Problem is the author, as most people that say they are depressed self-diagnose. And gives advice. How would people react if author self-diagnosed cancer and gave advice on how to cure it? Depression is disabling illness, why such lightly take?
I struggle to see this as a negative. I’ve been officially diagnosed, maybe she hasn’t. Who cares? Her experience is still valid, the techniques and ideas are useful and frankly more people should be encouraged to write about their personal experiences like this without being admonished for it. I see no malice or ill intent in this article. Or even trivialisation, given the brief eluding towards suicidal thoughts.
Even medical professionals can’t agree on the exact definition of depression. And if you read the DSM you’ll see that many of the diagnostic criteria are at odds with current scientific knowledge and understanding (the official diagnostic criteria understandably lags quite a bit).
It’s not a perfect science. But we seem to just be debating whether this person has the right to call their condition “depression” or not. I’m gonna call it and say that she does.
It comes across as patronizing for those who know what things can or should give a mood boost, but lack the activation energy, or don't get much benefit from the outcome.
I think the thing I'm stuck on is how someone talking solely about their own personal lived experience during a low point in their life can possibly be patronising?
Is this not an interpretation that we as readers can choose or not choose? As opposed to something the author is doing to us?
If she was saying "depressed people should just do X, what's all the fuss about. Losers." then maybe I would feel patronised. But she's not doing that.
It's obviously a sensitive topic because a lot of people seem to share your view.
Getting a diagnosis from a psychiatrist that tells you that you have depression doesn't make your advice any more or less qualified.
When I was in my teens I answered like 5 questions on a piece of paper (on a scale of 1-10 type questions) and was instantly prescribed anti-depressants. That's the state of our medical system right now.
Amusingly(?) this was pretty much my diagnostic experience too.
Put another way - it’s like diagnosing cancer. Sometimes it’s so obvious that any doctor can see it. Sometimes it might be benign or malignant, and it might be hard to tell.
Regardless, I would be pretty skeptical of someone who said, “hey I have cancer and here’s how I fixed it” who was never diagnosed in the first place.
In this case it’s entirely possible the author had adjustment disorder/situational depression, which for many/most people will clear itself up, and it helps if you exercise, sleep well, eat well, etc. That’s a very different thing than persistent clinical depression, and telling someone that all they have to do is work out and eat well and get outside is almost cruel.
Except the author doesn't do this. They describe a system in which they track and observe what doesn't and what does work for them. Only someone that's living with a victim mentality would suggest that this is an attack on their own situation.
I'm tired of the suffering-olympics that people put on. "This person isn't as depressed as me. I've got a medical professional to confirm this, therefore what you've shared is unhelpful to anybody"
Surely you realize how ridiculous this position is?
We would be talking about how irresponsible it is - which in fact, we did on this very site:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21156916 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14564547 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3080176
To be clear - I am not a victim, I have never suffered from clinical depression. I don't care about the victim olympics. But there's a whole host of conditions where we immediately disregard people who say they fixed it themselves, or tried to fix it themselves. But take something like depression and we are saying that "hey this worked for someone else so we should consider it, and criticizing it is a victim mentality"