Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Do your own research.
In short: I experienced something similar. Garrett and I call it “Rat(ionalist) Depression.” It manifested as similar to a loss/lessening of Will To Wizard Power as John uses the term here. Importantly: I wasn’t “sad”, or pessimistic about the future (AI risk aside,) or most other classical signs of depression; I was considered pretty well emotionally put-together by myself and my friends (throughout, and this has never stopped being true.) But at some point for reasons unclear to me, I became listless. The many projects of a similar flavor to things John points at above, which I used do to in spades, lost their visceral appeal (though they kept their cognitive/aesthetic/non-visceral appeal and so compelled me to force myself now and then to some success but also some discomfort and cognitive dissonance)-- and it happened gradually so that it seemed like a natural development over a year or two.
My girlfriend, who is on Bupropion for regular physician-recognized depression, encouraged me to try it just to see. So I did. And it worked.
And it kicks in very quickly. There was a honeymoon phase during the first ~8 days it takes for all of the long half-lived active metabolites to reach equilibrium concentrations, during which I and others I know have reported feeling mild euphoria along with the other benefits. After that subsides, it’s a background thing where mostly you look back on your day/week and realize you just got things done and did more things. And it’s been consistently helpful ever since. (4-6 months for me, ~7 years for my girlfriend, years for some family members and somewhat less time so far for others I know personally.)
Oh and my social battery is way larger. I used to get introvert-exhaustion in a way that ~basically doesn’t happen anymore. Parties are more often fun than not, now.
Further nice-to-haves:
It’s not an SSRI, it’s an NDRI, so it doesn’t do the terrible SSRI things. Side effects may include decreased mental fog, increased libido, decreased appetite, and a renewed will to Wizard Power.
You’ll “feel it” right away (~same day) even though it takes a ~week to settle in to equilibrium concentrations (and, anecdotally from others, possibly up to month to feel it’s final form?)
It’s fairly easy to get. Go to your psychiatrist and ask for it (XR, extended release to be taken in the morning) or trade time/convenience for money and go online to a site like Nurx.com and if, upon completing their intake survey, they consider you to have mild depression (not severe or you’ll scare them off) they’ll start mailing you bupropion once a month!
It doesn’t work for literally everyone. If you have bad anxiety, or if you have mania, be warned. But for the large handful of people around me who are now on it, they’ve reported fast and significant positive effects, including at least one other “Rat Depression” case.
That’s most of the pitch.
Well but also kind of yes? Like agreed with what you said, but also the hypothesis is that there’s a certain kind of depression-manifestation which is somewhat atypical and that we’ve seen bupropion work magic on.
*And that this sounds a lot like that manifestation. So it might be particularly good at giving John in particular (and me, and others) the Wizard spirit back.