Vitamin D supplementation didn't affect my depression. Going for walks to get more sunlight made it worse.
I understand that not everything works for everyone and I wish those around me, including my doctor, did as well so they'd stop blaming me when their "cure" doesn't work on me.
I found going for walks during lockdown to be depressing. Always the same few streets (yes I'd try various directions but it doesn't take long to have walked down every street within 30 minutes of you). My mom lives in the suburbs. She goes for walks but they are hardly uplifting "same walk I've made 400 times before" type of thing. I'd even say walking makes more feel more alone then when I'm at home alone because at least at home I can watch TV/movies/play game and write comments to strangers on HN.
This is what I'm talking about. The idea that "going for a walk and getting sunlight is good for depression" is so universally unchallengable that I must live somewhere terrible if it doesn't work for me.
You're still doing it. Depression has a cause, and effective treatment depends on what that cause is. If it is not one of the things that is made better by going outside, this will not be helpful, and the answer is not "well then go more outside".
I don't have depression but I still feel like that'd make you depressed. Just because something is exciting to you does not mean it's meaningful to everyone
In the entire state all I know is people on massive amounts of meds who are constantly getting into levels of misery I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.
All I can do is ask why that state, and not all the others I know people in?
Even on here I had some comment thread which went on a TANGENT like 50 messages talking about how messed up it is there lately.
There can be underlying anxiety issues that make going out like that quite a stressful event, especially at first, and even traumatic if something bad does end up happening. Or sensory processing issues associated with autism spectrum disorders that make bright sunlight feel unpleasant. Not to downplay the general idea: certainly for most people who feel a little blue, or even crappy enough for long enough to qualify for a diagnosis of major depression, getting out more is likely to be helpful on its own (and that's why therapists generally recommend it). But to the GP's point, the lack of distinction between people with a more ordinary (but quite painful!) set of problems and people with a bunch of comorbidities that they're likely not aware of is really frustrating, especially if they're using the internet to look for ideas and find a bunch of people generalizing the easy fix that cured their depression to the entire population.
I worked with someone who was definitely the nitpicker. He would even nitpick PRs that he wasn't a reviewer on and would happily unwind a merged PR just because he hadn't had a chance to review it first.
Many of the things that are often nitpicked can be automated with tools like linters. This really helps cut down on the pain of code reviews for both the author and the reviewer.
Yes I agree with you and I think, for people with our type of needs, a more sensible approach would be to switch from smart to dumb phone, in fact I have been thinking about that for a while now.
That would be throwing out the good with the bad. The phone isn't just an internet portal, it's a music player, a navigation system, an audiobook player, a book reader, etc.
Yep. I've deleted Facebook and it's reduced my time wasting. I still pull my phone out, swipe left, swipe right, realize there's nothing for me to do and then put my phone away. (I have most notifications turned to minimal/off)
But LOVE my audio books and podcasts and google maps and digital note pad and dictionary and wikipedia... And never feel guilty about those things.
Part of learning self-discipline is learning what triggers or facilitates undesired behavior and modifying one's environment to increase desired behavior. This can include limiting internet access, such as removing home internet, or switching to a dumb phone. This isn't weakness; it's learning about oneself and working with what you have. Certainly, there are ways to increase will-power, but relying purely on will-power can be difficult for many people.
I didn't say it was "weakness". I meant it seemed like unnecessarily crippling oneself. It might be valuable for many people to investigate why they can't stop themselves from overusing their smartphones. Sure if they end up realizing that they can't manage to stop themselves, it would make sense to change the environment, but why give up without even trying? This really seems like the opposite of learning self-discipline.
I didn't mean to imply that you said it was a weakness, though I did think some may consider it as such ("what, you don't have enough self-control to limit your smartphone usage?"). I'm addressing the fact that self-control is not limitless (even if developed and increased) and that if one's goal is to be more productive, one should feel free to use the tools available to them, which include both modifying one's environment and increasing self-control. And of course any modifications have to fit in with how you want to live your life. If it's crippling, it's not a useful modification. Having a dumbphone may be crippling to some, and liberating to others.
You seem to have dismissed the former entirely with "that doesn't seem sensible to me at all", and here leave it as only a last resort. I don't believe that's a useful way to view it. Use the tools you have available to modify your behavior.
You don't need "infinite" willpower. You might even need very little once you've changed into a default mode of using your phone less. By the way it's still unclear whether ego-depletion is a real phenomenon AFAIK.
I'm noticing that for me, simply disrupting the pattern does wonders. A background process that re-bans websites via localhost redirect in my hosts file every few hours does wonders, for example.
A bad habit I can fall into as easily as breathing is a problem.
A bad habit I have to indulge in some effort to perform, puts me in the position of needing willpower to indulge in it!
Maybe a dongle/phone you can connect to, but don't use?
Fun (semi-related) story, I once had someone steal my mac power cable on a bus ride from Quito to Banos, Tungurahua in Ecuador http://bit.ly/2olVpLT and had to install putty on an internet computer from 2003 to get into a server to reboot a process. That was when I realized that Internet access was no longer a luxury for me.
Follow the money. Walden University is based in MN. Find our which politicians received the contributions. But Minnesota people will still continue voting for the same people so even if we did know, it's of no consequence. It's the same reason guys like Jesse Jackson Jr, and Marion Berry keep getting reelected year after year despite their obvious corruption and incompetence.
