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I struggled with whether to post this. But I think it's a simple way to gauge a common thread. I've known enough college students to know how often the thought

by robg 17y ago

I struggled with whether to post this. But I think it's a simple way to gauge a common thread. I've known enough college students to know how often the thought and act of suicide comes up. Ultimately I decided that leaving it unspoken is worse than a poll that can fade into the ether if you disagree. I agree on the black bar.

jacquesm 17y ago
You're right. I think it's just a bit much in such a short time.
- robg 17y ago
  Yeah, that was part of why I thought long and hard then slept on it. But the problem is: When's the right time?
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
tokenadult 17y ago
Ultimately I decided that leaving it unspoken is worse than a poll that can fade into the ether if you disagree. Yes. I was startled that just a few days after a poll on HN members feeling depressed with most responses (hundreds) saying that participants often felt depressed http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849650 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849650 there was a thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859117 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859117 (still on the front page as I type this) about a young hacker who seemed to have much going for him dying of suicide. The comments in the previous thread nay-saying the idea of taking depression seriously as a life-threatening problem sound especially stark in light of the later thread. Lifetime incidence of at least one period of depressed mood is fairly high across humankind, but that's over the course of a whole lifetime. It is UNUSUAL for young people to have prolonged (days-long) episodes of depressed mood if they haven't had a parent die or something like that. That's an issue that should be looked into. Untreated depression is a huge cause of mortality among young people. Young people in developed countries don't die of much else besides traffic accidents (and at least some deaths of young people that are reported as traffic accidents may be misreported suicides). There is also the issue of subsequent degradation of a person's quality of life if depression is not treated when the person is young. Most twenty-somethings are resilient enough to get through quite a few episodes of depression and to stay employed and to stay in romantic relationships, but each depressive episode tends to cost a patient work productivity, intimacy with significant others, and other sources of personal reserves for the next episode. Physicians have taken care in multiple research projects to develop diagnostic screening tools that standardize how much by way of depressive symptoms is enough to be of concern. If you have a concern, get the opinion of someone with clinical experience and see if you can go through life without repeated episodes of feeling worse (and doing worse) than you need to. If a young person is depressed for days at a time a few times a year, that young person has a clinical case of depression and is well advised to seek medical advice about what to do about. Both medicine and cognitive talk therapy can be helpful, often most helpful as a both-and combination.

by robg 17y ago

jacquesm 17y ago

You're right. I think it's just a bit much in such a short time.

robg 17y ago
Yeah, that was part of why I thought long and hard then slept on it. But the problem is: When's the right time?
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

tokenadult 17y ago

Ultimately I decided that leaving it unspoken is worse than a poll that can fade into the ether if you disagree. Yes. I was startled that just a few days after a poll on HN members feeling depressed with most responses (hundreds) saying that participants often felt depressed http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849650 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849650 there was a thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859117 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859117 (still on the front page as I type this) about a young hacker who seemed to have much going for him dying of suicide. The comments in the previous thread nay-saying the idea of taking depression seriously as a life-threatening problem sound especially stark in light of the later thread. Lifetime incidence of at least one period of depressed mood is fairly high across humankind, but that's over the course of a whole lifetime. It is UNUSUAL for young people to have prolonged (days-long) episodes of depressed mood if they haven't had a parent die or something like that. That's an issue that should be looked into. Untreated depression is a huge cause of mortality among young people. Young people in developed countries don't die of much else besides traffic accidents (and at least some deaths of young people that are reported as traffic accidents may be misreported suicides). There is also the issue of subsequent degradation of a person's quality of life if depression is not treated when the person is young. Most twenty-somethings are resilient enough to get through quite a few episodes of depression and to stay employed and to stay in romantic relationships, but each depressive episode tends to cost a patient work productivity, intimacy with significant others, and other sources of personal reserves for the next episode. Physicians have taken care in multiple research projects to develop diagnostic screening tools that standardize how much by way of depressive symptoms is enough to be of concern. If you have a concern, get the opinion of someone with clinical experience and see if you can go through life without repeated episodes of feeling worse (and doing worse) than you need to. If a young person is depressed for days at a time a few times a year, that young person has a clinical case of depression and is well advised to seek medical advice about what to do about. Both medicine and cognitive talk therapy can be helpful, often most helpful as a both-and combination.