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

Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

anxious-tec.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 53 posts

Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

#31

Post by logicalmind »

abstractbill wrote: post #13

I can definitely empathize with this. I don't know exactly when I stopped feeling the way the author describes, but it happened somehow. I think living in California has been good for me - there's definitely an emphasis on living well here. I find it easier to take pleasure in the simple things now - hiking especially. Also I often get this "wow, I'm living in the future" feeling these days, which always makes me ver…

I find this interesting. Like many I can relate to the article too. I live in the midwest and some of my problem is seasonal. My doctor specifically told me that I should consider moving to a more sunny climate. I have toyed with the idea of moving somewhere more sunny like CA for years. I always wondered if it would actually make a real difference.

Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

#32

Post by apstuff »

Exercise + Cognitive Restructuring Therapy helps a lot.

It's hard not to feel anxiety and depression in today's world and some events can't be controlled. But how we perceive those events can definitiely be controlled by analyzing and challenging them for correctness.

Vilayanur Ramachandran's talk at TED on phantom limb pain addresses this idea very well.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on...

Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

#33

Post by tdavis »

ruby_roo wrote: post #22
dusklight wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can second that. You feel more energetic, you need less sleep, you think faster, your memory recall is better. Perhaps more importantly, by exercising regularly you will learn discipline and focus, and my life has benefited so much from having more of that.

If only I had the discipline to keep myself going to the gym. I am always glad that I did, but with that in mind, I don't know why I can't seem to keep it consistent. What is it that fuels fitness freaks? And where can I get some? Not talking about roids or HGH, here. :)

You need to approach it like any other habit. Take smoking. At first, smoking sucks so you actually have to work at it to make it a habit. Eventually it becomes rewarding to smoke. Exercise is no different, except for the fact that it's actually healthy for you, but I've never found that to be a convincing argument (just like nobody ever convinced me to stop smoking by telling me it was unhealthy). With that in mind, here are some tips:

1. The most important tip is simple: Exercise six days a week. What you do in the beginning is basically irrelevant. Your job is to form the habit which is much harder to do if you only go three days a week (who smokes only three days a week?)

2. Some may disagree, but I also highly recommend doing your exercise in a gym. It's too easy to put off if all you're doing is going for a run outside or some sit-ups inside. If you fail to go to the gym, you'll feel worse. This is mostly about making yourself feel bad for not going. Also, other people exercising around you will help motivate you (and the scenery is nice... unless it's an all-male gym ;)

3. It helps to be somewhat vain and narcissistic, both of which I admit to being. I don't like being flabby because it presents a poor image. Even if I have nobody else to impress, I still have to impress myself, which when it comes to physicality is not a trivial task.

4. If your discipline is based on seeing quick results, you will fail. Nothing happens quickly at the gym, except injury. It takes about six months to transform yourself, anybody who says differently is wrong. You need to find the granular results; weight lifting helps with this. If you gain weight, even a little weight, every week in your exercises, that should be enough.

5. It's hard being a "noob", especially at a gym. Don't let it get you down. You need to quickly learn one very important fact: at the gym, everybody is always in better shape than you, no matter what shape you're in.

Sooner or later, and probably without noticing, you'll have a fitness addiction. You'll begin feeling terrible if you don't exercise every day. You'll feel bad unless you're slightly sore. Oh, and you'll have a body worthy of admiration (or at least fear ;)

That being said, I've been awake almost two hours so I really should get to the gym... it's back and shoulders day! Good luck!

Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

#34

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

pxlpshr wrote: post #21
gcheong wrote: post #16

The one thing I've found that has helped me the most is exercise. I wouldn't have believed it myself and most of the evidence I have is just my own subjective experience, but there is one incident that stands out where one day my boss mentioned that my attitude had completely changed for the better at some point. I didn't think it had, but apparently there was enough of a change for him to mention the observation. Of…

I'll third this. However, I've always had a challenge of mixing work (which i do a lot of), and finding time for things like going to a gym, etc. I'm also not one looking to bulk up w/ weights, and when I'm away from work I like meditative things. Using the computer 12+ hours a day is an intense amount of information / brain processing. I think thats why tech people get depressed — they're often mentally exhausted an…

I'm also not one looking to bulk up w/ weights, and when I'm away from work I like meditative things

I find it a bit funny you say that because I used to be "bulked up with weights" (now I mostly walk/run with a little weightlifting added) and I found it to be a very meditative experience. The euphoria of pushing a barbell off your chest, the total physical drain at the end of a set of heavy squats led me to a place where I was completely focused inward and totally at peace.

In fact I think it was that mental relaxation that kept me doing it for all those years.

Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

#35

Post by Hexstream »

bprater wrote: post #7

I tend to be anxious and depressed like the author, but I've improved over the years. Things that have helped me: There are 3 kinds of books I read: business, programming and spirituality. (I don't read fiction.) It's a challenge to keep up to speed on all three, but when I start pouring myself into the latter (spirituality), I find myself feeling much lighter, living more in the moment and enjoying whatever momentar…

How do you tell the great spirituality books from the bullshit ones? Are there spirituality books that an hardcore atheist such as myself can read? Lack of religious terminology would be a start.

Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

#36

Post by jawngee »

maxawaytoolong wrote: post #17
jawngee wrote: post #2

Great article. I suffer from PTSD, GAD and mild depression. Having been involved in a fairly violent street gang in high school, I had seen a lot of violence and just plain f*cked up stuff. People getting shot in front of me, a lot of situations that forced me to confront my own mortality, etc. It really didn't hit me until about 10 years ago. I was getting off the F train at 23rd street and had an overwhelming feeli…

I developed most of the symptoms of GAD last summer after having a panic attack where I ended up in the hospital. It was weird because I'm in my early 30s and have never had any anxiety symptoms before. I guess I was probably mildly depressed, but no prior history of panic attacks or other GAD symptoms. I believe the panic attack was brought on because I got food poisoning during a time period with a lot of uncertain…

I found mine on adaa.org.

Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

#37

Post by triggersmith »

tdavis wrote: post #33
ruby_roo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only I had the discipline to keep myself going to the gym. I am always glad that I did, but with that in mind, I don't know why I can't seem to keep it consistent. What is it that fuels fitness freaks? And where can I get some? Not talking about roids or HGH, here. :)

You need to approach it like any other habit. Take smoking. At first, smoking sucks so you actually have to work at it to make it a habit. Eventually it becomes rewarding to smoke. Exercise is no different, except for the fact that it's actually healthy for you, but I've never found that to be a convincing argument (just like nobody ever convinced me to stop smoking by telling me it was unhealthy). With that in mind,…

Agreed.

I've found that martial arts (Tae Kwon Do in may case) are great if you're not a gym person. With Tae Kwon Do I didn't have to think about "a plan". It was all pretty much laid out for me. First I get yellow tag, then yellow belt and so on. Having these goals is a great way of keeping motivated.

Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

#38

Post by Prikrutil »

gcheong wrote: post #28
maxawaytoolong wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I developed most of the symptoms of GAD last summer after having a panic attack where I ended up in the hospital. It was weird because I'm in my early 30s and have never had any anxiety symptoms before. I guess I was probably mildly depressed, but no prior history of panic attacks or other GAD symptoms. I believe the panic attack was brought on because I got food poisoning during a time period with a lot of uncertain…

Your primary care physician can probably refer you to someone. It would be a good place to start. "Feeling Good" (Burns) is a good source of CBT information and exercises. I would also recommend "Managing Your Mind" (Butler and Hope). Another approach called "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" has showed some promise in research. The book "Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life" (Hayes) was written by the person who…

It sounds like you have already read some of these books and find them useful to find possible "bugs" in your mind making you anxious. If so, maybe you'll find my comment a bit naive.

What I've decided is that the only way to find out all the "bugs" to annihilate is by ignoring all the easy to get suggestions made by other peoples (who are smart enough to do that without any assistance). It's important that you should find out where the roots of your problems actually are and how to get rid of them by yourself. I beleive that no one knows about you more than you do.

Why don't I consider such books as a good point to start from? In fact, I'm a bit afraid of such books... They look like ones about patterns: they don't always turn you into a good programmer, but there is a chance that after reading you won't be able to think in terms other than you have already read about (that is actually what I'm afraid of).

Anyways, I'm going to take a look at books you've mentioned (with care :). Thanks!

Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

#39

Post by Prikrutil »

ruby_roo wrote: post #23

I think most tech nerds can understand and appreciate the place this person is in. I know I do. If you're an INTP, I can almost guarantee that you have this problem. Although I haven't conquered my own demons here, life becomes much easier when you know know that this is actually very common amongst intelligent people. In other words, this is only natural. Accepting that the anxiety and depression are natural side ef…

I agree that some kind of anxiety is often (don't want to say "always") near to those who are said to be "rabid thinker". But is depression what I should think of a "natural side effect" of being such a man? If so, my would-be future (yeah, I want to be "rabid thinker"!) is going to be full of depressions :/

What I beleive is that any depression has a cause which can be (and should be) eliminated if you are going to be happy. If you really know what the problem is, you probably know what to do with this (it's harder when there are so many problems that it becomes impossible to find out the one-and-only root of all evil).

It may seem as if I'm trying to say that depressions are unusual. Not really, I think that is a stage which should be overstepped (but what if there are some such stages?)

Re: Anxiety, Depression, Technology, and Me

#40

Post by mixmax »

Hexstream wrote: post #35
bprater wrote: post #7

I tend to be anxious and depressed like the author, but I've improved over the years. Things that have helped me: There are 3 kinds of books I read: business, programming and spirituality. (I don't read fiction.) It's a challenge to keep up to speed on all three, but when I start pouring myself into the latter (spirituality), I find myself feeling much lighter, living more in the moment and enjoying whatever momentar…

How do you tell the great spirituality books from the bullshit ones? Are there spirituality books that an hardcore atheist such as myself can read? Lack of religious terminology would be a start.

I'll second that - I find the subject interesting, but must admit that almost all of the books I have picked up on spirituality start blabbering about force-fields and qantum mechanics without having a clue what they're talking about.

I have yet to find a good book on the subject - if someone from this forum can recommend anything it would definitely be appreciated.

Post reply on HN