

Ask HN: I am a depressed student, looking to travel + just be, please advice. - smhelp

Hi, I am depressed college student, and I have 2,000 dollars in savings. I am trying to take some time off, and looking for some advice with that in mind.<p>My plan is to read books, just lay down and do nothing, and think about life. What else should be I doing ?<p>I would appreciate it if you could recommend a place (with nice weather / internet / beaches optional ) where I can live cheaply for a month to six weeks. I am located in Atlanta, and any location would work.<p>Thanks.
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rdouble
Miami is surprisingly cheap if you stay in a hostel and buy food at the
grocery store. You could take a bus there, or probably even find a $50 flight
from Atlanta. I did this in 2004. Mexico is also inexpensive outside of the
tourist resort areas but may cost more to get there.

~~~
smhelp
Thanks for the recommendation. Miami had completely slipped my mind. Hope you
are having fun in Australia.

~~~
rdouble
No problem. I just got back. Regarding Miami, the only other advice is I think
you need to go before June, when it becomes rainy.

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pedalpete
Travelling alone can be depressing. Don't just run from your current
lifestyle, add something to it. Travel with a purpose.

Stuff like 'Homes for humanity' and many other travel related charities can be
quite expensive.

But you can travel and work. Not travel and hack, just work. I'm not sure what
is near Atlanta, and what's available. But you already have fairly nice
weather.

No matter where you go, $2000 isn't going to get you very far, flights to
buenos airies as an example are nearly $1600
<http://www.kayak.com/flights/ATL-BUE/2011-05-03/2011-07-07>

Cruise ships could be interesting work if you're into that. I've worked in Ski
Resorts for much of my life, and the first few years where you aren't focused
on making money or getting ahead, but just looking for an experience were
amazing.

I'm a believer in the greatest path to happiness is through service to others.
Discovering your purpose is a big part of that. If you don't have a purpose,
the best way to find one is to do something, anything.

I hope that helps, though it isn't a direct answer to your question.

~~~
smhelp
Running from my current lifestyle is sort of what I am trying to do. I really
can't think of anything else in the short term that would help, though I am
open to suggestions. I did look into non-profits, but they want you to work
for free, pay them application fees for stuff, which really sucks, if they had
been nicer, I would have offered to re:design their website, but I really
didn't want to offer any webwork upfront as I wanted to stay away from the
computer for a while.

I am fairly good at web:design, but really that is not what I could call a
purpose. I have dabbled in random stuff from photography to volunteering to
build houses to skydiving, and I really don't find passion in any of that and
I can't figure out why. Are there other ways to find what you love doing ? I
remember a Steve Jobs speech where he says "...keep looking, and don't
settle." But it gets disheartening after a while.

Thanks. Also, how does one get employed as a ski resort with no prior
knowledge ?

~~~
rdouble
You don't need any background to work at a ski resort unless you want to teach
lessons. Another idea is working at a national park. I worked at glacier
national park after my freshman year of college.

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sarahmccrum
Try listening to any of the materials here - www.oceen.com. Even if they are
not exactly on the topic of depression they will all help. There's always
something free on the home page. They will help you 'do nothing' in a
constructive way that makes you feel better.

At first the effect will probably be short-lived - a little burst of energy
and motivation. If you listen to one of them every day this will build up and
become more stable.

Depression is essentially lack of energy/motivation. As soon as you get a bit
more fuel into your system you feel less depressed. It's caused by many things
which are not your fault in any way, but you do have the ability to overcome
it.

We plan to make a series of materials (on the same site) specifically for
depression, so let me know if you'd like to be a guinea pig.

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f2ender
I would highly recommend the book : "Learned Optimism" by Martin Seligman.
It's a great book about understanding depression and the steps you can take to
fix it.

It helped me a lot, and still does, when I find myself spiraling down.

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morganwatch
Sorry to hear about the weight on your chest.

I overcame my own depression years ago but I help others when I can. Elvis
said, "I believe the key to happiness is: someone to love, something to do and
something to look forward to." I'm not a big Elvis fan but if you agree with
the quote, then what is missing from your life? That's a good place to start.

For books, I'd recommend reading Epictetus' Discourses, he was raised a slave
and became a great teacher, Way of The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman and
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.

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mesuvash
Watch these videos

<http://bit.ly/ehfTc3> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc>
<http://bit.ly/eNZPda>

I do it whenever i lack motivation. It helps me a lot, I hope it will help you
in same way.

And you if you really think you want to take a break, Come to Nepal, Its a
nice place to be. However its landlocked so you wont find beaches.

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thiagofm
Don't you feel like working on something with me? (anything stupid would do).
I think I'm well versed in programming(I'm heavy now on node.js). I can teach
you a little bit of it if you want to and maybe build something we can be
proud of.

Also, I live in Brazil and I wouldn't mind you to come here. But if I were
you, I wouldn't LOL!

Get in contact: thiagown at gmail dot com

I'm frequently on irc in freenode as Horofox (#startups, #node.js and other
channels)

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dbs
As someone who successfully overcome depression, I would humbly suggest to
read "letters from a stoic" by Seneca. After that you may think twice before
taking some time off as a way of fighting you depression. You can also try to
travel to places where people's living conditions are way below those you
generally get in the US (instead of going to the beach and do nothing for a
while). Guaranteed to change your perspectives about life.

~~~
smhelp
Thanks for the book recommendation. I don't want to come across as arrogant,
but my childhood till 13 years old was spent in moderate poverty in another
country, so I really know what living in a slum feels like. When I think about
what little I remember from those days, it makes my cringe because I do
realize how lucky I am to be where I am, but then the motivation is short
lived. What else if at all helped you overcome depression ?

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whichdan
Have you considered "getting away" somewhere else in Georgia? Find a town with
a lot of trails/hiking/parks, rent a cheap room, eat well, and spend some time
alone with nature, a few books, and headphones.

CouchSurfing - <http://www.couchsurfing.org/> \- could also be an option.

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Skywing
Well, I can say that $2000 would not get you very far if you're targeting
beaches in CA. You would probably spend almost that amount just getting there.
I recently spent about $8000 on a full relocation to Santa Monica, and found a
"cheap" place 4 blocks from the ocean. Cheap out there though was like
$1700/mo. =/

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zoowar
Stay in school where you can get free counseling for your depression.

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olegious
The best advice I can give you is use www.couchsurfing.org - it will save you
on housing, often get you free tour guides and make you friends.

~~~
coffeejunk
couchsurfing is always an amazing experience. not only because it's a free
stay somewhere but because you get to know many interesting people you
wouldn't meet otherwise.

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gexla
I paid $850 for a round trip to the Philippines and what you would have left
over is easily enough to live here for 6 weeks.

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staunch
Go camping anywhere. Fresh air. Silence. Money goes far when you don't have to
pay rent.

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Mz
Google up info on Port Aransas. You can sleep on the beach for up to three
days without a camping permit. It was lovely and I considered relocating
there. It's about 30 minutes or so from Corpus Christi.

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pitdesi
Do you speak Spanish? Costa Rica should be high on your list - you can get
cheap flights from Atlanta to San Jose and live decently for ~$25-35/day when
there. It's a great place to explore - There are volcanoes and beaches.

If interested in staying on a private island and doing some work, consider
<http://www.cocovivo.com/> It's run by a friend of mine. He would probably
host you for really cheap and would like someone there taking care of the
place anyway. It's in Bocas Del Toro in northern Panama - you can get most of
the way there using public transportation.

~~~
bmelton
Upvoted for the private island idea.

If you're anywhere NYC, you could perhaps check out the Adirondacks. The
camping season isn't open up there yet, but if you're looking for peaceful
tranquility, peace, time to reflect, and the inspiration of a glorious nature
scene, then I highly recommend the private island campsites on Lower Saranac
Lake.

They're muni-run camp sites, so the costs are very low -- I think we paid $22
a day. The one catch is that they fill up quickly, and they're hard to get.

There are island camps with single occupancy, which is to say that there is
only one camp site on it. And there are larger islands that are multiple
occupancy, though we did the math, and even on the most crowded of them, the
campsites are spaced quite far apart, and you will have at least an acre to
yourself (approximately). We chose the single occupancy, and loved every
second of it.

It's made much better if you own your own canoe or fishing kayak, otherwise
boat rentals are fairly high. You CAN take a taxi out to the island and have
them pick you up, but I wouldn't do this at the very start of the season or
the very end. There isn't enough traffic there until peak season starts to
ensure that somebody would be around if you got hurt, or were mauled by a bear
or something.

This link has plenty of detail: <http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/24496.html>

