4 ms·

Aaron Swartz (and others)

19 points by plg 14y ago

The suicide of Aaron Swartz is a tragedy. There have been many others who have "chosen" to end their lives, e.g. Sam Roweis (http://www.cs.nyu.edu/csweb/People/samroweis.html and http://samroweis1972-2010.blogspot.ca). I put "chosen" in quotes because one thing they have in common is Clinical Depression. This condition is not the sort of hipster malaise / ennuye that we like to attribute to "Genuises", or "Artists" as some kind of "Creativity" well. Clinical Depression is a biological cluster bomb to the brain, a paralysing, life-threatening condition that we should think of as the mental equivalent of a spinal cord injury ... not a "mid-life crisis" or emotional "funk". Aaron's death highlights an issue that has been in the forefront of the US newsmedia in recent months, mental health care (or lack thereof) in our society. We have been focusing on tragedies like the shooting of Gabby Giffords, the theatre shooting, and now the shooting at a school in Connecticut, and many have been using these as salient examples of the high cost to society of mental health problems. An equally salient discussion ought to take place around the tragedy that is suicide of people like Aaron, like Sam Roweis, and others. There is no doubt, for people with personal relationships with someone who commits suicide, the toll is unfathomable. For the rest of us, there is also a cost to society, what people in the business community call "opportunity cost". Aaron (and others) had untold opportunities for positively affecting the lives of millions of people around the world. The problem is large and complex. Where to start? Aaron wrote about this (http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity). My own suggestion: learn some facts about Major Depression. It is not housewives of beverly hills going to their therapist to vent about their vapid lives. Major Depression is a biological cruise missile to the mind. One place to start: Robert Sapolsky (Stanford) : http://youtu.be/NOAgplgTxfc

Yaa101 14y ago
I know a little bit about real depression and, even though it ruined my professional live, I consider myself lucky that mine was a 15 year struggle. Most people suffering this will never recover. Best way to describe it is that depression is a hallucination induced by your own brain, in other words, it's a mental jail. The problem is that there can be many causes to receive one but little to none ways to escape one, how can one escape their own delusions if their own brain is holding them hostage with disinformation and lies about how things are functioning. It is hard to explain because on the outside depressed people seem to function and give little clue to outsiders (unlike other mental ilnesses) and to the victim of the halluciantions. The halluciantions are not bold as in psychopathy or even manics, but extremely refined and often leave things like morals and concience intact or even enhance them. I also think that depression will come out to be part of the most difficult mental problems to be solved by the professionals, it is even harder to look in for outsiders than to penetrate from the inside out for the victims. I wish for all vitims of depression that moment of clarity and insight, to be able to escape that horrible halluciantion prison that was created by their own mind.

19 points by plg 14y ago

Yaa101 14y ago

I know a little bit about real depression and, even though it ruined my professional live, I consider myself lucky that mine was a 15 year struggle. Most people suffering this will never recover. Best way to describe it is that depression is a hallucination induced by your own brain, in other words, it's a mental jail. The problem is that there can be many causes to receive one but little to none ways to escape one, how can one escape their own delusions if their own brain is holding them hostage with disinformation and lies about how things are functioning. It is hard to explain because on the outside depressed people seem to function and give little clue to outsiders (unlike other mental ilnesses) and to the victim of the halluciantions. The halluciantions are not bold as in psychopathy or even manics, but extremely refined and often leave things like morals and concience intact or even enhance them. I also think that depression will come out to be part of the most difficult mental problems to be solved by the professionals, it is even harder to look in for outsiders than to penetrate from the inside out for the victims. I wish for all vitims of depression that moment of clarity and insight, to be able to escape that horrible halluciantion prison that was created by their own mind.