> I think the only cure for depression is death. Too morbid?
Not at all. Twice in my life I've been on anti-depressants, and both times I hated them. One was when I was in middle school; more against my will. My parents wanted me to stop washing my hands (I had/still have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; washed my hands several times an hour some days). My dad just wanted a pill to fix me I think. The one therapist that suggested group/family therapy was the one we never went back to.
I tried against for a short time in University and it was worse. Sure initially you're smiling more (enough that other people noticed more than I did), but the side effects were harsh; more so when I was a kid. I'd want to sleep all the time and had zero energy. I couldn't masturbate. I started feeling numb; and I remembered that same feeling I had as a kid: If I felt like I needed to wash my hands to go work on something; on the meds (various SSRIs specifically), I would just stay in front of the TV instead of doing something constructive I enjoyed.
I recently lost a high school friend to suicide. He had been struggling for over a decade. It was hard to get him to hang out; was like pulling teeth. He'd been gone from my life for a long time. I'm sad I didn't get more chances to hang out with him. But I also know that he's at peace now.
The trouble today is that we like to treat all depression as a problem with the self. We use a combination of drugs and therapy that tries to help deal with negative thought patterns. But those approaches ignore the very true reality that life is hard! Life kinda sucks. I work in a cube all day making shit software. We walk by homeless people every day who are a product of bad circumstances and bad decisions, of which we could have easily been in other circumstances. So much of what we buy and consumes hurts people on the other side of the planet.
You mention how you think this article on Skydiving trivializes depression, but maybe not so much. This person did something and changed the external. When I was really depressed, I got a holiday work visa and took off for Australia. I lived there for a year, two and a half in New Zealand and then backpacked for 11 months. I tried to get some support to sustain myself, but I always seem to end up back in a cube. Yet during those times that I changed my external, I really felt like I was leaving that dark place I had been in most of my life.
The fact is, the only thing that made a meaningful impact on my depression was to find ways to change the external .. and that's really hard for people who are really depressed, because every step in that direction takes an incredible amount of energy. In a lot of ways I'm just lucky, because I somehow always am able to force myself to do what needs to be done (finish my degree, finish selling all my stuff and packing the rest, etc. etc.)
I don't know. I'm half and half on this. I see your point, but I also think there are serious problems with the way we try to approach mental illness in the world today.