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I am depressed and I need someone to talk to

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: I am depressed and I need someone to talk to

#31

Post by nameiscarl »

pedrogrande wrote: post #11

I don't know if it'll help but for me, when I enter a depression phase. I wallow in it for a while, enjoy feeling sorry for myself which may go on for days or weeks. But then I get sick of being depressed. I just can't flick a switch and be happy again. I have to go through a whole process. I've learnt a good technique where I just work on being angry. Doesn't matter what about, even just at myself for being depresse…

Fixing your moods by replacing them with something else is pretty smart.

And if you manage to have a somewhat healthy something else, you're relatively lucky :)

Re: I am depressed and I need someone to talk to

#32

Post by nameiscarl »

dubington wrote: post #25

Is there anyone in your peer group into startups, at a similar position, that you can collaborate with somehow? Or at least share ideas and experiences? I have found it important to talk to people who share comparable recent experiences and also share immediate future goals. Of course, such a person might be very unusual whereever you are. But perhaps you will find them via this post. Good luck

From what I understand, it may be tough to open up to your teammates when you feel down.

After all, in the workplace, you are expected to show leadership, strong will and the power to go through anything. Especially in the ultra competitive world of startups.

So I can understand the OP MO here.

PS : OPMO is a funny word.

PS : and for different reasons, family is sometimes a big no no as well.

Re: I am depressed and I need someone to talk to

#35

Post by maeon3 »

Volunteer at your local homeless shelter, they don't contact you, you contact them.

Get away from people for a while, unplug from the internet, depression is a psychological process where you determine you have a problem that needs to be fixed, and processing time is needed away from the daily stimulus to figure out what to do to fix it.

Re: I am depressed and I need someone to talk to

#36

Post by strictfp »

Having gotten myself out of a startup-induced depression I feel for you. Getting out of a depression is never easy, you simply cannot spot the right paths to take you out of there while in it. I can only give you some advice which helped me greatly:

1) Get opinionated. Try to form opinions about everything around you. What do you like or dislike about that lamp post? Which one is your favorite fruit and why? These type of silly exercises is a good way of building up an image of what you want in life. When you know what you want, you can figure out how to achieve it. Being passive is horribly depression-inducing.

2) Participate in life coaching, preferably both individually and in groups. This helped me getting a more objective view of what type of individual I am, how other people see me. But also what other type of personalities there are and how they interact. Knowing all this has helped me view disagreements and conflicts in a new light. I don't have to take myself and everything around me so seriously, since I can see more clearly why things happen as they do.

I wish you all the best.

Re: I am depressed and I need someone to talk to

#37

Post by aleprok »

pedrogrande wrote: post #11

I don't know if it'll help but for me, when I enter a depression phase. I wallow in it for a while, enjoy feeling sorry for myself which may go on for days or weeks. But then I get sick of being depressed. I just can't flick a switch and be happy again. I have to go through a whole process. I've learnt a good technique where I just work on being angry. Doesn't matter what about, even just at myself for being depresse…

For me when I find something to be angry at I feel great for a while and it turns out to frustration and then it starts to depress me and I am now even more depressed about something which I most likely can not help.

Though I have learned to live with the depressing stuff without any kind of medication. Mostly I do this by shifting my thoughts about the depressing stuff to something which I find nice. Though too often it is a good movie, but still that is almost two hours break from thinking about the depressive stuff.

Re: I am depressed and I need someone to talk to

#39

Post by bgr »

pedrogrande wrote: post #11

I don't know if it'll help but for me, when I enter a depression phase. I wallow in it for a while, enjoy feeling sorry for myself which may go on for days or weeks. But then I get sick of being depressed. I just can't flick a switch and be happy again. I have to go through a whole process. I've learnt a good technique where I just work on being angry. Doesn't matter what about, even just at myself for being depresse…

"Anger is more useful than despair" - Terminator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeIy2MHZ0xE

Re: I am depressed and I need someone to talk to

#40

Post by alinajaf »

kfullert wrote: post #2

Not sure where you are, here in the UK we have a service called The Samaritans ( http://www.samaritans.org/ ) so not sure if there's a similar service, these people are trained to give you the best help and advice that they can, and someone trained but detached from the specifics may be what's best for you - I've not gone through this myself, but have supported my wife and ex-partners through similar bouts of depress…

The Samaritans provide a great service, I've used them when going through a few rough spots.

Quick note though, the Samaritans definitely do not give advice. Mostly they help you work through your own feelings and figure out what to do on your own.

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