I am just staring to realize that along with some bad decisions, wrong understanding of life and people and suboptimal skill and knowledge acquisition in past years I must have some degree of lasting depression. One aspect of positive change that I do notice now that was totally missing is literally feeling dopamine “scent” or “grasp” when contemplating something important I need to do among the things that I chose to be doing like my job and side projects, in the worse times it all felt like a burden, something I just owe to myself. But little by little I start to remember that I love doing a lot about it. Hopefully the dopamine gears will continue turning and speeding up!
Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?
201–210 of 227 posts
Re: Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?
#202I don't felt the need to see a doctor about what I'm experiencing, so I'm not sure if what I have qualifies as depression. But over the past several months, it feels like my entire personality and being is a rug that has been pulled out from underneath me. I'm no longer the driven and interested person that I used to be. I struggle to sit down and work - my brain feels scattered and no matter how much I sleep and res…
Depression isn't just feeling sad/suicidal all the things (tired/lack of energy/abrupts changes in your social life) you describe can be symptoms. If you can't get yourself out of the rut it might be time to seek professional counseling. I would suggest trying regular exercise and eating right as a great start though. Just cut out fast food entirely, work in half an hour or so of working out every day or every other day. MOVE. Donate time at a homeless shelter or other charity.
Re: Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?
#203I don't felt the need to see a doctor about what I'm experiencing, so I'm not sure if what I have qualifies as depression. But over the past several months, it feels like my entire personality and being is a rug that has been pulled out from underneath me. I'm no longer the driven and interested person that I used to be. I struggle to sit down and work - my brain feels scattered and no matter how much I sleep and res…
It's not depression, it's the society tumbling down the hill straight to hell, my friend, and your subconscious understanding of that fact.
This is bullshit and a bullshit outlook.
Re: Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?
#204As someone who has dealt with depression their entire life it's really something to start to see people who have never, ever dealt with it begin to try to compartmentalize their lives from their depression and look for every other option before declaring it depression. Like it's some horrible disease you'd never want to catch, like any of us have the option. I really hate that it took this but I've had my feelings/de…
> some of you are just so far removed from actually understanding your own feelings and emotions that you can't even recognize that you're depressed
For example, I am quite aware that I have some feeling X. I am just not sure whether other people use the word "depression" to refer to X, or something else. Maybe "depression" actually refers to 10 times X, how am I supposed to know?
Sometimes people use the same words to describe different things (or different degrees of the same thing), sometimes people use different words to describe the same thing. I don't have a direct access to your feelings, so how am I supposed to tell whether my feelings are the same?
Re: Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
doing the exact opposite of how you feel It can be a surprising truth that you have the freedom to choose to do something, even if you don't feel you want to. Your agency is not enslaved to your emotions. Another tack is to approach the activity as an experiment or exploration. Not I must do this , or even if I do this it will help , but: I wonder if it will help, or even I bet it won't, let's see who's right!
I see even when people can rationalize it correctly, that is see the long term gains from doing it, tend to still be enslaved to their present feelings if those feelings are strong enough. This is the struggle of depression. I find for situations like that, the blastoff technique works well. When you find you need to do something, instead of thinking about it, start counting backwards from 5, like you're a rocket get…
> it takes 4-5 seconds for the other part of the mind to come in and override the action, so as long as ... before that
Meaning, for the stone age feelings parts of the brain, to realize that "but I want to stay in bed"?
If one acts faster than that part of the brain, then it's harder for it to mess things up? (Like, feeling sad, worrying, doing nothing)
Re: Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?
#206I've never felt like life has no joy in it, I'm highly motivated to achieve my goals and I think they're worthwhile goals. The thing is, I think I won't achieve those goals, and that makes me anxious, not medically anxious, but there's this constant felling of dread. So, I wouldn't say I'm depressed, but I have this constant dread that accompanies me everyday.
are you enjoying working towards your goals? they're mostly right when they say it's the journey not the destination. goals are good when they're a part of the journey. as a means to an end... that's what they are. the end. trust me young person, I've been on disability for depression for the last ten years! it's all been a purgatorius bad dream. align your goals with the work you love and tell yourself it's ok if yo…
Thank you. My goals are aligned with things I love, but it's still hard.
Re: Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see even when people can rationalize it correctly, that is see the long term gains from doing it, tend to still be enslaved to their present feelings if those feelings are strong enough. This is the struggle of depression. I find for situations like that, the blastoff technique works well. When you find you need to do something, instead of thinking about it, start counting backwards from 5, like you're a rocket get…
> it takes 4-5 seconds for the other part of the mind to come in and override the action, so as long as ... before that Meaning, for the stone age feelings parts of the brain, to realize that "but I want to stay in bed"? If one acts faster than that part of the brain, then it's harder for it to mess things up? (Like, feeling sad, worrying, doing nothing)
Basically.
Re: Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?
#208I encourage anyone feeling depressed here to read the book Feeling Great by Dr. David Burns. Also you can listen to his podcast: https://feelinggood.com/category/dr-davids-blogs/feeling-goo...
His podcasts cover a lot of the book and have some live therapy sessions etc...
If you are in the Bay area he works with a clinic that dos TEAM therapy in Mountain View.
I consider myself an expert in depression and anxiety having had them since I was a teenager. His book Feeling Good helped me. I first picked it up 10-15 years ago and never read it. I finally did read some of it in the past 2 years, but in actuality it has been the podcasts that have really helped.
There's another podcast called "Therapist Uncensored" that is also really great.
Re: Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
Millions? Wheres your fuckin numbers boy?
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ I can google for others too, I don't think the numbers will sway your opinion though.
can you count? 1 is not a plural. And btw how many people die every day? Count the excess, The abnormal///// Your looking at shadows mate. People start wars for stupid arse ...
Re: Poll: Have you experienced depressive symptoms over the past two weeks?
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is amazing you manage to read this all into my post. Of course life is hard for many people in the world, but things are getting better every year for the average person. This seems to not include the average HN poster who seems to be caught in a depressed funk.
It's almost as if people's emotional states come from things other than making entirely rational big picture judgements about the state of the "average person" on the whole planet. I'm curious if you have, at some point in your life, met another human being? All evidence would point to "yes", and yet here you are, all over this thread, debunking other peoples' subjective mental states with your superior facts and log…
It is almost as though you can’t tell the difference between statements about population aggregates and statements about individuals.