Stats for nerds
2recommend
3mentions
2people
2017–2022years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Very similar life story and timeline here.
Going from being a very motivated worker to burnt out can be psychologically challenging, and people around you often don’t seem to understand that your burn out can last for longer than a few weeks.
Some other books helping me in my journey are Upward Spiral by Alex Korb and Feeling Great by David Burns
- Here is a lengthy compilation of ideas towards coping with depression that I submitted elsewhere but it unfortunately got flagged as spam by Disqus and so was not published in the original context: https://sbindependent.org/depression-and-anxiety-in-college/
It very much reflects your suggestion that there are many causes of depression and many possible coping and/or healing strategies, so I am posting it here. [It just got a "that comment is too long" error message on hn, so I need to split it up...]
====
Hi Jennifer (and any SB Independent readers struggling with depression for themselves or a loved one),
Here is a collection of advice I've posted elsewhere for other people about overcoming depression and other forms of mental illness (or at least coping better with it). I hope this can help. I wish I had know this all when I was an undergrad at SUNY SB a long time ago. Perhaps it might overlap the readings you said a professor suggested to you.
First, remember, the brain is mostly fat. You need to be eating healthy fats (like walnuts, avocado, omega 3s, etc.) for brain health. But that is just a start on what good nutrition involves to get lots of micronutrients (more veggies, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains as in "you can see the grain"). Be sure you are getting enough vitamin D3 (which is almost impossible for most people without supplements given our indoor lifestyle and other lifestyle factors). And get enough iodine, like from sea vegetables. And also enough high quality B-complex vitamins.
From Dr. Joel Fuhrman: "Depression doesn't have one specific cause; environmental and genetic factors may be at play, as well as psychosocial stressors, however, a major factor causing depression is unhealthy dietary factors. Fast-food and commercial baked goods are linked to depression in a dose dependent manner, and dietary excellence can be the solution for many suffering individuals. A feeling of a depressed mood can also be a symptom of other medical conditions or a side effect from a medication, so to be sure of what is causing your symptoms, you may need to discuss your depression with your doctor."
Search also on "The UltraMind Solution: The Simple Way to Defeat Depression, Overcome Anxiety, and Sharpen Your Mind" by Dr. Mark Hyman, again focusing on nutrition.
Water-only fasting helps in some cases of mental illness too (especially if brain inflammation is caused by some food allergy). The Russians did a lot of research and practice on that.
Obviously, good mood is more complex than just nutrition. Look at Dr. Andrew Weil for a broader perspective.
Or see an essay by Philip Hickey, Ph.D called: "Depression Is Not An Illness: It is an Adaptive Mechanism"; quoting from that:
[And when any one or more of those factors are missing -- it can lead to depression, with the likelihood increasing if multiple factors are missing.]"In order to feel good, the following eight factors must be present in our lives. * good nutrition * fresh air * sunshine (in moderation) * physical activity * purposeful activity with regular experiences of success * good relationships * adequate and regular sleep * ability to avoid destructive social entanglements, while remaining receptive to positive encounters"Also, check out: "The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time Paperback" by Alex Korb PhD.
There are lots more resources like that. There are lots of alternatives to placebo-like mental drugs...
Search also on "Sleep deprivation can effectively treat depression" for another option to consider.
Our society is also all too quick to label a "spiritual crisis" as mental illness (see Wikipedia on that term).
Thanks for your series of essays on these mental health topics. I learned something from them, especially about how depression and anxiety can cycle together, where anxiety becomes the only force that can counter depression as far as getting anything done. That doesn't mean that is a happy or health way to be -- but it is informative to understand that cycle, and in that context of depression, the "benefit" of anxiety.
As with Chester Bennington (who I learned about from the article you posted for someone else on that, leading me to your series -- and then watched his band's "Numb" video and a couple others), sometimes if we dwell on the negative, it does not really get us healthier overall. As in helping create the "Numb" video, Chester built on his strength of music and it at least sustained him for a time and helped him help others and in other ways connect with other people like with the rest of the Linkin Park band. And in that "Numb" video, one might hope for the same for the protagonist as there are certainly a lot of people out there who do appreciate art or can be moved by it or who take joy in creating it together with others.
For my generation, Robin Williams is a bit of the same symbol as Chris Bennington -- although he used humor instead of music to connect to people and to manage pain (but not totally cure it). Like all helpful drugs, music and humor can make a difference in sustaining us as we cope with pain, but we still need to address the underlying issues as best we can. And even if both artists lost that battle with pain in the end, they at least had much longer and better lives from building on those strengths -- and the community around them was much better for their long-term willingness to do what they could with what they had. While most of us may never have that level of comedic or musical talent, or the opportunities to refine that talent by years of practice, "the woods would be pretty quiet if no bird sang there but the best". Someone with even a fraction of their level of talent could make the lives of many people around them a lot better with just a little humor or song added to every-day interactions. You can also use a talent as a volunteer or as a hobbyist sharing with others even if you do something else as a day-job.
[continued in a part 2 reply to this...]
- See my posts above for references to books and articles by Fuhrman, Hyman, Weil, Korb, Hickey, Moore, Bluezones, Howey, and others that support your suggestions as things that can help people in various ways -- quite a few providing evidence linked to scientific studies and thus moving beyond personal anecdotes.
Your point #11 is insightful too, judging by the moderation of several comments in this thread. :-)
That said, often the ongoing "cause" of depression is an interwoven set of issues which may feed on each other in a downward spiral, and getting out of those overlapping feedback loops can be difficult -- even if in hindsight specific causes might be identifiable. So, I can see why someone might object to the phrasing that "there's a clear reason for a depression" even as I tend to agree with the premise overall that causes (e.g. lack of sunlight, lack of sleep, relationship issues, poor nutrition, etc.) can usually be identified and (hopefully) addressed. But when the causes interact, granted, it can be very difficult to try to untangle that knot -- like when money issues prevent eating healthier or when (as an extreme interwoven example) relationship issues undermine sleeping well, which leads to financial issues, which stresses relationships further, leading to binge eating of junk food and sugar spikes and inflammation and headaches, leading to avoiding exercise, causing lowered self-esteem from worse appearance contributing back to relationship issues, and so on for strange knotty loops... The good news is, like Alex Korb (in "The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time") and others point out elsewhere, a positive upward spiral is possible too, as one issue after another gets addressed which frees more energy for dealing with the next issue...
