3 ms·

Another perspective from somebody who used to answer yes for some years: thinking about your health too much is a thing. Try to live as healthy as you can: unpr

Another perspective from somebody who used to answer yes for some years: thinking about your health too much is a thing. Try to live as healthy as you can: unprocessed food, drink mostly water, avoid stimulants, exercise, regular sleep, limit screen time, etc. But don't obsess over any of it. Thinking about it, analyzing every sleepless night, bad feeling and chest pain is not healthy at all. I've been there and know other people who have. It starts as a normal concern over one's health but it can become an obsession and a downward spiral. Nowadays I rely on other people in my life to observe from outside if there's obviously something changed about me that might require action. Obviously the opposite extreme exists as well: people who are in terrible health condition and don't even notice. So again, self evaluation is not very good.

ineedasername 6y ago
don't obsess over any of it. Thinking about it, analyzing every sleepless night, bad feeling and chest pain is not healthy at all On sleep, exercise, etc., you are absolutely right. And I see what you're getting at with your general comment, but I this part I highlighted implies that a depressed person may have a degree of control over their mental state & ruminations that many people experiencing hardship do not have. For those people, it may, to some extent, be possible to develop coping mechanisms to get there, but if a person lacks strong coping mechanisms then developing them is often sped up significantly through some form of treatment.
glangdale 6y ago
Your suggestions are not inherently unreasonable but most of them amount to ways that a out-of-sorts normal person can make themselves feel quite a bit better, and have very little to do with steps that might help someone with severe clinical depression. That long list of things might help someone (especially given "drink mostly water" tends to suggest "don't drink very much alcohol") but it's unlikely to contain anything particularly first-order for a genuinely depressed person, and some of the "don't think too much about your health" suggestions seem actively mischievous. I've known a couple teetotalling regular-schedule folks with great exercise habits etc. etc. who have carried out their praiseworthy and abstemious schedules right up to they moment they stepped off a building or bridge, in one case leaving behind a couple small kids.

ineedasername 6y ago

don't obsess over any of it. Thinking about it, analyzing every sleepless night, bad feeling and chest pain is not healthy at all On sleep, exercise, etc., you are absolutely right. And I see what you're getting at with your general comment, but I this part I highlighted implies that a depressed person may have a degree of control over their mental state & ruminations that many people experiencing hardship do not have. For those people, it may, to some extent, be possible to develop coping mechanisms to get there, but if a person lacks strong coping mechanisms then developing them is often sped up significantly through some form of treatment.

glangdale 6y ago

Your suggestions are not inherently unreasonable but most of them amount to ways that a out-of-sorts normal person can make themselves feel quite a bit better, and have very little to do with steps that might help someone with severe clinical depression. That long list of things might help someone (especially given "drink mostly water" tends to suggest "don't drink very much alcohol") but it's unlikely to contain anything particularly first-order for a genuinely depressed person, and some of the "don't think too much about your health" suggestions seem actively mischievous. I've known a couple teetotalling regular-schedule folks with great exercise habits etc. etc. who have carried out their praiseworthy and abstemious schedules right up to they moment they stepped off a building or bridge, in one case leaving behind a couple small kids.