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A few members in my distant family died in the last few months. One of whom I was close with (grandparent) but it barely affected me negatively yet I had been f

A few members in my distant family died in the last few months. One of whom I was close with (grandparent) but it barely affected me negatively yet I had been forced into shell for months due to otherwise small things in the past. It's not the severity of the outcome. I recovered faster from those. I require medicine when that happens and the triggers are always small non obvious. Please don't judge people based on the severity of their situation as to whether they are suffering or not. It doesn't help. It misleds bystanders reading your comment into a pit instead of seeking help. As for the comparison to the world getting better, it's not linear and same for everyone. While on average, people are living better life than they did before. Life for people in some countries have gotten worse, not better. Maybe life for people which this forum self selects have gotten worse in the last few years. Also see: https://ourworldindata.org/optimism-pessimism https://ourworldindata.org/optimism-pessimism

danieltillett 6y ago
I guess I am an optimist by nature and I certainly prefer to look at the positive rather than the negative. I am not sure it is helpful for most people to focus on the negatives in their lives rather than the positive. I have yet to see anyone’s life improved by brooding on what is wrong rather than what is right. I wasn’t actually judging anyone’s situation, just questioning how we have got to the situation where 2/3rd of the people answering the poll claim to be clinically depressed. If this is correct something is seriously wrong with HC.
- damnencryption 6y ago
  Your post came off that way. And yes, it is not helpful to look negatively. I think people with depression understand this too. They can't help it. If they had more control over their thoughts and life, it wouldn't be a disease or require medical treatment. As per the link I posted in the comment, pessimism has been rising in developed and rich countries. So I wouldn't be surprised to find more pessimistic people on tech forums today. Tech filters out middle class people likely in developed countries or parts of the world. HN is dominated by Americans who have had a rough year. Protests, political unrest, they are currently leading in covid cases worldwide, etc. Other comments explain different reasons, I agree with them too so I won't repeat. One thing I noticed is the rate of not depressed at all votes. It gradually increased towards late night in US.
- ineedasername 6y ago
  how we have got to the situation where 2/3rd of the people answering the poll claim to be clinically depressed. Well, they might not be claiming clinical depression, which technically would require a clinician to render a diagnosis. Though many people may also not understand that distinction. As for the large number, it may simply be that people who see the title of the post & aren't depressed just say to themselves in a slit second "nope not relevant to me, not clicking on it". In that case, most of the people who answered "yes" to depression were self-selecting as people for whom it was already relevant, i.e., people experiencing what they consider depression. It's a problem with surveys in general. I hate doing surveys, but a huge portion of my job is data analysis, and most people are bad at creating surveys especially the design of individual questions. But the initial problem is "How do I get a representative sample when people that choose to do the survey may not be the same as people that won't". There's ways to minimize that effect, none of them great-- look at the the presidential polls as an example.
- deleted 6y ago
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danieltillett 6y ago

I guess I am an optimist by nature and I certainly prefer to look at the positive rather than the negative. I am not sure it is helpful for most people to focus on the negatives in their lives rather than the positive. I have yet to see anyone’s life improved by brooding on what is wrong rather than what is right. I wasn’t actually judging anyone’s situation, just questioning how we have got to the situation where 2/3rd of the people answering the poll claim to be clinically depressed. If this is correct something is seriously wrong with HC.

damnencryption 6y ago
Your post came off that way. And yes, it is not helpful to look negatively. I think people with depression understand this too. They can't help it. If they had more control over their thoughts and life, it wouldn't be a disease or require medical treatment. As per the link I posted in the comment, pessimism has been rising in developed and rich countries. So I wouldn't be surprised to find more pessimistic people on tech forums today. Tech filters out middle class people likely in developed countries or parts of the world. HN is dominated by Americans who have had a rough year. Protests, political unrest, they are currently leading in covid cases worldwide, etc. Other comments explain different reasons, I agree with them too so I won't repeat. One thing I noticed is the rate of not depressed at all votes. It gradually increased towards late night in US.
ineedasername 6y ago
how we have got to the situation where 2/3rd of the people answering the poll claim to be clinically depressed. Well, they might not be claiming clinical depression, which technically would require a clinician to render a diagnosis. Though many people may also not understand that distinction. As for the large number, it may simply be that people who see the title of the post & aren't depressed just say to themselves in a slit second "nope not relevant to me, not clicking on it". In that case, most of the people who answered "yes" to depression were self-selecting as people for whom it was already relevant, i.e., people experiencing what they consider depression. It's a problem with surveys in general. I hate doing surveys, but a huge portion of my job is data analysis, and most people are bad at creating surveys especially the design of individual questions. But the initial problem is "How do I get a representative sample when people that choose to do the survey may not be the same as people that won't". There's ways to minimize that effect, none of them great-- look at the the presidential polls as an example.
deleted 6y ago
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