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

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

#101

Post by ineedasername »

thrwn_frthr_awy wrote: post #49

Copying my comment from the straw poll post: — I had severe depression for a few years that became debilitating at the start of 2020 causing me to be unable to socialize or work or do anything but sleep. I was a terrible friend, parent, spouse, and employee. I tried multiple anti-depressants and therapists, but nothing helped. This august I found a psychiatrist that also did ketamine treatment and it was a miracle. L…

I would like to add to this another less traditional treatment for depression: The medication modafinil. Yes, used for sleep disorders or shift workers to stay awake, but it is really not at all a traditional -etamine stimulant, and it can be extremely effective as an adjunctive treatment for depression, especially used in combination with another medication. Even when medications mostly work, they don't always stop all symptoms. Modafinil is what has kept me functional through those times. Hard to get insurance to cover, but if you use GoodRx you can get generics at a reasonable price.

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

#102

Post by nromiun »

Pretty much everyone I know is either depressed, worried or just bored out of their minds. And it started when the lockdown began. At first everyone was too worried about getting infected. But then everyone started getting infected and everyone survived with mild symptoms. It is a little better now because the lockdown got a little relaxed. But I am surprised how many people are saying they want to go back to their office.

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

#103

Post by ineedasername »

moltar wrote: post #4

For this poll to be accurate, I think a list of agreed exact symptoms needs to be included. E.g. I have no idea what depressive symptoms are.

Depressive symptoms run the gamut. Typical diagnostic tools are surveys where each question is scored, and the total score is measured against different thresholds to approximate where on the spectrum of depression you might be: https://screening.mhanational.org/screening-tools/depression

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

#104

Post by riffraff »

proverbialbunny wrote: post #54
roflc0ptic wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also: drink less coffee.

I drink decaf. ^_^ There is decaf out there as good as the best non-decaf coffee (I drink espresso, yum!) and it's a pretty short amount of time before the brain normalizes to decaf and it will wake you up without the negative side effects. But yah, caffeine while anxious can be not a good time.

additionally: there is also decaffeinated tea (maybe sold as de-theinated or theine-free), which can be pretty good.

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

#105

Post by ineedasername »

dragontamer wrote: post #86

I can say "not at all", but mostly because I had a depressive bout that absolutely haunted me for multiple years when I was in High School. Every day, my daydreams would be about whether or not today was the day I'd decide to kill myself to end my misery. The hardest part was finding a way to kill myself without hurting those I did care about: my family. Any way I gamed a suicide: it would result in somebody in my fa…

I must emphasize how _NORMAL_ depression feels when you have it.

Yes. Though that is not always the case, people can experience depression in different ways, but many people don't realize they're depressed until a chance conversation with a doctor raises an alarm bell.

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

#106

Post by ineedasername »

hyperdimension wrote: post #29

I voted, but I'm not really sure if I'm the audience you sought for this poll; I've been severely depressed for the majority of my life (it gets more and less worse from time to time, but always what I'd consider depressed), but the coronavirus situation hasn't (as far as I've noticed) affected it all that much. I wish good luck to all of you out there who might be going through this for the first time in your life,…

I think you are absolutely part of the audience for this, if not for meaningful data collection then because your experience can lend insight to people here, in the comments.

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

#107

Post by sleazy_b »

suifbwish wrote: post #81
proverbialbunny wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So is that depression? Yep, but the cause in your case is unknown. For example, it could be work burnout causing it. It could be not going outside that is causing it. It could be not socializing that is causing it. It could be your diet. It could be ... If you can identify the cause you can find a solution. Unfortunately, the best most people have is a shotgun approach where they try a combination of solutions attem…

Great advice. I would add that another strategy that has been useful to many is that when you are feeling negative emotions stirring up uncontrollably, it’s important to remember they aren’t real. They are just feelings. At the end of the day all you have is your body, mind, health and wealth. However you feel about those things will change quite a bit throughout the average persons lifetime. What matters today might…

I think they are real. Just because they are a temporary state or contradicted by other real feelings doesn’t make them not real. For me it has been helpful to remember that how I’m feeling now is not the only way I’ll feel and how I’m thinking about a subject is not the only way I have to think about that subject. Feelings and thoughts change, as you said.

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

#108

Post by friendlybus »

danieltillett wrote: post #96
friendlybus wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect, which planet do you live on where a pandemic that is killing millions and putting millions more out of work, confining people globally to their houses and murdering some large swathes of the economy for an invisible disease is the same as an 'easier & safer life for most people'. The K-shaped recovery is a real bubble, don't get caught in either side, they're both blind.

Millions of people die from diseases like malaria and HIV every year. Wallowing around in self pity because of COVID-19 is not going to change a thing. Life has been getting better every year I have been alive. Billions of people have been moved out of extreme poverty and the average person lives a easier and safer life than almost anyone in history - I would rather be a poor man today than a king of the past.

Ah I thought it was the Steven Pinker pattern. I don't see it as self-pity, or pity at all. The world is a dark place and our children are the bright lights of the future. It's the older generation that enjoyed the bright life and the millennial/z-gen is dealing with the world for what it is.

This is the cold, severe reality of the day. I can't hand-wave away facts of my community for the tail end of the industrial revolution applied in Africa.

I have my optimism that in the darkness life will be conserved and born anew. We don't need another aphorism extolling the virtues of how bright some corner of the planet is and how that is a worthy trade-off for personal or collective suffering.

I'd prefer to live in the '90s when you could keep a secret and have a life that was not inside a panopticon. That was safety, not this metaphysical slavery to a set of advertising megacorps that pushes our behaviour around by statistical application of recommendations. I miss going on holiday and coming back with stories of the new world, rather than being able to bring up a 4k photo of every location within 250ms. I miss being able to fight people and gentlemen's agreements on the back of a handshake and a word. We have lost a lot, I pity those that forget so easily.

Living in the 50s with a stable job that can support two adults and some kids with appliances that never die and vaguely drive-able cars seems a hell of a lot easier and safer than now. There are always brighter moments in the past, it's pointless to even make the rebuttal about living in the past, as if we could.

Your work depends on pulling dark information on genomes into yet another database for a client. I doubt I'm going to sway you on the damage of recent progress. GATTACA is closer than I'd (we'd?) like and you probably won't be around to see it. The worst part is that it's likely to be secret, no blood tests at the gate required. Just sort a database row and you have your secret candidates for the next task.

A two thousand year semi-respite from the naturally severe realities of life is ending and nobody seems to having anything to say about the shining beauty of a mankind that valued truth, a good handshake and gentlemanly behaviour. Is violence such a bad price to pay for freedom? I guess you can buy people off with iphones and widgets while they get slowly locked up by a system seeking absolute control over their lives.

C'est la vie, long live man.

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