   Programming and depression research
Hello fellow game devs! I am currently conducting a research project for my psych class. I am in need of volunteers to help with my research.All you need to do is to take this short depression screening and answer the question of how many hours you have generally spent programming in an average week over the last 6 months or so.The screening is self scored, and is called Beck's Depression Inventory.Beck's Depression InventoryThis depression inventory can be self-scored. The scoring scale is at the end of the questionnaire.1.0 I do not feel sad.1 I feel sad 2 I am sad all the time and I can't snap out of it. 3 I am so sad and unhappy that I can't stand it.2.0 I am not particularly discouraged about the future. 1 I feel discouraged about the future. 2 I feel I have nothing to look forward to. 3 I feel the future is hopeless and that things cannot improve.3.0 I do not feel like a failure. 1 I feel I have failed more than the average person. 2 As I look back on my life, all I can see is a lot of failures. 3 I feel I am a complete failure as a person.4. 0 I get as much satisfaction out of things as I used to. 1 I don't enjoy things the way I used to. 2 I don't get real satisfaction out of anything anymore. 3 I am dissatisfied or bored with everything.5. 0 I don't feel particularly guilty 1 I feel guilty a good part of the time. 2 I feel quite guilty most of the time. 3 I feel guilty all of the time.6. 0 I don't feel I am being punished. 1 I feel I may be punished. 2 I expect to be punished. 3 I feel I am being punished.7. 0 I don't feel disappointed in myself. 1 I am disappointed in myself. 2 I am disgusted with myself. 3 I hate myself.8. 0 I don't feel I am any worse than anybody else. 1 I am critical of myself for my weaknesses or mistakes. 2 I blame myself all the time for my faults. 3 I blame myself for everything bad that happens.9. 0 I don't have any thoughts of killing myself. 1 I have thoughts of killing myself, but I would not carry them out. 2 I would like to kill myself. 3 I would kill myself if I had the chance.10. 0 I don't cry any more than usual. 1 I cry more now than I used to. 2 I cry all the time now. 3 I used to be able to cry, but now I can't cry even though I want to.11. 0 I am no more irritated by things than I ever was. 1 I am slightly more irritated now than usual. 2 I am quite annoyed or irritated a good deal of the time. 3 I feel irritated all the time.12. 0 I have not lost interest in other people. 1 I am less interested in other people than I used to be. 2 I have lost most of my interest in other people. 3 I have lost all of my interest in other people.13. 0 I make decisions about as well as I ever could. 1 I put off making decisions more than I used to. 2 I have greater difficulty in making decisions more than I used to. 3 I can't make decisions at all anymore.14. 0 I don't feel that I look any worse than I used to. 1 I am worried that I am looking old or unattractive. 2 I feel there are permanent changes in my appearance that make me look unattractive 3 I believe that I look ugly.15. 0 I can work about as well as before. 1 It takes an extra effort to get started at doing something. 2 I have to push myself very hard to do anything. 3 I can't do any work at all.16. 0 I can sleep as well as usual. 1 I don't sleep as well as I used to. 2 I wake up 1-2 hours earlier than usual and find it hard to get back to sleep. 3 I wake up several hours earlier than I used to and cannot get back to sleep.17. 0 I don't get more tired than usual. 1 I get tired more easily than I used to. 2 I get tired from doing almost anything. 3 I am too tired to do anything.18. 0 My appetite is no worse than usual. 1 My appetite is not as good as it used to be. 2 My appetite is much worse now. 3 I have no appetite at all anymore.19. 0 I haven't lost much weight, if any, lately. 1 I have lost more than five pounds. 2 I have lost more than ten pounds. 3 I have lost more than fifteen pounds.20. 0 I am no more worried about my health than usual. 1 I am worried about physical problems like aches, pains, upset stomach, or constipation. 2 I am very worried about physical problems and it's hard to think of much else. 3 I am so worried about my physical problems that I cannot think of anything else.21. 0 I have not noticed any recent change in my interest in sex. 1 I am less interested in sex than I used to be. 2 I have almost no interest in sex. 3 I have lost interest in sex completely.INTERPRETING THE BECK DEPRESSION INVENTORYNow that you have completed the questionnaire, add up the score for each of the twenty-one questions by counting the number to the right of each question you marked. The highest possible total for the whole test would be sixty-three. This would mean you circled number three on all twenty-one questions. Since the lowest possible score for each question is zero, the lowest possible score for the test would be zero. This would mean you circles zero on each question. You can evaluate your depression according to the Table below.Total Score____________________Levels of Depression1-10____________________These ups and downs are considered normal 11-16___________________ Mild mood disturbance 17-20___________________Borderline clinical depression 21-30___________________Moderate depression 31-40___________________Severe depression over 40__________________Extreme depressionA PERSISTENT SCORE OF 17 OR ABOVE INDICATES THAT YOU MAY NEED MEDICAL TREATMENT. If you are uncomfortable sharing the results publicly, please PM me your results, and if not, please post them here so I can record them.My scores :BDI - 18Average hrs spent programming per week over last 6 months - 10I most definitely appreciate you guys taking the time to help me out. ;)EdgarThere are no right or wrong answers, please be as honest as possible. With me, and yourself. If you feel you may have depression, I encourage you to explore treatment options with your doctor and your psychiatrist. I've never been diagnosed explicitly with depression, but I know I have trouble being happy, and I am currently on Buproprion to help with it. Depression is entirely treatable. Don't suffer for no reason. Seek treatment if you need it.
My answer is 0 for everything except:4 => 111 => 113 =>114 => 2 (this is an ambiguous question, as 1 isn't lower than 2, i'm young so feeling old is simply unfit, also the question doesn't seem to relate to self esteem as i think it is intended, my answer is closer to "there are permanent negative changes to my appearance, but i don't care at all")15 => 119 => 3 (i'm surprised by this one, is this relating to anorexia? i have lost weight but i needed to, i think the question should be rephrased as "if you were of a normal weight 6 month ago, did you lose weight since?". Also depression can work both ways, you can gain weight as part of depression)20 => 1 This would put me at 10, however if i had to self rate / interpret the questions i'd count 19 & 14 as 0 putting me at 6I program 20 to 60 hours a week or so.;  BDI - 19Average hrs spent programming - 25-30.also, can you actually correlate your results considering many people here are programmers by trade, meaning generally 30-40 hrs a week by default.   ;I don't see harm in helping :) BDI - 5Average hrs - hmm... 14 (estimated);  As I work as a coder I'm pretty much doing code related things for 30h+ a week anyway, regardless of mental state.The questions are also not very useful due to the bipolar nature of what my brain does; i.e. today I'd be scoring mostly zeros and ones... a week from now it could be 3s and 4s. Heck I could crash my chemical levels 5 minutes from now and my answers would change, or I could cheat and use some techniques I've learnt to boost myself back up again before I go to dark.Some of the questions are just odd, for example number 8 would always be a '1' at least, not because of any sort of depression but because I hold myself to a high standard so that I can continue to improve. (I've recently got back to being able to do 10km distances at the gym; I can do them in less than an hour. Some would call it good, I refuse to settle.)Or 14, to do with attractiveness. My own views on this are not a depression thing either, they are as a result of being picked on for around 5 years due to my appearance which has caused certain view points to be enshrined to be 'true' and it takes effort for me to over come them. This is true if I'm in an 'up' mood or a 'down' mood.Even 21 varies completely apart from any depression state I might be in.Of course I've recently started to wonder if, among the various other things I've noticed which are 'off' about me, I might be a sociopath, so, ya know, that might be throwing things off *chuckles*   ;@ranakor - scores on individual questions are not necessary to report, but thank you for helping my researcalso, can you actually correlate your results considering many people here are programmers by trade, meaning generally 30-40 hrs a week by default. The idea is to gather as much data from programmers and non-programmers as possible, and then to see if there are any correlations that would warrant further research. This is not the only forum I am seeking data from. Very good point though. @aurioch - thanks! @phantom - I understand the test may not be perfect, but hopefully it does serve as some indicator of depression. Many of the questions relate directly to symptoms of depression.;BDI: 7Average Hours: approx 15-20;  I'm a full time programmer.BDI: 4Average hours: 40-60 (40 at work, the rest at home)   ;  While I still feel this is flawed simply because someone who isn't constantly depressed isn't going to score "correctly" for the 'lulz'..As I said, 30h+ a week due to work.BDI ranges between;5 - good days31 - bad days31 is a conservative estimate based on remembering what my 'down' days feel like.   ;BDI: 3Average hours: 12 I think my BDI score would be about the same if you had asked me at any time between now and a decade ago. Normally my average hours are higher, about 20-30 hours.