find the cause of your unhappiness and try to block it from influencing you. maybe you think a lot about what you no longer have or compare your past career to current. so try to isolate from that. find someone positive and optimistic to talk to
Ask HN: I'm 40 this year, and have depression. Any words of wisdom?
81–90 of 107 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 this year, and have depression. Any words of wisdom?
#82- Why don't you try taking a long vacation? Stay in some hostels in South America. Meet some new people along the way. Maybe work remotely from there after you travel. - You could try microdosing LSD for the low-level depression.
>You could try microdosing LSD for the low-level depression. Thanks for this. CBD oil and psilocybin microdosing works pretty well for me, though there is a tendency for me to not find any immediate effect to the psilocybin and as such it's not something I do often enough. The CBD oil is more pronounced, though.
How do you feel about the travelling part?
Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 this year, and have depression. Any words of wisdom?
#83Go see a medical professional. They can connect you to a counsellor, someone who can give you more evidence based actionable ways to get yourself back on your feet.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 this year, and have depression. Any words of wisdom?
#84Life is relationships. Put most of your work into those and your mood should improve.
I don't know about most of your work. That's time not spent on creative pursuits, usually (there are exceptions to this) and relationships can drain you in a different way. I tend to get a lot more out of creative pursuits, personally. But both are good.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 this year, and have depression. Any words of wisdom?
#85Can relate. Anhedonia/depression all my life, and a mid-life divorce devastated me financially and personally.
Beyond what others have said, consider the possibility that this is a problem you may have for the rest of your life. Mine hasn't decreased much, but I've made some peace with it. To a degree, I just ignore or ride out the worst days. Reading the stoics seems to help. Literally just doing things can help. If you feel like doing something--anything--try to get yourself to do it.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 this year, and have depression. Any words of wisdom?
#86Read Gail Sheehy's Passages . It talks about the different phases of life - life in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s etc. Without that reference, when there's unease it's hard to know what's "you" and what's "just being human". I certainly found it very enlightening.
This is her interviewed at length on The Open Mind about her subsequent book Pathfinders. Very inspiring.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 this year, and have depression. Any words of wisdom?
#87I suggest to go to www.brokenbrain.com where Dr Mark Hyman explains the causes of depression and other brain-related diseases. Once you understand the real causes, it is relatively simple to remove the causes and get healthy again.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 this year, and have depression. Any words of wisdom?
#88hmmm, you really need to get to the root of the problem. All I can tell you is that there are tools at your disposable. Old and New. One that is shunned by modern science because they say because there is no evidence or can't prove beyond statistically significance that something works or not, but you see people benefit from the old civilizations way of treating pain both spiritual and physical.
The most obvious one is daily exercise. Are you exercising regularly? If not, start immediately. This is not an age to start slacking.
Eat healthy. Relax. Avoid, stress if possible. Smoke a little ganja if your doctor is okay with it.
Always remember suicide is temporary, your loved ones will pay the ultimate price, and honestly I believe that your consciousness will painfully witness it. It's fallacy to accept that just because the physical body perishes that "you" end. I don't think so. The consciousness must live on, beyond the 3rd dimension. Michio Kaku, read his book, and tell me that in the trillions of stars that's been around for billions of years or less is thriving with life, life which may extend beyond the 3rd dimension which us mortals are limited to....but the 4th, 5th up till 11th. It totally makes sense that we aren't alone in this universe and that there are higher dimensional beings that look down upon our 3rd dimensional world on earth as we would look down upon the water striders who have no concept of up or down, unaware that we can seemingly teleport them from one location to another by lifting them out of the water and placing it in another place. To us, we can connect the cause and effect. To the water strider, it's the craziest shit that ever happened.
There's also evidence of children remembering their past lives, like that kid who got murdered and then remembered the guy that killed him as a boy and ended up arresting the guy.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 this year, and have depression. Any words of wisdom?
#89Exercise, sleep and nutrition can always be improved. Also get your hormone levels tested. I had cyclic depression from 15 through 25 and HRT has been a life saver. It becomes more noticeable at your age. Everyone is different, but for me personally, a needle in the ass once per week is 100x better than depression, and it becomes something you have to live with, like brushing your teeth. Standard doses of 100mg/week…
I have similar issues with my testosterone levels. One doctor said that I have to take testosterone from time to time, but I didn't accept the solution and looked for another doctor that said that I need a surgery to remove a varicocele.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 this year, and have depression. Any words of wisdom?
#90Why did you have to start from scratch at 35?