I find my career as a developer to be quite rewarding both financially and intellectually. However, a couple times a year I find myself in a deep funk wondering what the hell am I doing with my life. How often do you get depressed per year?
Resist the urge to over-medicalize things: if it lasts longer than two weeks and affects your ability to enjoy life, it may be "depression". If you get dumped by your girlfriend or yelled at by your boss and the next three days really suck, it is "life".<p>My brother once told me: "There is a support group for people who hate their jobs. It is called Everybody, and we meet at bars starting at about 5:30."<p>Adjust by about six hours and it is equally true for Japanese salarymen.
Many programmers and entrepreneurs are bipolar or borderline. "The Bipolar Edge" is a book with some interesting research on this if you filter out some of the sensationalism.<p>I think one of the best strategies when depressed is to text someone and pair program. Also helps to keep the internet out of the house so you have to leave to get food eventually :)<p>The biggest thing though is remembering that it's biochemical, not "real", and that you'll snap out of it.
Mindful meditation is the only mental exercise that has helped get my life back.<p>I try to meditate for 20-30 minutes every day practicing my breathing and letting thoughts flow in and out. During this time there's no fighting emotions; if I feel like punching someone, I allow myself to envision it, let the emotion consume me, and then be done with it. Thoughts and emotions seem to disappear on their own if given the room to "make an appearance."<p>"As you gain experience with this type of meditation, you will gain the understanding that your true essence -
your essential spirit - is not the contents of your mind, but rather the observer of the contents."
<a href="http://themindfulnessblog.com/mindfulness-meditation-a-path-to-happiness" rel="nofollow">http://themindfulnessblog.com/mindfulness-meditation-a-path-...</a><p>It's worth exploring other ways of interacting with your emotions. Mindful meditation has been successful for me. If you're interested, the book "The Mindful Way through Depression" is a great starting point.
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Way-through-Depression-Unhappiness/dp/1593851286" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Way-through-Depression-Unhappi...</a>
I also experience these lows quite often, about once a month. They usually don't last for more than 3 days, and all my energy and passion come back. It's still tough to deal with, especially when you suddenly feel like there's no purpose to the things that just yesterday gave so much meaning and excitement to your life. I learn to cope with them by training my mind to take a moving average of my feeling. This way I'm constantly reminded of my overall long-term sentiment.
People forget that depression is a normal part of life. Its normal to feel depressed just like it is normal to feel happy. What you should do is admit that you feel this way, let yourself feel those emotions, and reflect on how you want to live your life. It's part of being human.
Didn't expect the results -- thought it'd be less common.<p>Here's a couple of resources I've found helpful wrt understanding and avoiding depression. Hopefully they'll be useful to someone.<p>Short: <a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/sc/existential_angst_factory/" rel="nofollow">http://lesswrong.com/lw/sc/existential_angst_factory/</a><p>Longer: Martin Seligman's book on Learned Optimism <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-Mind/dp/1400078393" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-Mind/dp/1...</a>
I went through a serious period of depression during high school. I missed a huge amount of school and there was a period of about a month during which my parents were considering having me committed to an institution.<p>The key to beating depression is introspection. Recognize it for what it is: a couple chemicals in your brain that are out of whack. No <i>small</i> matter, and there's probably a cause. But your mental faculties are still there -- they just have a distraction breaking their concentration. Think of it just like a loud noise, and tune it out, then figure out where it's coming from and silence it.
The expected answer for many participants here would be "never." Lifetime incidence of at least one period of depressed mood is fairly high across humankind, but that's over the course of a whole lifetime. If a young person is depressed for days at a time a few times a year, that young person has a clinical case of depression and is well advised to seek medical advice about what to do about. Both medicine and cognitive talk therapy can be helpful, often most helpful as a both-and combination.
Not sure about being depressed but there are days that I feel really down mainly because of my job situation.<p>It usually lasts for a couple of days but could easily be alleviated by hanging out with friends. There are times though I tend to make it worse by spending time just by myself.
I'm basically depressed 70% of the time and feeling terrible and unproductive, but it seems like the work I get done during the rest of that time makes up for it. Passive income is good for that reason.
I've been always thinking that it has a pattern. But never got to examine it closely.<p>My bird brain says boredom/depression goes in a sine wave (x-time, y-boredom/depression). And I have no explanation for it.