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Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

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Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#371

Post by lostdog »

TameAntelope wrote: post #295
MisterMower wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The past two years opened a ton of eyes regarding the fallibility of the medical community. Turns out most doctors prescribe what is recommended by the professional organization they’re a member or the CDC. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been at my daughter’s pediatrician’s office and the doctor either hands me a print out of the CDC website or actively googles something in front of me during a visit. Sometim…

The point is not that medical professionals have all the answers, the point is they have more answers than you do, and have better experience and resources available to them to seek answers they do not currently have. Individual medical professionals making mistakes does not give you the excuse to ignore their vastly superior skills at handling medical situations. If you don't like your doctor, find another one, do n…

In my family, both doctors and random googling have a similar batting average for certain conditions.

Some day you will have a challenging health condition and a mediocre doctor. When that happens, I hope you do not feel overly embarrassed by the comments you've made in this thread.

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#372

Post by YuriNiyazov »

jpgvm wrote: post #118
YuriNiyazov wrote: post #109

Not all drugs are created equal. I've been on Welbutrin for about four years now; absolutely life-changing; not an SSRI, so really minimal side effects. 10/10, will take again. Welbutrin is really special. It's not an SSRI, it's not a TCA. It's an NDRI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norepinephrine%E2%80%93dopamin... and there aren't a whole lot of others like it.

Did you try many drugs before you found Welbutrin?

I didn't because I was in a similar situation to you, I was afraid of SSRIs. I did some research, found Welbutrin, asked for it first, it was great, never tried anything again.

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#373

Post by inter_netuser »

ChrisRR wrote: post #318
inter_netuser wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy who came in last in his medical class. In the worst medical school in the country. ..is somehow always better...than everyone else? Always? Professional opinion is just that, an opinion . Opinion of potentially the worst medical student, from the worst medical school. but because they got a prescription pad, they are now smarter than anyone else in America. Got it. Health is ultimately our own decision, and o…

The worst doctor still passed their exams, and has way more medical knowledge than the average person I wouldn't discount design advice of a qualified engineer because of the musings of a random person, so why would I do the same for a doctor. Too many people in this thread are just going "software developers don't know what they're talking about. I had a bad experience with software once, so no developers have a clu…

Medicine drop out rates: 15-18% Engineering drop out rates: 40-50% Math drop out rates: 47%

Dumbest doctor is stupider than avg math/eng. They just tend to be less autistic on avg.

"The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) found that between 40% to 50% of engineering students drop out or change their majors."

"So, what is the dropout rate for medical school? In a standard, single four-year program, that would put the medical school dropout rate at between 15.7 percent and 18.4 percent, confirms the AAMC."

"In mathematics, the dropout rate is even higher with 47% (U.S. college dropouts show comparable numbers; Chen, 2013)."

It's ok to question and discount doctors. Plenty of incompetent practitioners out there, well protected by powerful lobby, trade union, massive liability umbrellas.

They even passed laws to reduce their own liability.

I'm sure they needed that because they are so excellent at their job, they are only the leading cause of accidental deaths.

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#374

Post by inter_netuser »

jasonm23 wrote: post #343
hu3 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Therapy changed the way I see life and toned down my expectations. I live less in the future and more in the present. I judge myself less and feel emotions more.

Tone down expectations. This is the silver bullet in my opinion. How do you define fairness, rethink it and tone down your expectations. How do you define love / relationships? Rethink it and tone down your expectations. How do you define work / career / success? Rethink it and tone down your expectations. I honestly believe this is a huge help. A therapist who is a good fit for you is very hard to find. Learning abo…

>Tone down expectations.

This sounds absolutely terrible. Something not to far from victim blaming.

Don't have a home? Learn how to be happy homeless! Husband gave you a black eye? Tone down your expectations!

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#375

Post by inter_netuser »

selcuka wrote: post #273
inter_netuser wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grades are normalized on a gaussian curve. What's the difference between mean and median in a Gaussian distribution? Looking forward to your contributions to mathematics.

> Grades are normalized on a gaussian curve. Are we talking about grades? Honestly when I see "50% of doctors are below average" I intuitively think of some other metric, such as the correct/incorrect diagnosis ratio, or the number of people that died because of their errors. Maybe it's just me but their uni (?) grades never comes to my mind.

It alludes to the joke: "what do you call the last student from the worst medical school? A doctor"

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#376

Post by inter_netuser »

aaaaaaaaata wrote: post #276
inter_netuser wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had an incompetent prescriber. Tapering doses for all sorts of medications are routinely done, and any pharmacy can handle such an rx. If they can't - you don't want to go to such a pharmacy anyway.

Easy to say when you're in a major city/within the 100 mile border zone.

Unfortunately, you often have to travel at times to find good talent/expertise.

Some people move permanently, in order to obtain medical care. Sometimes, to another country.

Most compounding pharmacies will ship, and most physicians will only require one visit in person in 12 months.

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#377

Post by inter_netuser »

tdfx wrote: post #263
ajkjk wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes no sense to me, if you're trying to deal with mental health problems and struggling you're going to be looking for new ideas from any source. Doctors are good at giving garden-variety medical advice that's validated by studies, but there's so many other ideas out there that they're not going to know about. Their background gives them expertise on what medicine says about mental health, not about the human…

> Doctors are good at giving garden-variety medical advice that's validated by studies I've found they're more often than not ignorant of the latest studies, as well. Doctors are put on a pedestal in our society that very few of them deserve. A solid 2/3s of the ones I've seen are over-confident, dismissive, and often peddling out of date information. The rare ones that truly focus on their field and put their patien…

How common are the ones that check their ego? 1 in 10?

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#378

Post by selcuka »

TameAntelope wrote: post #289
selcuka wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP. Fair point, but also "people with the same medication" is not the same as "strangers on the Internet".

Yes they are. It's a potentially fatal mistake to think otherwise.

By your logic an anonymous alcoholics meeting is the same as "getting addiction advice from random strangers".

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#379

Post by konspence »

joeman1000 wrote: post #69

Honestly: go and talk to a doctor you trust. My opinion (not a doctor): What is wrong in your life? Are you: + Working too hard + Commuting + Not exercising and taking care of yourself + Eating a diet with lots of processed foods + Using drugs and alcohol as a crutch + Overweight + Not resting regularly + Sleeping poorly + Have other health issues not addressed + Without genuine friends + Without a good partner + A c…

I suspect some of these are meant to get a rise, but I'll bite.

> + Commuting

Prior to 2020 this was the vast majority of all jobs, including tech. Most got by just fine. And today still encompasses the majority of jobs, so I would argue this is classist.

> + Neglecting talking to family

Many people have reasons not to talk to family that end up with positive mental health outcomes. Sure, it can be negative, but this seems exclusionary.

> + A certain age without kids

C'mon. This isn't the 1940s.

Please be careful when putting out lists like this.

This is juxtaposing genuine, universal indicators of depression alongside subjective ones, which when read by the wrong (misinformed, uncertain, etc.) audience, could lead to adverse outcomes.

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#380

Post by watmough »

Go talk to a doctor they see this stuff everyday.

Seriously, there's lots of treatments. Lots of different side-effects. Between you, you'll experiment until you find something that works, and you may manage to be in a much better place than you were.

Right now, you really have no idea if you have depression or severe anxiety.

This isn't like cancer. You won't be dead in 5 years. Go get treatment, and keep your life and your job.

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