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A summary for those that haven’t been keeping up with this series:<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Based on the contents, most or all of these disks were apparently once owned by someone named Connie who used to run the \u201cClose Encounters\u201d Special Interest Group (SIG) on Delphi in the mid 1980s.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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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”.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n DEPRESSION\n\nLet's break the subject down into three parts: Major\ndepression, minor depression, and normal depression.\n\nMAJOR DEPRESSION This is a severe and potentially life\nthreatening illness (because of the danger of suicide.) It is\nvery frequently unrecognized and untreated. Three to ten\npercent of the population will suffer from major depression\nat some time in their lives. The symptoms of major depression\nare: frequent feelings of sadness and despair, frequent\nfeelings of anxiety, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances,\ngastrointestinal problems, loss of sexual desire, unexplained\nphysical symptoms, restlessness, sluggishness, loss of ability\nto feel pleasure, loss of former interests, and feelings of\nworthlessness. Usually, only some of these symptoms are \npresent, and they may change over a period of time.\n\nYou should not depend on self help if this is your problem. \nIt is unlikely to be successful. You need professional\ntreatment. Many depressed people fail to seek help because\nthey illegitimately feel hopeless or unworthy of help. \nMajor depression is a treatable illness!\n\nMajor deression occurs more frequently in women than men,\nalthough this may be because many men with major depression\ndrink heavily and are diagnosed as alcoholics. Major\ndepression may be disguised as alcoholism, drug addiction, or\nmysterious physical illnesses (especially lower back pain).\nMajor depression becomes a greater risk with increasing age. \nPredisposing factors are a tendency to milder depression\nearlier in life, close relatives with major depression or\nsuicide, overwhelming stress continued over a long period\nof time, serious prolonged illness, chronic pain, or a\ndevastating personal loss.\n\nTreatment of major depression should include psychotherapy\nwith or without antidepressant medication. Your counselor\nwill advise you regarding the most appropriate form of\ntreatment. I advise you to seek the help of a psychologist or\npsychiatrist if you think you have major depression. Many\nfamily physicians will prescribe antidepressants without\npsychotherapy, or with a little bit of office counseling. \nThis is a mistake, in my opinion. Optimum response from\nantidepressant drugs is obtained when they are combined with\ntherapy. If you have a history of mania, that is, episodes\nof extraordinary energy, ambition, enthusiasm, irritability,\ndecreased need for sleep, and so on, and you are now very\ndepressed you may have manic depressive illness. If it is\nsevere it must be treated with lithium. It will not go away\nby itself, it will not get better with self help or counseling\nalone, and it will probably get worse with age. Go see a\npsychiatrist right away.\n\nIt is current to explain major depression as a \"chemical\nimbalance\" in the brain. This is speculative and certainly\nunproven. There is a blood test frequently used today (the\ndexamethasone suppression test) that some doctors claim\ndiagnose this putative chemical imbalance. This is simply\nincorrect. It is an interesting research area but the results\nare essentially meaningless, as many normal people have\nabnormal results, and many depressed people have normal\nresults. The chemical imbalance point of view is particularly\nunfortunate because it discourages people from seeking\npychotherapy, which is proven to be a necessary part of\ntreatment for major depression.\n\nMINOR DEPRESSION This involves feelings of sadness, despair,\nanxiety, and loneliness, without serious sleep disturbance,\nphysical symptoms, impairments in judgment, or ability to get\nthrough the day and function more or less normally.\nIt is extremely common, although most people go to great\nlengths to conceal it from the people around them. You can\nattempt self help, although you would probably feel better\nfaster and stay better longer if you sought psychotherapy.\nIf you want to begin with self help, try the following\napproaches: \n\n1. Do not hide from your crummy feelings. Instead, confront\nahem honestly. Keep a daily journal of your private thoughts\nand feelings. Do not take your misery at face value. Explore\nit. What are the thoughts, feelings, memories, \ndisappointments, and fears behind it?\n\n2. Be vigilant for self-condemning thoughts. Learn not to\naccept them automatically. Learn to forgive yourself for your\nflaws, failures, and mistakes. As you write in your journal,\ncatch your self-condemnations, and rethink them in more self\naccepting terms. \n\n3. Expand your repertoire of pleasurable experiences. Think\nover pleasurable things you used to do that you have given up.\nCan you take them up again? Have fantasies about new\nexperiences you would experience as gratifying. Challenge\nyourself to bring new pleasure into your life. These do not\nhave to be \"big\" or expensive experiences. Frequent moments\nof small pleasures is probably preferable.\n\n4. Experiment with self nurturing. Imagine yourself as a\nscared and lonely child. What can you do for this child to\nhelp him or her feel better?\n\n5. Do not think of mild depression as a totally negative\nexperience. Think of it as \"feedback\" from your unconscious\nmind informing you of changes in the direction of your life\nthat you need to consider. \n\n6. Get frequent aerobic exercise. \n\nNORMAL DEPRESION It is normal to feel somewhat depressed for\na period of weeks or months after a major loss, \ndisappointment, or disruption in your life. Do not make it\nworse by forcing yourself to have an artificical \"positive\nmental attitude\". Accept yourself as having a tough time and\ntake it easy on yourself for awhile. Take time to feel your\nsad feelings. Rest more, and defer demanding new projects.\n<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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 \u201cClose Encounters\u201d 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[486,2913,2042,2362,2914],"class_list":["post-37205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-arcana","tag-computers","tag-delphi","tag-digital-archaeology","tag-retrocomputing","tag-telecommunications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37207,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37205\/revisions\/37207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}