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MountainWest RubyConf 2013 Devs and Depression by Greg Baugues

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  • Recommended by 7 people, in Hacker News, across 7 different months.
  • Presented by Greg Baugues, as the video describes them

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

34K views13 years ago7 recommendations

Mental healthBrain and nervesDepression and anxietyADHD

Greg Baugues shares his personal experience with bipolar disorder and ADHD, discussing the prevalence of mental illness in the software developer community.

I am a developer, and I have Type II BiPolar and ADHD. It's not something we talk about, but BiPolar, depression, and ADHD runs rampant in the developer community - they tend to correlate with higher intelligence. Many of the symptoms of this conditions make for great developers, but also cause incredible damage. We recently lost one of our co-workers because of untreated mental illness. I want to share my story - and let people know that it's okay to talk about these things, that it's nothing to be ashamed of, and how to get help, and how to help those around them. Help us caption & translate this video! amara.org/v/CiiY/

Why it's here

7 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a powerful personal story and discussion about the link between mental illness and traits of successful software developers.

gregorymichaelin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: I can't think straight, my life is in limbo, and I want to end it now”

I am so sorry you're going through this. Remember, you can always procrastinate ending it all, and do it later while you examine other options. There is a community at DevPressed1 of developers who struggle with depression. I am a developer and gave a talk on my struggle with depression and the greater issue of Developers and Depression 2. Email me if you'd like to chat - greg at baugues.com 1. link 2. link to this video
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cschneidin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Tech Has a Depression Problem”

There is a discussion forum specifically for this: link Please check it out, and also any of the talks 1 by its founder, Greg Baugues. It's from a ruby conference, but is applicable to all developers. 1 link to this video )
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rbshadelin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Startup depression”

Here's a great talk by Greg Baugues in which he discusses his own mental illness (bipolar type II and ADHD) and notes that often there is a fine line between a symptom of depression/mental illness and a trait of a successful developer: link to this video
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Ezhikin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Developers and Depression – Getting Unstuck”

…be really great if I could just get some magic pill that would make everything great and solve all my problems. On better days I almost feel like I can defeat all of this and just go marching forward. On days like that I can spend twelve hours staring into code and produce something, but then days, weeks, months will go on with nothing at all. 1 link to this video…
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partycoderin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Devpressed is now OSMI”

I don't suffer of depression myself, but I think this initiative is worth supporting. This talk might be relevant: link to this video
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samuraiseoulin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: How to cope with burnout every 6 months?”

I think it's worth looking into for sure. I ran across this when I was suffering from some depression and was trying to see how other devs deal with it. link to this video It's a talk about Bipolar Type II which doesn't have the same kind of full blown manic episodes as regular bipolar type I has. It has hypomanic episodes that are not often reported to the doctor because they seem like happiness or something good, or a sudden drive to do something productive. I've been getting looked at for it myself now and normal depression meds(SSRIs) can actually negatively effect it. It may be worth looking at OP!
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29athrowawayin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Surviving Depression”

I recommend this talk about depression and software developers: link to this video There are newer versions of this talk, but I think this one has the most powerful storytelling.
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jayhuangin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Why mental health idealism might not overcome the market”

As someone who has, and still is struggling a lot with mental health issues, it’s immediately obvious how big the gap is between the impact of mental health, and the amount of attention it gets in the media/social circles. The social stigma of mental illnesses are so strong that you rarely hear sufferers of depression, anxiety, bipolar, etc speak out about it, which is exactly the opposite of what needs to happen. Making it known that you have a mental illness is simply not the same as having a physical handicap (please note I am not trying to downplay the pains of physical handicap or any other illnesses). People simply do not know how to react to mental illness. Or they’re incapable of und…
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samuraiseoulin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: How do you deal with depression?”

I would for sure talk to your doctor about it. Normally your doctor can recommend medicine and services such as a psychologist(more talk therapy) or psychiatrist(more prescription based) that will work with them and be in your insurance network if that's a thing you need to worry about. That said, I would do a lot of research before going in, but do see your doctor for sure. I say do research because depression can be a symptom of other things such as Bipolar type II or Cyclothymic disorder. Hypomania is the main hallmark that you would look into with those. I would also read and be prepared to talk to your doctor about anxiety symptoms as well as panic attack or ptsd symptoms. You may not h…
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