There are people who think that depression means 'feeling low', and that if you try hard enough, you can 'snap out of it'. These people are idiots. It's not a matter of being strong enough or dedicated enough. For me, like most people with depressive illnesses, there will be times when I just plain can't. In my worst states I can barely remember what a for loop does, let alone code one. Accept that there will be times when you can't work, and make the most of the times when you can.
There is an approach called "behavioral activation" that my psychiatrist taught me. Basically, instead of saying "I'll do it when I feel better", you say "I'll do it so I'll feel better".
Doing things I didn't feel like doing, that felt almost impossibly difficult (like putting on real clothes and going outside) was probably the most effective tool I've ever had with dealing with depression.
Coping mechanisms like that one definitely help -- especially if they get put to use early on in a depressive cycle. A high level of self-awareness, acknowledgement of depression (or other mental illness), certain hobbies, "sunshine therapy", all help to mitigate depression and other mental illnesses.
Still, though, there are severe forms of depression that can become invulnerable to all the self-help approaches.
This post really spoke to me because I deal with the same feelings as the article writer, and I too consider programming to be a therapeutic experience. However, it can also be a bit of an escape mechanism, making it a pyrrhic victory.
In code if something is wrong or not working right you know it can be fixed. Sometimes the fix is not easy, and requires lots of work, and research, and testing but after nearly ten years of coding experience I know that if something is wrong I can fix it. There is no problem in code which can't be solved. (Obviously excluding some things like the traveling salesman problem, etc.)
Real life isn't like that, because many factors are out of your control. You can not debug a relationship, or undo a mistake like you can roll back a code update.
At times I find myself retreating to the dependable, stable world of coding, in which changes can be implemented easily and quickly, and where mistakes are easily discovered and corrected. That's isn't necessarily a healthy thing though.
Absolutely, I pointed out a type of cognitive behavioral therapy (behavioral activation) because it's easy advice that may help people.
The science is pretty clear that a combination of medication and professionally-guided CBT has the most effective rates for treating depression, and that some specific treatments specifically don't work at all for some people.
I completely identify with this point. A member of my family suffers from depression and she's generated a list of things that she has to do when she feels particularly depressed. They are all pretty basic things for most people -- things like showering, making a cup of coffee, doing her hair, etc -- but things that can feel impossible. She gives herself the ultimatum that she has to do these things and it usually helps.
Depression is at the end of the day not a single illness. It's like cancer in that. Just like there are all kinds of cancer and what worked for yours might not work for others, so it is with depression. Behavioral activation might have been effective for you and you might have been able to snap out of it, most cases of depression don't have that luxory.
There are people who think that depression means 'feeling low', and that if you try hard enough, you can 'snap out of it'. These people are idiots. It's not a matter of being strong enough or dedicated enough. For me, like most people with depressive illnesses, there will be times when I just plain can't. In my worst states I can barely remember what a for loop does, let alone code one. Accept that there will be times when you can't work, and make the most of the times when you can.
There is an approach called "behavioral activation" that my psychiatrist taught me. Basically, instead of saying "I'll do it when I feel better", you say "I'll do it so I'll feel better".
Doing things I didn't feel like doing, that felt almost impossibly difficult (like putting on real clothes and going outside) was probably the most effective tool I've ever had with dealing with depression.