At some level I agree with you. You can learn tons from folks that are in similar situations or have gone through similar things.
But, if you are really burnt out or depressed, this could quickly become a life or death situation, so seeking professional help in a timely manner, is the best option. Your life could literally be at stake. Reason is, HN lacks context and any sustained attention/followup. Take this thread for example. OP has not provided any comments or followup. We have no context on why this person is asking this question. Are they going through this personally, asking about a co-worker, a spouse? We have no idea. Their question and following discussion could come back to haunt them via a search if they give enough details. We are not experts with context, sure we can offer advice on something we might have gone through, but that is not expert advice tailored to their situation.
So, it is really a good idea, to seek professional help if you find yourself in this situation vs asking random strangers on HN. Chatting with a professional is confidential, they will ask and gather the correct context (with local customs, current medical practice, and laws in mind), and hopefully give you a good path forward.
Your advice might be different on where you are located too. Do you have the same options if you live in the US, EU, or Asia? I have no idea on what your situation is, what your support network looks like, what your resources are, how bad it is, etc. You are much better off chatting with a professional.
Don't forget that a lot of professionals in the psychology area are not very good. Some years ago I had severe depression and a lot of other problems and finding a professional who would actually listen was a really difficult and frustrating experience. So I think there is a lot of value in discussing things on a forum like this in order to get multiple opinions and especially hear from people who have gone through this.
You shouldn't take information in a forum at face value but also don't trust blindly the advice from "professionals" be it doctors, surgeons, lawyers, consultants or others. A lot of them suck.
Right, but no-one is complaining about the "how to find a good professional" advice. People are complaining about the fact that these threads often have a mix of useful, actionable, advice that is somewhat evidence based, and then a bunch of horseshit.
You will get the same mix of somewhat useful information mixed with horseshit from professionals especially in not so clear cut areas like mental health or nutrition. I went through five therapists without improvement to end up with picking up a meditation practice together with some behavior and attitude changes. All these suggestions came from online forums and made a huge difference.
As with everything else, gather as much as information as possible and make up your own mind. Don't believe anything blindly but try it out and see what works for you.
It's the same in tech. I get better information in online forums like this one than I get from most highly paid consultants my management likes to hire.
I agree with this.I had the same experience. It really takes a lot of effort to find someone you feel comfortable with. To be honest the best support I got was from a bunch of total strangers on the internet, that went trough a similar experience as I did. I felt mostly disconnected with professionals that had steady lives that were paid to listen to. With the total strangers on the internet we were at least exploring our issues and trying to find a way out and reporting to each eachother as a sort of journey.
But, if you are really burnt out or depressed, this could quickly become a life or death situation, so seeking professional help in a timely manner, is the best option. Your life could literally be at stake. Reason is, HN lacks context and any sustained attention/followup. Take this thread for example. OP has not provided any comments or followup. We have no context on why this person is asking this question. Are they going through this personally, asking about a co-worker, a spouse? We have no idea. Their question and following discussion could come back to haunt them via a search if they give enough details. We are not experts with context, sure we can offer advice on something we might have gone through, but that is not expert advice tailored to their situation.
So, it is really a good idea, to seek professional help if you find yourself in this situation vs asking random strangers on HN. Chatting with a professional is confidential, they will ask and gather the correct context (with local customs, current medical practice, and laws in mind), and hopefully give you a good path forward.
Your advice might be different on where you are located too. Do you have the same options if you live in the US, EU, or Asia? I have no idea on what your situation is, what your support network looks like, what your resources are, how bad it is, etc. You are much better off chatting with a professional.