As always these articles are wonderful to read. I think the hardest thing for people without depression to conceptualize is the crushing weight of insignificant tasks. How picking up a single sock becomes a literal impossibility. How the implications of acting, in any way, are like trying to assume every single associated burden simultaneously.
Wil Shipley on OCD and depression
21–25 of 25 posts
Re: Wil Shipley on OCD and depression
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of boredom and curiosity I just started overlaying everything I know about birds and flight. Everything from it's bone structure to the aerodynamics of flight feathers etc. I blacked out and by the time I was aware again we 10 - 15 minutes had gone by. I do the same thing on a regular basis, and I think the same "blacking out" thing happens to me (unless you literally blacked out), but I wouldn't really describe…
That's sounds close, so I guess the Neurochemistry is probably similar. How do you find this useful? I can concentrate on one thing when coding but I can still direct my thinking process, but this seemed to be just build a model without anything spare to manipulate it. It also seemed fairly draining as I was out of it for a while.
It's not always useful, and I don't have full control over it - although I can somewhat tell the level of concentration I have to be in to enter that state, I don't have any control over whether or not I enter it past not focusing extremely hard. It tends to happen when I concentrate on one "thing" in an abstract manner for too long.
It has been useful for visualizing overarching design - if I know what an unwritten application needs to do I might visualize how the "parts" should fit together (not in any magic sense, just faster than I would without being in that state). Sometimes it's good for solving logic problems, riddles, etc.
Sometimes it's not good for anything at all. Most of the time that it is really useful, it's by coincidence.
It's not a physically draining thing for me at all, just a bit disorienting.
Re: Wil Shipley on OCD and depression
#23The comments on this forum are awesome. I wish the whole intertron were like this.
-Wil
Re: Wil Shipley on OCD and depression
#24The comments on this forum are awesome. I wish the whole intertron were like this. -Wil
Stick around and add your own. Welcome to Hacker News.
Also, it's customary for new members to let me take their Tesla for a spin.
Re: Wil Shipley on OCD and depression
#25I post this b/c articles and comments about depression seem very common here and on programming.reddit. I'm curious if OCD and depression go together?
They're both mental illnesses. While common independently, the issues that cause other mental illnesses often result in depression as a side issue.
I was thinking more along the lines that if someone is OCD they can probably detect incomplete plans and lines of thought more easily than others, and so see in general that most ideas are not well supported or understood by people. Thus, a person's society and culture in general may not seem very well thought out, which can be a source of anxiety and depression.