to seek those who have safely used psychedelics, and have an experience. It literally washes away anxiety, leaving you feel renewed, and refreshed, like the cobwebs of the mind have been cleared, like the fog has been lifted. Of course I recommend being active (walking, working out, hiking), socializing, spending time in nature and the outdoors, eating healthy, eliminating addictions, detaching from soc…

Ayahuasca worked very well for me. I was in a pretty bad state when I started working with this plant... But after some time it really cured my depression and my anxiety.

If anyone decides to do it I would recommend finding a center with good reviews in Peru, and booking before you go. Don't just buy a ticket to Iquitos and hope to find a retreat or a shaman. Do some proper research and be prepared.

The amazon rainforest is a magical place, and just being there is a healing experience by itself.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

#99

Post by sdone »

Sometimes depression comes because we're suppressing other emotions. That has been my experience. I used to seriously suffer from depression, but now that I've learned to recognize and deal directly with the underlying emotions, my depression has disappeared.

I'm not implying at all that this is the cause of all depression, merely that it was in my case.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

#100

Post by jphalimi »

If you have been feeling depressed for a long time, I recommend consulting a professional.

I think I entered depression a few months ago after a hard breakup and a difficult personal, professional situation. I could not do my daily activities, I just wanted to stay in the corner of a room and cry out my pain. It was physically painful, too. I am still recovering and it takes a lot of time to.

One thing that helped me is to read self-development books. I read two, it has literally saved me from sinking. If you like philosophy, I highly recommend it.

Florence Scovel Shinn, The Game of Life and How To Play It:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUcnJrqKcSI

Just takes ~3 hours of your life and gives some good reason to get your faith in yourself back.

Louise L. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E81XAYvmWfI

1 hour of your life. I like some parts of this book a lot. Some are weird to me, but once you sort things out, I concluded that it helped me a lot.

Oh and one last thing, from experience, IT GETS BETTER. It might sound silly or something you've heard 1000 times, but it does. I've been there.

Hope this helps. And feel free to reach out if you want to rant.

Cheers

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