I disagree with the conclusion:
>>What if, for some people, there are no solutions?
>>For some, there is no treatment for their depression. There will never be a better career. There is no better life off drugs.
>>I think that’s plausible.
>>Your happiness is a balance between all the good and bad things in life. Some people are cursed with such strong innate bad factors that no amount of good will overcome them.
>>I don’t know for sure, and I would never ask them, but I think that’s what Jack’s parents eventually concluded.
Children cannot see their own full potential. If given the freedom to choose, they will often choose wrong - choose to stay home and play video games, choose to not do their homework, choose to not go outside and be physically active.
This is where the parents come in. They have to force the child to develop skills, and mental fortitude, that will give them a sense of meaning, self-worth, and belief in their own potential.
They cannot tolerate their child being a self-pitying loser. Children will respond to authority, and in the case of a child wasting away their potential, exerting that authority is justified.
I also think all drugs should be legalized. Heroin concoctions should be sold beside bleach. If someone wants to kill themselves, we shouldn't coddle them. Making it fully legal would take away much of the romanticism attached to it. Kids who do drugs should be seen as absolute losers, on par with gasoline sniffers, not raised up by their peers as druggy rebels.
Finally, the medical establishment should stop prescribing painkillers. Jack's addiction started with a Percocet prescription. The costs of prescription painkillers, in sparking deadly addictions, outweigh any conceivable benefit. Pain has never killed any one. Painkillers have.