Ask HN: How can I help people defeat depression?

What people lack these days is community. Building an excellent community will allow people with problems like depression to find support.

The researchers polled 1,018 depressed patients in 90 randomized community- and clinic-based programs. The community-based approaches--in such places as churches, senior centers, and barber shops--worked best at improving mental-health quality of life, increasing physical activity, reducing homelessness risk factors, and getting more people to seek hospital and primary physician care. [1]

[1] http://www.rand.org/news/press/2013/06/25.html

I have had a one but long period of depression in the past where everything was dark. Dark as hell. Retrospectively I can say, by far the thigs that help the most are just someone listening. Listening the other who needs it and in a 10% maybe help them by reframing them and put in perspective their view. It is a really difficult job. Second something that helped me a lot was CBT online by using Lantern, it helps you see things differently and chat with a therapist all day long, personally I trusted my couch there way more than any of the 3 therapist I saw personally, they sucked. Lastly the best thing that helped me get back to my real better me was to become useful. That means do create stuff on the side (a useful startup with paying customers) and get a job in the terms I always wanted earning well (remote consultant). In my case money played a big role. Also as soon as possible get the best gym you can. I tried 5 gyms and some sucked, other were good, but I as soon as I bought the most expensive one, it was by far the best desicion I have made. Last but no lease, it might be stupid but something that impacted a lot for the better was upgrading my work tools to the best one on the market, I bought a nice big monitor and ordered all my workspace. This improved my mood a lot instead of a the tiny little screen of my Mac, not recommended for 15+ work day. I forgot, try reducing sugars and carbs. Hope this helps someone. There is a escape. Get in touch with me if needed. g at black dot uy

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I wonder if some kind of chatbot therapist would help. It would have to be somehow preloaded with actual good things to say. Maybe you could get real therapists to volunteer various answers.

It's not ideal, but many people are in desperate situations. Not everyone can afford $100 an hour for a therapist.

And there's something to be said for someone who just listens. I remember hearing a story decades ago about a man who put an ad in the classifieds: "Will listen without comment for 20 minutes for $20." He got a lot of calls!

Go study psychology and psychiatry.

Get them active outdoors (high-intensity exercise creates BDNF [1], which is like miracle-grow for the brain [2]), get them writing (provides an outlet for trapped thoughts cycling around in their head), get them to make something (among other things, it shifts their focus from the past to a future they are actively involved in shaping) [3], and get them physically involved with helping others who are less fortunate (compassionate acts give perspective and help reframe the mind) .

1. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-derived_neurotrophic_fac...

2. SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain http://www.johnratey.com/Books.php

3. "When You Are Depressed, Make Something." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13365430

Be kind to everyone you meet.

Can help: Medication (SSRIs, SSNRIs), therapy, meditation, exercise, close relationships

Can hurt: lack of sleep, alcohol, stress, traumatic/emotional events

You can't just treat depression with games etc, for people that are depressed and fall into depression it goes way deeper than you think. Whenever, I have into depression I block all the negative news, I watch funny ideas, comedy , hanging out with friends, family, my little nephew and my dog. Also, coding and doing math helps me a lot. However, hanging out with my little nephew give me back that purpose to continue and work hard so I can make his life better

    > can't just treat depression with games etc

I too had someone very close lose a battle with depression. I've been working on ideas on my own to try and come up with something useful. This is my most recent attempt: http://www.zerotoaction.com I'd love to team up or discuss ideas with you and anyone interested. It's a topic that's very important to me. This is my first post/comment, please forgive me if I broke protocol in any way. Critiques and suggestions are welcome.

Learn about LSD

I have to admit that I don't really know what a depression is. I cannot relate to people who suffer because negative things happen in their lives. However I suffer from some depression-like symptoms (poor sleep quality, disinterest in life and any activities) plus many more (mental brain fog is the most profound, low muscle endurance, stuffed nose, fatigue from sitting in front of computer monitor) and it is a 10+ year journey. It took me a few years to discover the link some food types, which for some time can lift my symptoms. Only recently I have found out about methylation and was happy to find out foods that helped were rich in the nutrients required to lower homocysteine levels. If I was to find a best treatment strategy for people with problems like mine - it would require finding the underlying cause. That is - discovering accurate (and cheap!) ways of identifying deficiencies of various micro-elements (esp. zinc, folates (but not folic acid) and other B-complex vitamins) and determining effective methods of supplementation. Also - there has to be some link between posture and fatigue. My nose feels much cleaner and I am breathing easier after doing exercises for my neck kyphosis. It also helps with digestion and overall feeling of well-being.

Medical researchers (who mostly lack the skills) have problems and data sets in this field that could very effectively be worked with the newer statistical analysis and machine learning techniques. For example this is a project that I almost got involved with: http://www.diamond.unimelb.edu.au/research/projects.html#dia....

In more general terms, we all need to look after each other better! I hope you feel you did the best you could for your friend. But from my experience, it's amazing how people just fall away when you get seriously depressed.

As someone currently with depression (it's 4 AM, and I only had 3 hours of sleep), a job would really help. I've been unemployed for almost 2 years since graduation.

My condolences for your loss, and to their family.

I think the main thing that can be done to help people with these issues is to reduce the stigma of mental illness. The idea that you are somehow responsible or shouldn't talk about those problems keeps people from getting the help they need. Unfortunately I do not know how this can be done.

I'd be happy to talk to you about this privately, if you wish. My contact info is in my profile.

* Having someone that is able to listen and relate too is very important, especially someone you can build a relationship on that genuinely cares.

* Having a purpose. depression is sometimes based on the fact that the person has no purpose, no one to impress, no one that needs/appreciate the help they can give.

* Having a method where people can meet and build small common goals for the day/week in smaller groups (5 or less) would really help.

* Exercise, healthy eating and creativity.

* A job = some sort of purpose, so employment.

* Getting a routine.

* Sun/Vitamin D

* Building a positive and useful environment around themselves.

* Being part of something that has some meaning, like if they would not attend/be there it will not advance without them. This makes them important and the feeling of having a purpose to get out of bed.

* Anything that makes you laugh.

I think that people aren't depressed by a chemical imbalance but instead that is the result of their situation. And I think helping people by improving their quality of life might help them feel better. That's my case, but there might be people who have everything yet feel empty, in that case love, family, support and medications can help. Just don't be afraid to ask for different meds if the side effects you don't like, like for example gaining weight or twitching or nystagmus or something like that (i had all 3 and more)...

Some great suggestions in the top comment. Also try talking through the causes of the depression and what they can do to resolve it or improve on it. I once had a friend who was depressed and considering taking medication to treat it. We talked for a little while and it turned out that she had an abusive father while growing up, and her depression had started ever since she moved back home with her parents. She is now in the process of moving out and putting more distance between her and her father.

Depression is often like physical pain. Sometimes it's worth treating in and of itself, other times, it's your body/mind's way of telling you that there's something wrong, and that you need to go fix it. In such cases, you always want to make sure that you're treating the cause, and not the symptoms.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28depression-t...

I feel the most important effort is to take the time to be around them and listen to them when they want to talk and not push them when they don't want to. Having seen a close friend go through depression, one of the biggest lessons I learnt was to when to keep shut and not push, but then sometimes - you have to take a call to push them to open up. When I say push - I mean asking them to "try out different things to get out of depression”. You have to tread those waters a bit carefully. Because if they start something and can't continue then it is another reason for them to feel depressed - and generalize that "I am not that good at all". I did a lot of mistakes like pushing them to get into routines, exercise and other out of comfort zone things - at the wrong times. And the cardinal mistake of “oh-try-a-bit-harder” expression and body language. Those are things that you need to avoid.

It did take a couple of other friends also - to whom my friend opened up to.

For more effective usage of Rx meds https://www.NutraHacker.com has a great resource to get more information about how your genetics interact with SSRIs, SNRIs, etc.

You specifically asked how you could use your technology skills to help people.

First though, there are two kinds (at least) of depression. One is the normal kind where you feel blue when things go wrong in life. This is normal and it should fade. There is another kind related to an incorrectly functioning brain. For this medication is needed to help correct that problem.

When a malfunctioning brain combines with things not going your way in life... you get a high probability of a downward spiral and suicide. It's a terrible self-feeding cycle.

Back to technology: Having a sense of meaning and purpose is quite possibly the most important component to a healthy human experience. When you are completely down in the dumps, just going down to a local soup kitchen and offering to volunteer for a day can recharge you and spark understanding of the human condition.

What you can do with technology is endless. For instance, I have never encountered an app or site where I enter a zip code and see everywhere I can go and help other people that day, right then and there. If such an app or site could list close by "AA" style depression sufferers meetings I could drop into anonymously on my way to they metaphorical "soup kitchen"; that would be even better.

You won't ever understand depression through tech, but understanding it through the human side will allow to you to envision how to use your tech skills to help.

From my own experience: Listen and keep in mind that all the emotions of a depressed person are their reality. Emotions are far more powerful than most people expect and can change the view on everything. What helped me most was meditation... Instead of being scared and running away from what was going on it helped me focusing on and studying my own depression. The process was to not identify myself too much, learning that there's a me and bunch load of emotions i couldn't handle. Don't push to hard, a depression takes its time. Listen, talk, take them on a walk. but don't expect them to be fine just after a few weeks. Find a good psychologist who can help the person to understand the mechanics of a depression, it's source and how it develops, and how it shows off. Again studying and understanding yourself was to me the most helpful thing. Sports helped in the very end to get back on track and preventing some fallbacks.

I wonder if this might be a mutually-beneficial situation for lonely, elderly people to hook up with struggling folks.