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Comment by Aaargh20318 | Hacker News Reader

Aaargh20318

I can't remember where I read it, but it always stuck with me: most cases of depression can be solved with a one-time deposit of $20 million in the patient's bank account.

A lot of the time, what is diagnosed as depression is actually a very valid reaction to being in a shitty situation. I myself ended up at a psychiatrist due to being stuck in a shitty job with me being too exhausted and anxious to do anything about it. What eventually 'cured' me wasn't any of the sessions with the shrink but being laid off in a company restructuring with a nice severance package that allowed me to take a couple of months to decompress and look for a job that was a better fit.

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>most cases of depression can be solved with a one-time deposit of $20 million in the patient's bank account.

Yes, but actually not always. If you have someone overweight because they're only eating pizza, cheetos and cola everyday and you use a magic wand to give them Thor's physique, how long will their new physique last with their diet until they devolve back into a slug monster?

Money tends to run out, very quickly for some people. If you aren't able to keep your life in order when you're poor, you'll probably squander it all quickly too if you win the lottery. Like a friend of mine said "Thank God nobody gave me a million dollars when I was a drug addict, I would have OD's in a day".

People with self destructive tendencies don't need 20 million dollars, they need therapy, a stable job, and a loving caring community, something that fewer people have nowadays.

This is a pretty poor take. Everyone knows that it's easier to maintain fitness/muscle than build it. The same is true with money, it's much easier to coast or make moves financially when you have headroom. There's a type of financial self-sabotage people often commit when they're in an "unwinnable" situation called Doom Spending. I feel like the same psychological principles that convince a person in debt to finance their groceries also makes them lean into eating when overweight, lean into laziness when unemployed, etc. They always say that the hardest part is starting, but when it comes to money, fitness, employment, not everyone starts from the same place, and without being/having been at rock bottom you can't speak to the perspective of getting out of it. Agreed that a holistic approach is the only proper way though.

>This is a pretty poor take.

It isn't when you look at how many rich people are depressed and suicidal. Making millions of dollars isn't a cure for depression.

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