From personal experience I can confirm that it does feel manic sometimes. And occasionally that 'mania' kind of bootstrapped me back into feeling better, someti

From personal experience I can confirm that it does feel manic sometimes. And occasionally that 'mania' kind of bootstrapped me back into feeling better, sometimes after months of 'not leaving the house and constant bombardment of negative self-directed thoughts' depression. I've also personally experienced how a friend of mine was depressed for years, unemployed but still functional 'enough' to carry on, and what helped him 'snap out of it' was dragging him along on a trip/adventure. Whether it was the change in scenery, the change in behavior as a result, or perhaps just suddenly being too busy to dwell on things in the 'comfort' of home, or something else, I'm convinced this trip was the primary cause of his eventual (but still of course gradual) improvement. While I think depression is so broad that any advice should not be taken as applicable to every depressed person, I do wish it was an option for more people with depression to try solutions like this. I completely understand that a therapist might not always have the luxury of suggesting this, but I wish we'd experiment a bit more with such approaches. It also reminds me a bit of the whole rehab/relapse cycle that many people get stuck in. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps we should spend more energy thinking of ways to make the 'rehab' experience more permanent or at least long-term, and more integrated with or at least much less disconnected from 'real life'. Of course maybe all these things are happening and I'm just not aware of it :). I really hope so.