[ryanstorm]

Your comment aligns with an old HN comment that I have saved that resonated with me:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402387

I'd also recommend people feeling this way to read The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt. It helped me.

[thaumaturgy]

Interesting comment. Some research supports at least some of it:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141119125105.h...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/depressions-evolu...

While it may explain depressive moods or mindsets for many people, there's also a lot of supporting evidence for long-term, chronic, biochemical causes.

[Revery]

It might just be me, but it feels like that comment indirectly addresses losing one's religious beliefs as they get older. There's probably too many confounding factors, but I've been curious if there are any noticeable differences in depression frequency amongst irreligious folks that had religious upbringing. It seems it's something that is difficult for people to talk about or study.

[tomiplaz]

Thanks for sharing these. The comment very much resonates with me. There are some other resonating comments in these threads. It feels good to read those; I feel less alone.

Those nicely articulated thoughts might honestly help me deal with my episodes.

I should take a look at the book too.

[technobabble]

Thank you for linking to the book, and the previous comment.

[solarkraft]

Thanks for sharing this comment. I do have a bit of trouble with the last paragraph. Am I understanding correctly that the author claims depression is neccessary for building a better model of the world?

I'm sure depression has caused me to think about things and get a better understanding of them, but is it neccessary? What am I currently building a better model of?

[guntars]

In the beginning the author of the comment said that a broken model results in a loss of confidence which then prevents us from acting on that model and forces us to figure out a better one. They're saying that's what depression is - the downtime when you're supposed to play it safe and re-analyze the data and build a better fitting model. I can see how it can be better to not act on a broken model in case it could result in some harm, but it also stops us from gathering new data that might be important.

[watwut]

When I had depression, I stared into the wall tired of everything. Everything was pointless and everybody annoying. Just about only thing I understood better was depressive state itself.

It ended when I got healthy and the only inside I have is more understanding for depressive people.

[CompelTechnic]

The comment you linked concisely explains an idea I've "circled the drain" on for quite a while. Thank you.

[eeeeeeeeeeeee]

Hah, looks like I bought this book back in 2011 and never read it! Time to give it a go.