My personal thoughts on depression (I'm not a scientist and have never experienced serious depression, so feel free to completely disregard):
I think depression is your brain telling you that something needs to change in your life. Even if this weren't true, this is the healthiest and most productive mindset to have regarding depression. Mindset and the way you mentally frame things dictates how they affect you (NPR Hidden Brain did a podcast episode on the benefits of framing stress in a positive light).
More specifically, depression is a mental state of negative feedback loop where one's unhappiness reduces one's motivation to fix things, leading to greater unhappiness, even less motivation, and so on and so forth.
The first step towards getting out of depression is acknowledging that your brain is telling you that something needs to change in your life. Maybe you're lonely and therefore should be more proactive in meeting people. Maybe you're unhealthy and out of shape and thus should exercise and eat better. Maybe you feel aimless in life and thus should really think about what you want in life and pursue that. Maybe you hate the place you live in so you should move out. Maybe you're not content with your relationship situation so you should change that. Maybe you hate your job and should change that. The potential list of reasons are endless.
Once you've acknowledged what it is that's making you unhappy (it's probably more than one thing), take action towards overcoming it. Even the smallest step will give you a sense of accomplishment that will start you towards a positive feedback loop.
Happiness itself is a combination of many variables such as acceptance/gratitude, health (food and exercise), fulfillment, and relationships (I like Mo Gawdat's take on happiness).
The problem with the "depression is caused by chemical imbalance" hypothesis is that it implies that you have a disease like cancer and the cure is completely out of your control unless you take medication or some miracle happens. I've always thought that this theory is a load of nonsense, but even if it were true, I still think it's more productive to have the mindset that your mental state is completely within your control, and that depression is your subconscious telling you that something needs to change in your life, and that there is likely a huge mismatch between what you want in life and how you are acting.
And just in general, I think it's more productive to have a mindset of radical accountability and self-responsibility. Better to have the mindset that everything wrong in your life is your fault, and thus you and only you can fix it - where "fixing" means either changing something, or if that's not possible then accepting it as it is and moving on.
My personal thoughts on depression (I'm not a scientist and have never experienced serious depression, so feel free to completely disregard):
I think depression is your brain telling you that something needs to change in your life. Even if this weren't true, this is the healthiest and most productive mindset to have regarding depression. Mindset and the way you mentally frame things dictates how they affect you (NPR Hidden Brain did a podcast episode on the benefits of framing stress in a positive light).
More specifically, depression is a mental state of negative feedback loop where one's unhappiness reduces one's motivation to fix things, leading to greater unhappiness, even less motivation, and so on and so forth.
The first step towards getting out of depression is acknowledging that your brain is telling you that something needs to change in your life. Maybe you're lonely and therefore should be more proactive in meeting people. Maybe you're unhealthy and out of shape and thus should exercise and eat better. Maybe you feel aimless in life and thus should really think about what you want in life and pursue that. Maybe you hate the place you live in so you should move out. Maybe you're not content with your relationship situation so you should change that. Maybe you hate your job and should change that. The potential list of reasons are endless.
Once you've acknowledged what it is that's making you unhappy (it's probably more than one thing), take action towards overcoming it. Even the smallest step will give you a sense of accomplishment that will start you towards a positive feedback loop.
Happiness itself is a combination of many variables such as acceptance/gratitude, health (food and exercise), fulfillment, and relationships (I like Mo Gawdat's take on happiness).
The problem with the "depression is caused by chemical imbalance" hypothesis is that it implies that you have a disease like cancer and the cure is completely out of your control unless you take medication or some miracle happens. I've always thought that this theory is a load of nonsense, but even if it were true, I still think it's more productive to have the mindset that your mental state is completely within your control, and that depression is your subconscious telling you that something needs to change in your life, and that there is likely a huge mismatch between what you want in life and how you are acting.
And just in general, I think it's more productive to have a mindset of radical accountability and self-responsibility. Better to have the mindset that everything wrong in your life is your fault, and thus you and only you can fix it - where "fixing" means either changing something, or if that's not possible then accepting it as it is and moving on.