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
Edit: Hm. I googled a little after posting and realized that my comment about Day One not being "properly encrypted" might be incorrect. It was based upon my experience with v1 of Day One. It looks like v2 added encryption and it was further improved with v2.1--though I can't speak to the strength of their implementation and can't find anyone who claims to have audited it. And they still only appear to support their own sync service.
As for the notes…maybe nvAlt? http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/
Where do you see that the latest version added encryption? The most recent info I've seen is the blog entries from May 2016 http://dayoneapp.com/2016/05/end-to-end-encryption-for-day-o...
and August 2016 http://dayoneapp.com/2016/08/encryption-update/
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]
* 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.
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!
> can't just treat depression with games etc
*ie: those with the energy to stick with it, and an interest in travel
Can hurt: lack of sleep, alcohol, stress, traumatic/emotional events
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.
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.
A lack of job means living with my parents, having no ownership, being treated like a child, no future, etc.
I did have a contract before, but it was terribly underpaid and career killing, since no one wants to invest into you. I currently have another interview scheduled for a different 3-month contract for even worse pay ($23/hr in NYC).
The lack of having a career is terribly depressing. I get whiplash from the conditions and being treated as a non-member of the team.
When it comes time to choose the employee for the job, no matter how well you did in that interview they will be thinking if he is the right choice: "how come he can't find work? we must be missing a red flag on this person that other employers are noticing. Let's choose the 2nd best as a more secure option so that we don't look like idiots."
I too was suckered into an underpaying tech job startup where I was promised of quick advancement. Instead I got taken advantage of and have yet to recover from this mistake.
The struggle continues...
Truth is every nearly all tech jobs where I live pay very poorly and are mostly dead-end development agency type gigs.
I don't have any money to relocate, nor do I have any money to commute for interviews elsewhere. Plus, it's very rare to find employers willing to help with such things.
Another problem is that I was suckered into a dead-end development job since I left school so I haven't really got much "professional" experience with modern technologies. That kind of annoys me because I've been coding for 10 years and I've been keeping up with things in personal projects, but apparently that doesn't count.
Oh, and I have anxiety and autism so my personal is toxic for most agile development roles. That's probably why I was let go.
I've basically lost everything now. My house, car and now that I'm back with my parents I'm living hour away from my girlfriend which I don't have any real way to see. I suppose in some ways it's liberating to no longer have to worry about losing the things I care about.
I never drank a day in my life until now, but lately I drink every day just to help me through. People say alcohol does't work, but that's not true. I'd recommend it to anyone in my situation.
I'll keep trying to find something, I'm a fighter at heart, but I'm not holding out much hope anymore.
I'm not sure how much long things can carry on like this.
Best of luck, I hope everything works out for you man.
Timing and luck count for a lot. You won the shit job lottery that's difficult to recover from, not to mention your anxiety/autism that will hurt your chances as well.
I am only a couple weeks away from moving back in with my mother as I can't find any work and also am loosing everything, I'm a 35 year old man moving back with his mother, back to the same city I left 7 years ago to improve my life. I have even applied to a previous employer close to my mother that treated me so horribly it was the main reason I left that town in the first place.
On the positive side all I have now is this computer I'm writing on, a DSLR camera and a cell phone. So I am able to get up and go anywhere in the world possible I guess, no GF to discuss that over.
And yes alcohol sure does work, an I can't even afford that anymore.
But honestly if you keep plugging away at it, you are going to get the timing right for once (laws of probability), be in the right place at the right time and the course of life changes. This thought is one of the only things preventing me from ending everything.
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.
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...
It did take a couple of other friends also - to whom my friend opened up to.