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Looking after your wellbeing at DjangoCon Europe

2015.djangocon.eu

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Re: Looking after your wellbeing at DjangoCon Europe

#41

Post by DanBC »

tomjen3 wrote: post #38
DanBC wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first sentence: "Mental health problems range from the worries we all experience as part of everyday life to serious long-term conditions." EDIT: http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-healt... > All sorts of situations can cause stress. The most common involve work, money matters and relationships with partners, children or other family members. Stress may be caused either by major upheavals and…

Isn't that the main issue? We can easily dismiss depression because everybody feels sad sometimes, we can easily dismiss burn-out as you just don't feel motivated, etc.

Yes, sadness is a normal part of life and we don't want to treat sadness as a medical condition. Sometimes that sadness interferes with day to day life, and it doesn't seem to be going away. Most people who experience grief will work through it; the grief changes. So when these problems start interfering with day to day living is when people need help.

And for most people that's going to be small interventions - having a coffee with a friend who is talking to you for example. The interventions taper up as the severity of the illness increases. Talking therapies; medication; hospital in-patient stays; rarely, if someone is at risk of death or of harming other people they can be hospitalised against their will; even more rarely there's ECT.

We know that early intervention is important. And modern mental health services should be talking about "resilience" which increases someones ability to cope with daily life.

Re: Looking after your wellbeing at DjangoCon Europe

#42

Post by hedwall »

Dewie wrote: post #15
hedwall wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read that sentence as 'there is a systemic problem in society that young men aren't allowed to be fragile, sad &c' and that with the overlap between men in tech and that problem, we have an opportunity to give you a nudge in the right direction, should you need it.

I guess you didn't read the part about "have problems understanding other people's"? It seems like we need more awareness of mental health because (young) men are too emotionally stunted to relate to other people's problems. Yes, it's also nice that they acknowledge that men sometimes have issues that they don't feel like they can tell other people about. EDIT: Though strictly speaking there is a difference between "…

I read the whole thing, but I didn't read as a mens issue at the root (again) but a issue with how we as a society bring up boys and how we expect them to be as young men.

(If it helps to understand my perspective, M/29 history of anxiety, panic attacks and depression).

Re: Looking after your wellbeing at DjangoCon Europe

#43

Post by collyw »

DasIch wrote: post #25
collyw wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say it is a work life balance issue. I am not saying its not a problem, but I am struggling to see it as a mental health issue. The first hit I got on Google doesn't talk about exhaustion or burnout. It does mention depression, which I agree with. http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/an-introduct...

Put physical stress on your body for too long and it will take damage. Why should the same principle not apply to your mind?

Well for starters your mind isn't physical.

And if you think about it, stressing your body makes it stronger. That's why working out builds muscles.

Re: Looking after your wellbeing at DjangoCon Europe

#44

Post by collyw »

DanBC wrote: post #36
collyw wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say it is a work life balance issue. I am not saying its not a problem, but I am struggling to see it as a mental health issue. The first hit I got on Google doesn't talk about exhaustion or burnout. It does mention depression, which I agree with. http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/an-introduct...

The first sentence: "Mental health problems range from the worries we all experience as part of everyday life to serious long-term conditions." EDIT: http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-healt... > All sorts of situations can cause stress. The most common involve work, money matters and relationships with partners, children or other family members. Stress may be caused either by major upheavals and…

Lots of strawmen. I talked about burnout and exhaustion, not stress.

Re: Looking after your wellbeing at DjangoCon Europe

#45

Post by collyw »

Dewie wrote: post #24
collyw wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say it is a work life balance issue. I am not saying its not a problem, but I am struggling to see it as a mental health issue. The first hit I got on Google doesn't talk about exhaustion or burnout. It does mention depression, which I agree with. http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/an-introduct...

> I would say it is a work life balance issue. Did you even read my second paragraph? Even though it might be caused by a bad work/life balance, that doesn't mean that it isn't a mental issue when you eventually become burnt out. It's like a depressed person who starts exercising and gets some relief from that - "Oh, then it seems that your problem was your physical fitness, not anything to do with depression". It se…

Again, burnout and exhaustion have morphed into "stress" in your counter argument. I sure you could relate pretty much anything negative to some kind of "stress", which means anything negative is now a mental health issue according to your logic.

Re: Looking after your wellbeing at DjangoCon Europe

#46

Post by DasIch »

collyw wrote: post #43
DasIch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put physical stress on your body for too long and it will take damage. Why should the same principle not apply to your mind?

Well for starters your mind isn't physical. And if you think about it, stressing your body makes it stronger. That's why working out builds muscles.

That's only true for certain movements, performed for a certain period of time and potentially with only a cetain amount of force applied to your body. A movement performed incorrectly, performed for too long or with too much force will damage your body.

And of course, this only applies, if the stress doesn't take the form of your head being hit by a hammer.

Besides whether your mind is physical or not doesn't really matter all that much. What matters is that it's mutable. It can be changed, for better or worse and that change depends on the environment.

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