Yeah, I get where you're going with it, and believe me, I'm not looking for excuses to disagree with you. (I upvoted you above; not sure why your comment in par

Yeah, I get where you're going with it, and believe me, I'm not looking for excuses to disagree with you. (I upvoted you above; not sure why your comment in particular, of all the responses, got downvoted.) There are a couple of points I feel compelled to push back on though. First is the word "fix". This might seem like quibbling, but that really bothers me, and I think for not-trivial reasons. When a problem is fixed, it doesn't recur. Addiction and depression are never fixed. They can be coped-with, they can be treated, a person can live a (well, mostly) normal life as an addict or with depression. I think this is important because any advice or treatment offered to people with depression should be practical and it's critical not to imply, "this will fix you." The other is that we have to be exceedingly careful when suggesting mental changes as a treatment for depression, because that can easily be misinterpreted by other people to mean that depression is caused by "bad thinking", or that a person struggling with depression can "just think their way out of it", and I submit this entire HN thread as evidence for that (and could probably dig a few more out of my comment history). That, I think, is distinctly unhelpful for people struggling with depression. They will tend to already be struggling with those thoughts as it is: "why am I broken? Come on me! Be better! Just be happy! Everyone else is happy!" and having other people show up and offer, essentially, the same advice, is really harmful. And fwiw I too am speaking from far too much experience, both personal and family.