Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Depression Thing

zachholman.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 348 posts

Re: The Depression Thing

#281

Post by molloy »

xnm wrote: post #155
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…

One of the symptoms of major depression is psychomotor retardation which causes people great difficulty in performing even simple tasks, like brushing one's teeth, doing the laundry, or showering. Advocating exercise as a cure for a disorder marked by the inability to exercise seems short sighted. "I can't get out of bed" "You should exercise" Ugh...

I have psychomotor retardation (thanks for putting a name to one of my biggest struggles!) due to major depression but exercise really does help more than anything else. It's definitely hard to exercise, but often it's not that I can't do anything at all, it's that I use up all my willpower doing one thing in a day. But if I make that one thing exercise, then for the rest of the day it's like my psychomotor retardation goes away completely and then other tasks are manageable. I actually brush my teeth, do the laundry that's been piling up, make a healthy dinner and clean up the kitchen after, etc.

Re: The Depression Thing

#282

Post by manmal »

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…

Let me add more of the lesser known “quick-fix” things that work for me:

- Magnesium has been shown to improve „untreatable“ depression, and for me it does wonders. I use it transdermally because oral Mg gives me diarrhea. This can turn my mood around 100% in minutes.

- Near Infrared light is generally really really good for you, and I expect it to become a standard (or at least auxiliary) treatment for many diseases. Most studies have been done with LLLT (lasers), but literature suggests that standard LED diodes work almost as well, at least for cells at the surface. Buy a 850nm CCTV infrared floodlight and point it at various organs and your forehead; and buy some 250W infrared lamps, screw them into a wood board and sit in front of this for a couple of minutes naked. Add sthg like the Vitalux lamp for the extra Vit D kick. Insta mood and energy improvement that lasts up to several days—it feels like having been at the beach.

- If you are a low serotonin type, you could get your md to prescribe serotonin tablets (I haven’t), but in the meantime, dark chocolate could also do it. The crucial thing though is to keep the supply steady. I have to wean off the chocolate after a few days.

- PEMF (haven’t tried that yet) has also been reported to work: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20385376/

There is a PEMF device called ICES that is affordable (about $400 last time I looked).

Re: The Depression Thing

#284

Post by [deleted] »

imd23 wrote: post #267

Zen and buddhism. (Zen is not really buddhism). Among many others things (therapy, running, playing high level piano, amazing remote job), Zen rewired and helps me to deal with this every day. I'd recommend this authors with all my heart to anyone: - Thich Nhat Hanh ("You are here") - Alan Watts - Eckhart Tolle ("Stillness Speaks") - Shunryū Suzuki ("Zen mind beginner's mind") - Ryan Holiday ("Ego is the enemy") Pian…

[deleted]

Re: The Depression Thing

#285

Post by roystonvassey »

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…

Glad to see this comment top of the pile here. I'm almost inclined to believe that people who are depressed AND choose not to do anything about it are likely to have an entitlement and/or victimhood mentality. The problem with that? It'll lead you deeper down the rabbit hole and inside within your head; things that'll only make you feel worse than better.

Re: The Depression Thing

#286

Post by 55555 »

kyberias wrote: post #3
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.

Are there legitimate other views of depression?

Depression is often caused by life sucking. When depression is amply explained by this model, you become depressed when both (a) the present is unenjoyable AND (b) you have no hope that the future will be better.

I know that this is sometimes the case because I've struggled with depression on-and-off and it tracks 1:1 with my physical health and ability to live a normal, enjoyable life.

Re: The Depression Thing

#287

Post by pgeorgi »

sooheon wrote: post #241
pgeorgi wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you shouldn't need a therapist to figure this one out. A reasonable amount of exercise is good for pretty much everyone. People with clinical depression aren't those who _can_ easily hit the gym for that dopamine rush. "Some sport is usually not a bad idea" is not the hard part, getting to the point where it can be implemented is. And if that is the problem, and none of the pep talks on hacker news over the last fe…

I understand where you're coming from, but I'll just point out that you can reverse the activities and make the same point: "People with depression aren't those who can easily just hit up a therapist and continue going and get well. If that's too much of a social burden, why not try just going for a bike ride?"

keywords: "And if [getting sports implemented] is the problem"

I never said not to do sports (neither did the article: it merely pointed out that telling people to "_just_ do sports" may not be helpful) and I never tried to sell a silver bullet.

This is unlike the inevitable influx of comments in the style of "ignore therapy, just imitate my sports routine, and if you can't, just try harder". Those appear under _every_ depression-related submission on hacker news.

Those comments are harmful: therapy already comes with stigma, so it's not the obvious route - unlike, as you can see here, sports. Everybody proposes sports, healthy eating habits and regular sleep (btw: what about the depressed who can easily sleep 20 hours a day, should they just get one more nap?). Reinforcing the stigma around therapy discourages folks from taking a route that might help them.

The "just try harder" angle that's all too often seen in such comments is also harmful: What do you think did those people do (often for years) before they consciously consider that something might be wrong with them? Exactly: they buckled up and tried harder - and they will continue until they crack unless something changes fundamentally.

Re: The Depression Thing

#288

Post by collyw »

DanBC wrote: post #43
Swizec wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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…

A quick search on pubmed shows plenty of positive results.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21495519/

Re: The Depression Thing

#289

Post by Mz »

roystonvassey wrote: post #285
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…

Glad to see this comment top of the pile here. I'm almost inclined to believe that people who are depressed AND choose not to do anything about it are likely to have an entitlement and/or victimhood mentality. The problem with that? It'll lead you deeper down the rabbit hole and inside within your head; things that'll only make you feel worse than better.

That may be a little like saying "People with asthma just aren't trying hard enough to breathe. If they just wanted it bad enough, the wheezing would stop. Go ahead, take a deep breath now."

Depression makes it hard to do anything and can be rooted in other issues that physically make it hard to do anything.

Some people find their way out, but there is a reason why the doldrums has come to have the meaning it has.

The doldrums is a colloquial expression derived from historical maritime usage, which refers to those parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean affected by the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a low-pressure area around the equator where the prevailing winds are calm. The doldrums are also noted for calm periods when the winds disappear altogether, trapping sailing ships for periods of days or weeks.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doldrums

Just like sailors once got stuck due to lack of winds, people with depression sometimes just get stuck. If they can find a means to get unstuck, awesome! But we don't know how to readily fix this. We know some things that sometimes help some people. But there is no slam dunk solution guaranteed to work.

Re: The Depression Thing

#290

Post by Chattered »

Garph wrote: post #249
madamelic wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's also a viscous cycle once you stop doing these things. It is also gosh dang terrifying. I am not so much curing my depression + anxiety as much as I am running away and trying put enough stuff behind me that it can't catch me. But when it does, it is difficult to get started again.

>I am running away and trying put enough stuff behind me that it can't catch me. I'm a runner with depression. I track my mileage, diet and general mood very closely and have started to brace myself for a depressive periods after major races. I need redundancy with coping mechanisms, and the OCD nature of distance running is potentially setting people up for a fragile system should an injury occur or low-mileage phas…

I spent my twenties running long distance, but gave up four years ago. The frequent injuries were just too much. A bad injury once had me off training for four months. Going from feeling like a machine to someone who can't manage a jog in the space of an afternoon seriously messed with my emotional state.

I'm writing this on a recumbent bike. I've averaged ninety minutes a day for four years without injury. I've also read a ton of books on my kindle.

Post reply on HN