Mental Health and Dev ft Dr. Courtney Tolinski - Depression, Anxiety, Imposter Syndrome, Focus, Motivation, Burnout

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk with Dr. Courtney Tolinski about mental health and web development.

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Show Notes

3:20 - Depression

• Honestly just explaining depression would be great. Too many times I’ve heard “but you don’t look sad”
• As someone who struggles with depression, what are some things I can do to rekindle and things I enjoy like developing and hobbies? This would greatly benefit me for learning more dev related things outside of doing it for work.
• My depression is due to some other cause in personal life - two years into it.
• Coding has bought me little life back as this is the only thing I have to do.
• What can we do from an outsider's view to someone who might have depression?

12:23 - Anxiety

• Imposter Syndrome x 1000
• How to deal with increased anxiety during these times?
• How to avoid anxiety and feel useless when working products that you don’t appeal to you?
• Wanted to ask the Dr about why do I feel that I have to work on 1000 projects that seem to never finish? 😣This is inducing a lot of anxiety sometimes.
• I am on depression medication. Sometimes, I feel scared that I am so slow and don’t feel accomplished enough like people working at FANG, etc, being a SE.
• How to deal with the anxiety caused by today’s events around the world and the need to isolate yourself from society even though we crave human interaction?

29:12 - Focus and job performance

• How to keep motivation and focus? I find myself enjoying work but having a hard time focusing on it. All the “distraction-free” apps don’t work because I can turn them off and I feel they literally have no power over me.
• Hardcore mode
• Pomodoro technique

35:10 - Motivation and remote work

• Bore-out
• Burnout
• How do you deal with loss of focus and happiness in web development (especially on remote jobs)?
• Working for yourself at home, you don’t get a chance to bounce ideas and encouragement from others in an office. What’re some good ways to compensate for that to ensure you maintain a positive mindset?
• Work on new things
• Find ways to try new things

40:38 - Stress

• Correctly identifying source of (negative?) stress. Not lashing out when under stress.
• How to avoid eating to cope with stress?

Links

• Eat That Frog! - Brian Tracy
• Pomodoro technique
• Healthline
• How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7

××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××

• Courtney: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind
• Scott: The Engineering Mindset YouTube Channel
• Wes: Toca Boca

Shameless Plugs

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