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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?

#121

Post by dkns »

wpietri wrote: post #68
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.

My experience is very different. Yes, therapy is valuable. But the human mind is a very complex, poorly optimized system, so I've found my systems-hacking skills to be very useful. In particular, one element of the hacker mindset is not wasting any time saying, "But it doesn't make sense!" It was very useful to me to accept that my body and brain was a meat-robot built by genes so they could get around in a hostile e…

Did you have clinically diagnosed depression?

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

#122

Post by dkns »

collyw wrote: post #96
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 f…

Do you/did you have clinically diagnosed depression?

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

#123

Post by gain_sky »

Raphmedia wrote: post #120
gain_sky wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

0.17% of the population have DSPS.

So, roughly one person out of 600? That's a lot. Especially online, you probably interact with such people a lot more often that you think.

I know how often I interact with such people precisely: 0.17% of the people I interact with have this, whether online or in real life.

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

#124

Post by ux4 »

The biggest one that hasn't been mentioned yet:

Practice gratitude. Get a pen and paper and start writing down things in your life that you're grateful for. It can be something as simple as being grateful for food, water, and shelter (which gets taken for granted so often).

Do this for 15 minutes a day (preferably as soon you wake up) and you will notice your outlook on life improve. Religious people do this in the form of prayer, and it has been scientifically proven to increase your happiness.

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

#125

Post by Raphmedia »

gain_sky wrote: post #123
Raphmedia wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, roughly one person out of 600? That's a lot. Especially online, you probably interact with such people a lot more often that you think.

I know how often I interact with such people precisely: 0.17% of the people I interact with have this, whether online or in real life.

You responded statistics at a person claiming to have the syndrome. It looked as if you were suggesting that they don't have it because 0.17% is relatively low.

My point is that 0.17% is a sizable portion of the population. Your chances to encounter someone who has it are most likely higher in a thread such as this one. People click on articles they identify with. The same thing would happen if you went to a conference on the topic. I mean, there are signs of comorbidity between DSPD and depression.

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

#126

Post by pavel_lishin »

wincy wrote: post #91
pavel_lishin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

No, it's caused by the fact that most very young children wake up regularly no matter where they sleep, since they usually need to eat fairly often. As they get older, they tend to start sleeping through the night - some with co-sleeping, some in their own room - but some will wake up repeatedly until they're much older no matter what you do with 'em.

I'm glad your specific approach with your specific child worked out great.

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

#127

Post by paulcole »

inieves wrote: post #86
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #43

Go and see a doctor. Seriously. Even without this, figure out how to do things you want in life even if you don't feel like it. I don't know about some of the other advice. Eating habits don't seem to work for me, and following a strict diet makes things worse because I spend a lot of time worrying about food if I do that. Exercise? I've never found any exercise I enjoy when I'm content, let alone trying to get the e…

Can you comment on your post-MDMA weeks? Why/how were they an eye opener? Any more detail would be interesting to learn about.

One time when I was younger, I babysat for a family. They said it was fine to watch TV while their kids slept. The reception was fuzzy and static-y but I still watched it. After a few hours, I got used to the fuzz and bad reception.

Then they came home, saw me watching and said, "oh you've got to turn off the VCR." They did that and the picture became impossibly crystal clear. I was floored by what I had been missing and how I had convinced myself that things before were "fine."

Had pretty much the same experience the first few weeks after taking MDMA. Felt like someone had improved the reception on the world and turned off the static and noise.

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

#128

Post by AnimalMuppet »

Depends on why you're depressed.

If you're depressed because of a chemical imbalance, medicine can help (though it can be fiddly to get right). A doctor is what you need here, or (perhaps better) a psychiatrist.

If you're depressed because of circumstances, then you need to either change your circumstances, or change the way you think about them. (I have heard that anger signals that you have a blocked goal, and depression signals that you have an impossible goal. This is almost certainly not true of all depressions for all people. But if it's true of yours, you need to figure out what the impossible goal is, and let go of it.) A counselor might be where to start here.

If it's just that you aren't happy, as others have said, sleep, exercise, and relationships.

If you're hungry for something, and you can't find what it is, then I am reminded of this quote from C.S. Lewis: "The Christian says, 'Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same."

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

#129

Post by xanthopan »

overcast wrote: post #22

Rigorous exercise seems to get me out of any ruts I'm in. I typically hike 5-6 miles x 3 days a week, and throw in a 11-12 mile over strenuous terrain. By the end of that, your mind will clear, your body is exhausted, and you'll rest easy that night. Other than that, eating well, having plenty of great sex, and interacting with as many people as possible. OH most important, SLEEP, a full solid night of it. Naps are a…

I can attest to this. I've struggled with anxiety/depression/insomnia/adhd for years, and over the past couple years I've learned that careful attention to exercise, diet, and sleep are the most reliable ways I can ensure a healthy baseline.

I used to run a couple miles in the morning and evenings, on streets, until I injured my leg. So I switched to hiking after my leg recovered. Short 2-3 mile hikes turned into 12 mile stretches, which turned into short trail runs, and now I'm running 5-6 miles of trails 2x a week and 12+ mile runs/hikes on weekends (I'm secretly training for an ultra). I'd always thought I'd hate running, because it was too strenuous or something, but I haven't looked back. Maybe I'm just literally running away from my problems, but, it's far more rewarding in any case.

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

#130

Post by cpncrunch »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #89
cpncrunch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really the only solution. Hacks will only give a very minor benefit. Look at your life, relationships and job and ask yourself if its what you really want.

You two are describing solutions for "feeling depressed". Clinical depression is very different. You could bathe in diamonds every day, have the best lover, the most supporting circle of friends, be at the peak of your health and still be depressed. Depression is out of your control. You can reduce triggers by living better but that's it. Even while living the happiest moments of your life you can still have depressi…

>You two are describing solutions for "feeling depressed". Clinical depression is very different.

No, I'm talking about clinical depression. But it's interesting that this viewpoint seems to be quite prevalent on HN.

>Depression is out of your control.

Perhaps in some cases, but in many cases there are things you can change that will improve it.

You seem to be making an assumption that clinical depression can't be due to lifestyle factors. This is an incorrect assumption, based on my own experience, that of family members, and research looking into psychological stress and neuroinflammation (for example).

>Even while living the happiest moments of your life you can still have depression lurk in the back of your head, probing you with negative thoughts.

The triggers for depression aren't "moments". It builds up over a long time, and isn't due to short-term factors. So while you might have a "happy moment" during depression, that isn't likely to cure it (and that isn't what I'm saying at all).

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