Cannabis. It helps me forget thoughts of loneliness, failure, and suicide.
Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?
51–60 of 115 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
I try to don’t forget the words “keep your heart pumping”. It really helps your whole body, especially the brain.
I tried jogging in the evening to clear my head and get blood pumping,but I slid back to the same valley after like two hours
Sorry to hear that. I should have said that it works best in the long term, and that varies for each one.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?
#53Exercise is pretty much the number one thing.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?
#54The question is why are you depressed before the question is how to deal with being depressed. For me, I was socially isolated, failed out of school, bullied at school, home and work, unsuccessful with friends or women and kept getting laid off, fighting with my coworkers and managers. It wasn’t until I learned about Aspergers and did a detailed study on all the problems people with Aspergers have that I understood a…
"imbalance and you just need some vitamins, a jog and rest - To me this isn’t really depression"
Strange and useless.
I probably have "proper" depression because of a chemical imbalance. Nothing to do with vitamins or a quick jog.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?
#55Lots of exercise. Gets a whole bunch of chemicals in your brain to flow again. Some of those chemicals cause depression. But they need to come out of the system (eventually). Lots of water. Drink water when you are tired. When angry. When sad. When bored. When excited. When energetic. Removes toxic chemicals in the body. Good thoughts. Great thoughts. Speak to a psychologist. Read a book. I did. Arrogance hides away…
I think that this kind of advice is based in stuff that's actually helpful (like taking care of your body) but is ultimately useless to anyone who is actually struggling with depression.
> Good thoughts. Great thoughts. ...
> Arrogance hides away anger. Anger hides away sadness. Sadness hides away attitude of helplessness. Helplessness is lack of resourcefulness. So be resourceful.
This reads like Trump and Yoda merged into one.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?
#56General advice for a general question:
The story often goes, if you're depressed, you need to shape up, grit your teeth and take it in strides, just brush it off. This is of course nonsense as a solitary advice.
What people often neglect is that circumstances in your life, sometimes beyond your control, can in fact trap you into "a life you don't want" or the sort of life where you're just existing, not really living. And if circumstances are that powerful, the problems can both seem invisible and insurmountable. Sometimes, we sort of get trained into living in a box! And then keep on living like that even though circumstances may change!
So I believe it's important to reflect on what you really want, what interests you, and pursue that. If that is a big fear to do in practice, no wonder. Everybody would feel stuck if living on false premises, according to others' specifications or avoidance of such. Ultimately, people need to feel in control in their lives, even if just an illusion, when we do what we can we at least feel better about trying. Failing is then part of learning.
Watching movies, playing games, gaming social media, don't really count, as those activities become just a proxy for life if you don't pursue and utilize yourself in some other way that truly count in your heart. And it's a life-long road, where we often don't see the small steps we take into a bold new direction leads.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?
#57[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?
#58I used acetylcysteine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3044191/
This stuff helped very well.
Depression is a biochemical problem in your brain. It needs a biochemical solution. It is impossible to rationalize your way out of a depression. You cannot cure a depression by choosing behaviour.
Thinking about gyroscopes will not enable you to walk a straight line when drunk! Trying to cure a depression by choosing thoughts or behaviour is futile.
Also have a look at Amber O'Hearn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhxeVU-vT3Q Her mood disorder went away when she changed her diet.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?
#59The most important thing to know about depression is that it is an illness. It has no moral dimension. Get treatment. People telling you to buck up and get hold of yourself are much, much worse than useless.
The second most important thing to know is that "depression" is a label for at least a half-dozen, probably more, unrelated illnesses. What helps with one does nothing for another.
The third is that no matter what else you do, getting enough (but not too much) sleep, and enough exercise, are essential. Lack of either makes all varieties worse. But if you can't, do whatever you can. Sometimes just getting up is a triumph. Savor each.
Psychiatrists have no other way to determine which kind you have than to try various meds and see if any work. For some varieties no med works. Often a med does no good below a certain dosage level, or until you have been taking it for a month. Some work immediately. Most have annoying side effects that may gradually fade.
Many people have more than one kind, and need to treat both or all. It may be combined with other problems like anxiety.
Exercising, sleeping, and eating right can be hard, even prohibitively hard, when you are ill. Don't beat yourself up over being ill. Do whatever you can, now, and plan to do more when you can.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?
#60here's a thorough blog post "Things That Sometimes Help If You Have Depression" from a (pseudonymous) psychiatrist: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/16/things-that-sometimes-...
(The less medical-system dependent stuff is in the last section, not that you should avoid the medical system but if you're asking here on HN and not in a doctor's office that seems like what you might be looking for)