
Apply HN: Mental Health for Hackers - tcj_phx
PROBLEM:<p>Hacking is done by people. Usually we manage, but hackers get stressed out too.<p>The mental health system is maintained not by satisfied customers, but by inertia, court order, and being able to bill the government for treating poor people in perpetuity. People who are helped are the exception, rather than the rule.<p>When Hackers get into the mental health system, or have a “psychotic break” and get arrested, we are treated like the mentally handicapped. The standard approach to mental health sometimes creates a scenario from which we can never recover.<p>SOLUTION:<p>Quoting ESR: “Hacking favors scrap-and-rebuild over patch-and-extend. An essential part of hacking is ruthlessly throwing away code that has become overcomplicated or crufty, no matter how much time you have invested in it.”<p>Most of our ideas about mental health need to be scrapped because they are based on false assumptions. When building a better approach to mental health, I will base it on the actual findings of empirical science, instead of what the drug industry has for sale.<p>REVENUE:<p>Most of the company’s revenue will eventually be derived from a patented supplement. The scientist’s original patent expired years ago, so the formula will be tweaked and re-patented somehow, as is the usual practice for extending the profitability of the pharmaceutical industry’s old drugs.<p>A New Drug Application (NDA) will be filed with the US FDA. This will allow the supplement to be manufactured as a gel-cap. FDA approval will be sought for the little claim of &quot;improves memory&quot;. When the product gets into the market as a non-prescription OTC supplement, people will discover that it is good for much more than improving memory.<p>Books and seminars are also revenue sources.<p>TEAM: Me + 2 Friends. Older friend was an angry mess, now is a successful relationship coach. The other was a ‘hopeless self-medicator’. I figured out solutions for her &amp; she just started new job.
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tcj_phx
This is a revision of my earlier idea, "Hacking Mental Health":
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11555863](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11555863)

 _ryporter_ helpfully pointed out, "Based on recent events surrounding drug
prices, it takes a congressional hearing to effect change. :)" \-
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11563273](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11563273)

 _SherlockeHolmes_ wondered how my company would scale -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11556172](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11556172)

Based on these two comments, I realized that I'd get much farther helping
Hackers protect & improve their own & their family's mental health, than
trying to convince the "mental health establishment" that there's a much
better way.

