Depression is real

[Geekbabe]

Depression and anxiety suck! You have my empathy for sure, try to see a Doctor or mental health professional. I don’t take antidepressants because I have chronic ischemic per MRI ( something like 6-7 stroke type events)

I take benzodiazepines ( same dose for years) to cope with anxiety. I take my beta blockers, low dose aspirin. I also use my iPad to watch/ listen to CBT, meditation & progressive muscle relaxation videos. I try to watch myself around stressful situations & talk things out with my oncology social worker, staying hydrated and trying to sleep well is also vital.

Also, self reflection can be a good thing but don’t fall into the guilt/ shame loop. You need to give yourself some compassion & forgiveness…many depressed people would never in a million years talk to a stranger with the same negative thoughts they think about themselves

 

[Zor Prime]

Exercise is my way to getting out of a funk. One good day of exercise sets up the next 2-3 days of feeling good. After day 3 into 4 my overall morale crashes, comparative to how I would otherwise feel of having exercised.

To begin with I just wanted to improve how I looked and physically felt. I had no idea going in that emotionally and mentally I would get benefits as well. Now, I literally work out some days just so I can get out of my head and get it screwed on straight. It works without fail.

Getting out of your head, stop thinking and start doing helps. Akin to the above Georges St-Pierre image I say this and tell people this: When you don't want to is precisely when you should, i.e., I don't always want to exercise, and that is exactly when I should.

 

[Perknose]

...then swim 2 miles (50-55 minutes, taking splits with my wrist watch).

That's a pretty decent clip for two miles. Just a couple of years ago, even on the downswing, I used to do a mile in between 32-35 minutes. Now, when I do actually go, not even that.

At age 10, at the Mid-Atlantic Olympic Swim Development series of meets at Kelly pool in Philly (50 meter pool), I did the metric mile in under 22 minutes or less, I forget. That was wild. I was swimming competitively, but had never raced longer than 50 meters in any stroke. The races were divided between all those under 11 and all those older. The mile was only offered for the older guys, but they let me and another swimmer compete. Three heats of 7, so 21 plus 1, as the other kid and I shared a lane (which was more than wide enough, btw.)

Most of the other swimmers were like 17,18, 19 and up. I finished with the 7th fastest time. Yay me! The one thing I did right at the beginning was to open up a 50 meter lead on the other young'un.

With about 6-8 laps to go, I was feeling good, so I picked up the pace. The minders thought I had miscounted the laps. I could see them running alongside, trying to "correct" me. I felt strong the whole damn way, but at the end, I actually had trouble lifting myself out of the pool. Adrenaline ftw!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Oh man I can't imagine swimming for miles at a time that's crazy distance for swimming. When I was a kid we used to swim across the lake in life jackets for fun and took it at a slow pace and it was a good hour or so. I actually went and found the lake on google maps and it's only like 300m or so. A mile is 1,609m.

 

[Perknose]

Oh man I can't imagine swimming for miles at a time that's crazy distance for swimming. When I was a kid we used to swim across the lake in life jackets for fun and took it at a slow pace and it was a good hour or so. I actually went and found the lake on google maps and it's only like 300m or so. A mile is 1,609m.

Doing it in a pool helps immeasurably. You get "rewarded" with the wall at each turn. Swimming the equivalent distance in a lake IS interminable.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Words (Soooo, tell me about your feelings for your Mother .......) and mind/mood altering drugs do NOT solve underlying problems. The world sucks. Period. Nothing will change that.

For those that choose to inbibe, so be it. Have it your way. But don't try to tell the rest of us that it works. It don't.

Yes, there are those with legitimate physiological issues like chemical imbalances. For those, an adjustment might be in order the same way Insulin can be.

But for me, (let me stress this clearly) THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL that will change anything.

 

[Muse]

As you age, it gets harder to either develop or maintain muscle mass. I think the medical term is sarcopenia. From google:

You might want to try some HMB - hydroxymethylbutyrate. I think that was outlawed for a while back in the 90's but Nirvana brand water has a "flavor" that includes 600mg of HMB

I actually bulked up quite a bit around the time I hit 50! Muscle!! All those hours in the weight room (over 10/week).

 

[VirtualLarry]

But for me, (let me stress this clearly) THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL that will change anything.

I think that you're DEAD wrong... but with that mind-set, I can see why you're trapped.

 

[Muse]

Exercise is my way to getting out of a funk. One good day of exercise sets up the next 2-3 days of feeling good. After day 3 into 4 my overall morale crashes, comparative to how I would otherwise feel of having exercised.

To begin with I just wanted to improve how I looked and physically felt. I had no idea going in that emotionally and mentally I would get benefits as well. Now, I literally work out some days just so I can get out of my head and get it screwed on straight. It works without fail.

I started a career in database programming while I was in my biggest gym rat phase. I often got some of my best ideas including the solution to problems that were vexing me (programming or other stuff) while working out. You are in a new space, other than the one when the problem took form. Mental energy and physical energy are really of the same stuff, so when working out you can have marvelous insights.

 

[Muse]

Oh man I can't imagine swimming for miles at a time that's crazy distance for swimming. When I was a kid we used to swim across the lake in life jackets for fun and took it at a slow pace and it was a good hour or so. I actually went and found the lake on google maps and it's only like 300m or so. A mile is 1,609m.

I was a runner before taking up lap swimming. I was decent, stuck with it. In my early 40's I would run to the local high school in the afternoon (over a mile away), then run 5 miles on their track, then run home. Probably around 5x/week. Suddenly my left foot hurt real bad. I couldn't even walk around town like I used to. Went to a sports clinic just once, the doctor said I had plantar fasciitis and the receptionist suggested I take up swimming. I promptly did at a local pool, swimming 1 mile/day, most every day. After a 2-3 months or so I thought, "why not two?" From that day forward it was two. Tried running after a year but couldn't. Kept swimming, joined the YMCA which had a lap pool. Started hitting their weight room before swimming and that went on for 10 years. I was a terror in the pool, pushing the fast lane, wore prescription face mask and snorkel, they called me "snorkel man," which I only found out later. On my 50th BD I swam 5 miles.

Then had my shoulder injury and gave up swimming for good. Tried that a year later and couldn't. Eventually saw the best shoulder surgeon around and after trying everything else, had surgery. That improved my weight room experience, I've never given that up... but the pandemic has me out of the gym the last 2.5 years. I still pay my dues, I should get back in there real soon.

 

[Captante]

I think that you're DEAD wrong... but with that mind-set, I can see why you're trapped.

Based on his posting history this is ALWAYS a safe assumption.

 

[Charmonium]

@Muse - damn dude, you gonna live forever.

You might also want to look into fisetin and Chromadex' True Niagen. The first causes apoptosis in senescent cells much like rapamycin but w/o the side effects and I've talked about NAD+ before here, but do your own research.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I would like to try mushroom therapy whenever it becomes legal in these parts.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I've been a mushroom for years. Dark, dank, quiet, festering.

 

[Aikouka]

I've struggled with health issues, memory issues, etc. for the bulk of my life. I never really clearly understood why I had such difficult self-motivation issues growing up until I started getting a handle on how my brain & body worked. For example, I struggle with executive function disorder.

...

I usually either felt apathetic or experienced resistance to some extent (profound sadness, fatigue, pain, etc.), and occasionally would slip into "can't" mode, where it was like my body was an R/C car but there were no batteries in my transmitter controller. As I learned about my health issues & how to either eliminate them or manage them, and as I adopted things like a better sleep schedule, macros, daily exercise, etc. & started to learn how to foster an environment where I gave my body access to things like human growth hormone from sleep, dopamine from food, endorphins from exercise, etc., things started to "click" for me!

I struggled with a lot of issues when I was younger. To sort of simplify it, regardless of what happened, my viewpoint was just so staunchly negative. I could get a 99/100 on a test, and my thought would be, "Ugh... I made such a stupid mistake there!" I know people really hate using this sort of phrase, but one thing that I had to do was... be positive. Now, I think that phrase gets a lot of flak when used with depression because people sort of treat it as "smile more!" For me, "be positive" means that I need to confront these negative thoughts head on. "Hey, a 99/100 is a great job! Yeah, we made a stupid mistake, but let's figure out why and do better next time." That example also reminds me of one problem that I think we've sort of hoisted upon our youth... the idea that failure is more of an endpoint. My thought is that by not instilling the idea that failure should be a springboard to improve, we have kids and eventually adults that just don't handle failure well.

One thing that I've also been trying to do is to attempt to be a positive force around myself. You know you're doing something right when you're talking to a customer service representative, and they tell you that you were the best part of their day!

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

^^^ Same here. If I won a billion dollar lottery, my first thought would be .... crap TAXES!!!!

 

[Captante]

Dark, dank, quiet, festering.

Just a suggestion!

(regular bathing can also be helpful!)

 

[Stiff Clamp]

Sitting out in the sun daily could help. At least a solid half an hour, this time of year. Make it a point.

I think Canadians often have chronic cabin fever. Or is that my imagination?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2728098/

 

[nakedfrog]

Words (Soooo, tell me about your feelings for your Mother .......) and mind/mood altering drugs do NOT solve underlying problems. The world sucks. Period. Nothing will change that.

For those that choose to inbibe, so be it. Have it your way. But don't try to tell the rest of us that it works. It don't.

Yes, there are those with legitimate physiological issues like chemical imbalances. For those, an adjustment might be in order the same way Insulin can be.

But for me, (let me stress this clearly) THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL that will change anything.

Spent much time trying therapy or meds for your depression, have you?

Listen to Louis at the beginning here.

 

[MrSquished]

Sitting out in the sun daily could help. At least a solid half an hour, this time of year. Make it a point.

I think Canadians often have chronic cabin fever. Or is that my imagination?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2728098/

Sunlight is very important. Take a quality vitamin d plus k whatever thousand supplement every day. And if you're in a dark a lot it's good to get a full spectrum light at home and have it on you 30 minutes or so.

My sister is not depressed but she does have a lot of stress and she works in a room in her house with not a lot of natural light so for her birthday I just got her high quality LED full spectrum light that can sit on a desk and give you the proper rays

 

[Red Squirrel]

Sunlight for vitamin D absorb through skin (with eye protection), and also blue light absorbed through eyes is important. That produces serotonin. For most of the year here you don't get neither in much quantity as the days are very short and typically much darker, so you can use UV B bulb (or vitamin D tablets but not everyone absorbs those the same) and for light, just having high spectrum bulbs like 6500k can help but they also make SAD lamps. I have one at work since the lighting there is not that great and there's no windows. At home I have better lighting and windows.

 

[Charmonium]

d3 should get absorbed well, but check

 

[Muse]

@Muse - damn dude, you gonna live forever.

You might also want to look into fisetin and Chromadex' True Niagen. The first causes apoptosis in senescent cells much like rapamycin but w/o the side effects and I've talked about NAD+ before here, but do your own research.

I've been thinking the last couple days. A big danger to me at the moment that could prevent major longevity would seem to be my skating. I am really good at it, have never been hurt in my over 30 years of constant skating except when my equipment failed: Broken king pin 6 months ago had the front wheels on one skate fling ahead of me by 15 feet and I smashed headlong into the asphalt going maybe 8-10 mph. My hands took the brunt (gloved!!!) but I'm still suffering a major sprain to my dominant hand pinky. Saw all 3 of the hand surgeons of my HMO at my facility, had over a dozen visits with a hand therapist, the last one 3 weeks ago today.

4 months before that accident a wheel axle nut suddenly with no warning came off (never found it) and the wheel careened away and hid behind a car's tire (I saw it, though).

Two days ago I realized I forgot to change my glasses from my computer glasses to my distance and I doubled back. I made the switch and was about to restart my 10 miler when I felt something weird in one skate: The inside back wheel of one skate had come off! This was a new wheel with a practically new axle nut that I'd checked previous to skating!!! This freaked me out... how could this happen? If I hadn't forgotten my glasses that wheel would almost for sure come off when I was skating on the street, typically at 7-10 mph depending on slope and wind velocity. Thinking this over I got the idea that if I expect to continue my skating and avoid major injury (even minor injuries) I need to do something different. I hit on the idea of using thread locking compound to keep the axle nuts from coming off. I have some but it's really old. Last night I ordered new stuff, should have it in 4 days. I hope it does the trick! It's not typically done by skaters, but I figure I have no choice here. The shop owner who told me I should change my axle nuts when I bought my equipment over 30 years ago never left my mind, but I didn't take his advice and rarely changed them. Since my accident I changed them all and put new ones on within the last couple weeks. Having one work its way off when I'd just checked it is disconcerting to say the least. I still feel pain from that accident around last Xmas.

The king pin that broke on me 6+ months ago... I'd never heard of that, but was told by a skateboarder that they break all the time. I figure now to change my king pins with frequency, if I keep skating at my pace, at least once a year.

I figure if I keep after it, change parts that can fail and use thread locker I can hopefully prevent further injury. I do love my skating! It's the only thing that's kept me in good shape during the pandemic. I have a Concept2 Model D Rower, got it for when I can't skate due to inclement weather, but skating is way way more fun and I haven't figured out how to row without my butt hurting after 10 minutes... just bought some seat accessories, but haven't had the occasion to test them out. Rains will come soon.

 

[Charmonium]

so every 500 to 800 miles? Not bad, even by automotive terms. OK, Yugoslavian auto terms. And yes, I know they don't exist.

 

[Muse]

so every 500 to 800 miles? Not bad, even by automotive terms. OK, Yugoslavian auto terms. And yes, I know they don't exist.

I figure I've been skating 5+ times as far as I've been driving during the pandemic.