Detecting Depression From How (Not What) You Browse 163
New submitter FreedomFirstThenPeac writes "Apparently we can diagnose you as depressed if the mechanics of your internet use fit certain patterns. By using a cleverly embedded questionnaire that classifies the subject as depressed, and by using existing net usage data collection to collect features (variables), researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology were able to correctly predict the diagnoses of the questionnaire using the net usage data (PDF). I wonder if this could be a new Firefox plug-in, designed to help parents detect depression in their adolescents by tracking the mechanics (not the sites) and automatically emailing them if their ward is showing increasing signs of depression."
Re:Another idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is that those suffering from depression may do a lot, even subconsciously, to cover some of the obvious signs of depression from those closest to them. Add on to the fact that most people don't know enough about the signs of depression and it can be hard at times to easily recognize them.
Secondly, I'm ready to dismiss you and your idea without further discussion just for the fact that your skills in reading comprehension are severely lacking to the point that the basic premise of the article has completely escaped you. This has nothing to do with WHAT you're browsing, there is no checking a browser history, this was simply about HOW you use the internet could help determine the possibility of being depressed. Even if it isn't practical for parents to use, it's still an interesting idea nonetheless.
Re:Another idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
No not subconsciously, we hide those signs on purpose. People don't want to be around others that are depressed because frankly it's depressing and we know it. If we let our symptoms show everyone will ignore us (which we feel they already do anyway) and we'll be even more alone and more depressed. People also aren't understanding and are quite rude: "Yeah I dropped my ice cream once and was really sad, then I decided to be awesome instead. Stop being depressed and be awesome!" To someone who's actually depressed and not simply sad, that statement is simply a huge FUCK YOU YOU LAZY ASSHOLE and reinforces the belief that we suck and should die because we can't get better and never will. So why struggle through life at all?
We also don't want people bugging us: "Are you feeling better now?", "Isn't this [current activity] fun?", "You should smile more", etc... "What is your favorite [anything]" or "What do you enjoy doing?" are also horrible questions. I don't enjoy doing anything as I feel like a worthless piece of shit and can't feel happy thus nothing is fun. How am I supposed to come up with a favorite anything when everything is a chore?
Some of us don't want to drag down those closest to them (assuming there is anyone still close after we've slowly pushed everyone else away by being a buzz kill and a downer). I don't want my parents thinking they've screwed up and it's their fault I'm depressed, but I also don't want them bugging me about it or worry about me. I'd feel even worse for making them worry.
If you want to know more about what it feels like to be depressed, checkout this web comic (especially #69 "How Are you?"). Someone at /. referred me to it: http://depressioncomix.tumblr.com/ It's very good.
P.S. I told someone I was depressed last week. She didn't believe me and said she couldn't tell if I was joking because I'm very hard to read. I'm hard to read because my emotions are gone. There's nothing to read. In the past she's even said multiple times that I should smile more. Aren't those two things clues? I'm in college and many people tell me I'm hard to read and should smile more. Some advice: If you find someone who never smiles and is hard to read, you're probably trying too hard to read them.
I was going to start taking antidepressants in the fall, but I made the mistake of starting to read Anatomy of an Epidemic. Now I don't know how to get my life back together. I've been depressed since I hit the double digits; about 1.5 decades ago :'(
Re:Another idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
I was going to start taking antidepressants in the fall, but I made the mistake of starting to read Anatomy of an Epidemic. Now I don't know how to get my life back together. I've been depressed since I hit the double digits; about 1.5 decades ago :'(
People are very vocal about horror stories, but success stories don't get as much attention. I started taking antidepressants (Prozac and Wellbutrin) last year after about five years of depression, and have been feeling much better since then with minimal side effects. There are lots of different drugs, so if you have trouble with side effects from one you can try switching to another. You should also find a good therapist whether you take medication or not. If you have a primary care physician, they can also provide information and advice, and might be able to prescribe antidepressants if you can't find or afford a psychiatrist that you like/trust enough.
Please don't condemn yourself to another 15 years of depression because of a pop science book. I can almost guarantee you that staying mentally ill will be worse for your body than any hypothetical consequences from taking antidepressants.
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I took Wellbutrin back in 2000 because my insurance company would cover that, but not Zyban. After about a week, I was ready to crawl out of my skin. I thought people were plotting against me and were coming to get me. That experience has biased me against antidepressants.
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I took Wellbutrin back in 2000 because my insurance company would cover that, but not Zyban. After about a week, I was ready to crawl out of my skin. I thought people were plotting against me and were coming to get me. That experience has biased me against antidepressants.
Ouch! Wellbutrin made me a little anxious for a few months, but nothing that bad. Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. You (and others reading this) should know that Wellbutrin (bupropion) is kind of a weird antidepressant. It work
Re:Another idea. (Score:4, Insightful)
If I had mod points, this post would be getting them.
This dude is absolutely right. It's absolutely worth it to muster up all the will power and motivation you have to seeing a doctor and working with them to find medication that works for you without giving you more problems than you started off with. Once I willed myself into actually getting some help my doctor and I managed to quite quickly find a drug and dosage that actually worked for me. I wouldn't say I was depression free, but I found it much easier to deal with. The only side effects I got were a decrease in libido (and as I haven't gotten any in some years, it was actually kinda welcome) and some really vivid dreams, which were actually kinda cool.
There are lots of different drugs, so if you have trouble with side effects from one you can try switching to another.
Here's where it gets shitty. The trial and error period makes it easy to give in to despair and quit entirely. You've got to steel yourself and push through it. I'm in the shitty situation at the moment where the medication I've been taking has stopped working. We've tried an increased dose, but alas, no improvement. It's been a while since I've seen my doctor (I want to see my doctor, not some arsehole who doesn't know me...) and I've sunk back into a fairly dark place. I've lost a lot of my support base recently and I just feel like I'm never going to not feel like shit. It's going to take some serious effort on my part to push through this test phase again.
You should also find a good therapist whether you take medication or not. If you have a primary care physician, they can also provide information and advice, and might be able to prescribe antidepressants if you can't find or afford a psychiatrist that you like/trust enough.
Therapy works wonders for some, but god dammit, it's even more taxing on your mental state to find one that actually works for you. You spend a session bringing up all your anguish and painful memories, the tell you nothing of value or just ask how it makes you feel (I have depression, it makes me feel like a sack of shit) and then your time is up and they send you away with all that shit you brought up running circles in your mind and nothing to comfort you. It can be the most crushing and demoralising thing.
That probably doesn't make you want to go see a therapist. It's not my intention to scare you out of it, but more to warn you so you can take steps to mitigate the effects of a bad therapy session. Try to catch up with friends you enjoy being with some time after the session. Not immediately after, but a few hours after. Go do something you enjoy. Go to your favorite bakery. Anything. Try to find something to look forward to after the session. If the session goes well, fucking awesome! You can celebrate with some kick-ass cake. If it doesn't, well at least there's still kick-ass cake.
If you have a bad session, take some time before you try another therapist and try to lose any jaded and cynical feelings you may have towards them.
Please don't condemn yourself to another 15 years of depression because of a pop science book. I can almost guarantee you that staying mentally ill will be worse for your body than any hypothetical consequences from taking antidepressants.
I hope my post hasn't scared you out of seeking help. It's absolutely worth it to give these things a shot. But I also think it's worth knowing that it isn't always easy, and when things don't go right they can just make you feel so much worse, but also that you can do things to lessen the extent to which it can do so. I kind of want to delete this entire thing because, well, maybe I'm hurting, not helping, and frankly who would want to read anything I have to say? But maybe that's my depression getting the better of me... fuck it. This can be my victory for today.
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This dude is absolutely right. It's absolutely worth it to muster up all the will power and motivation you have to seeing a doctor and working with them to find medication that works for you without giving you more problems than you started off with.
Assuming the doctor is able to do that, and willing to expend the time and effort. You could also get a medication that makes you worse. You could end up with a diagnosis which is a social stigma, and makes it harder for you to find work or deal with the authorities. You may get a diagnosis or treatment without knowing it, because the doctor either forgets or doesn't think it's important to tell you when he changes either of them. Once you seek mental health care, people around you tend to treat you as less
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It's my responsibility to monitor what my doctor is doing. I ask questions. Lots of questions. If he can't answer them then it doesn't happen. If he wants to try something different I ask for the reasons, the potential impact, and what studies have caused him to consider this as a viable treatment for me. Again, lack of solid answers means I don't accept it. It's my choice. And if the doctor takes offense or gets condescending I'll get a new doctor. I demand respect and give it in return.
Getting solid answers doesn't always help, since even a clear and unambiguous answer may be flat-out wrong. For example, the doctor may not know about the last few decades of research, but believes he knows everything there is to know, or doesn't want to appear uncertain in front of the patient. I've even had a doctor flat-out lie to play down the side effects of a medication. How do I know he lied on purpose? Well, I repeatedly questioned what he said, and he repeatedly insisted that's what medical science
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You could end up with a diagnosis which is a social stigma, and makes it harder for you to find work or deal with the authorities.
All the more reason to be treated. And someone with severe clinical depression is usually unable to work, period.
You may get a diagnosis or treatment without knowing it, because the doctor either forgets or doesn't think it's important to tell you when he changes either of them.
I don't think that's legal. It's at least malpractice.
Seeking treatment for mental health issues consti
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I know enough to know that only a small minority of patients are a danger to others. Most tend to withdraw from society and keep to themselves. In particular, depressed patients rarely act out; they just become passive, and even taking their own life tends to require a huge effort for them. The average ex-convict is much more likely to commit acts of violence than the average mentally ill person.
Medical information tends to leak out to your family when they wonder where you're going or what the pills you're
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I know enough to know that only a small minority of patients are a danger to others.
That is true, and also, if one of the few who are dangerous is getting treatment, the doctor will know most of the time. Mentally ill people are far more likely to commit suicide than murder.
In particular, depressed patients rarely act out; they just become passive, and even taking their own life tends to require a huge effort for them.
A;so true, and is the reason some patients commit suicide shortly after starting SSRIs --
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* I would encourage everyone to NOT take SSRIs EVER unless they've already attempted or contemplated suicide. The only time in my life I ever thought about killing myself was when the doctor took me off the drug just as I was moving out of my foreclosed home. That is some seriously powerful stuff.
People react very differently to SSRIs, though. For some, they hardly make any difference at all. For me, getting off SSRIs makes me easily irritated, not suicidal.
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True. Also, people react to different SSRIs differently. Prozac may work fine for person A but not person B, while Paxil may work for B but not A.
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I'm in the shitty situation at the moment where the medication I've been taking has stopped working. We've tried an increased dose, but alas, no improvement.
This is a pretty well-known phenomenon, it's known by psychiatrists as the "Prozac poop-out". After a while, the antidepressant just stops working. It seems to be particularly common among bipolar patients, to the point that some psychiatrists actually consider it a sign that you're dealing with bipolar, rather than classic depression http://www.psycheducation.org/depression/02_diagnosis.html [psycheducation.org]. And if the doctor you're seeing doesn't know about this, you should seriously consider a different doctor.
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I've taken antidepressants, with limited success. They made me drowsy, which helped me sleep better, but apart from that, they only changed my mood in a superficial way. They didn't help me handle daily life any better. When my sleep was better, taking them was not worth the side effects.
Modern anti-depressants (SSRI) only help some people. The're widely used because the side effects are relatively mild, not because the success rate is very high.
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I can almost guarantee you that staying mentally ill will be worse for your body than any hypothetical consequences from taking antidepressants.
The issues with antidepressants aren't just hypothetical. The FDA found reports of suicide associated with antidepressant use serious enough to include a "black box" warning to the effect that antidepressants can cause an increase in suicidal thinking. That's not a minor issue, that the drug you're taking to make yourself feel better might actually make you suicidal. Another issue- when given to people with bipolar disorder, antidepressants can actually cause mania, and some researchers believe this can cau
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The issues with antidepressants aren't just hypothetical. The FDA found reports of suicide associated with antidepressant use serious enough to include a "black box" warning to the effect that antidepressants can cause an increase in suicidal thinking.
I was talking about the book he mentioned (Anatomy of an Epidemic). Note that the black box warning only applies to people under 24 years of age. [fda.gov]
Another issue- when given to people with bipolar disorder, antidepressants can actually cause mania, and some researchers believe this can cause the disorder to actually get worse over time ... Another issue is that antidepressants can cause what they call discontinuation syndrome- that is, withdrawal effects.
To add to this, if you go on medication it is very important to follow up with your psychiatrist regularly. In particular, do not abruptly stop taking your meds. Call your doctor first. This applies to any prescription drug, not just antidepressants.
I'm not saying you should never take antidepressants, but these are very powerful chemicals we're talking about, so you really need to be careful. That means be sure you're working with a good psychiatrist, not your primary care physician, who simply does not have the know-how to diagnose and treat serious mental illnesses. That means doing a lot of reading as well- educate yourself about what you're up against and what the treatments are.
I agree with this 100%. You are responsible for your own health. Only you can decide what risks and side effects are
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People are very vocal about horror stories, but success stories don't get as much attention.
Both are anecdotes, and not data. Therefore neither deserves attention.
Please don't condemn yourself to another 15 years of depression because of a pop science book.
Unfortunately, it's not pop-sci, but real peer reviewed science that shows that SSRIs are no better than placebo [plosmedicine.org] for patients with mild to severe depression, and barely significant effects on severe patients.
SSRIs are garbage pushed on desperate people b
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I know a woman with a similar story (Amy, for those of you who read my JEs). She had a horrible childhood, married a man who beat her so severely he went to prison for it and she had to have reconstructive surgey, then the next guy she hooked up with committed suicide. She self-medicated with alcohol and became a hopeless alcoholic, and was homeless most of the time.
She finally got help. She's on Paxil now, attending AA daily, and is in transitional housing. She's doing well.
Previously when she tried to get
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Some things can be hidden, but others should be obvious to anyone educated. The symptoms are so obvious that a psychologist could probably diagnose you by speaking with you for 5 minutes.
Some symptoms that are hard to hide:
* Sudden weight changes, especially undereating--unless you have a dog to hide the excess food on your plate, this should be obvious to any parent
* Changes in sleep patterns, especially waking often in the middle of the night--kids sleep a lot, but not in the middle of the day or for 12 h
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not sure, seeing as you're posting as an AC, if you'll ever see this. I spent a large portion of my late teens and early twenties slowly cycling through periods of depression and happiness. it was somewhat seasonal, with winters being especially hard, and a burst of energy happening in the spring, but for the most part, the low times hit when they wanted. It drove me nuts, left me feeling worthless, and no matter how hard i felt i was trying, it felt like I couldn't do enough. I'd spend hours channe
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I do watch for responses to my posts (not that anyone can tell it's the same AC).
I used to waste tons of time watching TV and playing video games. Eventually the games were no longer fun and I started feeling bad when playing them as I knew there were more important things that needed to get done. As for TV, I ended up watching everything I wanted to watch. Every sifi show (STs, A, FS, SGs, B5, etc...) except BG, all the old shows I watched as a kid, and tons of movies. I watch much less movies now, but
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Thanks for the link, I just read all the depressioncomix stuff - it's brilliant. Spot on. I'd recommend it to people who've never been depressed as a way of gaining some understanding of depression. Or least the understanding that it's not the same thing as being "sad", and it's not something that the depressed person is capable of overcoming on their own. I don't agree with the artist's depiction of people who are trying to help "just not understanding" - yeah, maybe they don't understand, but much as you
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About a decade ago, I think I had undiagnosed chronic depression. It's very difficult to deal with by yourself, especially when you don't want to drag people down with you. Self-induced exclusion just leads to feeling worse, but the silver lining is that you aren't ruining anyone else's mood. There's a certain agonizing safety to being alone.
I'm mostly better now. I attribute that almost entirely to being in a stable relationship. My desperation to feel like someone cared about me was matched only by m
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OK, dismiss the AC above for not reading the article carefully.
I did. I get that it's about browsing patterns and style, not browser history.
Now how about you explain to me why a parent who needs a computer to tell them that their child is suffering from depression, is doing a good job of staying involved with their child's emotional condition? Hiding depression from strangers and casual acquaintances and even classmates/coworkers is easy. I know. Hiding it from someone who has known you your entire lif
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The problem is that those suffering from depression may do a lot, even subconsciously, to cover some of the obvious signs of depression from those closest to them. Add on to the fact that most people don't know enough about the signs of depression and it can be hard at times to easily recognize them.
So the Internet usage statistics might not work if the subject is aware they're being watched. They'd either fake their usage patterns, or go somewhere where they're not being watched, like the school or a public library.
And even if it worked, I think it's a spectacularly bad idea, because the invasion of privacy hurts the trust between parent and child.
This is all the summary needed to include (Score:5, Insightful)
It turns out that very specific patterns of internet use are reliably related to depressive tendencies. For example, peer-to-peer file sharing, heavy emailing and chatting online, and a tendency to quickly switch between multiple websites and other online resources all predict a greater propensity to experience symptoms of depression. Although the exact reasons that these behaviors predict depression is unknown, each behavior corresponds with previous research on depression. Quickly switching between websites may reflect anhedonia (a decreased ability to experience emotions), as people desperately seek for emotional stimulation. Similarly, excessive emailing and chatting may signify a relative lack of strong face-to-face relationships, as people strive to maintain contact either with faraway friends or new people met online.
Sounds like it's easy to dismiss on first glance. How do you define heavy emailing? Heavy emailing could be a symptom of a job that demands good communication skills -- which would you lead you to believe that the person is not depressed and functioning normally.
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Which is why I assume it wasn't the ONLY indication mentioned.
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Sounds like it's easy to dismiss on first glance. How do you define heavy emailing?
That which is beyond a threshold deviation from the mean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics
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I think its more that "heavy" chatting and emailing correlates to having less such contact IRL (people with face-to-face relationships don't spend as much time maintaining online ones), and that having few IRL relationships correlates to depression.
It's not "having online friends makes you sad" its "having no IRL friends makes you sad". Measuring the degree of communication with online friends is just a simple heuristic for determining if someone has many face-to-face friends.
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Re:This is all the summary needed to include (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, the study seems to ignore cultural differences between children from different parts of the world. A good plugin would take that into account when emailing recommendations to parents:
USA: "Your 6 year old has been emailing santaclaus@northpole.com heavily and therefore seems depressed. Hide your guns and ammo immediately!"
South Korea: "Your child used an online chatroom for a total of 23 minutes last week. Perhaps 16 hours of studying per day is not enough."
Saudi Arabia: "Your daughter has accessed the Internet! Kill the whore now before she dishonors your family."
etc...
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I smell big industry trying to paint media piracy as a mental illness.
This.
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So the next time the RIAA sues you, you'll have the defence of not being liable because that's just a symptom of your depression, and there's nothing you can do about it? :-)
The New Eugenics (Score:2)
As with the article 2 weeks ago where they want to classify people as psychopaths by their Tweets [slashdot.org], lets recognize this for what it is. Eugenics disguised as science. This is a way to accomplish a few things in one whack.
1. Justify monitoring and censoring
2. Classify anyone that fits a certain pattern which someone in an establishment deems "dangerous".
I'm not by any means a psychologist or psychiatrist, but at the same time I have enough understanding of the human mind from the classes I did take in coll
Wow, what a remarkably BAD idea (Score:1, Troll)
Anymore, everyone's child is a special snow flake who's failures aren't his or her fault, but rather society's and their own designer mental illness ( ADD, ADHD, autism ).
That's just what we need; to arm these arm chair shrinks with more reasons why their special little one is fucked up, and get them amped up on the latest "Make Normal" drug.
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Anymore, everyone's child is a special snow flake who's failures aren't his or her fault, but rather society's and their own designer mental illness ( ADD, ADHD, autism ).
That's just what we need; to arm these arm chair shrinks with more reasons why their special little one is fucked up, and get them amped up on the latest "Make Normal" drug.
But if you tell parents "Ma'am, you kid's just a fuck up, and it's probably your fault." then won't give you money.
And they won't buy your self-help book ...
Re:Wow, what a remarkably BAD idea (Score:5, Informative)
Depression is real. There are chemical and electrical changes in the brain.
People like you are why I am still so fucked up. My parents thought like you. When I was a kid I went to a doctor for bronchitis and he told my father that he thought I was depressed. The response was to be yelled at and threatened to be kicked out of the house, which eventually happened. Before I was kicked out my 'treatment' was to talk with a 'life coach' friend of his about my attitude. A psychologist or therapist was never considered because that was pseudoscience to him.
Fast forward 15 years and I was diagnosed with depression, BPD, BDD, and social phobia. This is shit that could have been treated more effectively when I was young. It is shit that the longer you have it the harder it is to change your course. It is also shit that would have been covered under my parent's insurance plans.
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Re:Wow, what a remarkably BAD idea (Score:5, Interesting)
I still wonder if medicine has the cause-and-effect mixed up a bit. The chemicals in the brain can be reactive, and higher levels of any of them could be a symptom of something else. The brain manufactures its own serotonin, so any increase or decrease must also have a cause. These chemical levels should not be viewed in isolation.
Based on my own experience, I tend to think that the changes had a psychological cause, and so one should attempt a psychological treatment as a first option.
Obviously every case is different, so I'm not saying drugs aren't necessary for some. But treating the chemical imbalance as if it is the cause just seems wrong to me. It doesn't answer the question of where these chemicals come from (the brain makes them) and why (something causes the brain to make more).
A normal, healthy brain regulates its own chemicals and neurons etc.
A depressed brain tends to have a negative feedback loop where something triggers a drop in serotonin (or other chemicals) and that in turn makes you "sad", which then results in a further drop in seroronin, and so on. When you are actually depressed, the initial cause is probably long gone, and sometimes it may need external help to re-stabilise everything (although I never got that far along, I always seemed to restabilise naturally after a few weeks. the exhaustion tended to allow my body/brain to recover). I'm not an expert in it so I can only go by my experience.
Eventually you start to become aware of some of the "triggers" that set you off, and once you recognise them, you can start to work around them. Your brain forms pathways, and it is just like tracks in soft dirt I suppose (not literally). The more times you take that path, the deeper the rut becomes, making it harder to take a different path next time. But you can use this same principle to your advantage. When you sense that you are heading down the wrong pathway, try focussing on positive, self-reassuring things, and see if you can focus on your good qualities and things you are proud of yourself for. You may have heard people talk about re-wiring your brain - that is effectively what this positive thinking can do. You form new neural pathways by the way you think, but naturally your brain forms habits and if you have pathways leading to depression it will default to those pathways. It is not an easy task trying to change this, and you should not expect it to be easy.
I live by the motto that nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy.
For me it was positive self-talk, and regular contact with friends that really helped. It isn't a miracle cure, but once you find something that makes you feel good about yourself, keep working on it. Celebrate your wins, and ignore/forget your losses. By this I mean, make it a big deal if you experience something positive, but don't beat yourself up if you fail. I also tackled some tasks that I had previously thought I could never do (public speaking, making new friends, etc) and I was able to focus on my successes and use those as a strength to look back on and be proud of myself. From there I found that when I came across difficulty and found myself sinking, I could turn the situation around by thinking positive (eg. 'I can do it, I've done it before, I'm stronger than this, I know I can win' etc).
The goal is to truly believe in yourself, and not require external feedback in order to feel good about yourself. It is difficult, and you may never master it, but remember that every win is one less loss, and a part of a better life.
It's good to know the science behind it, but I don't think medical science can find all the answers without acknowledging the role of psychologists and counsellors.
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Aha, that description helped my understanding greatly. Thanks for that.
As you have probably guessed, my understanding is really just a layperson's understanding, but since I suffered from depression from about the age of 14 through to at least 27 I have always been deeply interested in finding out why/how it occurs. For me the solution was through counselling, but I accept that many are not so fortunate. Your explanation has given me an insight into why that is.
I still think counselling / psychology should
Re:Wow, what a remarkably BAD idea (Score:5, Insightful)
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You have to remember to beat them too.
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Yep, telling your kid that they're failures has always been a great way to turn them into educated, stable, confident adults.
Ttelling them they are smart and winners is at least as bad. The best current advice seems to be to tell them that failing is part of the process of succeeding and is nothing to be ashamed of. [nytimes.com]
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That article is absolute garbage. Seriously bad. It's easier to let a young child stumble than a teenager go to the mall? Really!?!? An infant taking a slight fall can break their neck, and have no concept how of a big fall (from a great height) differs from a stumble. If you haven't taught your teenager how to be safe in a shopping center by the time they're old enough to go you're a moron who's doomed to fail!
How does it work for toilet training? Pretend it's no big deal and watch them make no forward pro
Oh great, now science is telling me... (Score:3)
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Why email her when she's just a flight of stairs away?
Re:Oh great, now science is telling me... (Score:4, Informative)
Also (Score:5, Funny)
I've noticed a correlation between getting depressed and reading dupes [slashdot.org].
--
I don't usually reply to gweihir (88907) either. So there.
That's All Fine And Dandy.... (Score:5, Interesting)
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When I started reading your post,
I would prefer to see someone research radical changing of desktop configurations possibly indicating brain aneurysms.
I though you were going to talk about Steve Ballmer and the Windows 8 Metro user interface.
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Hey, it's still relevant. Keep following the news on Ballmer and Shuttleworth.
predicting being a teenager ? (Score:1)
Employers (Score:2)
The potential of these studies is always framed in terms of identifying victims of depression so that they can be helped, but the truth (in the U.S. anyway) is that this will be turned into a screening method for employment, insurance, and law enforcement purposes.
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Damn right. A lot of the big-name dating sites already try to filter out depressed men and employers would LOVE to be able to filter out potential employees with undiagnosed depression (yay capitalism!)
I dunno.... (Score:1)
Correlating large volume of e-mail with depression (Score:1)
I know what the correlation is.
If you are on the administrative mailing list that receives all mail delivered to root (and other automatons) from all your servers; you will also develop depression. Especially after a weekend of Servers Gone Wild.
Learned Optimism (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-Mind/dp/1400078393/ [amazon.com]
He has a talk on Ted:
http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology.html [ted.com]
And a website with some questionnaires:
http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx [upenn.edu]
To use Chris Farley, who unfortunately committed suicide due to depression, as an example I provide three typical phrases that he would use in his work:
Personal: I suck!
Pervasive: Everything sucks!
Permanent: It will always suck!
Please note that motivational speakers are typically all optimists and people who are unmotivated go to them for a "motivational fix" which lasts for about two weeks without optimism to back it. See also the typical person who starts a diet, exercise regimen or other self improvement plan.
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I agree.
The right attitude will be the cure for many, but how to get into that frame of mind will be different for everyone.
For me it was all about celebrating my wins and forgetting my losses. Self-belief needs reasons to believe, and you sometimes have to take a chance and try new things before you find out your strengths. Once you find the things you're good at, those are the reasons to believe in yourself. Make this a positive-feedback loop, the opposite to depression.
The moment will come when you look
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Once you find the things you're good at, those are the reasons to believe in yourself.
The problem is when the things you're good at aren't valued by anyone. I can read a lab protocol, understand why it works, and implement it successfully. I can do this even better than my post-doctorate collegues.
But this isn't a worthwhile skill in this world. I would have been better off if I learned how to be a convincing liar. How is this supposed to be not-depressing?
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I seriously just had this discussion 5 minutes before I read your post.
Being good at something is just a pleasant bonus to have along side learning how to sell yourself, your image, and your skills. It is a sad truth of life, and always will be.
I beat myself up because despite this apparentness, I continue to hold such things in disdain, and utterly suffer for it. I call them all stupid, but they are laughing all the way to the bank.
I think I read one too many of those depressing comics back to back.
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Hmm, perhaps I wasn't clear enough.
Whatever works, the goal is self-belief. When I mentioned "things you're good at", I suppose that needs some qualification. I guess I was implying "things that you're good at, that are of value to others". This is linked to friendship too, which all ties in with self-esteem. We convince ourselves that if others don't see value in us, then there mustn't be any. It may not be possible to completely get past this, but we must at least in measure be able to believe in ourselve
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experiments which showed that 'normal' people have a tendency to overestimate the degree to which they can control the world around them. People who have learned to cope with depression, on the other hand, show a greater tendency to realistically assess their circumstance and the degree to which they are in control
In other words, the depressed among us are the realists. The rest of you happy people are the crazy ones.
What if depression is a normal response to a broken society and we're just trying to force
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The most consistent cure for chronic depression is chronic self-delusion. Everybody knows it but nobody wants to talk about it because that would burst the bubble and make everybody depressed.
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This is now the seventh post of mine that you've spammed in the last 15 minutes, on top of the earlier more scattered snipes. You're escalating. Does it give you some sense of power now to stalk and snipe at me pseudo-anonymously because I had the temerity and lack of diplomacy to criticize your behavior in public? Grow up and get over it. I called you fucked-up in so many words because you are fucked-up, significantly enough that it affects both your writing and your emotional state. This behavior rig
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I won't be running. I'll be ignoring you from now on. You waste your own time and prove your irrelevance with every one of these screeds. I'm hardly the first person who's occupied so much of your attention and time, either. Too bad for you.
Yes, I See How This Could Work! (Score:2)
[] Yep! [] Nope!
This is senseless. (Score:1)
If your teenage child is *not* feeling depressed, you need to be concerned. For fuck's sake, as much a part of life being depressed is for adults, it's a damn near obligatory for a teenager. Being a teenager is shitty. Homework, bullies, fights, hormones, dating, sex, broken homes, abuse, shitty educations, shitty school systems, apathetic teachers, discovering your own views on the world and your own personality apart from your up-bringing and peer-group, grades, scholarships, college worries. If your kid
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No, if you went by the professional community and the educator community, every teenager is a simmering pot of hostility looking to explode in an act of domestic terrorism or they're clinically depressed. Or both. Teenagers who are absolutely severely and clinically depressed to the point that urgent intervention is needed are pretty easy to spot to any parent or teacher who is even remotely observant. This isn't going to detect anything that they wouldn't already detect and raise concern over and nobody wh
Paperclip (Score:3)
[ ] Slitting your wrists.
[ ] Weeping morosely into a pint of beer.
[ ] Retreating into an endless cycle of binge eating and self-hatred.
[ ] Getting professional help.
Sad (Score:2)
From the summary:
I wonder if this could be a new Firefox plug-in, designed to help parents detect depression in their adolescents by tracking the mechanics (not the sites) and automatically emailing them if their ward is showing increasing signs of depression."
It'd be really sad if a parent needed to do this to know something was wrong with their kid.
Not to mention, it'd give the kid the (correct) impression that the parent is snooping ON them instead of talking TO them.
Err... (Score:2)
By using a cleverly embedded questionnaire that classifies the subject as depressed
What, every time? Seems a little harsh.
#1 Indicator? (Score:4, Funny)
Reloading messages.pl more than once an hour...
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It'd be less depressing if there were ever any messages there. :(
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Hell no, if I'm making a FP I want to put my name on it.
I've had ONE since I signed up in 2001.
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I've had several since some kind anonymous soul bought a subscription for me. I don't see what the big deal is about FP. Is that for those who have trouble getting a +5?
To stay on topic here, I hope I didn't depress you...
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That's not depression, that's just normal paranoia.
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