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Actually, the evidence does show that many (most?) antidepressants have little effect over and above placebo. Look at the meta-analyses and you'll see that. I'm not sure why it's ludicrous - that's precisely what the science says.

Now certainly antidepressants can help many people (my wife for one), but again it is likely to be mostly the placebo effect, which is actually very powerful, especially in depression. For some people a placebo can be the 'kick' they need to get help them get out of their depression. In my wife's case she also used CBT with an excellent therapist, and I think that was likely more useful in the long-term (she is now free of depression).

I have been in a similar situation to you. In my case the depression was so bad I simply HAD to do something about it, and it involved significant changes to my lifestyle (changing job, moving away from the city, etc). My wife also went through depression recently, and has recovered through CBT (with an excellent therapist) and anti-depressants. I'm not really a fan of anti-depressants myself as they are mostly (or all) placebo, but I guess sometimes a placebo can be a trigger to kick yourself out of depression. There are free online CBT tools such as mindgym which might be useful.

In your case I think a big part of your depression is loneliness (and lack of girlfriend in particular). The human brain has evolved to want companionship, and depression is its way of nudging you to try and achieve that. I was in a similar situation to you - I didn't have a proper girlfriend until I was almost 30, and thought I would never have one (but now I'm married).

There are lots of online dating sites which make it easier to meet people (that is how I met my wife over 10 years ago, and there are much more options these days).

Basically there are lots of opportunities out there in terms of jobs and relationships - you just need to change your mindset to realise that.

I'm happy to chat with you further - just post a throwaway email address or something.

Actually, stress does seem to be a significant cause of stomach ulcers. It seems to be a common myth that H.Pylori entirely causes ulcers, but in fact 50% of the world population are infected by H.Pylori and it generally doesn't cause ulcers. Stress seems to be a significant cause. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptic_ulcer#Stress

Anyway, I'm not sure what this has to do with the original post.

No, I can assure you I do not have more supportive circumstances than most folks (certainly less than HN). Having zero known bugs is just a decision that anyone can make (but few choose to). Large companies like google and facebook (with the most resources) tend to be the worst offenders.

I also have suffered from chronic illness in the past, so I understand a little bit about what you are going through.

Actually I've been coming to HN on and off for years...I eventually get put off by the bugs. I just chose to register a different username yesterday. I also wouldn't say I'm hypercritical in pointing out serious flaws that have been there for years. I like to keep my products at zero known bugs and it irks me when I have to use a buggy product. Sorry to hear about your health problems...

That's not obvious or useful (and neither is notifo). Really it should email you about replies if you enter your email address in the 'email address' field.

To be honest HN is sucky in many ways (very buggy with crappy UX). Kind of ironic really.

Agreed. To be honest I don't see why he left...from his description it would almost make me want to work there.

Java and C++ have their problems, but in general they work very well. If I was in charge of software development at Google I wouldn't be using some obscure language.

I agree with his comment about bugs...Google's products seem very buggy, and they don't seem to give much of a crap about fixing them.