111–120 of 224 posts
1. Zero alcohol. 2. ICE cold showers. 3. Extreme cardio. 4. Meditation. 5. Breakfast with a friend. 6. Play with a big young dog. 7. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. 7. Meds. 8. Get up at 5am. 9. Journal.
Feeling Good is one of the best books on depression from a scientific perspective.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>... do something that's fun. There is NO fun in depression.
I found that doing things I normally would've thought was fun worked well, even if I didn't think so at when I was depressed. This was the starting step for me to get better.
Just doing more of my work in a coffeeshop or elsewhere with people around, seems to make a big difference. Which implies that perhaps just visiting a depressed friend a lot, might make a difference? Just a thought.
I hope they work for some, but for me, SSRI's are frankly, trash. All the downsides with none of the upsides. The only thing that worked was Imipramine, and I can't get it anymore because it's "old" and "not recommended". The newer focus on psychedelics and drugs usually used for recreational purposes seems more encouraging. If you're anti-depressant resistant, I'd recommend you try Gabapentin, a seemingly overlooked…
> I hope they work for some, but for me, SSRI's are frankly, trash. All the downsides with none of the upsides. They absolutely work for many people. Unfortunately, many people deprive themselves of SSRI trials because they read too many negative anecdotes online. If you're seriously depressed for an extended period of time, it's worth a trial of an SSRI medication. If it doesn't work, just taper off and be done with…
SSRI's do not work. Linked elsewhere in this thread: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4172306/
> The serotonin theory is as close as any theory in the history of science to having been proved wrong. Instead of curing depression, popular antidepressants may induce a biological vulnerability making people more likely to become depressed in the future.
Serotonin being the key driver of depression is as wrong as complex carbs being the healthiest macronutrient.
AFTER FIFTY YEARS, billions of dollars of intensive marketing campaigns, and tens of billions of dollars of profits for pharmaceutical companies, it is still far from clear that antidepressant drugs are any more effective than placebo. The only group of people who have demonstrably benefited from the widespread use of antidepressants are pharmaceutical executives and investors. I don't think this is accurate or helpf…
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...
I largely agree with all the advice here. I dropped out of college due to depression, then I torched my tech career with a manic episode that led me straight from a FAANG SWE job to an involuntary psych ward patient for a month, which was followed by a half year brutal depression. I’ve done a lot of research and I think psychiatry is pseudoscience and antidepressants are largely placebo. I’m really on the mindfulness…
>I’ve done a lot of research and I think psychiatry is pseudoscience and antidepressants are largely placebo. Care to link any of them? I have a hard time believing they are placebo, as they fundamentally alter neurochemistry.
First, once you're out of bed at an appropriate time, you want to stay out of bed. Second, the minimum interval of sleep you need to actually rest is 15 minutes. Snooze alarms, even on mobile devices, are currently 9 minutes. Third, tangentially related, do not use an obnoxious-sounding alarm, because you will make a negative association with your necessary tool. Use pleasant or inspiring music.
Source: I am a person with chronic depression who managed to solve this issue for myself.
One of the biggest force multipliers in overcoming depression is accepting that you can modulate your condition by taking small, deliberate actions. It's also one of the most difficult and delicate ideas to communicate to a depressed person. Depression notoriously clouds peoples' judgment and makes simple tasks seem impossible. Depression also encourages a lot of binary thinking, where people tend to give up because…