I think “treating depression” as a framework for dealing with personal problems can be counter productive. For example, sleep quality can affect depression, but if I try to make improvements in my sleeping and see no discernable impact on my depression I am likely to give up and try something else. Instead, if I try to improve my sleep quality independent of any effect on depression I am more likely to be successful. Thinking this way allowed me to actually make a serial set of improvements*, at the end of which I can look back and say “I am less depressed than I was by a large degree” even when individual changes didn’t seem impactful.
*Sleep, diet, exercise, socializing, motivation
Edit: I phrased this comment poorly. I am in fact speaking about my own experience and not a hypothetical person.
I think “treating depression” as a framework for dealing with personal problems can be counter productive. For example, sleep quality can affect depression, but if I try to make improvements in my sleeping and see no discernable impact on my depression I am likely to give up and try something else. Instead, if I try to improve my sleep quality independent of any effect on depression I am more likely to be successful. Thinking this way allowed me to actually make a serial set of improvements*, at the end of which I can look back and say “I am less depressed than I was by a large degree” even when individual changes didn’t seem impactful.
*Sleep, diet, exercise, socializing, motivation
Edit: I phrased this comment poorly. I am in fact speaking about my own experience and not a hypothetical person.