This seems like good advice, but it's based on one example. If you want depression advice from a psychiatrist who's reviewed the academic literature on depression, try Things That Sometimes Help If You Have Depression from Slate Star Codex: http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/16/things-that-sometimes-h...
When You Are Depressed, Make Something
251–260 of 370 posts
Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you guys think is the point of all our activities if people eventually die? Most mainstream Judaeo-Christian postulates the immortality of the soul. But it seems to come up against mainstream history and science. Hasn't anyone here felt these existential questions? Even if you accomplish so much, in the end you can't even answer basic questions about the meaning of it all. You can consile yourself with the id…
I mean, sure, for a religious person touching base with God or exploring existential questions might be fruitful but for a non-believer, focusing on these large questions while being in a depression is not your way out of it, because those questions are too grand. A quite healthy person might end up in a depression dwelling on unsolvable mysteries for too long. If you find yourself in a depression, your thoughts cons…
Look I create all the time. I don't think I have symptoms of depression at all.
However I am saying that what's happening is similar to depression.
I work hard on building something and scaled back on social hangouts all the time, so I can finish it. But it has been years.
I am dating but never sure if I should settle down with this one, or that one.
I think deeply about what is the meaning of it all, and I see that most people are just trying to distract themselves with work or drinks or whatever else. But ultimately I see everything as being very limited. I guess people with depression feel similar things but far more acutely.
Creating stuff doesn't turn off that thought process. Any more than a videogame character adding currency and amassing items means that the video game won't end. What good are all your virtual points then?
Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you guys think is the point of all our activities if people eventually die? Most mainstream Judaeo-Christian postulates the immortality of the soul. But it seems to come up against mainstream history and science. Hasn't anyone here felt these existential questions? Even if you accomplish so much, in the end you can't even answer basic questions about the meaning of it all. You can consile yourself with the id…
I had this realization years ago. Yet somehow, I was fine with it - my mentality was, "When I'm dead I'll be too busy being dead to care that I'm dead." Then six or so months ago this realization struck me again. Every day since, I wrestle through the same exact thoughts that you posted. I just want to be content.
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Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
You shouldn't post this way on this site. You're claiming matter-of-factly that brain inflammation causes depression. Well, I (we) don't believe you, because that's a far from widely accepted theory. Your condescending google links don't help.
> Your condescending google links don't help Which I posted in response to getting blatantly gaslighted. I don't care if you disagree with me, but pretending you don't know how to use Google to try to discredit someone is a lame debating technique.
You weren't gaslighted. That's not what that word means. And everyone here knows how to use google. The problem here is that you said "Depression is the feeling you get from brain inflammation" instead of "there's a theory that depression is sometimes linked to brain inflammation". The former is far from factual, and it's dead wrong to claim it matter-of-factly.
Totally not surprisingly, when you google brain inflammation and depression, you get lots of references that suggest a possible link and none that justify claiming it as a fact. So, [citation still needed], and it's not because we're bad at using google.
Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Research on animals show that chronic stress causes depression... Source? That sounds like an oversimplification in my opinion, as there are some pretty glaring problems with using other animals to model mental illness in humans. Wouldn't the only real analogue be learned helplessness, or am I missing something?
See for example: http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v33/n1/abs/1301574a.html >there are some pretty glaring problems with using other animals to model mental illness in humans Yes, but the research also looks into stress and depression in human subjects (see above).
The paper you linked to doesn't really show that "chronic stress causes depression", though.
The key sentence in the abstract, I think, is this:
Here we provide an overview of the evidence that chronic stress, which can precipitate or exacerbate depression, disrupts neuroplasticity, while antidepressant treatment produces opposing effects and can enhance neuroplasticity.
Notice there not being any mention of a causal relationship here.
Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the kind of thinking that has, in the past, led me to being depressed. It promotes an unhealthy fixation with the future that sends me into a nihilistic, self-perpetuating spiral of inaction. My answer has been something closer to Buddhist thinking than western religions. It's an intense effort to focus on the current moment. The past is done and cannot be changed. The future will happen, but it's largely bey…
Depression is a chemical or structural issue in the brain. Having existential thoughts did not change the structure of your brain or alter its chemistry. Suggesting you can "lead yourself" to depression by simply thinking is just as wrong as suggesting those with real depression can just "snap out of it."
> Having existential thoughts did not change the structure of your brain or alter its chemistry.
Of course it did - that's what thoughts are.
Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something
#257Friends have worked for me[1]. I've tried travelling, running, working, drinking, innumerable distractions. But having friends who can spot when I'm falling and reach out, because I'll never ask for their help, has been invaluable. [1] http://hybridlogic.co.uk/2015/11/the-well/
You're a lucky human
I tell myself that every time. Without them I would be lost, so I try and make it up to them in the periods I can.
Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
You shouldn't post this way on this site. You're claiming matter-of-factly that brain inflammation causes depression. Well, I (we) don't believe you, because that's a far from widely accepted theory. Your condescending google links don't help.
> Your condescending google links don't help Which I posted in response to getting blatantly gaslighted. I don't care if you disagree with me, but pretending you don't know how to use Google to try to discredit someone is a lame debating technique.
For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting
"Gaslighting or gas-lighting is a form of manipulation through persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying in an attempt to destabilize and delegitimize a target."
There's a clear difference between that and calling out (EDIT for clarification: what I believe to be) incorrect information, and my admittedly-biased opinion is that my previous two comments in response to your own are squarely in the latter camp versus the former. I'd also hardly call one or two comments "persistent", though - again - my viewpoint is obviously biased in my favor.
I'll admit that pulling a [citation needed] was excessively snarky, though. I'm sorry. I ought to know better than to be a jerk, no matter how right I think I am.
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With that said, "just Google it" (and similar approaches, like linking to a search engine query or some snarky wrapper thereof) is a very poor rhetorical technique in general; as I've already demonstrated, it's not guaranteed to actually prove one's point, and it reeks of either or both of two hidden meanings:
1. "I don't really care enough about the topic to give a meaningful citation, so I'm just going to tell the other party to find citations oneself"
2. "I don't actually have any source for the information I've provided (maybe I did once upon a time, but I sure don't anymore), so I'm going to tell the other party to 'just Google it' and hope that said other party is somehow impressed by the number of search results regardless of the sites in question or what the linked pages actually say"
Thus, it's generally a good idea to avoid those potential hidden meanings and just provide an actual source.
Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
See for example: http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v33/n1/abs/1301574a.html >there are some pretty glaring problems with using other animals to model mental illness in humans Yes, but the research also looks into stress and depression in human subjects (see above).
The paper you linked to doesn't really show that "chronic stress causes depression", though. The key sentence in the abstract, I think, is this: Here we provide an overview of the evidence that chronic stress, which can precipitate or exacerbate depression, disrupts neuroplasticity, while antidepressant treatment produces opposing effects and can enhance neuroplasticity. The paper states that stress "contribute[s] to…
Agreed. I should have said chronic stress can cause depression.
Re: When You Are Depressed, Make Something
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, creativity is hard. As Ira Glass put it: > All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. (full quote: https://www.good…
I've run across this quote a few times recently and like it a lot. But there's always the nagging doubt / imposter syndrome telling that you don't really have taste either. Like the people who can taste good food, can't necessarily cook good food. Perhaps it's just enough that you care about something and want to get good at it. I liked Sal Khan's TED lecture [0] about the possibility of us all having the capacity to…
I think developing taste is actually the hardest part. For example, most aspiring musicians start out enamored with a particular style because it impressed them in their early life. It takes years to make sense of things and find your unique personal concept of "good music". Many don't even reach the realization that it's a worthwhile goal. Similar with visual art, etc.