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Developers and Depression

7 points by saurabh 13y ago

hltbra 13y ago
Amazing talk. I need to forward it to a lot of friends...
- agumonkey 13y ago
  The reddit thread about this talk says the same. It seems it's describing many many of us.
agumonkey 13y ago
Website made by the speaker to address this topic http://www.devpressed.com/latest/more http://www.devpressed.com/latest/more
jetti 13y ago
I find it great the acceptance of talks like this as it shows progress. However, I feel like depression (and to an extent bi-polar) is the "easiest" of the mental illnesses to understand when one is in a position of never having the illness. Most people have been sad at one point in their life so they could relate to the depressed part and most people have been full of energy so they could possibly relate to mania. It is relate-able. The problem is with the other mental illnesses, that aren't so relate-able. For instance, there I have schizoaffective disorder. I have talked with people in real life about the depression aspect and even my self mutilation, but very few people know about my "schizo" part of my illness. I think maybe 3 people in my life know and 2 of those 3 don't know the extent. I can explain sadness, but how does one explain homicidal ideation without alarming somebody? How does one explain the type of delusions that somebody with my illness can have? Now imagine that there is a talk of me saying that I quite frequently have homicidal ideation. Do you think a hiring manager who saw that video after giving a quick google would want to hire me? My guess is that they would be scared that I would commit workplace violence, despite me having no intention to actually act on my thoughts (the thoughts are just there). Unfortunately, even this community isn't immune from the shaming. There is a certain developer who has created incredible software, software that many people only could dream of creating, and he did it all by himself but he gets no praise. Instead, his illness is the target of ridicule. The threads (here and reddit) that contain his work are just littered with comments making fun of him.

7 points by saurabh 13y ago

hltbra 13y ago

Amazing talk. I need to forward it to a lot of friends...

agumonkey 13y ago
The reddit thread about this talk says the same. It seems it's describing many many of us.

agumonkey 13y ago

Website made by the speaker to address this topic http://www.devpressed.com/latest/more http://www.devpressed.com/latest/more

jetti 13y ago

I find it great the acceptance of talks like this as it shows progress. However, I feel like depression (and to an extent bi-polar) is the "easiest" of the mental illnesses to understand when one is in a position of never having the illness. Most people have been sad at one point in their life so they could relate to the depressed part and most people have been full of energy so they could possibly relate to mania. It is relate-able. The problem is with the other mental illnesses, that aren't so relate-able. For instance, there I have schizoaffective disorder. I have talked with people in real life about the depression aspect and even my self mutilation, but very few people know about my "schizo" part of my illness. I think maybe 3 people in my life know and 2 of those 3 don't know the extent. I can explain sadness, but how does one explain homicidal ideation without alarming somebody? How does one explain the type of delusions that somebody with my illness can have? Now imagine that there is a talk of me saying that I quite frequently have homicidal ideation. Do you think a hiring manager who saw that video after giving a quick google would want to hire me? My guess is that they would be scared that I would commit workplace violence, despite me having no intention to actually act on my thoughts (the thoughts are just there). Unfortunately, even this community isn't immune from the shaming. There is a certain developer who has created incredible software, software that many people only could dream of creating, and he did it all by himself but he gets no praise. Instead, his illness is the target of ridicule. The threads (here and reddit) that contain his work are just littered with comments making fun of him.