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Ask HN: Are you depressed?

strawpoll.me

391–400 of 512 posts

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#391

Nowhere else to post this so here it goes. I lost my job in January. From January - March I started looking for a job and then COVID hits at the height of my search, now suddenly no one is hiring and all the businesses are slowing down. My girlfriend of 13 years left me the day after my birthday in June before I had a chance to propose to her, I had to return the ring, she had no idea and I never told her about it. I…

Hey man.. hope you feel better soon. I usually learn new stuff to get out of such phases. Learning gives me excitement and offers mis direction for busy mind, which other wise loops through stuff

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My girlfriend of 13 years left me the day after my birthday in June before I had a chance to propose to her" Well, there is a bright side to it. If you would have married and it was about to break soon after, you would have the joy of a legal divorce now on top of it. Instead you are free to find someone new. Possibly better fitting. The world is full of women and other awesome people, you can still connect with. A…

I think dismissing the end of a 13 year relationship with the "plenty of fish in the sea" argument and saying "stop wasting your time" is probably not what OP needs to hear right now.

You are right, this is not what the OP needs to hear right now. Or maybe you are wrong and this is exactly what he needs, even if it hurts it can make it better (like a bitter medicine). We don't know, so let it be. (edit:spelling)

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#393
I have a job and my parents try their best to support me, but since last year (before the covid) something broke in me and i can't enjoy anything.

Waking up is so hard, i started going to work late every day (flexible hour) and i can't sleep, i'm always anxyous and the medicine prescribed to me aren't helping. I'm tired all the time and i don't know what to do.

I constantly think about suicide but apparently is a sideeffect of what i'm taking so i'm not too worried about it.

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#394

Whew. As someone that struggled with depression for nearly 15 years, as someone involved in the radical mental health movement for a long time, as a social scientist, as a Buddhist, as an activist...pulled so many different directions by seeing these numbers. I guess all I have to say, with an immense amount of compassion, some frustration, and all the honesty in my heart is that "It doesn't have to be this way." And…

What’s the radical mental health movement?

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#395

I'm fighting every day to keep the depression at bay. I've been through the same thing as every one else this year, plus my sister took her on life in March and my startup that was flying in February, has been hammered by the pandemic. I felt like I was about to slide back into depression in May. I needed something that I could accomplish that was completely within my control. I decided to start lifting weights. It h…

How can you start a gym hobby during quarantine? Haven't been to a gym in 8 months even though I still pay my pricy membership just to support them.

Garage gym. Ideally bought before the lock down. Or anywhere with a floor strong enough for a squat rack and some weights.

The rack, an Olympic bar plus Olympic sized Ezy bar, a bench and an assortment of plates and ideally a plate holder and some thick rubber mats is all you need.

Has been an amazing help for myself through some tough periods lately. Also ditto on Stronglifts 5x5.

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#396
Yeah, I just got done coming to terms with the fact that women hate me because I'm ugly and weird and unhealthy and that's also why my family didn't like me growing up, and the second I start making progress fixing it this shit happens. I'm 28 now. I have to go from totally weird and ugly as shit (might need surgery) to having an enjoyable career, a wife who's not repulsed or settling during temporary depression, and a normal social life before 30 or else I'm really a loser. I will probably be a loser.

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you go to mixed classes, like me, then there are a lot of girls, which have zero interest in you (but have some "older" boyfriend) and constantly are turned off by you and look down on you. This is because in a lot of western countries we still have a strong culture of differiencing the way boys and girls are educated. For example, they are seperated from preschool, and expected to play with different toys. Expe…

>This is because in a lot of western countries Dude's in Iran, not New Jersey. Pretty sure "western countries" the only ones experimenting with gender neutral anything, mostly because there are large populations of over educated people with weird ideas who have never been around children.

Sorry if that was not clear, I was replying to i_am_new_here, who is not in Iran.

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#398
post #321

I'm depressed, anxious, and lost. I'm 38, married, and I have two daughters. My career seems to be stuck. I work in IT, but I don't think I'm actually very good in any specific aspect of it. I suck at debugging. I write Python but I never learned how to use the Python debugger. I'm no good at project management either. Every time I'm asked to give an estimate for something I feel like I'm pulling a random number out…

Also 38, also married, also two daughters, also have depression.

I can't tell you what works or not for you but I can say what helped me go from suicidal over a failing business to functional enough to interview at 20+ tech companies and land a job I like.

I firstly spoke with someone. Dealing with depression totally alone is not easy. I don't know your wife (ofc) but if someone married you they (probably?) care enough to hear more than just good news from you. If you really can't afford to share with your wife then damn, that's rough, but do share with someone who knows your situation and can advise your doctor, a therapist, a parent, someone.

Deleting contacts on social is a symptom of depression. I did it and my counsellor raised it. Ask yourself if you'd notice if someone unfriended you first? It's not like FB notifies you. Your friends and family care, they do, but they also have their own lives and also let's be honest, a lot of people hardly check FB in depth these days anyways. No one is going to notice their friend list drop down by 1.

> I eat the cheapest fast food lunch alone

I'm gonna be dictatorial on this one and just say 'stop'. Don't do it. Junk food is a treat, like ice cream. You wouldn't incorporate ice cream as a regular part of your nutrition.

> then it gets late and I have no more energy to do anything useful

That's true for any parent, especially those dealing with stress and depression. You're not alone on this one. I get done with the day after tucking my kids in and I literally have like 1-2 hours to maybe learn something tech related to advance my career or veg out with my wife and enjoy a TV show. It sucks, but that's life, no parent I've spoken with differs in this regard.

> I have no idea how to spend my free time.

Another symptom of depression. Loss of interest in things we used to enjoy doing or withdrawing from hobbies. So what if you have 1000 games, they're there to give you joy not anxiety. You might have 9000 grains of rice in a 1lb bag in your cupboard but you don't worry about when you'll eat each individual one. Let them be, not playing them is as valid an option as playing them. Probably more so if you're time poor.

> Every time I'm asked to give an estimate for something I feel like I'm pulling a random number out of my ass.

I think software has this problem regardless, some of us are better at estimating some less so. I wouldn't worry about that. Unless you're repeating a development task you've done before many times (write a new rest controller, develop a CRUD web app) it's heard to give an estimate on something you haven't done before.

Pick a language you like and which advances the career you want and just start reading, hacking, messing around with it. Python's a great one for work and play tbh, but the important thing is to start. Most of the great coders I've worked with just get stuck into something new, they don't seem to care too much whether what they're learning will be obsolete or is non-optimal. I myself struggle with this one which is probably why I only know Java :)

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#399

Good idea to post an anonymous poll. Ever since I experienced ego death in the wake of a mental breakdown, around five years ago, my mental health has improved a lot :).

Can you explain more about this?

Six years ago, I had a something of a mental break-down, followed by a near-death experience. It changed me and made me re-evaluate what I was doing my life. In short, I sold my small company and stopped doing things to impress others or to 'fit in'.

Re: Ask HN: Are you depressed?

#400
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world is burning in a lot of ways. Am I think the content on Reddit represents the realisation and fears of that. I was getting super depressed lately and cut, as a result of that, almost all news, Reddit and Twitter out of my life. The situation is just to crazy to deal with it every day.

The world isn't burning, the media definitely is though. That's a dying animal doing everything it can to keep your eyes glued to the "latest disaster" and their ads of course. We are going to get a vaccine and slowly work back to normal. If you are concerned about the world, do something about your little slice of the world. Pick up some trash and drop some groceries off for an elderly neighbor.

^ I have a hard time being down when I’m helping others. The opportunity is all around us. Thanks for posting flightless!
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