Stanford's Sapolsky On Depression in U.S. (Full Lecture)

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Strong rec fjarlq · 2013-01 · on “We Need to Have Sympathy for Those With Depression. It is an Illness”

Professor Sapolsky at Stanford gave an interesting lecture about depression a few years ago... highly recommended: [this video]

Strong rec AlexandrB · 2013-01 · on “We Need to Have Sympathy for Those With Depression. It is an Illness”

This was posted in a HN comment not too long ago. It's a very good lecture that goes into both the biological and psychological aspects of depression and then manages to tie them together. [this video] > We say that there is something wrong with their brains, rather than saying that there is something wrong with society. The real answer is probably a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B.

Strong rec maxlamb · 2017-10 · on “The Depression Thing”

while on the subject, highly recommend this video on depression from Stanford's Sapolsky to understanding the underlying biological aspect of it: [this video]

Strong rec mikec3010 · 2018-06 · on “What to Do When a Loved One Is Severely Depressed”

This is the quintessential video for understanding clinical depression. A Stanford lecture given by Dr Sapolsky: [this video] I highly recommend watching it to better understand the disease.

Strong rec ronyfadel · 2019-11 · on “Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Therapy by FDA”

Sapolsky on depression: [this video] “Depression is agression turned inwards”. He explains what our current understanding of depression is. I think you’ll have a whole new understanding of depression after watching this.

Strong rec shadowfaxRodeo · 2021-07 · on “Some Days I Can’t Do Life – When everyday life becomes a struggle (2020)”

I tried everything except for medication. I was afraid i would no longer be 'myself' or that's what other people told me — or maybe that it would make the problem more real. Anyway, I eventually took meds, and I have never felt more myself, or the person I want to be. I work, learn, socialize, live in a (relatively) clean apartment, which I leave to go outside. It took me way too long accept that depression is not all my fault, that it's a disease, and that I needed to see a real doctor. For those who suffer, or know those who suffer (that's probably everyone) I really recommend this lecture: [this video] It's super interesting, it ties all the causes of depression together — childhood trauma, ev

Strong rec tycho-newman · 2026-07 · on “Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important”

Robert Sapolsky has a fantastic discussion of depression as a form of learned helplessness. We see it in abused animals: [this video] You are not much different from any other animal at some level. With enough conditioning you will believe that you have no agency over your own life, and you’ll just sit there and take the shocks hoping it ends soon. Or worse, you’ll lose perspective and imagine the only solution to your current (likely temporary) circumstance is to (definitely very permanently) end your own life.

Recommends blhack · 2013-01 · on “Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago”

I've been incredibly vocal about my stance on depression here on HN in the past, specifically that saying things like "man up" is absurd. Depression, like every other disease on the planet, is not something you "man up" through. It's a disease that happens to manifest itself in the same places that personality does. To a casual, uninformed observer, depression is a choice of behavior. It isn't. You don't get depression from weakness in the same way that you don't get cancer from weakness. Depression also kills more people per year than cancer does. Cancer about 20,000 -- depression about 30,000. (Highly relevant lecture by a very brilliant neuroscientist: [this video] ) -- That said, Ed Weissman