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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

#241

Post by mabbo »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #236
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…

Interesting... I had the same experience recently. I took 3 (increasingly more powerful) antibiotics in a short period until the docs found one that worked. Then I spent the following days feeling super stressed/anxious for no apparent reason, but figured out it could be a side-effect of the meds. It got better though. Also, since then, I can't stand cow milk or cheese. Learned that goat cheese is fine, for some reas…

> Learned that goat cheese is fine, for some reason

My wife gets itchy (enough that she needs antihistamines) if she has cow's milk or cow's cheese. Goat's milk? Not a problem.

Allergies are weird.

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

#242

Post by geoelectric »

User23 wrote: post #116
rmason wrote: post #78

I'm not sure they're right. As a man at least when you get to a certain age you lose the filter. I saw it in my dad and now I see it in myself. When you're younger bosses might BS you but you don't know it. When you get older you know it but feel helpless in doing anything about it. You reach a certain age and you call people on it. That might be one reason in tech that they don't want older employees. Being freer is…

One of the best things I've noticed about aging is no longer caring what other people think. Some of this is due to having built some financial security, but I believe there is more to it than that.

Speaking as aging dude who largely doesn't care what other people think, some of it comes from financial security.

However, I'd say some comes down to being more assured in my beliefs that my positions are reasonable places to start, if not always right. Some comes down to understanding exactly how little it matters what other people think of you in most contexts, and trying to only manage the contexts where that's not true.

All of that can go sideways in a way that you won't necessarily catch until damage done, which leads to the third realization with age: there's very little damage you can do once that can't be repaired. Most irreparable damage comes from you repeatedly convincing someone you're a jerk, assuming you don't completely turn them off on first impression.

None of which is to say you should lead by being an ass when you get old, just that I don't worry about impressions so much anymore unless it's strategic. Micromanaging them never got me anywhere, better to confidently try something reasonable then pick up the pieces if I'm off base. That's gotten me way further.

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

#243

Post by Dolores12 »

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.

fasting is bad for your gall bladder. fast with care!

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

#244

Post by Revery »

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.

It might just be me, but it feels like that comment indirectly addresses losing one's religious beliefs as they get older. There's probably too many confounding factors, but I've been curious if there are any noticeable differences in depression frequency amongst irreligious folks that had religious upbringing. It seems it's something that is difficult for people to talk about or study.

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

#245

Post by posix_compliant »

JeremyBanks wrote: post #36
tabtab wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of creative and successful ideas come from people of borderline/questionable mental health. That may the be reason these conditions exist in the gene pool: somebody has to ruffle feathers every now and then to keep societies from becoming stale. However, the journey may not always be pleasant.

The problem with that kind of evolutionary argument is that it requires the product of that creativity to impart a reproductive advantage to the creator and their close relatives. However, creations are often easily copied, producing a broader benefit that negates the evolutionary advantage. It's not impossible, but it's a tricky thing to argue.

> creations are often easily copied Unless they aren't.

> that negates the evolutionary advantage Unless it doesn't.

Not only are you speculating, but you're making blanket statements within your speculations.

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

#246

Post by scottlocklin »

beagle3 wrote: post #231
scottlocklin wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is "over here" for you? The only place I've found which has wheat which doesn't make me feel icky is Italy. And the only thing I can figure out about it is fructans (they have a finicky milling process), which seems insane. I've been all over, and as I don't actually have celiac disease (but a very direct and obvious reaction to something in wheat; sleepy internal itchy feeling) I always try the local breads. U…

Interesting. For me it's a probablistic scale: Coppenhagen: 100% of the what makes me feel icky immediately. New York, London, Tel-Aviv: About 50% to feel icky. Rome, Paris: About 25% to feel icky, usually not very icky. Iceland: Can eat as many and as much wheat products as I want, feel great. (Only listing places I spent enough time in to have reasonable statistics) Following the Icelandic epihphany, I've started s…

I generally drink a bunch of wine when I'm in Italy, so maybe it is the sulfur!

I was in Iceland recently, but there were so many rotten basking shark type things to eat, I don't remember having any wheat there. Also figured they probably got it from the US.

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

#247

Post by JeremyBanks »

posix_compliant wrote: post #245
JeremyBanks wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that kind of evolutionary argument is that it requires the product of that creativity to impart a reproductive advantage to the creator and their close relatives. However, creations are often easily copied, producing a broader benefit that negates the evolutionary advantage. It's not impossible, but it's a tricky thing to argue.

> creations are often easily copied Unless they aren't. > that negates the evolutionary advantage Unless it doesn't. Not only are you speculating, but you're making blanket statements within your speculations.

Per POSIX you are expected to produce no output.

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

#248

Post by sjjshzvuiajhz »

tabtab wrote: post #230
tabtab wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: You may have steel skin, but for most people, that feels like an attack. The person you’re questioning can perceive in your body language and tone of voice...Communication is hard... You are right, communicating is indeed hard. Achieving clarity, brevity, and social "friendliness" at the same time is a multi-skill that most people get wrong: they tend to do one or two well, but rarely all three. I will readily ag…

(Reply to "sjjshzvuiajhz" at this level because there's a message nesting limit on HN.) Let me get this straight: you are insisting I "just feel" different? Just somehow make my brain like certain people? I realize there are books about forcing oneself to have different emotions, but they often don't work. It's like asking a fan of classical music to just start liking hip-hip and vice-versa. "Just change your head".…

I’m not saying you can instantly change the way your brain works on a dime, but you can make it happen given time. Read a good book about the history of hip hop. Put Warren G’s Regulate album on in the background while doing something you really enjoy. Intentionally listen for parts of the music that you’ve read about, and be proud of yourself for recognizing them. Suddenly you’ll find that hearing a sample from a song you heard before gives you a dopamine hit, just like a Star Trek reference feels for a sci-fi fan.

Appreciating the world around you is a skill, just like criticizing is. And it’s a skill you can get good at if you apply yourself! Smart people who suffer from depression and anxiety automatically get really good at criticizing things. It may not be worth the effort to learn to appreciate hip hop, but it is definitely worth the effort to learn to like interacting with the people around you.

Antidepressants are like a performance-enhancing drug for appreciating things. They make the positive thoughts last longer. My psychiatrist tells me I should try to wean myself off them eventually, so maybe training wheels are a better analogy.

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

#249

Post by apocalypstyx »

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…

I recently saw this series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y97Ywl7RtUw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d1ibtOVImg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSVlPlnB8wI

which is an interesting explanation for part of this issue.

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

#250

Post by uneasy-sausage »

twodave wrote: post #237

My personal challenges with anger/depression came from attempts to escape reality. It started out as a way to spend my down time (video games). Then over time it became what I looked forward to doing. I would skip outings with friends and ignore my family in favor of playing games. Then it morphed into other forms of impulsive behavior. After about 20 years (2/3 of my life to that point) I had become an extremely sel…

Have you cut out some of the compulsive habits/actions such as binging video games?
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