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Comment by richard___ | Hacker News Reader

Bio, psycho, social. You have to realize that depression is caused by everything from sleep, to the food you eat, to your daily habits, to how your relationship with your parents is, to how you treat your dating partners. A drug can't make up for all these things.

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It seems to me that the psychological component makes conquering the other two impossibly difficult for some people with depression. In that case medication could temporarily take that dimension out of the equation so the person can actually get some beneficial work done on the other parts of their lives. Medication should be seen as a temporary "crutch" in my view.

That's how I explain my history to myself. I have failed to get significant beneficial work done while I could.

It is really hard if you're deficient in all areas. I'm facing biological / physical health issues, I'm socially isolated and I experience toxic mental patterns. Whatever I try, I will drag these issues around with me.

Good luck, I wish you all the best. Be aware of your negative thought patterns. Absolutist statements like your last sentence is not necessarily true and a real symptom of depression. Change your internal monologue and good things can follow. Change it to "at this moment these issues are holding me down".

Right, it's a symptom. Dealt with depression for nearly 2 decades, and tackling all the baseline needs vigilantly, not least of which the social ones, had the strongest impact.

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