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Garzik: An Andre To Remember

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Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#61

Post by yaks_hairbrush »

samstave wrote: post #45
noonespecial wrote: post #41

Get outside, enjoy the green grass, the birds in the trees. Talk to people you know. Talk to strangers! Drive to Wisconsin, and find out whatever it is they do there. Build a treehouse. Park on a parkway and drive on a driveway. Make a macaroni necklace. Visit a dairy. Climb a rock. Seek life. This is advice for someone who had a bad day. This is not advice for someone who is depressed! These suggestions assume that…

> Get outside, enjoy the green grass, the birds in the trees. Talk to people you know. Talk to strangers! Drive to Wisconsin, and find out whatever it is they do there. Build a treehouse. Park on a parkway and drive on a driveway. Make a macaroni necklace. Visit a dairy. Climb a rock. Seek life. This is what becoming a parent is like! Have a kid and you'll do a lot more of this stuff!

I am depressed (clinically diagnosed as major depression) and I am a parent... a stay at home dad, owing to my lack of employment (which is the root of my hopelessness). It's awful. I hate it.

Thanks in no small part to the kid, I'm getting more outdoors time, more exercise, better diet, and socialization with the kid's friends. My mood is still inching downward.

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#62

Post by drivingmenuts »

agumonkey wrote: post #40
drivingmenuts wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, depression is something you can't cure. You can fix it for a while, but it always lurks, waiting to come back. In my case, environmental changes ensure that it won't show up again as strong or as fast. I'm pretty sure I don't need medication right now . But that's not to say I'm cured by any means. Just that I'm doing better and finding ways of coping with it.

Could you describe those environmental changes, I've been curious about this for a while.

Got decent furniture, got the roommate to get his own apartment and I am sprucing up the abode in general so that it looks like a person actually lives here, rather than inhabits the space. Using brighter colors that are outside of my usual blacks and browns. This is all very normal stuff for other people, I suppose, but its something I never really thought about. I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings much. As it stands right now, I wouldn't be ashamed to invite people over for an evening, whereas before, I kept my door shut so people didn't see the mess.

I'm making an effort to be more sociable, which is difficult. I'm middle-aged and haven't dated or had a relationship since high school and so I've got some real hurdles to overcome there. That part may be impossible to overcome, but I'm trying it, slowly.

The very affectionate cat I've had for a couple of years helps, too. A pet forces you to focus on something other than your own misery. Plus, it's hard to have a suck day when the cat is standing on your chest, headbutting you in the chin or trying to eat your hand while you type.

This isn't necessarily the answer for everyone. It may only be me. I do know that a year ago I was very miserable, felt worthless and dead inside, and now I don't feel like that anymore.

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#63

Post by bschlinker »

I had the opportunity to meet Andre last summer while interning at Cisco. I had no idea who he was at first, until I looked him up on LinkedIn and "googled" his name.

Towards the end of my internship, I was there until 10 PM some days working on code. Andre would see my cube lights on and come over to talk to me. Considering how I was just working all alone when there that late, I really appreciated the brief talks, as they provided me when an opportunity to think about something other then the problems within my code for a few moments. He would often share a few technical tips or an interesting story with me during our conversations.

Although I didn't work with him much, it's disappointing to hear of his death. It seems like most of the comments in here (on HN) are regarding mental illness -- something which I never observed during the brief period of time that I knew him. Regardless of his reason for taking his life, I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet him and thank him for those brief conversations.

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#64

Post by aaronbrethorst »

zdw wrote: post #54
ditoa wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK it is quite easy (and free obviously, NHS and all that) to get somebody seen by a mental health professional. I have suffered from several mental health problems over the past 3½ years and the only reason I am here today replying to your post is because of the fantastic support provided by the NHS (and my family of course). I feel so sad when I read stories like yours of friends and loved ones who need help…

For the edification of all the people in the USA regarding current events, this kind of a support system is what helps people who are having issues, and would likely have prevented the tragedies that happened in Aurora or Tucson. Not to say that other solutions could contribute to a more whole solution, but fundamentally it's people with problems either becoming a danger to themselves and others. And we have no suppo…

> ...and would likely have prevented the tragedies that happened in Aurora or Tucson.

Or Seattle. Two examples off the top of my head:

The cafe where a well-known Rails meetup happens had a multiple homicide recently. A mentally ill man ended up killing six people total. His family said "we could see this coming." http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/31/seattle-shootings-six-...

A mentally ill man literally axe-murdered another man (who he didn't know) two years ago a half-block away from where I live: http://thesunbreak.com/2010/11/24/mental-illness-drove-capit....

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#65

Post by DanBC »

vacri wrote: post #56
DanBC wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But "clinical" has no meaning. It is not mentioned in DSM or in ICD.

There are hundreds of types of cancer - does the DSM have a general entry called 'cancer'? 'Clinical depression' is a way of specifying something more problematic than simple sadness. When your sports team loses, you get depressed.

No, depression is enough to distinguish from simple sadness, or grief, or other forms of sadness which are not pathological. Depression is already defined as an illness, and not simple sadness. Prefixing nonsense words does nothing to increase understanding of the illness of depression or of the normal forms of sadness that people experience.

Medical professionals do not ever call something clinical depression. They'll use words like reactive or endogenous etc.

The solution to people mis-using the term depression to apply it to things which are not depression is to stop people mis-using that term, not to invent other terms.

> When your sports team loses, you get depressed.

No, you are sad, fed-up, gutted, sick as a parrot, annoyed, frustrated, mournful, etc. You are not depressed, because depression is an illness.

The other problem with "clinical" is that it is widely used by cranks - see for example "clinical nutritionist".

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#66

Post by ditoa »

zdw wrote: post #54
ditoa wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK it is quite easy (and free obviously, NHS and all that) to get somebody seen by a mental health professional. I have suffered from several mental health problems over the past 3½ years and the only reason I am here today replying to your post is because of the fantastic support provided by the NHS (and my family of course). I feel so sad when I read stories like yours of friends and loved ones who need help…

For the edification of all the people in the USA regarding current events, this kind of a support system is what helps people who are having issues, and would likely have prevented the tragedies that happened in Aurora or Tucson. Not to say that other solutions could contribute to a more whole solution, but fundamentally it's people with problems either becoming a danger to themselves and others. And we have no suppo…

I wonder how much people spend on firmarms, learning how to use them, ammunition, guns safes, etc. ?

I saw a news report that the number of people applying for a gun license in Aurora after the shootings at the cinema went up quite a bit.

To me, as a non-American, that is quite scary. A guy kills and injures a lot of people and the reaction of the public is not "how could we have prevented this?" but "I need a gun so when this happens again I can kill the guy before he kills as many people!"

Scary and quite sad :(

I do not know if James Holmes is suffering from mental health issues and if they are the cause of his violent attack on the people of Aurora however I would suspect mental health problems are involved somewhere and perhaps this tragedy could have been averted had he had the proper help.

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#67

Post by noonespecial »

mistermann wrote: post #44
noonespecial wrote: post #41

Get outside, enjoy the green grass, the birds in the trees. Talk to people you know. Talk to strangers! Drive to Wisconsin, and find out whatever it is they do there. Build a treehouse. Park on a parkway and drive on a driveway. Make a macaroni necklace. Visit a dairy. Climb a rock. Seek life. This is advice for someone who had a bad day. This is not advice for someone who is depressed! These suggestions assume that…

You sound like someone personally familiar with depression? If so, may I ask a question? I imagine it is true that people who are depressed may have a mental blockade to self-diagnose and independently coming to the conclusion that they may be suffering from depression. But is it also true that people who are depressed may also (always, sometimes) be resistant to the suggestion from others that they may be suffering…

Depression makes people, ok made me entirely too passive to hear anything. Do rocks have mental blocks against seeing that they are rocks? It took an actual physical intervention involving my parents, friends and one of my professors to reach me. I wish there was something easier to tell you.

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#68

Post by mitsche »

DanBC wrote: post #65
vacri wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are hundreds of types of cancer - does the DSM have a general entry called 'cancer'? 'Clinical depression' is a way of specifying something more problematic than simple sadness. When your sports team loses, you get depressed.

No, depression is enough to distinguish from simple sadness, or grief, or other forms of sadness which are not pathological. Depression is already defined as an illness, and not simple sadness. Prefixing nonsense words does nothing to increase understanding of the illness of depression or of the normal forms of sadness that people experience. Medical professionals do not ever call something clinical depression. They'…

Let it go man. The distinction makes sense for a lot of people and you're just being a stickler and a contrarian at this point.

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#69

Post by nl »

yaks_hairbrush wrote: post #61
samstave wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Get outside, enjoy the green grass, the birds in the trees. Talk to people you know. Talk to strangers! Drive to Wisconsin, and find out whatever it is they do there. Build a treehouse. Park on a parkway and drive on a driveway. Make a macaroni necklace. Visit a dairy. Climb a rock. Seek life. This is what becoming a parent is like! Have a kid and you'll do a lot more of this stuff!

I am depressed (clinically diagnosed as major depression) and I am a parent... a stay at home dad, owing to my lack of employment (which is the root of my hopelessness). It's awful. I hate it. Thanks in no small part to the kid, I'm getting more outdoors time, more exercise, better diet, and socialization with the kid's friends. My mood is still inching downward.

My mood is still inching downward

This, too shall pass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#70

Post by nl »

mistermann wrote: post #44
noonespecial wrote: post #41

Get outside, enjoy the green grass, the birds in the trees. Talk to people you know. Talk to strangers! Drive to Wisconsin, and find out whatever it is they do there. Build a treehouse. Park on a parkway and drive on a driveway. Make a macaroni necklace. Visit a dairy. Climb a rock. Seek life. This is advice for someone who had a bad day. This is not advice for someone who is depressed! These suggestions assume that…

You sound like someone personally familiar with depression? If so, may I ask a question? I imagine it is true that people who are depressed may have a mental blockade to self-diagnose and independently coming to the conclusion that they may be suffering from depression. But is it also true that people who are depressed may also (always, sometimes) be resistant to the suggestion from others that they may be suffering…

Many depressed people realize they are depressed, and lack the will or energy to do anything about it.

Some clinical trials have shown St. John's Wort is effective for relieving mild depression - and you don't need a prescription to get it.

Get some, then literally beg the person to take some while you have some too.

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