Garzik: An Andre To Remember • Hacker News Board

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#71

Post by tectonic » Sun, Jul 29, 2012, 6:39 PM UTC

ditoa wrote: post #66

zdw wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I don't think a non-mentally-ill person could do what he did. Pretty much by definition, he's mentally ill.

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#72

Post by slurgfest » Sun, Jul 29, 2012, 9:12 PM UTC

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 am puzzled at how you know what would have prevented the tragedies.

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#73

Post by vacri » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 2:58 AM UTC

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'…

'Depressed mood' is regularly used in both psychology and medicine. "The patient arrived in a depressed state" does not mean that they have one of the ongoing illesses of Depression.

Medical professionals do not ever call something clinical depression.

I used to work in a neurology lab, and I heard consultant neurologists use the term. I do not agree with 'do not ever'. Unless you're counting medical specialists that take 13 years to train as somehow not being 'professionals'.

Just googling 'clinical depression' comes up with a few links of professionals (like the Mayo Clinic) using the term. The important thing to not is that just because a term might not be in the DSM does not mean that the term is not used or meaningless. Yes, I'll agree, it's not used to refer to one specific disorder, but that doesn't make it meaningless.

You are not depressed, because depression is an illness.

Depression is an illness. It is also a transient state. You're doing the same thing as those people who say "but 'kid' actually means 'baby goat'".

The other problem with "clinical" is that it is widely used by cranks

Fallacy of association: Cars are widely used by criminals, therefore we should not use cars. Would you really correct a co-worker who said 'bob is depressed because his team lost last night' with 'no he's not, because depression is an illness'?

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#74

Post by kylebrown » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 5:49 AM UTC

zackmorris wrote: post #37

This story hits close to home for me. As one of the countless others like me on Hacker News who started out their educations and careers with so much promise, all I feel anymore is this tremendous sense of failure and missed opportunity. These days I think of programming the way I think of working out: intense bursts of focus on creativity for maybe 2-4 hours if I'm lucky, and then hours to days of melancholy because…

Alan Kay's STEPS project is a non-mainstream paradigm you might find inspiring. Saw this pdf recently and it blew my mind, which happens much less often than it used to (like you, I'm becoming more prone to irritability and frustration).

http://www.vpri.org/pdf/tr2011004_steps11.pdf

Re: Garzik: An Andre To Remember

#75

Post by loceng » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 1:35 PM UTC

hobin wrote: post #31

loceng wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have any forms of cognitive behaviour therapy or say innerchild/regression therapy helped or been explored? Have you explored dietary changes? Did you have ear infections as a child (relevant question)?

Yes and yes. Both didn't work, or didn't have enough effect to get me out of the no-motivation cycle. Ergo, SSRIs (which thankfully did work). Yes to the third question, too (as a matter of fact I had a cholesteatoma). Could you tell me how that is relevant?

Sorry for the delay in responding. Hearing can actually be related to depression. http://www.aitinstitute.org/ - the website / therapy is marketed towards children with autism as that is the largest group affected, and the most severely. There's an out-of-print book called "Hearing Equals Behaviour" by the researcher who 45+ years ago discovered a correlation between hearing and behaviour. People are 100% going to be depressed if they have a hearing imbalance at 1,000 Hz; Imbalance is if say in one ear the lowest you can hear is 11 Dbs, and the other ear you can hear at 14 Dbs - that shows an imbalance of 3 Dbs. The sound therapy I listed helps let the mind 'release' and equalize those imbalances. If you have an imbalance at 1,000 Hz then medication won't he, cognitive behaviour therapy won't help. I imagine it's possible to not be "locked into" a depressive state, but set into one temporarily with hearing-related issues early on - I'm unsure it would fruitful to investigate further.