[hackerspaces] [Noisebridge-discuss] Please reach out

[Arclight]

>From my experience, the things that have been suggested are all
useful, but fall into two categories.

Suggestions like getting on a proper diet, sleeping 8 hours per day,
exercising and doing stretching/yoga, stress management, finding
things to occupy your mind and feel fulfilled. These are like the
"trim adjustments," and I liken them to gently tapping things into
alignment with a block of wood.  This is enough for most people, and
it's also what someone with a serious problem should ideally be doing
as well.

However, that isn't always enough. Sometimes, what you really need is
a BIG HAMMER.  Sometimes, a person just "can't get there from here"
and that's where professional help, medication, cognitive behavior
therapy and other tool tools are the only thing that (if they're
lucky) can do the job.

It's also important to take care of yourself if you're trying to be
there for someone going through serious, clinical depression. That
situation quite literally feels like all the light is being sucked out
of the room when it's bad, all of your suggestions suck and can't ever
work and you'll feel like a failure.

Remember, this is a serious medical problem, and you can't be expected
to fix it. The best you can do is be supportive, be there  and help
them take the right steps when they can.

Arclight

On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 11:37 PM, Mars brown <itcamefrommars at gmail.com> wrote:
> one more btw... sleep and wake cycles and diet are not an end all "cure" or
> maintenance..
> my housemate is up at 5:30am everyday and asleep by 9 pm - and eats a very
> well planned diet - and she suffers still terribly from anxiety and
> depression.
> just a note - but alot of our "kind" (if you will) burn that midnight oil
> hacking away and such and could really benefit mood wise from some simple
> biological know how.
>
> On Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 1:23 AM, Mars brown <itcamefrommars at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Im glad to see the mention of sleep and sunlight.
>> Remember that we are critters that have evolved for whatever reason to be
>> awake during light hours and sleep during night.
>> Our melatonin/serotonin cycle depends directly on our light sensors for
>> the triggering mechanisms of when to start production of what.
>> Our light sensors being our retinas and our skin (for uv light) btw.
>>
>> How many people here understand/know the absurdly important importance of
>> the serotonin/melatonin cycle stability?
>> We were naturally timed by the sunrise and sunset before the edison/tesla
>> wars.  (light bulb)
>>
>> Seriously... if you are having some serotonin issues... force yourself to
>> sit outside with as much skin exposed and no sunglasses early and often.
>> Go back to bed if you want but you won't reREM unless your cycle is really
>> messed up.
>>
>> If you are vegan/veggie... eat soy so that you can get in some tryptophan
>> in case you are missing it in your diet.
>> Tryptophans are what serotonins are made from.  Not to mention - serotonin
>> is mostly in your belly and volume wise used more in digestion... so it can
>> assist alot of GI issues also to eat good trypto rich food.
>>
>> I'm no expert at all but please read up on serotonin/melotonin cycles...
>> it should be required in all high schools.
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 6:55 PM, Mitch Altman <maltman23 at hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> That comic/blog is amazing!!  Thanks for posting it.
>>>
>>> And thanks, Sean for that great story of yours (I didn't know you were
>>> such a good writer -- please do that more.)
>>>
>>> Mitch.
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: will.sargent at gmail.com
>>> Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:39:03 -0800
>>> Subject: Re: [hackerspaces] [Noisebridge-discuss] Please reach out
>>> To: maltman23 at hotmail.com
>>> CC: discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org; felix.sargent at gmail.com;
>>> noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> > SSRI medication can help with that in part (always in combination with
>>> > the
>>> > above as far as i'm concerned), even though many in the community are
>>> > very
>>> > eager to bash anti-depressants. It can be a life saver!
>>>
>>> Everyone is unique, and so everyone will have various results with
>>> various methods of dealing with depression.  If you're suffering from
>>> depression, and have time to explore, then it's way worth exploring all the
>>> methods that may work for you -- see what works, and do more of it.  If you
>>> are feeling suicidal, or feel that you do not have time to explore on your
>>> own, please know that you can seek help, either from friends or people in
>>> the geek community (if you can force yourself to do so, people *will* help),
>>> or from a professional (most places offer free services, including calling
>>> 911 in the US)
>>>
>>> I'm kind of amazed I didn't post this link sooner:
>>>
>>> http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html
>>> Will.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>
>
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