[_tef]

Because depression doesn't work that way. It isn't a general feeling of malaise, it's somewhat a lack of positive value on everything (ish).

It is a lack of momentum and a heavy inertia to stay miserable and avoid change. It becomes a sunk cost where it's almost impossible to change something small in your life, let alone something big or huge.

Your advice is naive, and tantamount to asking "Have you thought about not being depressed, I hear that could work". If it were as simple as thinking your way of depression, it wouldn't be such a problem.

The best advice I've ever encountered is to take care of the little things, like sleeping on time, remembering to eat every day, doing laundry and getting out of the house. These are often the first things to go and often the hardest to get back into the routine of doing. Once you can manage a day at a time, it's easier to start to try managing a week at a time.

Large changes won't matter if you can't take care of the smaller things in life that support you. Depression isn't one of those things you can snap out of, but one that you can gradually work yourself out of.

It's not fun or easy though.