Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?

Early into quarantine I noticed I was feeling intense lethargy, apathy (and anxiety) with mood swings. I could not get any work done. My sleep schedule was inconsistent. Some days I wouldn't sleep till 4 am and wake up at 12pm. Other days I would sleep at 10pm and wake up at 5am. I couldn't focus in any meetings, etc.

Thankfully I was a high performer pre covid so I didn't get punished for this. It took me two months into covid to realize something was wrong. I scheduled a meeting with a psychiatrist and requested adderall. I was mostly trying to fix my issues with work.

Obviously he was hesitant to give me it and instead gave me prozac. Prozac was absolutely horrible, it made my apathy worse and heightened the intensity of my mood swings. I stopped after a week.

My next appointment I tried wellbutrin and I have to say this drug is life changing. It's helped me regulate my eating and sleeping patterns, I can focus through entire meeting at work. I can actually get stuff done and Im not completely apathetic towards life.

Note: drugs affect people in different ways. My experience might not be yours but I recommend if you are struggling to try seeking help.

flashbacks

I am much better than I was in the past 2 years this year. I still suffer from depression but I have found ways to deal with it. I am better at redirecting thoughts and containing them. I was able to finish few books in the last 2 weeks and continue with a morning walk routine. Those books really helped me understood why I was failing at modern life.

I cut mainstream social media from my life and reduced screen time. I am more optimistic. I am able to fight against the profitable pessimism.

I am reducing the urge to hoard more material belongings. I learnt that on HN. I was able to let go off fancy toys and electronics that I didn't use anymore but kept because I bought them and grown attached to them. If I don't use it, it's better someone else can. I don't want to keep them on eBay for months.

4x faster than before? I don't care to look more unless I need it.

I re-evaluate my room and budget every month in order to cut down what isn't needed. If I don't do that, I will keep using past as a justification for piling up more til I suffocate between Amazon boxes.

I bought a dustbin for my neighborhood because people were throwing wrappers outside and placed it with a note. So far, some people are using it and that makes me happy. Reciprocity is a powerful tool and I am optimistic someone will think about what I did and do the same in future.

I write more using a paper notebook. goals, priorities, learnings, etc. Software note taking tools suck because they limit your freedom on what you can do. At the end of my todos, I make origami pets from them as a reminder of what I able to accomplish.

Don't be afraid of being messy. Here's my notes from a few days ago: https://ibb.co/yPGb4Z8

They aren't coherent but just enough to remind me.

I'm sure it causes untold amounts of damage

Anxiety is in that list of things that can be termed "depression". [1]

Anxiety for something like a test is normal -- since you can take the test away and the anxiety goes away.

If it's worse than that it could be depression, including things like panic attacks.

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/sy...