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Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

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Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#41

Post by yhavr »

NoReg wrote: post #10
yhavr wrote: post #6

> How would you take care of your mental well-being? Practicing/developing own philosophy, similar by the vibes to stoicism/buddhism, so I don't get broken enough to require a mechanic to fix me. I find it very funny that nations who brag about having "science" and "technologies", proudly dismiss religion, but yet unable to come up with anything comparable to philosophical or religious systems, not talking about 100x…

I believe it is quite an advanced field involving neuroscience and human emotions. Hard to diagnose, treat, and measure. Not enough scientific research has been done in this field, and far from coming up with any solution. I guess we normally do not pay enough attention to our mental well-being. But, I always feel managing emotions and stabilizing our feelings is a great place to start.

Well, ancients managed to find damn good heuristics without all our knowledge and science. And we entire have a country proud of their universities, you know, ivy league branding and stuff, and they can't even take over the baton, just reprinting old books.

[I mean the mental firmware to not get broken. When it is really broken, I feel often it might be hard to climb out without a dedicated help of a _psychiatrist_.]

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#42

Post by mkbkn »

g3mo wrote: post #35
undopamine wrote: post #14

After ~4 years of doomscrolling, I finally uninstalled Twitter and Reddit from my phone (just minutes ago). They were taking up 80% of my time, focus and energy while hardly adding 20% value on top of what I already know. Even if it weren't the case, delving into an activity would give infinitely more returns than reading yet another discussion on it. I'm expecting to eliminate all infinite feeds from my daily routin…

What’s your preferred tool for blocking websites like HN?

Social media on desktop -> Leechblock NG as browser addon.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#43

Post by hammyhavoc »

g3mo wrote: post #35
undopamine wrote: post #14

After ~4 years of doomscrolling, I finally uninstalled Twitter and Reddit from my phone (just minutes ago). They were taking up 80% of my time, focus and energy while hardly adding 20% value on top of what I already know. Even if it weren't the case, delving into an activity would give infinitely more returns than reading yet another discussion on it. I'm expecting to eliminate all infinite feeds from my daily routin…

What’s your preferred tool for blocking websites like HN?

Learning self-discipline the hard way rather than treating yourself like a naughty child being told off.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#44

Post by NoReg »

mock-possum wrote: post #39

My preference is not to pay, and not to work with a counselor. I’m vaguely suspicious this is market research smuggled under an Ask HN post also.

Yes, I'm currently doing market research to understand what people seek in counseling. From my personal experience as a counseling service user, I've found that existing services often don't cater to my specific needs. Traditional counseling is primarily designed for illnesses and severe mental issues. What about taking care of people's mental well-being, not illness? In our fast-changing society with significant technological advances, we have increasing demand and also encounter new challenges in our daily lives. For example, older generations may not experience the anxiety caused by FOMO, which is an emotional response to social media. Many people have shared their experiences of how to deal with their mental well-being with or without using counseling, which is very helpful. So, I'm here to listen and learn from your experiences :)

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#45

Post by NoReg »

ddano wrote: post #40

On-demand single session is not personalized for you, so you will just get mostly boilerplate advices. If you want to go that route, go for the long-term as you can start getting personalized advice and root cause identification. Off topic, on the question about my plans... I started cooking three years ago and that turned out to be an awesome mental exercise and mental well-being routine that takes you away from the…

Thank you for your cooking therapy :) Similarly, I like cleaning dishes LOL Cleaning dishes can be a therapeutic activity as well, providing a sense of order/clarity and helping unclutter the mind.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#46

Post by NoReg »

dharmab wrote: post #38

Last year I stopped using Reddit and that was good for me. This year I plan to spend more time riding bicycles which I think will be good for me too.

Sounds like a great plan! Exercise is always beneficial for both the body and mind, and the two are closely connected.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#47

Post by KTibow »

hammyhavoc wrote: post #43
g3mo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s your preferred tool for blocking websites like HN?

Learning self-discipline the hard way rather than treating yourself like a naughty child being told off.

It's less mentally taxing when you know you can't visit a website compared to when you have to work to not visit it.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#48

Post by NoReg »

yhavr wrote: post #41
NoReg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it is quite an advanced field involving neuroscience and human emotions. Hard to diagnose, treat, and measure. Not enough scientific research has been done in this field, and far from coming up with any solution. I guess we normally do not pay enough attention to our mental well-being. But, I always feel managing emotions and stabilizing our feelings is a great place to start.

Well, ancients managed to find damn good heuristics without all our knowledge and science. And we entire have a country proud of their universities, you know, ivy league branding and stuff, and they can't even take over the baton, just reprinting old books. [I mean the mental firmware to not get broken. When it is really broken, I feel often it might be hard to climb out without a dedicated help of a _psychiatrist_.]

I believe research related to mental health is lagging. While ancient therapies may have been effective in the past, we're now living in a completely different age, and coping strategies and treatments need to advance accordingly. It can be very challenging to fix things when they are truly broken. That's why starting with mental well-being is crucial for taking control of it and building resilience. Don't wait until things are truely broken.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#49

Post by KTibow »

deafpolygon wrote: post #37
undopamine wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately, my compulsion hasn't reached a state where I'd need to rely on blocking. I'm just keeping the HN bookmark in a folder to keep it out of sight. Rest of the job is to tame the mind that wanders every couple minutes to find an escape.

I use the noprocrast feature on HN. It's enough to keep me focused. I wish more sites implemented this. I might need software to do the same for reddit and other social media platforms. Not that I need it, but it does remind me how much time I've spent.

On one hand, the more time you spend on these platforms the more ad money they get so they have an incentive to keep you there. On the other hand, some platforms already have time limits implemented (some exclusive to children but still).

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#50

Post by hammyhavoc »

KTibow wrote: post #47
hammyhavoc wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learning self-discipline the hard way rather than treating yourself like a naughty child being told off.

It's less mentally taxing when you know you can't visit a website compared to when you have to work to not visit it.

Yes, but that mental taxation is essentially unlearning a bad habit and why it feels so rough to go through.

I agree that if the sentiment of "but I didn't go on it" is the goal, sure, but it doesn't change the way you think. Breaking habits is hard and requires willpower, that's why most people never break them.

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