A summary for those that haven’t been keeping up with this series:
I found a number of 5.25″ disks at a thrift store a number of years ago (sometime in the late 1990s to the best of my recollection). I finally got around to acquiring a 5.25″ disk drive and extracting the contents a several years back. Since then, I have been occasionally posting the content here.
Based on the contents, most or all of these disks were apparently once owned by someone named Connie who used to run the “Close Encounters” Special Interest Group (SIG) on Delphi in the mid 1980s.
The following description of this SIG was found in a document on one of the disks: “This SIG, known as ‘Close Encounters’, is a forum for the discussion of relationships that develop via computer services like the Source, CompuServe, and Delphi. Our primary emphasis is on the sexual aspects of those relationships.”
This service was text based and was accessed via a modem and whatever terminal program you had available for your computer to dial in with. Many of these disks have forum messages, e-mails and chat session logs. All of this is pre-internet stuff and I am not aware of any archives in existence today that contain what was on Delphi in the 1980s.
This post includes the contents of DEPRESS.DOC. This file is dated September 2nd, 1985 and is in a subdirectory called TELEPSYC. This is an article on depression and its different categories. No name or other credit is listed in the file. I tried doing a web search on a few strings from this article but couldn’t find anything so I’m not sure who wrote it. I believe this article came from a special interest group or some other kind of feature or area on Delphi called “TelePsych”.
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DEPRESS.DOC
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DEPRESSION Let's break the subject down into three parts: Major depression, minor depression, and normal depression. MAJOR DEPRESSION This is a severe and potentially life threatening illness (because of the danger of suicide.) It is very frequently unrecognized and untreated. Three to ten percent of the population will suffer from major depression at some time in their lives. The symptoms of major depression are: frequent feelings of sadness and despair, frequent feelings of anxiety, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal problems, loss of sexual desire, unexplained physical symptoms, restlessness, sluggishness, loss of ability to feel pleasure, loss of former interests, and feelings of worthlessness. Usually, only some of these symptoms are present, and they may change over a period of time. You should not depend on self help if this is your problem. It is unlikely to be successful. You need professional treatment. Many depressed people fail to seek help because they illegitimately feel hopeless or unworthy of help. Major depression is a treatable illness! Major deression occurs more frequently in women than men, although this may be because many men with major depression drink heavily and are diagnosed as alcoholics. Major depression may be disguised as alcoholism, drug addiction, or mysterious physical illnesses (especially lower back pain). Major depression becomes a greater risk with increasing age. Predisposing factors are a tendency to milder depression earlier in life, close relatives with major depression or suicide, overwhelming stress continued over a long period of time, serious prolonged illness, chronic pain, or a devastating personal loss. Treatment of major depression should include psychotherapy with or without antidepressant medication. Your counselor will advise you regarding the most appropriate form of treatment. I advise you to seek the help of a psychologist or psychiatrist if you think you have major depression. Many family physicians will prescribe antidepressants without psychotherapy, or with a little bit of office counseling. This is a mistake, in my opinion. Optimum response from antidepressant drugs is obtained when they are combined with therapy. If you have a history of mania, that is, episodes of extraordinary energy, ambition, enthusiasm, irritability, decreased need for sleep, and so on, and you are now very depressed you may have manic depressive illness. If it is severe it must be treated with lithium. It will not go away by itself, it will not get better with self help or counseling alone, and it will probably get worse with age. Go see a psychiatrist right away. It is current to explain major depression as a "chemical imbalance" in the brain. This is speculative and certainly unproven. There is a blood test frequently used today (the dexamethasone suppression test) that some doctors claim diagnose this putative chemical imbalance. This is simply incorrect. It is an interesting research area but the results are essentially meaningless, as many normal people have abnormal results, and many depressed people have normal results. The chemical imbalance point of view is particularly unfortunate because it discourages people from seeking pychotherapy, which is proven to be a necessary part of treatment for major depression. MINOR DEPRESSION This involves feelings of sadness, despair, anxiety, and loneliness, without serious sleep disturbance, physical symptoms, impairments in judgment, or ability to get through the day and function more or less normally. It is extremely common, although most people go to great lengths to conceal it from the people around them. You can attempt self help, although you would probably feel better faster and stay better longer if you sought psychotherapy. If you want to begin with self help, try the following approaches: 1. Do not hide from your crummy feelings. Instead, confront ahem honestly. Keep a daily journal of your private thoughts and feelings. Do not take your misery at face value. Explore it. What are the thoughts, feelings, memories, disappointments, and fears behind it? 2. Be vigilant for self-condemning thoughts. Learn not to accept them automatically. Learn to forgive yourself for your flaws, failures, and mistakes. As you write in your journal, catch your self-condemnations, and rethink them in more self accepting terms. 3. Expand your repertoire of pleasurable experiences. Think over pleasurable things you used to do that you have given up. Can you take them up again? Have fantasies about new experiences you would experience as gratifying. Challenge yourself to bring new pleasure into your life. These do not have to be "big" or expensive experiences. Frequent moments of small pleasures is probably preferable. 4. Experiment with self nurturing. Imagine yourself as a scared and lonely child. What can you do for this child to help him or her feel better? 5. Do not think of mild depression as a totally negative experience. Think of it as "feedback" from your unconscious mind informing you of changes in the direction of your life that you need to consider. 6. Get frequent aerobic exercise. NORMAL DEPRESION It is normal to feel somewhat depressed for a period of weeks or months after a major loss, disappointment, or disruption in your life. Do not make it worse by forcing yourself to have an artificical "positive mental attitude". Accept yourself as having a tough time and take it easy on yourself for awhile. Take time to feel your sad feelings. Rest more, and defer demanding new projects.
