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Comment by arius | Hacker News Reader

Depression, like your sports analogy, is not only rooted in genetics but also in the environment. While you can act on your environment, you can't act on genetics for now. Focusing on what is in one's reach is the only thing one can do. Being certain that the cause is out of our control (while true for parts of it) is in itself something fueling depression.

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No no no. Nobody is fully aware of the situation but choosing to focus on what they can control. Most of the people in the first world who suffer from depression don’t even realize they have depression. Depression and mindset and sadness are are muddled together in our lexicon — the thing I’m pointing out is that most people don’t even know the truth. For me, knowing that it’s not my actions causing me to feel this way is what saves me. Because for a long time I blamed myself because of the mass ignorance we harbor. The whole reason for the muddling is that the mind naturally tries to put together cause and effect and so depression can hide that way. It’s a fight of intuition against science.

But it is, in part, your actions. The evidence does not support claiming depression is purely biological. That, however, doesn't mean blame is helpful or appropriate.

Meh... you're teaching depressed people to focus on changing things to improve their environment. Maybe some of them can't and the best thing for them to do is accept it, even if it is a substantial drain on their productivity and life quality. Indeed there are some therapeutic approaches that do exactly this (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).

Obsessing over an intractable problem as if it can be improved can make the problem worse.

He’s actually talking about stoicism, which is to accept what you can’t change.

Depressed people tend to underestimate what they can change, which complicates the matter.

It’s not about a simple trick, it’s about a shift of mentality akin to finding a religion.

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