How to Beat Stress and Anxiety • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Beat Stress and Anxiety

#101

Post by tmountain » Fri, Feb 03, 2023, 1:00 AM UTC

loeg wrote: post #73

tmountain wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost everyone takes too much of it when they do. The actual recommended dose is very low. Efficacy rapidly declines with habitual usage, and effective utilization requires that you go to bed very soon after taking it (lights out, no screens, etc). This said, it can be a good short term solution for sleep issues.

Yes, I've heard that, but in my personal experience I find high doses (relative to the 0.3mg or whatever prescription quantity) effective, with no negative side effects, and I have suffered no loss of efficacy with habitual usage (years). YMMV, but it's certainly worth trying vs continuing to only sleep for four hours every night.

If it works for you, that’s great.

Re: How to Beat Stress and Anxiety

#102

Post by loeg » Fri, Feb 03, 2023, 1:16 AM UTC

naasking wrote: post #99

loeg wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Benadryl (diphenhydramine)? It probably shouldn't be used for prolonged periods of time (associated with cognitive decline and dementia among the elderly).

Associated with cognitive decline could just indicate that the people using it are more sickly or have more trouble sleeping, both of which are more strongly correlated with cognitive decline.

It could, yes, but melatonin doesn't seem to have the same association.

Re: How to Beat Stress and Anxiety

#103

Post by prashantsengar » Fri, Feb 03, 2023, 1:48 AM UTC

WhitneyLand wrote: post #88

I would rate this post highly. It’s clearly written, pragmatic, accessible, and seemed useful so I’d recommend reading it. Lately I find myself asking, is the article “better” than what AI could produce? In this case, the article intuitively seems a grade above similar GPT 3.5 output. But why so? Is it just my opinion it’s better? How should “better” be defined? Readability, persuasion, effectiveness as a call to act…

As someone who keeps feeling if his writing is "good enough", your comment makes me feel really good. Thanks a lot for writing this :)

I was hesitating in posting it to HN but now I am glad I did.

Re: How to Beat Stress and Anxiety

#104

Post by lofaszvanitt » Fri, Feb 03, 2023, 2:45 AM UTC

12345hn6789 wrote: post #77

lofaszvanitt wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do hard physical exercise (weight lifting, forget running), until you are dead tired, and stop drinking stimulants (coffee et al) then you will have good sleep. So simple.

Running properly is just as tiring as a good weight session.

Maybe, but I just can't sleep after running.

Re: How to Beat Stress and Anxiety

#105

Post by pitsnatch » Fri, Feb 03, 2023, 3:02 AM UTC

ryeights wrote: post #33

pitsnatch wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to make a conscious effort to become better at managing your stress. When you notice your stress is peaking, try different techniques to relax yourself. Find out what works then you can make that a daily habit to reduce overall stress. Also need to train your mind to flip off the stress switch when it’s time to go to sleep.

How to beat stress and anxiety, step 1: >become better at managing your stress […] train your mind to flip off the stress switch Well yes, I suppose…

The keywords are “conscious effort”

Re: How to Beat Stress and Anxiety

#106

Post by wafflemaker » Fri, Feb 03, 2023, 5:32 AM UTC

robg wrote: post #4

1. Establish good sleep habits. Sleep is how the body recovers from stress. 2. Exercise daily. Movement is how the body puts the stress hormones to work. 3. Eat well. The gut-brain connection drives how we feel as we digest.

Hey, I tend to have problems falling asleep because of a busy mind.

What helps me is reading a book. Sometimes have to switch to a more boring book.

In recent years started using Kindle with a very low light setting, going lower every few minutes, even having to enlarge font at the end, to make it readable with such low light.

Re: How to Beat Stress and Anxiety

#107

Post by bsenftner » Fri, Feb 03, 2023, 1:15 PM UTC

dexwiz wrote: post #63

bsenftner wrote: post #16

This is close, but misses a major issue: self honesty in one's self conversation. Address that, and the majority of one's stress and anxiety evaporate. The majority of one's stress and anxiety is in the form of negative forecasting unknown future events - essentially fantasizing failure. Address that, and a personal revolution takes place, with the simple but not easy task of self honesty.

I don’t know why this is so down voted. Maybe it’s related to why I see this article almost every day. To successfully do all the recommended steps and have them be fulfilling and not just another task, you need to be honest with yourself. The fact that this is an unpopular option may be why so many people are stuck in their anxiety loops.

Thank you. In my experience, discussing self deception tends to get hard push back.

Re: How to Beat Stress and Anxiety

#108

Post by dexwiz » Fri, Feb 03, 2023, 6:38 PM UTC

bsenftner wrote: post #107

dexwiz wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know why this is so down voted. Maybe it’s related to why I see this article almost every day. To successfully do all the recommended steps and have them be fulfilling and not just another task, you need to be honest with yourself. The fact that this is an unpopular option may be why so many people are stuck in their anxiety loops.

Thank you. In my experience, discussing self deception tends to get hard push back.

No one wants to hear that their narrative about themself is based on falsehoods.

Re: How to Beat Stress and Anxiety

#109

Post by musicale » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 12:49 AM UTC

I'm sure the current epidemic of stress and anxiety has nothing to do with wage deterioration, inflation, layoffs and looming recession, millions of deaths during a global pandemic, or regional conflicts that could lead to war between nuclear-armed adversaries. Or the general meaningless and despair of 21st century life.

People who experience stress and anxiety from financial or health issues should probably just journal more, go for a run, and avoid social media.

Re: How to Beat Stress and Anxiety

#110

Post by leobg » Sat, Feb 04, 2023, 7:45 AM UTC

WhitneyLand wrote: post #88

I would rate this post highly. It’s clearly written, pragmatic, accessible, and seemed useful so I’d recommend reading it. Lately I find myself asking, is the article “better” than what AI could produce? In this case, the article intuitively seems a grade above similar GPT 3.5 output. But why so? Is it just my opinion it’s better? How should “better” be defined? Readability, persuasion, effectiveness as a call to act…

I think pg tweeted something about this a few days ago. Essentially: if you intend to write about something, first let GPT write it. Then you know what is so obvious about your topic that you don’t need to mention it in your article. The idea being that GPT will rarely output anything surprising, unusual or counter-intuitive.