Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 301 posts

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

#141

Post by coleifer »

LinuxBender wrote: post #90
coleifer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely get that, too. I pull up at the stoplight next to a lady in the other car, she's on facebook, looking at pictures and videos of other people. I want to shout, "hey, what the fuck? Wake up." And then I think about her as a person. With needs, desires, fears. A complete person, just as much as I'm a complete person. The initial reaction softens and I have compassion for her because we're the same.

My personality is a bit different than yours. For right or wrong, I used to think like that, then I realized I was allowing people to walk all over me. I no longer allow such shenanigans and I feel 500% better for it.

Yeah, I have a suspicious streak (paranoid? I don't know, maybe?), too. That comes with a deep fear of being taken advantage of, a fear of being a sucker, a mark, a rube, whatever. I am mistrustful of other people's motives, and assume the worst.

What has counteracted that tendency, which I think may be partly innate, partly learned (a paranoia spectrum?), is two things: 1) the only reason anybody ever wants to tear me down is to build themselves up, and having been guilty of that myself, I can have compassion for them, and 2) I have found that I can put faith in the universe that, so long as I do the right thing, I go to bed with a sense of dignity and am not so afraid. That's not to say I don't have boundaries. I can have boundaries without taking it personally when others cross them, though.

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

#142

Post by SolaceQuantum »

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…

Follow up query: Why is it depressing to acknowledge that the world we know is a slow calamity of a thousand imperfections?

(Context: I was distressed as a child (teens) about the above, but in my mid-twenties I have grown at peace with the knowledge of the world's many imperfections and inhumanitarian humanity. I'm still very young, I know this, so what am I missing here? Widsom is appreciated.)

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

#143

Post by PavlovsCat »

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…

> I'm fascinated by both how far humans have come, and how peaceful we've become.

If you told an ancient human about, say, genocide, do you think they even be capable of reactions as cold as, say, these:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18102401

?

We live in a world were wars of aggression are still sanctified, and phrases like "fun sized terrorist" are still invented. Playing nice with murderers is not peaceful, at all. The gap between rich and poor is still growing, the arms race against the invidual is only just beginning and the individual is already DOA -- all that is also not to have a nice surprise in the end. This calm before the storm isn't even very calm, but the storm will really be something.

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

#144

Post by falcolas »

ozzyman700 wrote: post #132
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…

>Humans in general are pretty shitty, driven mostly by self-interest. Water takes the path of least resistance, Humans take the path of least expected effort expenditure to accomplish their desires Both are just doing as nature does, being themselves. Why be sad that every person will do the least amount of work to satisfy their desires, when it is an inevitability, but your sadness is not.

Not all humans. That’s the big kicker for me. A lot of the shit is being generated by a minority, and there is another minority who are genuinely good people That, IMO, makes it harder to accept the fact those who do generate the shit are also “a natural part of humankind”.

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

#145

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

ryanstorm wrote: post #41
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…

Your comment aligns with an old HN comment that I have saved that resonated with me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402387 I'd also recommend people feeling this way to read The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt. It helped me.

Hah, looks like I bought this book back in 2011 and never read it! Time to give it a go.

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

#146

Post by agumonkey »

ozzyman700 wrote: post #132
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…

>Humans in general are pretty shitty, driven mostly by self-interest. Water takes the path of least resistance, Humans take the path of least expected effort expenditure to accomplish their desires Both are just doing as nature does, being themselves. Why be sad that every person will do the least amount of work to satisfy their desires, when it is an inevitability, but your sadness is not.

Except we're supposed to be intelligent.

Early on in my life I felt something, I never get angry at nature, no matter harmful, but disappointment by other beings hurts deeply. Nature doesn't pretend to choose, it just is. That made me a lot more at ease with objects than people.

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

#147

Post by ganzuul »

coleifer wrote: post #133
ganzuul wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When depressed you do good deeds and feel nothing.

Well, I wasn't talking about being kind in order to feel good about myself. That would be the same old turd (selfishness) just wrapped up in a nicer package. Like when I'm sitting on the airplane that's been parked outside the gate for an hour, my ass is killing me and I'm ready to go home and I start silently cursing everyone and everything that stands in my way -- YET, when I disembark, I still smile and thank the…

Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to imply that. It's difficult to describe... - The archive unzips and the files seem to be OK but the checksum fails, maybe?

You should feel good when you do good deeds, but there are other motivations to do good too. When depressed, you can process things like understanding enlightened self-interest, but the evolutionary reward system fails to fire.

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

#148

Post by vonnik »

Depression expresses itself in a lot of unexpected ways. While severe depression can lead to the symptoms Hollywood has introduced us to -- total inertia, not getting out of bed, etc. -- somewhat milder but chronic versions include anxiety, low-intensity anger, disturbed sleep and appetite, among many other things.

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

#149

Post by jgust »

webmobdev wrote: post #119
gabriel34 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How exactly do you fast? Is it like the extreme fasting of muslims where you don't eat or drink anything from dawn to dusk, or is it like the hindu fasting where you only eat fruits and vegetables?

When people refer to intermittent fasting, they generally mean a water fast which means you're not eating anything and only drinking water for your fasting session.

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

#150

Post by tomp »

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…

The data is clear: the situation is improving everywhere. War deaths rate are tiny compared with past decades [0] and have been trending downwards after having been stable for centuries [1]. Poverty and child mortality are falling, literacy and democracy is improving (this is obviously mostly happening in the "poor" parts of the workd, because the West is pretty much maxed out already) [2].

[0] https://slides.ourworldindata.org/war-and-violence/#/15

[1] https://slides.ourworldindata.org/war-and-violence/#/6

[2] https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-condit...

Post reply on HN