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Ask HN: Are you depressed?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#51

Post by tsumnia »

ksd482 wrote: post #30
ptrhvns wrote: post #22

I'm not a doctor, of course, but for those who are depressed, but where it's not debilitating, or where you are not suffering from some kind of clinical depression where you need medical attention, I highly recommend that you immediately purchase the book "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life" by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, and put that information into practice as soon as you can.

Thanks for the recommendation. Do you have personal experience with this book? Do you mind sharing your thoughts on the book as well as the practice of mindfulness meditation?

I can't speak for the book, but I was a participant in a mindfulness study a decade ago. The biggest thing about it, I've taken, is that you recognize your feelings and acknowledge how they are causing you to behave. It doesn't transform you into an emotionless monk, but rather aims to make you aware (or mindful) of how you and your actions are being motivated through your emotions and non-awareness. For example, a mindfulness-driven diet would place emphasis on cultivating awareness of mindless snacking and aim to make you aware that you don't actually need to be eating at the moment - you are just snacking out of boredom or instinct.

With regard to emotion, like I said, mindfulness isn't meant to eliminate emotions, or even eliminate negative emotions. If something makes you mad or angry, you may carry that emotion into later tasks. Mindfulness is about recognizing the anger, acknowledging it, but understanding not to project onto other things.

There's probably more to it, but I was trained in mindfulness by proxy of martial arts (that was the study) [1]. I never studied it outright and only took a Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale survey a few times over a few years. The paper I linked might give you some ideas on what mindfulness is.

[1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/22.23.PMS.116.1...

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#52

Post by y2bd »

tsjq wrote: post #48
rubatuga wrote: post #20

A yes/no questionnaire is the worst possible way to poll this issue.

This post looks like a promo for that site, and likely they're setting a ton of tracking cookies and sell our data to a ton of advertisers

I don’t have any information on their tracking methods, but strawpoll.me has been around for years and is relatively popular for polls.

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#53

Post by czynskee »

Clubber wrote: post #31

I'm not depressed. Shit happens sometimes, but overall, it beats a lot of things that people have gone through in History. Anytime I start feeding bad, I either go for a walk to get the blood flowing, or I realized that in 1914, teenagers were drafted and thrown into a trench to fight and die for 4 years. After that was said and done, the survivors got to experience the Spanish Flu, which killed more people than they…

When my wife uses this line of reasoning I point out that she's taking solace in other people's pain. It's kind of a joke, but it's also kind of true. Don't need to minimize your own suffering just because someone else suffered more.

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#54

Post by Vaslo »

Clubber wrote: post #31

I'm not depressed. Shit happens sometimes, but overall, it beats a lot of things that people have gone through in History. Anytime I start feeding bad, I either go for a walk to get the blood flowing, or I realized that in 1914, teenagers were drafted and thrown into a trench to fight and die for 4 years. After that was said and done, the survivors got to experience the Spanish Flu, which killed more people than they…

I feel this way as well. I have moments of being stuck in my house with my great family and say “man I’m tired of the pandemic” or “my kids are acting crazy”. Then I remember the lives of others, not just men who were drafted in the wars but their wives who had to make a living and raise their children in a time that it wasn’t so easy for them. I also think of other countries where people aren’t stuck in a house but a shack with 5 others and have to go out and do dangerous work. Not invalidating that there are people with depression that I could never understand. I also realize some people are very alone and don’t understand why. BUT if your biggest problem is that you are stuck in your house or apartment over in Silicon Valley or NYC playing video games or reading books, I have a hard time being sympathetic. Things could be much much worse.

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#55

Post by lukifer »

ptrhvns wrote: post #22

I'm not a doctor, of course, but for those who are depressed, but where it's not debilitating, or where you are not suffering from some kind of clinical depression where you need medical attention, I highly recommend that you immediately purchase the book "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life" by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, and put that information into practice as soon as you can.

I'll also add a suggestion for Martin Seligman's "Learned Optimism" [0]. A mindfulness practice on self-talk (along with giving up sugar and reducing carbs) has made a huge difference on managing my mental health.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism#Seligman's_me...

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#56

Post by geerlingguy »

kylebenzle wrote: post #45
trzeci wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel you, myself I have two toddlers (2, 4) that was a life change for me. Responsibility, scream, lack of sleep, inability to what I used to do to get some energy boost. Which escalated during working from home. No advice from my side, as I haven't found any good way. Take care,

6 and 3 year old. I feel bad about comments like this. Kids are the greatest gift and I cherish every second with them. Getting to spend more time at home with them has been a god send. I feel like so much of this comes from a lack of control when people feel (for some reason) like they should be able to "control" their kids. Maybe let go of the control thing and just enjoy your time with them?

4, 6, and 7, and one more on the way. This year's crazy; I can't judge, as we're getting by one day at a time.

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#58

Post by throwaway45349 »

Koliakis wrote: post #49
briefcomment wrote: post #16

Holy crap, that's a way higher percentage than I was expecting. What are some of the reasons you all have for being depressed? Also, is this possibly a self selective poll? Are non depressed people not bothering to answer?

No social contacts with friends or strangers who could become friends (or even a partner). So loneliness and lack of intimacy. The latter is a killer.

For sure, this is a big reason. I'll be 21 when this is over, this year of youth is never coming back.

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#60

Post by ptrhvns »

ksd482 wrote: post #30
ptrhvns wrote: post #22

I'm not a doctor, of course, but for those who are depressed, but where it's not debilitating, or where you are not suffering from some kind of clinical depression where you need medical attention, I highly recommend that you immediately purchase the book "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life" by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, and put that information into practice as soon as you can.

Thanks for the recommendation. Do you have personal experience with this book? Do you mind sharing your thoughts on the book as well as the practice of mindfulness meditation?

You're welcome.

My personal experience with the book, and mindfulness in general, is that it has significantly transformed my life for the better. I say that despite the fact that my practice of mindfulness has been pretty poor, but I keep working on it.

I don't subscribe to what I would call woo woo thinking or philosophy, so I was pretty skeptical at first. However, the fact that this book was written by a medical doctor helped me overcome my skepticism. My initial attempts at mindfulness meditation, however unskilled it was, sealed the deal.

It has been incredibly helpful (beyond what I originally thought was possible) to use the techniques of mindfulness to be able to notice the thoughts and emotions I was experiencing, without judgement, and then gently, and purposely direct my attention towards something more positive or peaceful. I use the techniques, even if just a little bit, every day. It's helped my emotional self-regulation, my relationships, and my ability to focus on work. It's helped me cope with pain, and maintain resilience even when I was feeling particularly low.

There are lots of wonderful books on this subject. Another great one is "Happiness" by Matthieu Ricard (another scientist). Sam Harris talks about mindfulness extensively, so you might check his work, and his app (although the app is a paid service).

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