Comment by wu-ikkyu | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wu-ikkyu | Hacker News Reader

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I remember my worst bout with depression, it was a downward spiral.

Work and school had me indoors 60+ hours a week, so lots of stress and no Vitamin D.

I had little to no time for cooking, so I ate junk processed fast food for most meals.

All of these things left me so drained that I stopped exercising and didn't have the energy to go to social events. I stopped hanging out with my best friends.

What little time and energy I had left was spent laying on the couch indoors on my phone obsessing over the news (which of course is overtly negative and divisive) and arguing politics on social media.

Anti-depressant drugs provided marginal relief from a complete breakdown but it wasn't until I started "working to live", getting outdoors, eating healthy, exercising frequently, meditating (when needed), quit watching the news and deleted my social media accounts that my mental health returned.

There are a handful of simple things that human beings require for adequate mental health or "chemical balance", and yet there are massive societal pressures and trillions of dollars being spent sabotaging those basic human needs. Unfortunately it's much easier to pop a pill than to confront such difficulties.

> There are a handful of simple things that human beings require for adequate mental health or "chemical balance", and yet there are massive societal pressures and trillions of dollars being spent sabotaging those basic human needs.

This is the crux of it for me. I know all I really need are the simple things yet the world does its best to stop me from having them, and pollutes my mind with materialism, and meanwhile the prevailing culture is going to shit.

Edit: I promise myself though that one day I'll end up living on that mountain with pure air, nature, peace and quiet, and a bit of solitude :)

> it was a downward spiral.

> Anti-depressant drugs provided marginal relief

> Unfortunately it's much easier to pop a pill than to confront such difficulties

Don't you feel that that final statement is a bit disingenuous considering that for many people (of course can not comment if that was the case for you) medication is the tool that enables them to cut the spiral and start working on their issues.

For many people, they believe that it is the final solution, because that is how it is advertized by the drug companies and psychiatrists, and how it is marketed to many doctors. That is how most end up people treating the drug.

The drugs themselves don't actually offer very much. It is the belief that they're working, the placebo effect, that makes them seem to offer relief. Eventually, many negative side effects will rear their ugly heads... and the cycle goes on. They then switch to a different drug or withdraw completely, suffering the negatives along the way, only worsening their mental health.

It's better to not start using the drugs at all, but instead engage with regular face-to-face social connections and a healthy lifestyle of healthy nutrition, more exercise, meditation, socializing, etc. This way, one does not have to deal with any of the potential negatives of the drugs.

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