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The Depression Thing

zachholman.com

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Re: The Depression Thing

#121

Post by jacalata »

Swizec wrote: post #38
ElatedOwl wrote: post #15

I was diagnosed with "major depression" when I was 14, did the medication and therapy thing for a bit but the medication made me a zombie. Therapy helped me learn to cope a little better, but I was never "cured" of my depression. My 20s have been pretty bad, but in the last year and a half I've lost 100+lbs and have been running and lifting. It turns out the common sense advice to depression was really what I needed…

Yup same here. Clinical depression in high school, meds, therapy, suicide watch the whole shebang. Fun times, can’t remember two years of my life. So far the only thing that’s actually worked has been staying busy/productive/creative, good nutrition, exercise etc. Everyone always tells me I’m an insensitive dick when i suggest getting off their ass and doing stuff to treat their depression. But fuck it, that shit wor…

And if you're doing all this and still depressed, there's no solution and you should kill yourself. That's how I read advice like yours when I was a college athlete. Fortunately, instead of walking in front of a bus I went to a doctor and got antidepressants, which helped tremendously.

Re: The Depression Thing

#122

Post by ewjordan »

jbob2000 wrote: post #102
DanBC wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But fuck it, that shit works for you -- you have no idea whether it'll work for anyone else. Since depression is a potentially fatal illness, and you appear not to have any training in psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy, medicine, pharmacology, you should maybe recognise your limits. > Changing your lifestyle to treat depression works Only for some people. you have no idea how many people it does work for, and y…

The medical community calls what you're doing "terminal uniqueness" and I've noticed that this is very prevalent with people who suffer from depression: "Those therapies won't work on me, I am different, I need a special treatment". Sleep, eat well, keep active. Nothing about that advice is dangerous. But it is hard to do if you aren't in the habit of doing it. (I know what you're going to say next, "but chemicals in…

Is there actual research that shows that the sleep/eat/exercise approach works by itself for everyone that is compliant? Most of the psychiatric community would absolutely agree that it helps, or couldn't hurt, but (anecdotally) I know athletes that control all of that stuff like a science because they have to in order to compete, but still suffer from depression, so I have trouble believing that's all there is to it.

Re: The Depression Thing

#123

Post by wu-ikkyu »

thomasfortes wrote: post #39
iamleppert wrote: post #31

If we're supposed to be happy all the time, why are there so many sad songs? Seriously though it irritates me how people have been brainwashed to think depression is somehow abnormal. Here's something I've learned in life: Depression exists for a reason. There have been times in my life that I've been very depressed. Sometimes it was due to some event that happened but more often it was pretty random. During these pe…

Please, don't equate being sad with being depressed, sadness is a normal part of the life, feeling miserable every waking moment is not.

How do you define what is "normal" in life? Is it not normal for people to have periods of their lives (weeks, months, years) where they feel constantly miserable/sad due to a variety of reasons?

Re: The Depression Thing

#124

Post by dimal »

pure_ambition wrote: post #84

People: PLEASE STOP recommending depressed people to take psychedelics. There is no such thing as "psychedelic therapy." Psychedelics can easily make people with mental health issues MUCH WORSE. Nobody needs a full blown existential crisis on top of major depression. I get it if you like the idea of doing psychedelics, but they are mind-altering in significant and poorly understood ways, and can easily cause others h…

There is ketamine therapy, which has shown a lot of promise. But I agree, it's important to do it as "therapy" under supervision of a doctor and a qualified therapist, and not just jumping into a K-hole on your own. Just going off and doing psychedelics willy nilly can do more harm than good.

Re: The Depression Thing

#125

Post by kbhn »

earlybike wrote: post #118
kbhn wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, let me quote Harvard[1]: "It's often said that depression results from a chemical imbalance, but that figure of speech doesn't capture how complex the disease is. Research suggests that depression doesn't spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, stressfu…

‘It's believed’ != evidence

Someone's throwing stones in a glass house.

Still waiting on ~any~ article to back up your assertion from a respected institution.

Re: The Depression Thing

#126

Post by yters »

Kenji wrote: post #37
ElatedOwl wrote: post #15

I was diagnosed with "major depression" when I was 14, did the medication and therapy thing for a bit but the medication made me a zombie. Therapy helped me learn to cope a little better, but I was never "cured" of my depression. My 20s have been pretty bad, but in the last year and a half I've lost 100+lbs and have been running and lifting. It turns out the common sense advice to depression was really what I needed…

People who can just sleep, diet and exercise and the depression simply goes away, that's not real major depression. I really hate how people spread this stuff so condescendingly. No, it might have worked for you, but it does not work for millions of people who suffer from it.

Part of depression I had to reject is it became part of my identity, that it made me some kind of special. Because part of depression is self pity.

Re: The Depression Thing

#127

Post by anigbrowl »

dogruck wrote: post #2

My view is that depression is a treatable medical illness. I've never been depressed, but I've lost friends to depression. Edit: to the down voters, I'm not implying it's any easier than, say, beating cancer.

The way we talk about dealing with problems can often be a cultural limitation. Americans are constantly talking about fighting and beating cancer rather than treating it, for example, as if it were some antagonistic entity that had taken a personal dislike to them.

As far as depression goes, the list of potential causal factors is long and our ability to measure brain states is extremely limited. For many people it's a condition to be managed rather than a disease that can be cured. Compare the case of a bereaved person; the intensity of their grief may fade and be replaced by acceptance, but there's no going back to the state of mind prior to the bereavement.

Re: The Depression Thing

#128

Post by baus »

As someone who has suffered from, at times, significant symptoms of bipolar disorder, I glad to see prominent members of the community coming forward to discuss mental health. I think the best way to break the stigma around mental illness is open discussion.

I wonder if there is a higher rate of mental illness in the software development industry compared with the population as a whole

Re: The Depression Thing

#129

Post by betenoire »

thanatropism wrote: post #113
ada1981 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe depression often involves some developmental or shock traumas that prevent or inhibit the full feeling of emotions. The idea that depression is "anger directed inward" was a useful tool for me. The view that we can release these old traumas and form new pathways and responses helped me heal after a diagnosis of schizophrenia and bipolar (which included suicidal depression and panic attacks, anxiety).

Do you believe in Austrian economics or Young Earth Creationism too? I mean, it's within your rights...

This is too dismissive, I think you are reading too much into words like "release".

Learning to love yourself and to let go of things gives you a new perspective. A new perspective leads to new thinking and new experiences, and we all know our brains are plastic and are constantly changing.

You are the fool, not he.

Re: The Depression Thing

#130

Post by bspn »

Domenic_S wrote: post #7
bspn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a condition that can largely be controlled through medication, but based on my wife's experience it's a condition that has a horrible tendency to rear it's ugly head without notice and for seemingly no apparent reason so I'm not sure I'd generalize it as being "treatable" for everyone.

I feel like it's treatable the way cancer is treatable -- lots of times we can totally 'cure' it, and sometimes we can't. But that doesn't mean you don't try, and we're getting better every day. Now that I write that out I guess it's like every other health disorder. We're pretty good at a subset of them, so-so at another set, and have no flipping clue what to do about the last set.

I'm learning more and more about this by talking to my wife's doctors, and you're right in the sense that there are some forms of depression that can be cured, but sadly not all.

I'm broadly generalizing here, but depression caused by a physical condition (e.g. an autoimmune deficiency) can typically be cured by attacking the underlying cause, but depression caused by a psychiatric condition is much harder to "cure" in the traditional sense and instead can be managed via modern pharmaceuticals. Now, those drugs come with some strings attached, but if they help a patient get out of the bed and function in the morning (as they do with my wife) then that's a net positive, but we're realistic about the fact this is likely a life-long battle that will require constant work to stay on top of.

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