[quacked]

Good catch, living post-depression is definitely not harder than living pre-depression and wasn't trying to imply that it is. Updated my wording.

"Harder" is also subjective; is it harder to feel like you want to die, or harder to clean your room? If "harder" means "takes more effort", it's the second one, but if "harder" means "has a worse impact on your emotional state", it's the first one.

[zepto]

Yeah - I’m just not sure what useful work the term ‘harder’ is doing. It just compares two things in a way that seems irrelevant, and mostly harmful.

It does take ‘effort’ to clean your room if you are depressed. But that has very little to do with why one might not do it. Typically it’s because it seems pointless, and because taking action typically intensifies the pain for a while for various reasons.

The ‘effort’ piece to me seems like a distraction, and one which can imply that the depressed person simply is lazy or not trying hard enough, which is usually the opposite.

Someone who feels like they want to die can be putting a great deal of effort into battling with their thoughts and ruminating. Indeed some theories contend that this problem solving effort is fundamental to depression.