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Tips for the depressed

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Re: Tips for the depressed

#181

Post by chrismarlow9 »

dlsso wrote: post #123
chrismarlow9 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what if you find it difficult to have gratitude? you want to be grateful for what you have, but you're not, and can't explain why. if you don't care about anything, meaning you have no gratitude, how do you jumpstart this process?

Great question. I wouldn't worry about feeling grateful. Just reminding yourself of "what you have," as you phrased it, is enough. When we're depressed we have a tendency to fall into the mindset that everything is bad. Reminding yourself that there is something good in your life helps break that cycle. If you can make it a habit your brain actually gets better at finding the positives and it starts to create a posit…

i actually just finished that. you're right it's A great read

Re: Tips for the depressed

#182

Post by _lqdo »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #3

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…

>>One of the biggest force multipliers in overcoming depression

One of the biggest force multipliers for me was accepting myself the way I am, and living with my depression. I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, PTSD, and Bipolar. I've been on several SSRIs for a year, but I've quit it all. I found out that drugs are good to calm me down, but they make me so normal to the point of boredom. I could no longer hyper-focus to build/design products.

When I researched it I found out that creativity is strongly linked to depression. It made sense...I couldn't imagine Picasso, Kakfka, Shakespeare, and all the creative great thinkers/artists living a life like not-depressed-people.

When my doctor, and the head of the Psychiatrist dept tried to influence my decision I said that I love myself when I hyper-focus.

I love it when I'm randomly strolling the streets thinking about all the silly things other people think I'm wasting my time thinking about.

I love it when I read the depressing thoughts/ideas of great philosophers like Russell, Wittgenstein, and Kant.

I love it when I look at depressing paintings by Munch, Picasso, and Van Gogh.

It remains one of life mysteries to me why we are trained to reject depression and loneliness..why we, hackers and artists, are trained to live by unwritten rules of how we should live our lives..

“Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.” ― Nikola Tesla.

Re: Tips for the depressed

#183

Post by Mouse47 »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #169
tekkk wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if it's any help, here's my two cents: to rewire your gratification circuits you need a lot of time and effort to alter your brains to accept some new ideas or behaviors. Took me a long time to get used to going to gym. Now it's like second nature. I know if you are really depressed it might be impossible to do it and other means, eg psychologist and medication, might be more helpful. But the rewiring of your br…

In the abstract, it's entirely plausible to me that I somehow need to work to "rewire my gratification circuits". However, nothing has demonstrated even a hint of actually doing that. I've tried multiple approaches to talk therapy, medication, diet/exercise, and self-directed behavioral activation (aka "do stuff"). None of them have noticeably helped; a few have backfired badly. > I think positive action and experien…

I was just describing this to my therapist the other day. There are things that you recognize at the intellectual level that never make it down to the "lower levels", which ironically are the ones that matter.

She's an anxiety therapist, so I tell her my anxiety is holding me back from connecting with others, but part of me suspects that my inability to "feel" the connections is the real problem.

Re: Tips for the depressed

#184

Post by jshevek »

jlangemeier wrote: post #154
MegaButts wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with everything you said, and was merely pointing out the evidence is far from overwhelming (or even conclusive, in my opinion). If we're going to talk about making dangerous statements, mentioning that antidepressants are effective while ignoring the fact they increase suicide for some people seems a lot more reckless to me. Of course, you don't know if they will do that until after you are already taking th…

I really like the article you linked; I also found it interesting at the end of it: "It is absurd to use drugs for depression that increase the risk of suicide and homicide when we know that cognitive behavioural therapy can halve the risk of suicide in patients who have been admitted after a suicide attempt and when psychotherapy does not increase the risk of murder." And I think it really speaks to the need to have…

Code blocks for quotes do not display well on mobile. I had to scroll horizontally a dozen times to read that quote.

Re: Tips for the depressed

#185

Post by jshevek »

barrenko wrote: post #110
nonbirithm wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But can a reader who's truly depressed think as rationally as Nietzsche and make sense of it? Because of the views around suicide and how it can be seen as an "out" for issues that are actually only temporary, associating suicide with hope in any sense could be counterproductive. You have to make these people understand. Sometimes they never intend to understand, and only take the parts that validate their preexistin…

One could also view seriously depressed people as extremely lucid. (If it's not brain damage induced of course)

Reflecting on the states of mind I have when I am or am not depressed, I would say I'm far more lucid and have a more accurate (if less broad) worldview when I'm depressed.

Re: Tips for the depressed

#187

Post by 5cott0 »

Blaiz0r wrote: post #52
pmoriarty wrote: post #15

Things that help me when I feel depressed: - Listening to upbeat, energetic music and avoiding depressing music, which tends to make me feel worse - Walking outside on a clear, sunny day - Eating my favorite food - Playing a good game to get my mind off whatever it is that I'm obsessing about - If I am able to concentrate, reading something by a favorite author, listening to a good podcast, or watching a non-depressi…

What did Nietzsche mean by that?

Probably a sentiment he borrowed from Schopenhauer.

“They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice; that only a madman could be guilty of it; and other insipidities of the same kind; or else they make the nonsensical remark that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.“

Re: Tips for the depressed

#188

Post by cairo_x »

_lqdo wrote: post #182
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #3

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…

>>One of the biggest force multipliers in overcoming depression One of the biggest force multipliers for me was accepting myself the way I am, and living with my depression. I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, PTSD, and Bipolar. I've been on several SSRIs for a year, but I've quit it all. I found out that drugs are good to calm me down, but they make me so normal to the point of boredom. I could no longer…

You were prescribed SSRIs with a Bipolar diagnosis!?

Re: Tips for the depressed

#189

Post by _lqdo »

cairo_x wrote: post #188
_lqdo wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>One of the biggest force multipliers in overcoming depression One of the biggest force multipliers for me was accepting myself the way I am, and living with my depression. I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, PTSD, and Bipolar. I've been on several SSRIs for a year, but I've quit it all. I found out that drugs are good to calm me down, but they make me so normal to the point of boredom. I could no longer…

You were prescribed SSRIs with a Bipolar diagnosis!?

No, that was for depression and ptsd. I stopped seeing my doctor when he told me he thinks I have bipolar.

Re: Tips for the depressed

#190

Post by cairo_x »

Swizec wrote: post #31
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #3

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…

As s as formerly depressed person I can attest that this is the only thing that worked. DO stuff. Even if you feel you can’t, even if it feels hopeless. Do it anyway. Somehow through the act of forcing yourself you find you’re actually enjoying yourself, are making progress and feeling better . Saying this is also the quickest way to get shunned out of the room by anyone with depression. Fun fact: research has shown…

Depends. In the short term (12 months) CBT has been shown to be very effective. However, over two years it has been shown to be just as effective as doing nothing.

The problem of time turns up in multiple kinds of treatments, and I believe it has simply to do with how long the depressive episodes last. Usually by the time people seek treatment that will be at the peak of the episode. Regardless of the treatment, a couple bunch of month will pass and people find themselves getting better. I suspect most depression studies a deeply flawed because of this effect. At some point the treatment will stop working. But it's not that the treatment stopped working, it's that a new depressive episode has begun and the treatment never really did all that much in the first place.

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