Hello,

I've been having some problems with anxiety and depression the past year or so. I had to take a break from the university to get better. Althrough I never had a problem with motivation to code before (apart from the times I realised that I sucked ) now, having motivation and the will to do anything is extremely difficult.

I wanted to know, what does motivate you to code? Is it playing other video games? The project you're working on? Your work environment? The people you work with? All the problems that need cracking? Or simply, do you just think it's your work so you have to do it?

Making visible progress motivates me to keep coding. When I'm not making apparent progress, it demotivates me to continue coding day after day, making it harder to actually open up the IDE and start programming.

One thing that someone else mentioned on these forums once (I forget who, or I'd credit them), and that has helped me alot, is to break coding into small tasks (which I was already doing) so they are more 'bite sized' and completable, and also to have a tiny task that is easy and simple to do already ready for you to code the next time you start up the IDE, to 'jump start' your 'making progress' motivational mindset. The 'completion' of each bite-sized task is motivating, but having that 'Oh, this is an easy task, I can knock it out real quick' task when you start up your coding for the day really helps me get into the programming groove.

I've been gone for 48 hours. What was I supposed to do next? Oh, right:
//TODO next:
//Change the maximum range of the "Starting animation frame" spinbox, based off the currently selected animation or tile tool.
//Shift the tile offset by holding some key and pressing arrow keys. Tile-offset should range from -48 to +48

I can jump right back in (both of those TODO's are relatively minor tasks - 5 minutes or so for each of them) and start coding immediately. It doesn't make the coding any less difficult, but it does get me back into the mood to wrestle those difficulties into submission.

Oh, and to master a skillset, you first have to travel through sucktitude to get there. It's one of the first stops, and the path you have to travel on seems to curve back into it quite frequently.

It's better to recognize that you still have alot to learn, then to think you've mastered everything.

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Psychologically, why are you anxious? What's causing the depression?

I once "shadowed" for a year a psychologist / christian counselor I knew (with a PHD in some major branch of psychology, and who was a licensed practitioner) who taught me quite a bit (unofficially) about things like depression and my own mental health. It was really helpful to me to work through my issues (and everyone has issues) as well as to observe and participate in some other people's sessions (with their permission). When I moved away from that area, thankfully some other members of my family, while not being professionals, are willing to discuss with me their issues and let me discuss with them my own issues. Anxieties, frustrations, anger, whatever.

I mean, honestly, just having anyone (a hired professional or even a close friend or family member) who's willing to sit down and chat with you, and just listen as you talk about your own issues can take alot of stress off of you. Giving voice to your concerns to someone who cares and who's paying attention can make those concerns, when spoken aloud, seem much less serious when put in proper context.

Seeing my competition making progress pushes me to code myself out. and seeing my code work, especially in ways i didn't expect, makes me in the mood for a lot of coding.

I've been having some problems with anxiety and depression the past year or so. I had to take a break from the university to get better. Althrough I never had a problem with motivation to code before (apart from the times I realised that I sucked wacko.png) now, having motivation and the will to do anything is extremely difficult.

I feel you.

I wanted to know, what does motivate you to code?

For me, programming is kind of a life goal; to have these projects be complete is a requirement for my life to be successful. A lot of my drive comes from the fact that if I don't start doing it now, it may never get done at this rate, and failure is unacceptable. So, I guess you could say despair.

On the other hand, more fun motivations include just a general drive to have the finished product, and the pride that comes with it. I really want that end result, and while it isn't always enough to get me to work on it, when it does, the anticipation of having a new tool or program keeps me wanting to start up again.

It doesn't always work. I haven't written non-work code in quite a few days now...

Part of your creative repertoire, is being able to come up with programs that are fun, interesting, with a small code base... like flappy bird I guess, but obviously something new and novel that hasn't been done or failing that it comes to making modules that are interesting in themselves, that could be a part of a whole, if you get that far.

AI fits that category, I think, Simple neural nets don't have to be that big, especially if they just based upon random development, and that is what I'm doing that the moment, even though mines looking like 20 functions, once all the local minima/maxima is detecting it may be pretty big, but I don't mind, because I've been planning it for so long (I can remember thinking about it 4 years ago), and desperation is going to lead me to finally finish it.

When Ectara said despair, I'm afraid sometimes that's the truth. No pain, no gain.

Red Bull does.

Making visible progress motivates me to keep coding. When I'm not making apparent progress, it demotivates me to continue coding day after day, making it harder to actually open up the IDE and start programming.

Pretty much this.

Which is why I am working on a workflow that induces progress (as sketching motivates you to make a masterpiece).

If I can get the idea down and working faster, and modify it just as quickly, testing new ideas, then I would be motivated longer, because I can test ideas before I write 10,000 lines of code and realize the theme of the game is all wrong.

I will call it a "Game Sketch". It's not just a drawing, but a program of sorts, or perhaps a language? Perhaps it is an interactive Game Design Document? I don't know how to format it yet.

Looking at my credit card bill