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Detecting Depression From How (Not What) You Browse
New submitter FreedomFirstThenPeac writes "Apparently we can diagnose you as depressed if the mechanics of your internet use fit certain patterns. By using a cleverly embedded questionnaire that classifies the subject as depressed, and by using existing net usage data collection to collect features (variables), researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology were able to correctly predict the diagnoses of the questionnaire using the net usage data (PDF). I wonder if this could be a new Firefox plug-in, designed to help parents detect depression in their adolescents by tracking the mechanics (not the sites) and automatically emailing them if their ward is showing increasing signs of depression."
I would prefer to see someone research radical changing of desktop configurations possibly indicating brain aneurysms. I have noticed twice in my working career that people that suddenly change their background color to something like magenta, or fiddle around with the size of their text non-stop (aka one day they contact support because the text is too small, next day they contact support because the text is too big.) end up within 6 months being in the hospital because of a brain aneurysm. No Joke.
The path out of depression has been well documented in Dr. Martin Seligman's book Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. He has spent 30 years of his life in the field of positive psychology and has multiple case studies showing how people can get over "learned helplessness" in all three realms of personal, pervasive and permanent.
http://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-Mind/dp/1400078393/
He has a talk on Ted:
http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology.html
And a website with some questionnaires:
http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx
To use Chris Farley, who unfortunately committed suicide due to depression, as an example I provide three typical phrases that he would use in his work:
Personal: I suck!
Pervasive: Everything sucks!
Permanent: It will always suck!
Please note that motivational speakers are typically all optimists and people who are unmotivated go to them for a "motivational fix" which lasts for about two weeks without optimism to back it. See also the typical person who starts a diet, exercise regimen or other self improvement plan.
"Giving money and power to governments is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." - P.J. O'Rourke
Yep, telling your kid that they're failures has always been a great way to turn them into educated, stable, confident adults.
Ttelling them they are smart and winners is at least as bad. The best current advice seems to be to tell them that failing is part of the process of succeeding and is nothing to be ashamed of.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I still wonder if medicine has the cause-and-effect mixed up a bit. The chemicals in the brain can be reactive, and higher levels of any of them could be a symptom of something else. The brain manufactures its own serotonin, so any increase or decrease must also have a cause. These chemical levels should not be viewed in isolation.
Based on my own experience, I tend to think that the changes had a psychological cause, and so one should attempt a psychological treatment as a first option.
Obviously every case is different, so I'm not saying drugs aren't necessary for some. But treating the chemical imbalance as if it is the cause just seems wrong to me. It doesn't answer the question of where these chemicals come from (the brain makes them) and why (something causes the brain to make more).
A normal, healthy brain regulates its own chemicals and neurons etc.
A depressed brain tends to have a negative feedback loop where something triggers a drop in serotonin (or other chemicals) and that in turn makes you "sad", which then results in a further drop in seroronin, and so on. When you are actually depressed, the initial cause is probably long gone, and sometimes it may need external help to re-stabilise everything (although I never got that far along, I always seemed to restabilise naturally after a few weeks. the exhaustion tended to allow my body/brain to recover). I'm not an expert in it so I can only go by my experience.
Eventually you start to become aware of some of the "triggers" that set you off, and once you recognise them, you can start to work around them. Your brain forms pathways, and it is just like tracks in soft dirt I suppose (not literally). The more times you take that path, the deeper the rut becomes, making it harder to take a different path next time. But you can use this same principle to your advantage. When you sense that you are heading down the wrong pathway, try focussing on positive, self-reassuring things, and see if you can focus on your good qualities and things you are proud of yourself for. You may have heard people talk about re-wiring your brain - that is effectively what this positive thinking can do. You form new neural pathways by the way you think, but naturally your brain forms habits and if you have pathways leading to depression it will default to those pathways. It is not an easy task trying to change this, and you should not expect it to be easy.
I live by the motto that nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy.
For me it was positive self-talk, and regular contact with friends that really helped. It isn't a miracle cure, but once you find something that makes you feel good about yourself, keep working on it. Celebrate your wins, and ignore/forget your losses. By this I mean, make it a big deal if you experience something positive, but don't beat yourself up if you fail. I also tackled some tasks that I had previously thought I could never do (public speaking, making new friends, etc) and I was able to focus on my successes and use those as a strength to look back on and be proud of myself. From there I found that when I came across difficulty and found myself sinking, I could turn the situation around by thinking positive (eg. 'I can do it, I've done it before, I'm stronger than this, I know I can win' etc).
The goal is to truly believe in yourself, and not require external feedback in order to feel good about yourself. It is difficult, and you may never master it, but remember that every win is one less loss, and a part of a better life.
It's good to know the science behind it, but I don't think medical science can find all the answers without acknowledging the role of psychologists and counsellors.
This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
I'm not sure, seeing as you're posting as an AC, if you'll ever see this. I spent a large portion of my late teens and early twenties slowly cycling through periods of depression and happiness. it was somewhat seasonal, with winters being especially hard, and a burst of energy happening in the spring, but for the most part, the low times hit when they wanted. It drove me nuts, left me feeling worthless, and no matter how hard i felt i was trying, it felt like I couldn't do enough. I'd spend hours channel surfing or playing flash games, just to kill time and stave off bordom and sadness. Thing is, that just fed into it more. So I'm not a therapist, and my advice is anecdotal, but maybe it'll help you.
After breaking up with a girl for the second time, I hit bottom so hard that I think i bounced. It gave me the energy to get back to grad school, which i had been planning on, with no real planning effort, for four years. Getting into grad school wasn't the change, but it has helped. The change was that I ended up in a position that lacked the safety nets that I had surrounded myself with. With the support of my family and friends, I moved to a new city, that lacked both family and friends. I moved in with roommates to make sure that I wasn't constantly alone, and while they are nice, they aren't as good as my old friends. But here's the change. The lack of my friends and family left me completely raw. I had no one to hide with, no one to tell me that i wasn't insane, and that of course I'm doing the best I can. It wasn't easy, it wasn't fun. It was raw though. It meant I had to deal with myself, by myself. It did, however, offer the chance to change these things about myself without having to prove it to anyone else. If i found something I didn't like, it wasn't a part of the "me, here." So that's part of it.
The part that really helped, and I think most people could benefit from regardless, is to let yourself be bored. Moving out here, I lost television. We couldnt afford cable, and decided to go without it. On top of this, my computer died on the trip. It was terrible. I still had access to email through my phone, but the interface was terrible, and made the whole experience unpleasant. There was no channel surfing or website surfing available. I spent a day or two in absolute, painful boredom, before getting fed up and starting to find things to do around the house. I started cleaning my room, taking the time to actually fold stuff and put it away. I took the time to clean up my bike, to take the time to do basic maintenance - simple stuff, oil the chain, replace a flat. I had ample free time now, so I would waste it by walking to the store instead of driving (i only live about a half mile from it, so i should be walking anyway...) A strange thing happened. I started to get more and more done, the more busy I was. By allowing myself to get truly bored, I was forced to confront it and do something about it. For about 4 years, that was spent playing exceptionally bad casual games and masturbating. Those left me feeling slightly less bored but never really stopped it. they just took the edge off. This new life... this felt good.
It may not cure your depression, but I cannot imagine that getting rid of the things that let you wallow in boredom would hurt. There's a difference between winding down and tuning out. tune in and wind down. It feels amazing.
Best of luck
captcha: remorse. Not that I feel any today.
I do watch for responses to my posts (not that anyone can tell it's the same AC).
I used to waste tons of time watching TV and playing video games. Eventually the games were no longer fun and I started feeling bad when playing them as I knew there were more important things that needed to get done. As for TV, I ended up watching everything I wanted to watch. Every sifi show (STs, A, FS, SGs, B5, etc...) except BG, all the old shows I watched as a kid, and tons of movies. I watch much less movies now, but still a few per week. I used to regularly do two a day! I slept between 3-6 hours a day. That's how I could not fail out of school yet still waste so much time. I've been trying to turn this bad habit into something more productive. Moving away from fiction and going towards documentaries and audio books. When listening to audio books, I find it easier to do normal tasks around the apartment (cleaning, cooking, etc...).
I never hit a rock bottom; just failed at suicide and wandered around. My suicide attempt was through starvation and dehydration and I went long enough to pass out from it (2.5 days). You can't get more lazy than that. After getting fired for coming in late to work, I eventually got accepted to a grad program (wanting to move out of my parents house gave me that energy). I don't have family support and don't talk enough to have supporting friends (though it is harder for me to say I have no friends, I might now). I speak very little to any of my current or past roommates. Sometimes I hide in my room and skip dinner to avoid them (I don't know why). After that suicide attempt, going hungry no longer bothers me. What I'm getting at is that I never hide with anyone except myself. I'm the only one who looks out for me.
You're right that tuning in and winding down instead of down and out is better, but that's been such a hard habit to reform.
Thanks for posting, and everyone else too.