What to do about distracting mental chatter?
justlearning: @jpeterson. Can you give more insight. I have similar situations- sometimes swear words just come out of my mouth(mostly alone..like when i am sitting on the throne or in shower). I would like to know if there is any similarity. I don't have any kill someone thoughts, but death of my close ones sometimes engulf me. Sometimes, I catch myself making weird groans/grunts in the shower. (i try to reduce this by reading while s(h)itting and sometimes reading aloud)I have problems concentrating on anything - lately i have been trying to work on SICP and then I read about "achievers" - who of the same age - have forged ahead and i get depressed. small things like the ongoing world-war on rails-django affects me - in terms of picking which one. I start a project (after the long battle of picking which platform) and then lose the motivation in between. (lately i thought of an idea of twitter app and then read of these out of the world ideas/apps coming out and this literally gives me the sinking feeling, i get sweaty and out of energy)PS: i have been unemployed for a while. i am severely under-confident while giving interviews.i am highly depressed - not knowing what to concentrate on (i will do an ask-hn on this later). I think I have no programming skills.this after sitting thru enterprisey application doing j2ee/ejbs etc that could have been done in simpler ways. I envisioned the whole 20 member team being done by 7 members with some reflection apis...but i never mustered courage. Now when i start something, i think why? how is it going to help the world? i see the news - srilanka  so many homeless people, darfur, faith based killings and i think what is my to-do app going to help? I cannot explain in words the depression - it is the niagara waterfall and not a stream that i can try to concentrate and pinpoint.I tried to pen my thoughts to make myself thoughts "active". but at that instant, my mind freezes and i have nothing to write. my ever-patient wife helps me everytime she can, but while she is at work, i am getting paranoid in my isolated cell.i have been thinking of doing an ask-hn on this for a while and everytime i dread getting these apathetic one liners - go see a doctor/ get a gf/ get laid. but i think i will post and do a reference to this one.@jpeterson - care to share more of your thoughts/experiences and your contact info?