[vfc1]

I remember reading something like russian poor farmers that didn't have enough food for the winter to do this, it was called Lotska, which reported in scientific papers over 100 years ago - http://inhumanexperiment.blogspot.com/2010/03/curious-case-o...

"At the first fall of snow the whole family gathers round the stove, lies down, ceases to wrestle with the problems of human existence, and quietly goes to sleep. Once a day every one wakes up to eat a piece of hard bread, of which an amount sufficient to last six months has providently been baked in the previous autumn. When the bread has been washed down with a draught of water, everyone goes to sleep again. The members of the family take it in turn to watch and keep the fire alight."

But I don't find many reliable source about it. Does anyone if this is really true? It sounds hard to believe.

[zikzak]

While I doubt they did this for more than a few days at a time, I can totally see them doing this to help get through winters.

I've had a couple of periods where I was flat broke and had food staples and a roof over my head but not much else in Canadian winter or two. That's essentially how I would pass a few days here and there to save money on food and expenses.

I would sleep as much as possible, fast until around 8pm, and eat a cheap meal (e.g. bulk pasta and tomato sauce I made from marked down cans of tomato and froze), then back to bed. A lot of the time, if I couldn't sleep, I would read. This was pre internet and I didn't have a phone or tv.

Days go by pretty fast like that (it was very, very cold out each time I did this and I had inadequate clothing for the weather so even a walk was not happening).

Eventually, the next thing I had to do would come up and I'd get back to normal. For context, I worked in kitchens so work meant "free" food (my jobs paid very little) or a couple times I was in a cabin in the middle of nowhere waiting for the weather to clear so I could dig out and get my car in the road. Nice to do this when you have a good supply of stove wood and a good book.

[throwaway201103]

> Days go by pretty fast like that

I've found this to be the case with COVID isolation and WFH. Not having any set work hours and nobody really even aware of whether I'm working or not, I'm sleeping a lot more (like 12 hrs/day) and not being very productive the rest of the time. This year has just vanished in a haze of sleeping and not doing much, a week can feel like a day sometimes.

[buss]

This sounds a lot like the symptoms of depression. I have depression, and the isolation of the pandemic has really worn me down. I went back on my antidepressants about six months ago and I'm still struggling. Totally up to you, but you might want to try talking to a therapist or psychiatrist. It's one of the best choices I've ever made. Making that first call was hard because I felt like I was admitting defeat, but looking back I was actually choosing to fight.

[mechnesium]

Do you think the risks of taking antidepressants are worth the benefits? I suffer from depression, but I’m afraid I might do some serious damage if I go on meds.

[g3e0]

I've also suffered from depression, and am now on meds. I can honestly say they have changed my life for the better, with no side effects (other than an initial 3 days of tiredness, which wore off).

However, there are a few caveats:

I am convinced that the placebo effect is so powerful, that if you believe the meds will harm you, they actually could. I can't back this up with science, but I think the only reason meds worked for me is because I was able to lose the negative preconceptions I had about them (same for therapy). Unfortunately, negative perception of antidepressants is so prevalent that this is very difficult (but doable).

Antidepressants shouldn't make you feel numb. Neither are they "happy pills". The goal of them is, in theory, to stop you feeling depressed _over nothing_. What they will hopefully do is bring you back to a stable normality, encompassing the entire range of normal human emotions.

Curing your depression will not automatically make you happy (but it will certainly help you on your way) – Only living a happy and fulfilling life, full of people you care about and things you enjoy, can do that.

You also need to give your body the best chance, by making sure no basic aspect of your life is severely lacking - sleep, food/drink, exercise, family/friends/social, hobbies that give you a feeling of accomplishment etc.

[type0]

> I am convinced that the placebo effect is so powerful, that if you believe the meds will harm you, they actually could.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo

[buss]

This is a great answer, thank you for sharing!

[buss]

What risks are you referring to?

I'm taking sertraline (zoloft) now, and the only negatives I'm experiencing are slightly reduced libido and jaw clenching/grinding. I've started occasionally wearing a night guard while sleeping, and not really minding the decreased libido since dating during a global pandemic is outside of my acceptable risk tolerance.

I've also taken Lexapro and had good results with that, too.

The benefits are I was able to actually feel pleasure and enjoy things again. At my worst I was suffering from severe anhedonia -- literally finding no pleasure in any activity. Nothing I previously enjoyed brought any modicum of happiness: not food, not sex, not exercise, not work or side projects. It's a dangerous state to be in because when literally nothing in life brings joy you can slip into destructive choices.

The benefits of feeling better vastly outweighed any minor side effects of antidepressants.

There are some people, especially teenagers, who can become suicidal when taking antidepressants. But it's very rare and your psychiatrist will help you find a drug that doesn't cause those feelings.

[ivanb]

There is no such word "lotska" in Russian. They could have meant "lyozhka", translating to something like "lie-down", an archaic word no one uses nowadays. Anyway, the story is unbelievable and has poor sources.

[kulesh]

I agree. It seems like a hoax

[verylittlemeat]

Some people might find this video interesting. Family that fled into the siberian taiga for 70 years to avoid religious persecution. One thing that stands out in my memory is how they said their main form of entertainment was sharing and analyzing their dreams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68

[vbezhenar]

I don't think it's true. There are no mentions about it in old fairy tales and it would certainly be a common enough theme.

[zoomablemind]

Interesting. There must be some research detailing how much energy a human body minimally needs to sustain the rest state. Every activity needs some energy, beating the heart, breathing, metabolizing nutrients, fats. Turning from side to side (no avoid the bed sores).

This would yield the required the degree of preparations before embarking on such a long stretch of lockdown. Gaining enough fat, stocking wood/coal/water/bread, well, farming what's needed through the rest of the year.

I think this may be a survival stretch for some bad years, not a sustainable practice.

[bpodgursky]

This has to be at least wrong at the margins -- breastfeeding infants (of which there are many, historically) can't survive by eating once a day.

[afarrell]

I think I'd need to have serious craving for carbohydrates in order to bring myself to eat 2-month-old bread.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder-sa...

[firethief]

Hard enough bread keeps for years: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtack

Yeah it's not that palatable, but we're talking about a survival strategy. It's biscuit or death.

[Mediterraneo10]

The bread would likely be frozen and thawed. It's fine. Historically Arctic peoples often bought bread in bulk and thawed it as needed.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Somewhere on the internet there is a similar story about French peasants by a member of the French revolution.

[lsllc]

I thought of that story when I saw this story. All I could find is this:

https://www.angloinfo.com/blogs/france/midi-pyrenees/pot-pou...

Will update if I can find the one from the French Revolution.

[suncherta]

I read the same about Switzerland peasants in some book years ago. It was based on traveler's account.

[mnl]

Unbelievable because of scurvy for instance.

[hourislate]

I really doubt there is any truth to that. I'm pretty sure they would have sustained themselves on Buckwheat, Boar, other game, cabbage, and over the last few hundred years, Potato.

They may have all slept together in one room around a fire and spent more time indoors during the winter but there is no way they hibernated. If that were the case millions in Ukraine would have survived Stalin's intentional famine (Holodomor). Families could have simply just rode it out sleeping and eating a piece of bread.