How you Reboot Yourself when Depressed?

[prabha_friend]

Usually I take a Bath

Depression:
It's a curse for the IT People. What's your view?

 

[tmyers]

I immersive myself in a task, generally a game and start with a goal to achieve such as unlocking something. The act of accomplishing that typically helps pop me back out of the funk but sometimes it takes several days.

In the summer rather than a playing a game, I will go outside and fire up my forge and smith for awhile. Get a decent workout depending on what I decide to forge and get the satisfaction of creating something.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I'm fortunate enough to live in a quiet neighborhood, so I talk a long walk around several streets and wave or say hello to the folks who happen to be out at the time. For me, that "long walk" is just a little bit over 3 miles round-trip. Keeps my legs strong, helps with my weight, and because we don't have a smog problem, helps my breathing. Of course, I have time for that because I'm retired.

 

[prabha_friend]

I'm fortunate enough to live in a quiet neighborhood, so I talk a long walk around several streets and wave or say hello to the folks who happen to be out at the time. For me, that "long walk" is just a little bit over 3 miles round-trip. Keeps my legs strong, helps with my weight, and because we don't have a smog problem, helps my breathing. Of course, I have time for that because I'm retired.

Dear Doc, I envy your american life. It's my Dream to enter America. But I don't have a Degree. Let's see where my ship of my life drops the Anchor.

 

[MsAccessNL]

You have to read books about personal development, spirituality, mindfullness, flow, meditation and happiness. Your thoughts are just thoughts they don't represent reality. You are lonely because you think your are lonely, You think that you need to have a degree, you think that you have to live in America for happiness (probably because of the movies you are watching), you think that Doc has a better live, you think that a child will make you happy. I hope that you can see that you have a lot of thinking going on. Your subconsious takes your thoughts seriously and will change them into a reality. Happy people think that the world is a great place to live in, depressed people think the opposite. Both parties are believing that there thoughts represent reality. Eckhart Tolle wrote a great book about this phenomia. He calls it "identification with your thoughts". I have done this for many, many years and unfurtanately I was identifying with the thought that the world was a terrible place to live in. Nowerday it's possible to choose my beliefs. I choose to believe in the best off people, life and the world. Subsequently if have turned my life around.

 

[baderms]

You have to read books about personal development, spirituality, mindfullness, flow, meditation and happiness. Your thoughts are just thoughts they don't represent reality. You are lonely because you think your are lonely, You think that you need to have a degree, you think that you have to live in America for happiness (probably because of the movies you are watching), you think that Doc has a better live, you think that a child will make you happy. I hope that you can see that you have a lot of thinking going on. Your subconsious takes your thoughts seriously and will change them into a reality. Happy people think that the world is a great place to live in, depressed people think the opposite. Both parties are believing that there thoughts represent reality. Eckhart Tolle wrote a great book about this phenomia. He calls it "identification with your thoughts". I have done this for many, many years and unfurtanately I was identifying with the thought that the world was a terrible place to live in. Nowerday it's possible to choose my beliefs. I choose to believe in the best off people, life and the world. Subsequently if have turned my life around.

Most likely he needs the degree to get the visa he wants to legally come and work in the US.

 

[Galaxiom]

I don't really suffer from depression much. Too busy for that. Most likely to get depressed when I can't be doing something productive.
Bit of gardening is always good for my mood.
It is always a boost when I take one of my unicycles for a long ride. Did 16 km after work a couple of afternoons ago and am heading out again this arvo if it isn't raining when I get home.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I have had personal experience with clinically diagnosed situational depression. When my mother developed Alzheimer's Disease, for a long time I was severely depressed, even slightly suicidal. But I found a good cognitive therapist (the best kind for situational depression) and managed to regain a degree of balance in my life. Oh, I was still sad for Mom, but I managed to build a barrier for me to stop thinking harmful thoughts. It is NOT at all easy to be a sole caregiver for someone you love, someone who was one of YOUR caregivers when you were young. But I was able to handle the situation better and thus control the depression better. The most important part of this control was to learn that the principles in the "Serenity Prayer" are worthy goals whether you believe in God or not. I had to learn to recognize what I could not change, recognize - and change - what I could change, and most important of all, learn how to tell the difference.

 

[KitaYama]

How you Reboot Yourself when Depressed?

Spending several hours with a beautiful woman.
I forget everything in the world except what I have in front of me.

 

[AngelSpeaks]

I'm into photography. I play with my toys.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I will admit to one other depression-buster. I play computer "shooter" games, usually first-person shooters. I kill things that are big, ugly, and kind of dumb. When I get really frustrated, I also kill the ugly small critters. If things really get bad, I kill friend and foe alike.

A friend of mine has multiple sclerosis. When her psychiatrist asked her what SHE did for fun, she said "blow up chickens." However, after further discussions, it was in the context of the game "Redneck Rampage" - which DOES involve blowing up chickens.

 

[tmyers]

I will admit to one other depression-buster. I play computer "shooter" games, usually first-person shooters. I kill things that are big, ugly, and kind of dumb. When I get really frustrated, I also kill the ugly small critters. If things really get bad, I kill friend and foe alike.

A friend of mine has multiple sclerosis. When her psychiatrist asked her what SHE did for fun, she said "blow up chickens." However, after further discussions, it was in the context of the game "Redneck Rampage" - which DOES involve blowing up chickens.

I can only do a round or two of something like Battlefield, otherwise the depression will become rage lol.

 

[Isaac]

Usually I take a Bath

Depression:
It's a curse for the IT People. What's your view?

The source of true life ... the water that quenches thirst finally, the bread the quenches that 'empty' inside that we just can't quite fill with money, sex, romance, other people, or accomplishments, is found in a belief and personal surrender to Jesus Christ, and becoming a follower with all your heart, mind and strength.

With that said, when depression tries to take a hold of me, I usually ask myself 2 questions:

• When's the last time I prayed, and how honest, sincere was I, and why is talking to God the last thing I try, instead of the first?
• When's the last time I got up and helped somebody else, taking my focus off myself?

The answer is usually "too long". If I get up and do those 2 things, depression leaves as quickly as anything.

 

[tltanhueco1990]

And I thought "Impostor Syndrome" was every IT's worst nightmare~

I'm still at the learning phase, but coding drains me out so much. I just close my laptop, walk to my bed which is only 2 steps away from me and take a power nap and a prayer.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The source of true life ... the water that quenches thirst finally, the bread the quenches that 'empty' inside that we just can't quite fill with money, sex, romance, other people, or accomplishments, is found in a belief and personal surrender to Jesus Christ, and becoming a follower with all your heart, mind and strength.

With that said, when depression tries to take a hold of me, I usually ask myself 2 questions:

• When's the last time I prayed, and how honest, sincere was I, and why is talking to God the last thing I try, instead of the first?
• When's the last time I got up and helped somebody else, taking my focus off myself?

The answer is usually "too long". If I get up and do those 2 things, depression leaves as quickly as anything.

I'll try to avoid being confrontational on this subject, Isaac, because I respect you. However, you know that I can't join you in your prayers. Having said that, there is value in what you said in another way. Your prayer and your intent to help somebody else are both useful. When I was having issues with programming, changing the subject always helped. When you take your mind away from focusing on your problem X, whatever it is, you give yourself a chance to flush out the brain pathways for a while. Then when you repopulate those pathways by going back to the problem, you might have a bit more information than you had before and can perhaps take things a bit deeper in the process of refocusing.

Therefore, if prayer is the way you refocus, OK. If doing something else - like taking a walk or watching something mindless on the TV or reading a book on a totally different subject - helps you to regenerate and refine your focus, well and good. The point is to reboot your brain, to make it do something else for a while. To me it matters less how you do it than THAT you do it. Scramble the old brain cells with a distraction, then come back when you can pick up what you were doing more methodically.

 

[Isaac]

I'll try to avoid being confrontational on this subject, Isaac, because I respect you. However, you know that I can't join you in your prayers. Having said that, there is value in what you said in another way. Your prayer and your intent to help somebody else are both useful. When I was having issues with programming, changing the subject always helped. When you take your mind away from focusing on your problem X, whatever it is, you give yourself a chance to flush out the brain pathways for a while. Then when you repopulate those pathways by going back to the problem, you might have a bit more information than you had before and can perhaps take things a bit deeper in the process of refocusing.

Therefore, if prayer is the way you refocus, OK. If doing something else - like taking a walk or watching something mindless on the TV or reading a book on a totally different subject - helps you to regenerate and refine your focus, well and good. The point is to reboot your brain, to make it do something else for a while. To me it matters less how you do it than THAT you do it. Scramble the old brain cells with a distraction, then come back when you can pick up what you were doing more methodically.

Of course! I def didn't expect or ask anyone to join me in this, that was just my 2 cents. It's all good.

One thing that I have observed (over 1000's of meetings/testimonies heard, yes I'm in 12 step, I think I've made that plain enough in other posts and don't mind saying it at all) to be seemingly near-universal, though, is the 'helping others'. And I'm still at the very early beginner-stages of implementing this principle in my own life, as it doesn't come naturally to anyone I don't think and is hard as heck sometimes, but really amazing how well it works. I used to try many things to distract myself from a bad moment/day, and many worked to some extent, a walk, a game, a phone call, another activity, etc. But certainly near the top of that list for many people I've heard is the general concept of deliberately getting up from where you are and doing something that could be considered 'help' to someone else, totally genuine. a kind word, a phone call to offer support, an act, anything really. In the very self-same moment one feels terrible about one's own problem--do that. I've heard the same from cancer patients (etc). Interesting and seems to work for many!