Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

neilthanedar.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 424 posts

Re: You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

#341

Post by fastasucan »

anyfoo wrote: post #217
marcus_holmes wrote: post #209

Please note that depression != burn-out. If you really can't get out of bed on a Monday morning, can't face the day, or muster any enthusiasm for anything, then you might not need a purpose, you might need medical assistance. Be kind to yourselves, people.

I don’t know. Doctors nowadays (especially in the US, it seems to be less prevalent elsewhere) seem very quick at prescribing medication. And while I don’t doubt that there are serious physiological conditions that warrant, even necessitate, medicating, my impression is that the first response to “depression” in general shouldn’t be medication. I’ve been depressed in the past, in my 20s even severely. Clinically, you…

>I don’t know. Doctors nowadays (especially in the US, it seems to be less prevalent elsewhere) seem very quick at prescribing medication.

My experience from being a mental-health patient is that things take too much time. For me I struggled with how it seemed like that the society universally had agreed that medication for my condition is bad. Taking medicine doesn't mean that you cant threat your illness in other ways as well, in my experience taking medicine helps you to be able to take the changes you need in life.

Re: You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

#342

Post by fastasucan »

oatmeal1 wrote: post #326
anyfoo wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know. Doctors nowadays (especially in the US, it seems to be less prevalent elsewhere) seem very quick at prescribing medication. And while I don’t doubt that there are serious physiological conditions that warrant, even necessitate, medicating, my impression is that the first response to “depression” in general shouldn’t be medication. I’ve been depressed in the past, in my 20s even severely. Clinically, you…

As someone with treatment resistant depression, it is odd people are against medication. Medication is proven safe and effective for treating depression. Therapy and medication should be used immediately in conjunction because 1. therapy is most effective when paired with medication, and 2. depression is a vicious cycle. The longer someone spends depressed, the more likely they will spiral into deeper depression, iso…

Same for me. Its so odd having an illness, and taking medicine against that illness, and mostly reading an "universal truth" that the medication that helps you is bad someway. As you say, therapy but also getting a better sleep hygiene, better nutrition and exercise is so much easier with medicine.

Re: You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

#343

Post by carlosjobim »

GMoromisato wrote: post #325
carlosjobim wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is some difference between real struggles, and uncomfortable fear for things which didn't happen. Were you unable to afford a home because of fear of nuclear war? Or for fear of AIDS?

I was unable to afford a home because of fear of bouncing checks. I lived in an apartment with 3 other roommates. And we all knew people who had died of AIDS, and I wasn't even in an at-risk community. Gay men I knew felt that they had gone through an apocalypse, like they were the survivors of a secret war that no one talked about. Home ownership when I was growing up was around 50%. Not owning a home was extremely…

Not ever in your life being able to afford a home is the new normal, and to me it's a sign of deprivation. That's the reality younger generations are dealing with, not only temporarily renting, but renting for life.

Which isn't anything new. It's feudalism, and the way things usually are. But that's a far greater concern for those in that situation, than AIDS or nuke scares.

Re: You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

#344

Post by lm28469 »

dheera wrote: post #132
lm28469 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you wait until everything is planned, ready and accounted for you'll never have kids.

> you'll never have kids Which is also OK. It's financially smart to realize you don't have the resources and not have kids. If {some subset of the government, rich people, people who control the economy} want more people to have kids, which is something I keep hearing from that class of people: They need to collectively figure out how to put more money into the pockets of people. Higher salaries, drastic tax cuts, c…

> Which is also OK. It's financially smart to realize you don't have the resources and not have kids.

It's sad to see people so deep in the consumerist rat race that giving life is seen as a cell in their life's financial excel sheet.

Weirdly enough people who actually don't have money are the one having the most kids. And people who lived pretty much from 300k years ago until the ~1950s had it worse than you yet they had more kids. People making 1m a year have less kids than people working in fucking coal mines 100 years ago.

We don't have less kids because we're poorer than 50 years ago, we have less kids because we drunk way too much capitalist kool aid and put traveling, buying shit, careers, money in front of everything else on our list of priorities: https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-pull-back-from-values...

Re: You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

#345

Post by [deleted] »

jwrallie wrote: post #271

The article started well until it changed from "you" to "I". After that, it felt like a mix of bragging and trying to sell a book. I think its OK if some people don't get to live their dream jobs, some dreams have no equivalent in real life, and some people need to do the mundane, boring underground jobs that keep things together.

[deleted]

Re: You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

#346

Post by mlrtime »

kbutler wrote: post #294
thanedar wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You get off the hedonic treadmill by getting into something deeper like politics. I do feel like I'm an example of someone who's juggled marriage, kids, startups, etc. where how I finally got a clean source of sustainable energy was having a part of my life to truly chase my highest potential. And to me that's politics, and specifically anticorruption and Positive Politics. Glad that the "go into politics" ideas piqu…

Wow, politics seems the opposite to me. It has the morbid fascination of a train wreck. You can't stop it, you know it's going badly, yet you can't look away. Family and building things are much more positive sources of energy to me.

I bet if you stop watching national popular news outlets and instead focus on local politics you'll find them much more tame. Of course this depends on where you live.

IMO People focus way too much on national politics and not enough on local.

Re: You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

#347

Post by mlrtime »

johnfn wrote: post #336
yoan9224 wrote: post #196

The premise is interesting but feels incomplete. The "Monday morning excitement test" doesn't account for the hedonic treadmill - even meaningful work becomes mundane once your brain adjusts to it. Also, many people are genuinely burnt out from overwork, not just existential malaise. When you're juggling demanding work, family responsibilities, and barely have time for basic self-care, the problem isn't finding your…

> even meaningful work becomes mundane once your brain adjusts to it. This seems quite wrong in my experience. Meaningful work stays meaningful and exciting, every single day.

Certainly so if you are the one defining meaning.

Re: You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

#349

Post by afpx »

oatmeal1 wrote: post #326
anyfoo wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know. Doctors nowadays (especially in the US, it seems to be less prevalent elsewhere) seem very quick at prescribing medication. And while I don’t doubt that there are serious physiological conditions that warrant, even necessitate, medicating, my impression is that the first response to “depression” in general shouldn’t be medication. I’ve been depressed in the past, in my 20s even severely. Clinically, you…

As someone with treatment resistant depression, it is odd people are against medication. Medication is proven safe and effective for treating depression. Therapy and medication should be used immediately in conjunction because 1. therapy is most effective when paired with medication, and 2. depression is a vicious cycle. The longer someone spends depressed, the more likely they will spiral into deeper depression, iso…

I know a surprising number of people who take ibuprofen daily but will avoid stretching and exercising.

Re: You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

#350

Post by baobun »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #263
techgnosis wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is the only comment that captures the message of the article. I feel for everyone who is priced out of life, those are very serious problems, but it wasn't what the article is talking about. If I was seeing lots of comments say something like "The cost of life is preventing me from pursuing my dreams" then the article would be relevant to that.

That's the danger of assuming people's lifestyle in a post like this. You say >You got the great job. You built the startup. You took the vacations. But that’s not what you really needed. And people will lash out if they haven't even gotten that far. it's tone deaf to the wider realities of society.

Maybe this post has a narrow intended audience. Not every post has to be targeting all readers. If it's not true for you then it's not, y'know? Absolutely no need to lash out and HN is not a place for venting. Besides I think they're basically writing about themselves. By the upvotes and comments, it looks like some people do relate.
Post reply on HN