[penguindev]

Have you read "mans search for meaning"? That guy lived in a concentration camp, so you probably don't have it that bad...

Hope you find something better than pills and/or paying a shrink for the rest of your life. I know you can.

[Devthrowaway80]

Clinical depression is a physiological condition that produces irrational negative emotions that are largely unrelated to the sufferer's circumstances.

Telling a clinically depressed person "buck up, things aren't that bad" is about as helpful as telling somebody with diabetes that "sugar is actually pretty tasty, you should just try it again and see if you like it."

Those pills you so casually dismiss prevented me from taking my own life and have lifted a lifelong fog.

Hope you can find something better to do with your time than writing incredibly ignorant comments on Hacker News. I know you can.

[penguindev]

- I went through clinical depression myself 10 years ago. I think the OP deserves a second opinion.

- I would tell someone with type 2 diabetes to stop taking drugs and instead stop eating the carbs (of course the politically correct pharmaceutical / govt response is to take drugs which only treat the symptoms - funny how financial interests work). Again, first hand experience with this.

[amagumori]

if you "went through" clinical depression you didn't have clinical depression. you felt bad for a while.

[davidddavidson]

Would you tell someone not feel happy because someone else has it better? Then don't tell someone not to feel sad because someone else has it worse.

[penguindev]

I had to think about your question for a while. However, I think the issue is the premise: you imply "has it better" = "how you feel". Whereas Dr. Frankl says (and has observed) "you always have the power of choice, that's the one thing nobody can take away".

So no, I would say you can look to either people "having it bad" or "having it good" and finding in both cases they have the power to make choices.

[davidddavidson]

So your cure for someone suffering from clinical depression is just to choose not to feel depressed?