[16bitvoid]

That's incredibly reductive. I'm sure some people's depression can boil down to a matter of perspective, but it's naive to extrapolate that to everyone with depression.

I'm incredibly optimistic and am content with my position in life. My default state is being mindful of the present and I don't think about things too far into the future. I very rarely ever feel stressed out over things in life.

However, none of that changes the fact that I feel completely empty and find no joy in things. Interests are nearly non-existent, emotions dialed to 1, and the only thing I'm motivated to do is lay in bed staring at the ceiling... unless I'm on sertraline.

Admittedly that's just anecdotal, but I worked in a clinical neuroscience lab researching treatments for severe treatment-resistant depression (read: people who tried so many options including CBT that they even tried electroshock therapy). The only thing that helped those subjects was a regimen of personalized neuroimaging-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation for 10 minutes every hour for 10 hours every day for a week. Even then, it wasn't permanent. Some saw improvement for months, others only weeks.

For some people, it's not just a matter of "perspective".

[citrin_ru]

I'm not telling it's a matter of perspective, my point is that I see no objective metrics to tell apart if the situation is bad so it's one expected to be depressed and when the situation is good (so only medication / therapy would help). And it makes discussions around this topic harder.

[sameesh]

If its not just a matter of perspective and only medication can help, etc, then why do we call depression a "psychological" or "mental health" concern? Why isn't it just considered a neurological disease?

[seba_dos1]

Not sure what your point is, many mental health concerns are caused by neurological diseases.

In case of depression in particular, it appears to be a label given to a big bag of various issues you may have causing similar symptoms.

[thewebguyd]

Depression is increasingly starting to be seen as a neurobiological disorder as we learn more.

In my own opinion, we need to stop viewing "mental health" as a separate class of conditions from general/physical health. A mental illness is a health/medical condition just like any other and shifting our views and diagnostic criteria in that direction would do a lot to remove the stigma associated with mental illness.

Someone with depression has a chronic illness, not a temporary "it's just in your head" condition.

[kanbankaren]

> I feel completely empty and find no joy in things.

Maybe the idea that we should find joy and feel full is wrong?

We are on a random planet circling a random star in an unfathomable Universe.

STOP looking for meaning and you are liberated. The quest for meaning by itself might be exhausting and makes you feel depressed.

[16bitvoid]

Who said I'm looking for meaning? I'm not.

It's not as liberating as you might think. A joyless existence is either suffering or nothingness. A life without meaning, either internal or external, is one where nothing is meaningful with no motivation thus one of crippling catatonia til death.

All I can say is just that it doesn't feel good and if you can't feel good about anything, your calculus of your life inevitably leads to the conclusion that existence isn't worth it.