Hello all, I want to know how you get yourself to code when you are depressed and sad and you can't do much about it, But you have office work to do.
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Top comments (40)
It might be a cultural shift but "depressed" can be considered as a persistent disorder with severe damages. In this case, go see a doctor quickly.
However, I think it's not what you mean here, and I understand it more as "what do you do when you're feeling low?".
There are already pretty good answers such as doing exercise or less screen time, but I would add the following:
Note that junk food, too much social networking, lack of sleep, or isolation can be the very reasons of anxiety, sadness or worse.
Also less coffee. People underestimate caffeine. A lot.
Totally agree with you and overconsumption is kinda encouraged in the IT business.
Not just over-consumption, literally any of it can cause (or worsen) anxiety.
It's normally just a trade-off; but it always amazes me how people who are already stressed and/or dealing with anxiety will still drink one cup after another and wonder why they aren't feeling better yet.
I know you're coming from a good place when you wrote that but just in the interest of a friendly exchange of how intent can go awry, that kind of response to a question like "I'm depressed, anyone wanna share how they cope?" is maddening to me. Don't tell me what depression is, don't tell me what I should do about it, and absolutely do not suggest junk food is the cause.
Again. Not actually angry at you, just letting you know how it feels when you want some personal connection and someone explains your own brain to you.
Best,
Hi, I only share my thoughts and experience on the topic. There's no condescending judgment whatsoever.
Junk food can actually be a root cause for various disorders, including chronic fatigue. Being tired all the time can affect your mental health dramatically.
These are practical means to cope.
Nevermind.
For me: Get something done first thing when you sit down.
That's it. Contribute something, anything to what you're working on, and sometimes that turns in to a really great day. And sometimes it doesn't — but that's the nature of the beast.
I agree. It's making yourself start that's the hardest. That's why building good self discipline is key especially when you are motivated and on top of your game
Sometimes I even start by just checking my local git repo folder or venv or docker etc and removing any experiments or clutter I don't need. Nothing more than looking through folders/containers and deleting what I don't need from local. That way I get some tiny momentum, and when you're depressed any momentum is good momentum.
Reminds me of the famous adage:
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
Try going for a walk.
Coding is problem solving.
I often get epiphanies or breakthroughs while doing other things.
You could look at the work ahead of you and tell yourself you'll focus on this problem on my next walk.
Then while you're enjoying the outdoors, focus on solving the problem.
Or just focus on the outdoors. The solution will either come on its own, or it won't.
Great point @darkwiiplayer !
There are no easy answers, but on the day when you can't get in to it, maybe it's 3pm and you feel like you should stay sitting down for 3 more hours and work through it, your best bet is to get out and stop in that moment, and start from scratch the next day. Those three hours spent trying to power through are not going to help.
I take my MacBook and drive somewhere like an empty park or back road, park, and work. Driving helps clear my head.
You can only push yourself too hard though. Reaching out like you're doing is helpful. I wrote a post about how lonely coding can be and the replies really helped me.
Thank you James! 😊
You're not alone in this lonely world.
dev.to/james_palermo_bc208e463e4/t...
Wouldn't consider myself to be "depressed", but i can be sad from time to time, so i'll throw my 5 cents in. I do like 15 pushups, rest for 10 minutes, do another 15 pushups and after that i feel really energetic, don't know why, i just do. (If no one's looking) you can punch the air for a couple of minutes, it's strange, but for some reason it gives you a substantial energy and mood boost based on my experience. Listening to folk songs with jolly melodies can help too, my personal favourite in that regard is: "Wenn die Landsknecht trinken"
I can relate to you with music, I prefer to listen "feel-good" or "country" songs during a depression. It helps 😊
Thank you!
I gamify the GitLab contribution graph--goal of one commit per day, pushing for two or three. Even when I'm very much not feeling it, it's not hard to make myself open my laptop for one commit, which can take just five or ten minutes.
You end up with lots of very small changes over a long time, which is great for productivity because it keeps the state of the project fresh in your mind. It's also great for depression because even in the slow times when you're slogging through a difficult problem, you still have something very visible--a wall of colored-in squares--to show for it.
Yeah, even a small commit is a commit
Thank you! 😊
Exercise helps a lot
It's so hard. I know I just try not to be hard on myself and give myself breaks because honestly, there is a lot going on in the world that can flip us into that depressive mode really quick.
I just had a bad two day downer and I felt like I wasted a bunch of time. But once I finally was able to get myself back up and going, I made sure not to beat myself up about it. I felt like I got myself way behind in trying to find work/and or freelance projects, but taking care of mental health is always job numero uno for me.
Yup, I did same. I took a break when I was not feeling to do work and today I'm feeling much better and productive. Thank you! 😊
I think it starts with positive self-talk. Guilt can be a vicious cycle, don't treat yourself worse just because you are struggling.
My positive self-talk takes a turn and convert into regret talks 😄
But yeah once should try that.
Thank you! 😊