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Comment by honkycat | Hacker News Reader

I used to suffer from SEVERE depression in High School / College / Throughout my 20s. I am also diagnosed bipolar.

It's amazing how much of my problems could be traced back to lack of sleep, lack of exercise, smoking too much dope, and drinking too much.

The human body was made to be constantly strained and working out. Working out is a requirement of successful aging. [0][1][2][3]

It sounds like that condescending claptrap you hear over and over again, but hey: Maybe we are being condescending for a reason. Maybe you need condescended to. Maybe we are sick of telling you that you need to get enough sleep and work out to feel better. Even if it does not get you to 100%, it's a start.

0: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/well/move/being-fit-may-b... 1: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/well/weight-training-may-... 2: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/aging-well-through... 3: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/well/move/to-maintain-mus...

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By "used to", it sounds as though you have navigated to a better place in life, and that is great. When you look back, do you think that it is possible that some of the bad sleep/lack of exercise/smoking too much dope/drinking too much could have been owed to depression, instead of the cause of it?

I might be misreading your wording, but to my interpretation you're attributing depression being caused by those things. I am only asking for clarification because I have experienced some of those things, but also depressive feelings, and I'm wondering - introspectively, and by asking you, trying to learn from others - if it's easy to identify causes, and then learn to address those causes.

(edit: wording was pretty awful)

> ... could have been owed to depression, instead of the cause of it?

It's a viscous cycle, absolutely. For me it was DEFINITELY lack of sleep as one of the primary instigators of my depressive episodes. Lack of sleep was both a symptom and a cause of my depression. But, I know this: Getting more sleep and living well would have solved a LOT of my problems. LACK OF SLEEP was the thing to conquer, not this vague ennui I was dragging around like Christ on the cross.

I went to school at night and worked 40 hours a week through college. I would stay up late so I could have SOME AMOUNT of free time that was not occupied by work or school. This would lead me to getting really behind on my sleep, leading to poor performance at work and at school, and on and on. Graduating and finally going to bed at a decent time is what REALLY helped me get on the right track.

The research is very clear here: Sleep is absolutely an essential part of your life, and you forgo it at your own peril. I know it's "cool" in the hacker world to stay up super late and work on code all night, but in my personal experience: The code they write at 2am will have to be rewritten by your college who got enough sleep that night. And going into work worthless the next day is not an equal trade-off.

Thank you for your response, and candor. It certainly gives me a better understanding and new things to consider.

I'd argue that "poor diet" rounds out that list of "obvious physiological deficits that impair mental health".

And that only covers the physiological aspects of things, not counting other aspects (lack of social interaction, lack of meaningful work, etc)

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