The worst part of depression is a sortof profound loneliness. This is the feeling that ends up leading a lot of people towards suicide. There's nobody that "gets" them, and nobody that they can talk to about what they're feeling. They feel isolated from their friends and family, and this feeling is exaggerated by people who don't understand that they are suffering from a neurochecmial/neurophysiological deficiency; not from something that they can just "push through".
Imagine telling somebody with cancer that they just have to wake up one day and decide they don't have cancer anymore.
What makes all of this worse is the feeling that what you're going through is somehow invalid. Not only are you suffering from the worst kind of emotional pain and loneliness imaginable, but you're being told that you're a fool for it, and that you're a failure or a weakling for not being able to snap out of it.
That's dangerous.
You know...a lot of my family members are pilots. Part of the training that they go through, something that seems to be constantly drilled into them, is to watch out for hypoxia. This is what happens when you're flying too high without supplemental oxygen, and your body starts malfunctioning. You sound like you're drunk. (This is what hypoxia sounds like, it's terrifying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IqWal_EmBg).
This is recognized as a dangerous part of the job, something to monitor yourself for.
I think that hackers need to keep in mind that depression is kindof our hypoxia. It can sneak up on us, and it can kill us if we don't address it.
And there is nothing wrong or weak about being depressed, just like there is nothing wrong or weak about being hypoxic.
is a very very good lecture by Professor Robert Sapolsky on depression, major depression, and why it isn't really something that you can just tough out. Highly recommended.
The worst part of depression is a sortof profound loneliness. This is the feeling that ends up leading a lot of people towards suicide. There's nobody that "gets" them, and nobody that they can talk to about what they're feeling. They feel isolated from their friends and family, and this feeling is exaggerated by people who don't understand that they are suffering from a neurochecmial/neurophysiological deficiency; not from something that they can just "push through".
Imagine telling somebody with cancer that they just have to wake up one day and decide they don't have cancer anymore.
What makes all of this worse is the feeling that what you're going through is somehow invalid. Not only are you suffering from the worst kind of emotional pain and loneliness imaginable, but you're being told that you're a fool for it, and that you're a failure or a weakling for not being able to snap out of it.
That's dangerous.
You know...a lot of my family members are pilots. Part of the training that they go through, something that seems to be constantly drilled into them, is to watch out for hypoxia. This is what happens when you're flying too high without supplemental oxygen, and your body starts malfunctioning. You sound like you're drunk. (This is what hypoxia sounds like, it's terrifying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IqWal_EmBg).
This is recognized as a dangerous part of the job, something to monitor yourself for.
I think that hackers need to keep in mind that depression is kindof our hypoxia. It can sneak up on us, and it can kill us if we don't address it.
And there is nothing wrong or weak about being depressed, just like there is nothing wrong or weak about being hypoxic.
Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc
is a very very good lecture by Professor Robert Sapolsky on depression, major depression, and why it isn't really something that you can just tough out. Highly recommended.