I encourage everyone to consider finding time for this lecture on depression: <a href="https://youtu.be/TIcf-2AFHgw" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/TIcf-2AFHgw</a><p>It helped me frame what depression the disease is compared to our broad usage of the word in everyday contexts. In particular it describes both the biology and psychology of depression.
Here is a terrible awful fact most people are unaware of: The suicide rate has been going up steadily since 2000 and we are back where we were in the mid 1980s[1]. I found this out by listening to a speech from a mental health convention where the doctor giving the speech was blasting the commonly held idea that antidepressants had solved everything.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/04/22/474888854/suicide-rates-climb-in-u-s-especially-among-adolescent-girls" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/04/22/4748888...</a>
That must have been difficult to write, but it was also difficult to read. I don't think he needed to lash-out at the adults who didn't understand his illness; how was a director in a weekly TV show meant to diagnose and accommodate depression when he's handling dozens of people to a tight schedule?<p>Its the same in any context of work, unfortunately. You're just a cog and if the cog jams, add more oil or replace it. That's probably not something a teenager would have understood, hence his frustrated efforts to find answers from adults he held in regard, and I don't know what the solution is. But sniping isn't it.<p>I am glad that Mr Wheaton is in a better condition and hopefully this essay will help others, but it seemed unnecessarily cruel in places.
This hits pretty close to home. I've been seeing therapists for my anxiety but they haven't really helped much, and occasionally there are times when I just have a pretty bad day.<p>I have a lot of fear, but there is no physical manifestation of it - it is fear of lack of worth, lack of success, lack of love, lack of acknowledgement. I overanalyze everything that I do and everything others say or do to me.<p>I could probably point to many things in my past to blame but I'm done trying to retro-analyze myself and just want to fix things.<p>I'm afraid of trying anti-depressants but I've been seriously thinking about getting a dog (I liked that Wil mentioned that his dogs help him :). I've always wanted one and I feel like at the least doggo would give me some comfort and put things in perspective.<p>I really appreciate Wil writing his thoughts down and giving suggestions. It definitely helps a lot. I actually keep a running list of tiny things that I've found that help me - things to think about and do, in a moment of anxiety or sadness. One day I hope to share that with others too.
The part where he described saying goodbye and playing out that being the last time he'd see someone got me. I've found that health anxiety and irrational fears are by far the worst rabbit holes to start falling into. I've had periods of years where my mind is entirely consumed by these things. I feel like fears rooted in reality are at least tangible enough to not be horrifying.<p>The things that make me talented feel like mind diseases. Pattern recognition is so easily polluted with ruminations and cyclical thinking.<p>The only way I've been able to cope is by becoming numb. The more uncertainty I acknowledge as existing, the worse I feel. I don't feel particularly good though. Nothing in the world feels like "enough" to occupy my mind anywhere near as much as the negative things.<p>SSRIs can aid in that numbing. For me it has somewhat. I haven't found that they have given me any sort of increase in motivation or excitement for life, though.
> as a white, heterosexual, cisgender man in America, I live life on the lowest difficulty setting<p>Seriously, what is this shit? Is there a grant I'm not aware of that's given to straight white men? Free housing somewhere? I'm white and straight and American and I'm pretty sure my children's education is paid for by my near constant work (and my wife's) not by the magical fairy dust that was sprinkled on me at birth.<p>In no way am I saying Wil does not suffer from depression, but the "my life is perfect, how could I possibly be depressed?" spin rings false. Child stars that go on to find middling success and depression (and substance abuse) later in life is more the norm than the exception isn't it?<p>As far as I know he never almost died because of drugs, never had a public meltdown and is still gainfully employed, so I'd say he navigated things better than most. I can't speak from experience, but in no way would I say that the life of a child star is easy. It's probably one of the hardest things you could ask a young person to do.<p>But I have no sympathy for someone who gives in to prevailing rhetoric about "privilege". That is just as moronic as saying "women can't program" or "black people are good at sports".
I lost most of my twenties to anxiety and depression. Started therapy at 29, finished university with only a Bachelor's degree at 31.<p>The worst aspect was that through all this time my mind was always telling me that, yes, I have some problems, but what if I don't have anything at all? Maybe if I ever did see a doctor about it, I would be wasting their time. It wasn't even about whether or not they would take me seriously. My biggest fear was that a doctor would tell me that there's nothing wrong with me. It's really the worst of all the "what if"'s that Wil was talking about, because that was the one that kept me from getting help.
Only depression and anxiety? That sucks, and I wouldn’t wish those on anyone... but try also having ADD, mild Asperger’s, home drama, stuttering (silent block, way more awkward than repeating)... oh and being not a celebrity, unemployable, unpersonable, broke and homeless. It’s all my fault, I know, I’m lazy for going to interviews and people not liking me for reasons/feedback they’ll never mention.<p>Depression isn’t good or victim-hierarchy laudible, get rid of it with CBT, group, exercise, diet, work, socializing, meds... whatever.<p>Anxiety is shit too but I down about 12 hydroxyzine a day.
Wow, interesting. I comment around the internet as anonymously as possible on posts by people asking for help with their depression. Or people posting without knowing that they <i>can</i> ask for help. I've even posted a few times here on HN. My list of steps for immediate mitigation of the symptoms are almost exactly his steps:<p>1) Throw your clothes in the laundry.<p>2) Go for a short run.<p>3) Take a shower.<p>4) Put on clean clothes and eat a healthy meal.<p>5) (Which is implied in Wil's post but something I always say explicitly): Make an appointment with your doctor, or any doctor that will point you to the right doctor.
Well written, this is also had profound effect on me <a href="https://gekk.info/articles/adhd.html" rel="nofollow">https://gekk.info/articles/adhd.html</a>
<a href="http://wilwheaton.net/2012/09/depression-lies/" rel="nofollow">http://wilwheaton.net/2012/09/depression-lies/</a> is shorter and better.<p>Also from the viewpoint of his wife: <a href="https://www.annewheaton.com/the-other-side-of-depression/" rel="nofollow">https://www.annewheaton.com/the-other-side-of-depression/</a>
The equation of power is shifting from “Money and willingness to do Evil” to “Persuasiveness and reach,” according to Scott Adams. So while previously cries for help like this meant nothing and were an invitation to private torment, now they can work for this author with this audience. I’m extensively documenting my plight into what looks like a homeless end game, going on for 5mo now, and I am pretty sure most depression symptoms/feelings are actually disappointment/shock/dejection inflicted by those who help was sought from. Where are those friends and mentors? Theirs probably taught them to be heartless by example, people pass on their injuries. I’m not MRM but I can’t say there aren’t valid points like male disposability. Thankfully I am able to detach from my emotions and go about my days in joyful solitude but I’d rather just move on and not be put into boxes based on the past; interesting how many comedians are child abuse survivors. My view of humans as savage with a capacity for empathy emerged, as opposed to the opposite I’d felt in my years as a beloved winner/good friend/etc with an envied life. “Comedy is truth and pain,” indeed. I am now ostracized for looking conservative in SF, ex-BF even questioned if I am racist while wearing a shiny Fuck Trump shirt to my house. Silver lining is I am now much more able to feel the ostracization my younger brother felt in his short life, a tearful “nobody believes me” is burned into my memory from one conversation with him as kids. Kudos to OP for finding a platform, but this level of emoting still sends most people straight into “needs help <i>not associating whisper whisper</i>” mode. Even guys you feel are sensitive and who you have helped aren’t there, in fact they are the first to start picking up social capital you’re losing. As an outside observer of my own plight I can laugh along with the people who’ve received my communications asking for help, and predict their power moves, knowing one day perhaps our roles will be reversed and I can bend their minds with kindnesss. Hope things keep going for OP but we’re nowhere near acceptance of men without a platform having feelings and tears not made out of money. We create our own reality and too many people are scared to step out of the box and try stuff like this, in any case, and I hope it’s beneficial.
“Ending the stigma against mental illness”?<p>If anything, as many sociologists have noted, having a mental illness is almost fashionable today. It is not a stigma by any means.<p>Ever since right after WWII, when housewives seeing a psychoanalyst become so popular, the ability to claim a diagnosis and then talk about all the treatment you do has been something of a social signal.<p>Having Chronic Depression is not a problem that is solved by increasing “acceptance”. Perhaps it just genuinely reflects the state of our world, or maybe simply the tragedy of what it means to be human, to suffer from original sin.<p>I do not doubt Mr. Wheaton’s illness or pain. But his focus on “acceptance” as the ultimate end is frustrating.
I'm going to say something that probably get me banned from this SJW cesspool that HN have become: his depression is a sign of his gut telling him he is not a real man. He is a soy boy, so obsessed with looking like he is not a sexist/racist/homophobe that he cant appreciate anything else in life and blame others for not accepting him. He just need to man up.