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If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

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Re: If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

#101

Post by Bhilai »

tomp wrote: post #67
avgDev wrote: post #28

The more you know about the world and tech especially, the more you will get depressed, IMO, maybe I'm wrong. Humans in general are pretty shitty, driven mostly by self-interest. I guess there are people driven by doing good but most people are capable of doing terrible things, especially when in a group. I do suffer from existential depression, I'm generally pretty happy, but as I learn more and live longer my outlo…

Wow, I rarely so deeply profoundly and strongly disagree with a statement. I'm fascinated by both how far humans have come, and how peaceful we've become. We haven't had a major war for decades, despite having more and better weapons. Capitalism has unleashed a revolution in technology and society. We're improving lives more rapidly and profoundly than ever, despite there being more and more of us. There are long-ter…

The western countries have not had a major war in a while, thats true but thats not the reality for everyone else. I'd recommend you take a look at pictures of war ravaged Syria and read about children dying of starvation in Libya. Surely some western countries have reaped benefits of capitalism and ease of life with increased influence of technology, but again that is not true for many other parts of the world.

I don't mean to diminish the great work many have done and the overall improvement in quality of life for some but its not as rosy as say for a huge chunk of the population of the world which lives in intense poverty.

Re: If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

#102

Post by ganzuul »

gabriel34 wrote: post #61
ganzuul wrote: post #26

I have had to deal with inexplicable anger and irritability for a long time. It is possible this traces back to being misdiagnosed and prescribed 5 antibiotic recipes back-to-back as a child. Long and tedious story short, when I cut milk, gluten/short carbs/whatever pesticide they use for wheat, and excess sugar from e.g. prefabbed food from my diet I gained 10kg and my life basically turned around. Turns out having…

mental health and gut bacteria seem to be heavily correlated. Anecdotally, if I don't eat sugary "reward" food I tend to feel better. That is also why I adopted intermittent fasting. I tend to fell better mentally if I fast 24h once a week.

I have heard about fasting being helpful... Perhaps I should seek out some vegans to one-up to motivate me. :b

Re: If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

#103

Post by JimBrimble35 »

ksec wrote: post #13

Assuming a product person ( e.g Steve Jobs ) is easily Angry and Irritable with crap ( Which there are lots of it ), would that considered as depressed? Where do we draw a line where some body just have very high standard to everything ( Perfectionist ) or they actually have bipolar disorder.

This comment shows a fairly incomplete knowledge of the mental health spectrum. Not that I'm an expert myself, but I will weigh in with the knowledge I do have.

"would that be considered depressed?"

The article refers mostly to the absence of anger from the adult diagnosis of depression, and talks about how it may be valuable to include it. To be considered depressed, I would say that the individual would probably have to fit other metrics for the diagnosis for depression as well.

"Where do we draw the line"

We don't, really. Mental health is a complex spectrum of behaviors. Perhaps Jobs was depressed, perhaps he suffered from some un-diagnosed OCD or he had symptoms from any number of other known psychological issues. Maybe he just learned to be a dick early in life and that was part of his personality. If we pick apart peoples personalities and compare them to symptoms, we'll find a fit for everyone, but that isn't really helpful anyway.

Re: If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

#104

Post by MuffinFlavored »

avgDev wrote: post #28

The more you know about the world and tech especially, the more you will get depressed, IMO, maybe I'm wrong. Humans in general are pretty shitty, driven mostly by self-interest. I guess there are people driven by doing good but most people are capable of doing terrible things, especially when in a group. I do suffer from existential depression, I'm generally pretty happy, but as I learn more and live longer my outlo…

> before accepting defeat.

What does accepting defeat mean in your opinion?

Re: If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

#105

Post by magduf »

jki275 wrote: post #93
magduf wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you live in the US? That's probably a big part of the problem. Everything in the US is doom and gloom, and everyone in the US is horribly paranoid. People are constantly paranoid about someone attacking them, and kids aren't allowed to run around outside because "someone might kidnap them". People that do get a visit from the police and CPS for "child abandonment". If you're planning to have kids, doing it in the…

What "US" are you talking about? There are 50 states, all of whom have very different attitudes and values, and within those are thousands of counties, cities, towns, and unincorporated areas where nothing you wrote applies.

Most of those small towns and unincorporated areas are useless for someone who makes a living in the tech industry. It doesn't matter how nice a place is; if you can't get good-paying work there, it's not a place you can reasonably live.

Face the facts: the tech jobs are mostly all in a handful of metro areas, where everything I said is completely true. And it's a completely reasonable assumption that the vast majority of people reading my comment work in the tech industry.

Re: If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

#106

Post by albertgoeswoof »

tomp wrote: post #67
avgDev wrote: post #28

The more you know about the world and tech especially, the more you will get depressed, IMO, maybe I'm wrong. Humans in general are pretty shitty, driven mostly by self-interest. I guess there are people driven by doing good but most people are capable of doing terrible things, especially when in a group. I do suffer from existential depression, I'm generally pretty happy, but as I learn more and live longer my outlo…

Wow, I rarely so deeply profoundly and strongly disagree with a statement. I'm fascinated by both how far humans have come, and how peaceful we've become. We haven't had a major war for decades, despite having more and better weapons. Capitalism has unleashed a revolution in technology and society. We're improving lives more rapidly and profoundly than ever, despite there being more and more of us. There are long-ter…

Agree. The older I’ve gotten the more beauty I see in the world, despite understanding more and more about science, the universe and how minor we are.

Interestingly I know several people that suffer heavily with depression and anxiety and I feel quite lucky not to have any mental health conditions. Whether my world view is a causal factor or an outcome of this, I am not sure.

Re: If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

#107

Post by albertgoeswoof »

Bhilai wrote: post #101
tomp wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I rarely so deeply profoundly and strongly disagree with a statement. I'm fascinated by both how far humans have come, and how peaceful we've become. We haven't had a major war for decades, despite having more and better weapons. Capitalism has unleashed a revolution in technology and society. We're improving lives more rapidly and profoundly than ever, despite there being more and more of us. There are long-ter…

The western countries have not had a major war in a while, thats true but thats not the reality for everyone else. I'd recommend you take a look at pictures of war ravaged Syria and read about children dying of starvation in Libya. Surely some western countries have reaped benefits of capitalism and ease of life with increased influence of technology, but again that is not true for many other parts of the world. I do…

Progress is the reality for most of the world. War and poverty is much than it was ten, a hundred, thousand or ten thousand years ago. On pretty much every metric humanity is succeeding and moving forward.

Re: If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

#108

Post by sjjshzvuiajhz »

avgDev wrote: post #28

The more you know about the world and tech especially, the more you will get depressed, IMO, maybe I'm wrong. Humans in general are pretty shitty, driven mostly by self-interest. I guess there are people driven by doing good but most people are capable of doing terrible things, especially when in a group. I do suffer from existential depression, I'm generally pretty happy, but as I learn more and live longer my outlo…

People do good things and bad things. If in the presence of a combination of good things and bad things, you focus on the bad things and the bad things dominate your subjective experience of existence, you are probably suffering from depression.

Re: If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

#109

Post by kingsloi »

magduf wrote: post #77
kingsloi wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just made HN account to reply to this, as I feel like I suffer with "existential depression" too. I had never heard of that before, so thanks for commenting. As I get older, the more I read, it just seems to be always doom and gloom. The obviousness that's occurring to things around us. I'm a natural born worrier anyway, but as I get older I think more about "existence". My wife and I plan to have kids, but then I'…

Do you live in the US? That's probably a big part of the problem. Everything in the US is doom and gloom, and everyone in the US is horribly paranoid. People are constantly paranoid about someone attacking them, and kids aren't allowed to run around outside because "someone might kidnap them". People that do get a visit from the police and CPS for "child abandonment". If you're planning to have kids, doing it in the…

You actually hit it nail on the head. I'm a British guy who married an American woman and I've been in the US about 3 years now. I live in Gary, IN (the nice beach community, south of Lake Michigan) but the I hear the daily horror stories of things that occur here. I doesn't bother me too much, I think shit happens everywhere and we're good people (as in, we're not looking for trouble), and I was raised to have my guard up (out of sight/out of mind etc). But, I think you're right. I've never felt more doom/gloomy since I moved here, and I literally have the best life I've ever had.

I plan on having kids here, but hopefully moving back to the UK at some point, to benefit of our healthcare, schooling, etc, but we'll see.

Re: If You're Often Angry or Irritable, You May Be Depressed

#110

Post by User23 »

briancleland wrote: post #80
avgDev wrote: post #28

The more you know about the world and tech especially, the more you will get depressed, IMO, maybe I'm wrong. Humans in general are pretty shitty, driven mostly by self-interest. I guess there are people driven by doing good but most people are capable of doing terrible things, especially when in a group. I do suffer from existential depression, I'm generally pretty happy, but as I learn more and live longer my outlo…

I would humbly suggest you look for historical figures who had a hard-headed and realistic view of the world, but who were also positive and healthy in their outlook. Their approach to life might suggest a way forward. We have a surprising amount of freedom in how we interpret the world around us. "Everything has two handles, the one by which it may be carried, the other by which it cannot."

> I would humbly suggest you look for historical figures who had a hard-headed and realistic view of the world, but who were also positive and healthy in their outlook

For example, the Meditations: http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html

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