> one thing I'd like to clarify: I'm not suicidal. Well hey, it could be worse.
True!
Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?
201–210 of 227 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
All oils and added fats are bad for people with heart problems or those at risk of them.
The right types of oils will reduce heart issues. Eating a carb heavy oil free / fat free life will kill you.
This guy gets it. It's crazy how corporate interests so thoroughly warped the common man's and even medical professionals understanding.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
All oils and added fats are bad for people with heart problems or those at risk of them.
The right types of oils will reduce heart issues. Eating a carb heavy oil free / fat free life will kill you.
My father had a heart attack at 43. In response, he dropped red meat and dairy and had to have stents put in 2 years later as his condition deteriorated.
He stopped eating any foods with added oils, as well as anything fatty like nuts and avocados. He eats absolutely zero oil, just basic grains with vegetables and fruits. Ten years later and his doctor says, aside from the stents, he shows no signs of heart disease at all.
Anecdotal improvement aside, your statement about high carbs/low oil being unsustainable is false.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?
#204> All I really look forward to these days is getting high and playing video games or watching Seinfeld reruns each weekend Not saying it's the only cause of your problems, but you shouldn't underestimate the affect that getting high can have on how you feel when you're not high (especially if it's an every day or most days thing). Consider a (say 3-6 month) detox.
I thought a member of my support group said it best: "getting high makes you ok with being bored."
Being able to manage boredom is actually a Very Important skill -- much more so than the much-vaunted "21st Century Essential Skills" (like coding) that get so many dollars and media hype.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please add animal fats or olive oil to your diet. The modern processed oils are bad. Animal based fats or olive, coconut and other traditional oils are better. Avoid palm, corn, vegetable oil. Also salt is healthy. Check out the channel what I've learned on youtube.
All oils and added fats are bad for people with heart problems or those at risk of them.
Nope. Eating healthy fats and protein is am absolute requirement for long term health. However you don't need to eat carbs at all. The body produces the little you need.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?
#206Exercise, drop the drugs, ensure you have some part of your identity unrelated to work. I was in a rut for years because my work was my identity and I wasn’t where I wanted to be (thank you effective altruism for the identity crisis lol). When I moved out to California I quit drinking (for a while, quit again more recently), focused on exercising, and set a goal of not seeing my whole identity as a software developer…
This is good advice, but depression can make these things hard to accomplish. I’ve experienced this before — falling into a rut, becoming depressed and having extraordinary difficulty getting back up. It’s like a motivation off-switch. Talk therapy is good. Try to find a therapist that you can trust. Don’t be afraid of anti-depressants, especially for something likely to be shorter term like this. They don’t change y…
+1 for CBT. Exercise and good diet might take you so far, but not all the way. If you won't work on your mind, and the problems that accumulated there you won't go 100%.
What helped me out is finding a good information about CBT and its principles, where it explained clearly in simple terms. After that - actually doing the work myself. I did journal different situations that produced strong negative emotions or body reactions throughout the day for 3 months. Event-Thought-Emotion-Reaction. That helped out to find running themes in my head. Then afterwards every 2 weeks I went through the journal and wrote down alternative thoughts for it.
Remember when you going to the talk therapist you are expecting them to solve your problem, to give you the pill that solves everything. That won't work. You must do the job in the first place. With good information you don't even need to go to the therapist, you just need to be desperate enough that you start actually working on it. At least that what worked for me. Meditation is also pretty good, but same as exercise won't take you all the way there
Re: Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?
#207> In a nutshell, I'm dissatisfied with how my life is going. > Things that used to bring me joy...don't, any more. Some people will say "it's depression", but I think we change, and some old things no longer bring joy, while some new things do. Hae you tried adding randomization? As in, try some weird stuff (say kayak or whatever) to see what brings you unexpected joy? It may not work for you, but it often works for…
I heard that was a novel where a guy made life choices on a roll of a dice. I loved that idea. Obviously, the book took it to an extreme but really what is life anyway, isn't it all just chaos and a lot of seemly random events? New pretend we have control and in some cases, it's this that actually makes us miserable. I'm curious since you recommended it to OP, how you apply this in your own life and if you have some…
> [We] pretend we have control and in some cases, it's this that actually makes us miserable.
Totally! I follow the dice method myself, with some twist: for daily repeated decision. I complement it with a rank ordered list of my preferences, where sometimes I simply invert the list.
So if there are 10 options, I would usually choose the 1st one (ex: my favorite drink) but sometimes I chose the last one (here, my least favorite drink). The dice says when I do that, with a minimal frequence of 1/6th for a regular D6.
> I'm curious since you recommended it to OP, how you apply this in your own life and if you have some examples of things you have discovered.
I have discovered I don't really have food preferences, and that what other human beings think taste good will taste good (even if not to my taste YET) at least after a small exposure period.
The most interesting discoveries (ex: meat: now I like it almost raw!) have been made through this funny algorithm.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
Medication helps, but it doesn’t cure ADHD on the spot, you know.
Medication doesn't cure ADHD like glasses don't cure your shortsightedness. Still doesn't make them useless.
I wear glasses, have ADHD, and take ADHD medication. Glasses make me see perfectly well. Medication, sadly, restores about 40% of my executive activity, I still can’t do many things that come effortlessly to a normal person (thankfully, I also can do some things that are usually difficult for neurotypical people, and the medication doesn’t make it worse).
Re: Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
Medication doesn't cure ADHD like glasses don't cure your shortsightedness. Still doesn't make them useless.
I wear glasses, have ADHD, and take ADHD medication. Glasses make me see perfectly well. Medication, sadly, restores about 40% of my executive activity, I still can’t do many things that come effortlessly to a normal person (thankfully, I also can do some things that are usually difficult for neurotypical people, and the medication doesn’t make it worse).
I don't know. I would have a hard time determining how much executive ability I lack.
When medicated I just find I am myself, but doing things. I couldn't tell you if it's 40% or what, just that I imagine I am like most people now. Doing, slowly moving towards my goals, without being a soulless hyperproductive machine. There's times I have to force myself to do something boring, like everybody else does, but I can still take them to completion. I think this is a healthy balance, yet much better than my previous state of complete and total inertia and infinite self-loathing.
Re: Ask HN: I'm in a rut. How did you get out of yours?
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You have a side project but you've figured out the hard parts and so it's just the implementation grind, which is easy. I found a stupid mind trick for that. If I can't do it, then it isn't easy. I kind of found a satisfaction now in doing boring stuff, feels a bit like a super power. I find it useful at work as well - if there are very boring tasks to do I take them. Team loves me for that and these usually are so…
So just to clarify your mind hack is turning it back on itself? Since you can't finish easy tasks, that becomes the challenge, therefore you make yourself finish it and it becomes interesting again because suddenly what was 'easy' in your mind you made yourself realise that it only counts if you finish it and you usually don't so the challenge is to be someone that finishes that stuff?
Sounds about right!