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Let's talk openly about depression

gustavoveloso.com

61–67 of 67 posts

Re: Let's talk openly about depression

#61
It is quite a coincidence that this topic popped up on HN. On my way into work this morning, I was listening to This American Life, in particular act 2 of this episode [0]. It basically follows the awkwardness of two dads trying to form a friendship in Austin.

I was thinking why is it so hard for one man to form a friendship with another. Personally, I have found it difficult to form a friendship with other men outside of work or of school. Now that I am about to turn 46yrs old, I can count on one hand the number of guys I can consider a good friend. The rest are either workmates or schoolmates.

Social contact is not the silver bullet to depression, but I believe that it helps a lot.

[0] - http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/587/t...

Re: Let's talk openly about depression

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the idea that once can just consciously decide to "take a genuine interest in" something to be entirely alien. Is this something that most people are able to do? I can direct my attention toward something, but that doesn't make boring subjects interesting.

Maybe you would relate to other people better if you tried to find out _why_ they they find things interesting that you find boring.

You're assuming a lot. I do try, but I usually can't maintain enough interest/engagement to even get to the point of finding out the things people find interesting (apart from sports, but that's usually more about team rivalries and player/coach gossip).

Re: Let's talk openly about depression

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are guessing that a line of conversation will stay boring, but you don't really know. Suspension of disbelief should be easy since you don't actually know what will happen. If you are interested in good things then you can be interested in seeing whether a conversation could turn out good. This incidentally relates to one of OP's suggestions: don't assume that you'll keep feeling the way you feel forever.

This doesn't describe the experience I was getting at. I'm talking about actual conversations that I routinely have, not hypothetical ones I'm avoiding. It usually takes very little time to get to a point where the conversation just doesn't continue; I'm not trying to end it, it just sort of runs out of steam before it gets anywhere interesting. The disconnect might be that I don't seem to get any kind of mental/emot…

Oh, you just have to bust through that. Say something else. Ask a question about a different part of their life.

Re: Let's talk openly about depression

#64

Checkout this site: http://devpressed.com/ And this excellent talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFIa-Mc2KSk

Once again I have checked devpressed: HTTP 502. First thought was "oh, HN effect". But... This was not a story on the front page, rather a comment (although was at the top for some time), yet we managed to DDoS them. This raises an eyebrow or two for me: maybe the percentage of people suffering from any degree of these disorders may be way higher than we thought?

Re: Let's talk openly about depression

#65

Checkout this site: http://devpressed.com/ And this excellent talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFIa-Mc2KSk

Once again I have checked devpressed: HTTP 502. First thought was "oh, HN effect". But... This was not a story on the front page, rather a comment (although was at the top for some time), yet we managed to DDoS them. This raises an eyebrow or two for me: maybe the percentage of people suffering from any degree of these disorders may be way higher than we thought?

Devpressed owner here. This is on me. While investigating the emails that weren't going through, realized that Discourse was in need of an upgrade. Managed to bork my Discourse + Docker + Digital Ocean setup in that process. Hope to get this fixed today (if you have devops chops and would like to assist, hit me up.)

That said, based on talking about this stuff over the last few years, the percentage of people suffering from any degree of these disorders is certainly way higher than I ever thought.

Re: Let's talk openly about depression

#66

Checkout this site: http://devpressed.com/ And this excellent talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFIa-Mc2KSk

Once again I have checked devpressed: HTTP 502. First thought was "oh, HN effect". But... This was not a story on the front page, rather a comment (although was at the top for some time), yet we managed to DDoS them. This raises an eyebrow or two for me: maybe the percentage of people suffering from any degree of these disorders may be way higher than we thought?

Well, also the hits you get from a comment link should not be as many as hits listed on the front page.

Re: Let's talk openly about depression

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got really excited by this devpressed site. I have Asperger's. Plus PTSD from various stuff that happened as a result of that. So the idea of a safe place to share my strengths (and weaknesses) and try to find a job that doesn't stress me out was really exciteding. So I fired up Tor[2] and tried to register. Then the confirmation email never name. I tried resending. Set a timer. Wait 15 minutes. Try not to persever…

The same thing happened to me with the confirmation e-mail. It seems they have a problem with the registration.

Yeah, 2 weeks and no response. Well, it was worth a shot :/
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