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Comment by skinnymuch | Hacker News Reader

Yes people with serious depression etc are offended. I don’t see how that is gatekeeping. We just believe the writing should reflect how this person was not really suffering that much. There are a number of examples given throughout the comments showcasing that.

It would be nice if the blog post was more aware of their situation vs the situation for actually [clinically] depressed people. The word depressed does not have a firm meaning in society. This benefits the blogger in that their feats sound impressive and make depression not seem to be such a big deal.

I don’t see how this is gate keeping.

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>this person was not really suffering that much.

With all due respect, invalidating someone else's lived experience and telling someone that did something that worked for them that they shouldn't share it because it doesn't fit your definition of "suffering that much" is, quite literally, gatekeeping.

My message did not focus on if at all say they shouldn’t share what they wrote. Everything else you wrote is based around that incorrect assumption.

I said it should be clearer that the person is in a rut.

To give an extreme example, if the person said they had [high level] autism for a few months and did this stuff to get better. I’d think it is fair for people to get offended at that.

There are people who have suffered way more than you. Does that invalidate any opinion you have on your personal struggle? Of course not. Should you stop writing about it? Of course not. So why are you down on the author? She very carefully points out that she is talking about her personal experience and in no way generalise that experience to include or somehow fix problems for everybody else. If her experience gives you some ideas for how to improve your own situation then great! If not then so what? It might help others so it is useful.

I’m down on the terminology and framing. Most of what you wrote is not about that.

She does not carefully say she possibly was not that depressed. At no point did she think how would [clinically] depressed people feel with this written and equivocating her experience with theirs.

I wrote in a sibling reply, there would likely be universal negative response if she said she had [high level] autism [for a few months] and did stuff to fix it. Which would be the correct response.

> I don’t see how that is gatekeeping.

Because you don't get to decide whether someone is clinically depressed.

And you don`t get to decide how others should react to someone else articles content. Whether I believe the article is full of shit or not is my choice and I can express it freely why not?

Of course you can. And others can do the same to you.

> how this person was not really suffering that much

What is this, the depression Olympics? Give me a break.

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