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Mental Illness and Startups

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Re: Mental Illness and Startups

#11

Post by _tef »

JasonMoyMN79 wrote: post #4

If you are depressed, why don't you just go out and do something really awesome? You have nothing to lose, right? So why not do something adventurous? Sell all your shit, move to Europe or South America, and go start a revolution.

Because depression doesn't work that way. It isn't a general feeling of malaise, it's somewhat a lack of positive value on everything (ish).

It is a lack of momentum and a heavy inertia to stay miserable and avoid change. It becomes a sunk cost where it's almost impossible to change something small in your life, let alone something big or huge.

Your advice is naive, and tantamount to asking "Have you thought about not being depressed, I hear that could work". If it were as simple as thinking your way of depression, it wouldn't be such a problem.

The best advice I've ever encountered is to take care of the little things, like sleeping on time, remembering to eat every day, doing laundry and getting out of the house. These are often the first things to go and often the hardest to get back into the routine of doing. Once you can manage a day at a time, it's easier to start to try managing a week at a time.

Large changes won't matter if you can't take care of the smaller things in life that support you. Depression isn't one of those things you can snap out of, but one that you can gradually work yourself out of.

It's not fun or easy though.

Re: Mental Illness and Startups

#12

Post by javert »

JasonMoyMN79 wrote: post #4

If you are depressed, why don't you just go out and do something really awesome? You have nothing to lose, right? So why not do something adventurous? Sell all your shit, move to Europe or South America, and go start a revolution.

I hope this is sarcasm. People have been getting flamed online for saying this exact thing for a while now.

The issues of "doing something awesome" and depression are totally orthogonal.

Most people already are trying to do whatever they think is really awesome. For example, raise a family and have a steady income; or create a startup; or be an artist; or move to Europe.

In fact, the depressed person is probably already trying to do whatever he thinks is really awesome, or at least contemplating it, in real life, and being depressed is just getting in the way.

Re: Mental Illness and Startups

#13

Post by idoh »

Speaking as someone who has a family member with mental illness: if you have such an illness then please seek professional help right away. If you suspect that someone you care about might have a mental illness then you should urge them to seek professional help right away.

Sometimes it is all manageable or heals on its own, but sometimes the illness progresses and the results are tragic, so it needs to be viewed seriously.

Re: Mental Illness and Startups

#14

Post by thaumaturgy »

vimes656 wrote: post #10
mikecane wrote: post #3

Trust me on this, most fiction writers can relate to that post 100%. Musicians too, I think.

I wonder how frequent is depression among programmers. That's not something people like to blog about.

Programmers especially, since they tend to live in a world of logic and rational thinking, which tends to lead to the notion that depression can be controlled by modifying certain behaviors or thought patterns -- the same way that any other function (or generic system of functions) can be controlled by modifying their parameters.

Re: Mental Illness and Startups

#15

Post by mikecane »

vimes656 wrote: post #10
mikecane wrote: post #3

Trust me on this, most fiction writers can relate to that post 100%. Musicians too, I think.

I wonder how frequent is depression among programmers. That's not something people like to blog about.

I don't think anyone likes to admit it. It took Kay Redfield Jamison's book, Touched with Fire, to reveal the extent of it with writers and other artists. Granted, those are the ones who became well-known. We'll never know of the ones who didn't survive their torment.

Re: Mental Illness and Startups

#16

Post by thaumaturgy »

idoh wrote: post #13

Speaking as someone who has a family member with mental illness: if you have such an illness then please seek professional help right away. If you suspect that someone you care about might have a mental illness then you should urge them to seek professional help right away. Sometimes it is all manageable or heals on its own, but sometimes the illness progresses and the results are tragic, so it needs to be viewed ser…

Unfortunately, professional help isn't free, and there are quite a few people who can't afford it right now.

...alcohol's a cheap medication, anyway.

Re: Mental Illness and Startups

#17

Post by mikecane »

JasonMoyMN79 wrote: post #4

If you are depressed, why don't you just go out and do something really awesome? You have nothing to lose, right? So why not do something adventurous? Sell all your shit, move to Europe or South America, and go start a revolution.

That's just not how it works. The simplest thing -- getting out of bed, showering -- seems impossible and just pointless. Everything seems pointless.

Re: Mental Illness and Startups

#18

Post by thaumaturgy »

MartinCron wrote: post #7

While I don't disagree with this statement: There are people who think that depression means 'feeling low', and that if you try hard enough, you can 'snap out of it'. These people are idiots. It's not a matter of being strong enough or dedicated enough. For me, like most people with depressive illnesses, there will be times when I just plain can't. In my worst states I can barely remember what a for loop does, let al…

Coping mechanisms like that one definitely help -- especially if they get put to use early on in a depressive cycle. A high level of self-awareness, acknowledgement of depression (or other mental illness), certain hobbies, "sunshine therapy", all help to mitigate depression and other mental illnesses.

Still, though, there are severe forms of depression that can become invulnerable to all the self-help approaches.

Re: Mental Illness and Startups

#19

Post by Alex3917 »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #16
idoh wrote: post #13

Speaking as someone who has a family member with mental illness: if you have such an illness then please seek professional help right away. If you suspect that someone you care about might have a mental illness then you should urge them to seek professional help right away. Sometimes it is all manageable or heals on its own, but sometimes the illness progresses and the results are tragic, so it needs to be viewed ser…

Unfortunately, professional help isn't free, and there are quite a few people who can't afford it right now. ...alcohol's a cheap medication, anyway.

Alcohol makes mental illnesses vastly worse. (As, apparently, do most psychiatric drugs in the long run.)

Re: Mental Illness and Startups

#20

Post by [deleted] »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #18
MartinCron wrote: post #7

While I don't disagree with this statement: There are people who think that depression means 'feeling low', and that if you try hard enough, you can 'snap out of it'. These people are idiots. It's not a matter of being strong enough or dedicated enough. For me, like most people with depressive illnesses, there will be times when I just plain can't. In my worst states I can barely remember what a for loop does, let al…

Coping mechanisms like that one definitely help -- especially if they get put to use early on in a depressive cycle. A high level of self-awareness, acknowledgement of depression (or other mental illness), certain hobbies, "sunshine therapy", all help to mitigate depression and other mental illnesses. Still, though, there are severe forms of depression that can become invulnerable to all the self-help approaches.

[deleted]
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