General advice for a general question: The story often goes, if you're depressed, you need to shape up, grit your teeth and take it in strides, just brush it of

General advice for a general question: The story often goes, if you're depressed, you need to shape up, grit your teeth and take it in strides, just brush it off. This is of course nonsense as a solitary advice. What people often neglect is that circumstances in your life, sometimes beyond your control, can in fact trap you into "a life you don't want" or the sort of life where you're just existing, not really living. And if circumstances are that powerful, the problems can both seem invisible and insurmountable. Sometimes, we sort of get trained into living in a box! And then keep on living like that even though circumstances may change! So I believe it's important to reflect on what you really want, what interests you, and pursue that. If that is a big fear to do in practice, no wonder. Everybody would feel stuck if living on false premises, according to others' specifications or avoidance of such. Ultimately, people need to feel in control in their lives, even if just an illusion, when we do what we can we at least feel better about trying. Failing is then part of learning. Watching movies, playing games, gaming social media, don't really count, as those activities become just a proxy for life if you don't pursue and utilize yourself in some other way that truly count in your heart. And it's a life-long road, where we often don't see the small steps we take into a bold new direction leads.