[prewett]

Hopelessness and unfulfillment might be considered symptoms of depression if you think that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. But if hopelessness and unfulfillment create an emotional response by imbalancing chemicals, then the depression is the symptom.

I can't see how hopelessness and unfulfillment would cause you to feel happy, and even feeling neutral seems a stretch. Seems like if you aren't depressed if you are hopeless and unfulfilled then something is wrong! It seems to me like American (Western?) society as a whole is pretty committed to avoiding dealing with hard realities--not just emotions--and we just want to take a "pill" to have it all go away. Anti-depressants have uses, but they aren't the solution any more than meth or pretending the problem doesn't exist or magical thinking are.