Quantum physics opens a can of worms in that regard, but it's indeed speculative at this point. From a 'traditional' materialist perspective, all that has happened had been determined in advance from the moment the Universe had sprung itself into being and its components started interacting between themselves. We were always meant to be and from the moment we are born, we are thrust into an already established pattern of interaction to which we are subject and from which we have no agency except for the illusory one given by our self-awareness.
And even if we subscribe to such a view (which I do in earnest), we will nonetheless sublimate such thoughts since our self-awareness can only go so far before we are driven insane and/or become suicidal.
I'm more of the position that the only thing we will ever understand is the immediate present, and since the present is constanly changing, our knowledge of such mechanisms cannot be definite. We have however limited ourself by science that posited that anything must be material.
But I very much liked the point of Alpan and you that depression - at least some types of depression - have causes that are taking place in the interplay between the material and the imaginary. We can imagine a world that is terrible and empty, we can also imagine a world that is entirely positive (hubris) but in the actual we "forget" the imaginary and this makes us content as animals.
Or if we avoid derailment into metaphysics, even if human consciousness is non-material, the causes for psychological illness will probably be more in the realm of the "material". (even if material does not actually exist, I think we know what is meant with "material")
No other species has to deal with depression. A dog can feel sad, the same way it can feel happy, but it is too busy being immersed in its environment, in action, to engage in the self-reflection necessary to reach long-term depression.
Dogs can be depressed. I have personally witnessed this when working with blind people during my Zivildienst. Guide dogs quite often develop severe psychological illness and need to be taken out to play by someone who is not the blind person. In that regard, I think dogs are the worst example you can take, because their psychology is the most similar to humans in the animal kingdom. If you completely deny a dog the ability to do the things that are natural to him, which is often blocked by training, he will become very much depressed.
Dolphins also get depressed and even suicidal when separated from other dolphins. There was a very interesting episode in Jacques Cousteau, where a dolphin stopped eating until they gave her a companion.
Furthermore even if we agree that this is a major cause of depression, there are types that come from too much activity. Depression is not a new condition, in the past depression was called "overburdening". During WW2 for example many officers had to be relegated from duty due to overburdening and in soldiers this was called "lack of morale fibre". Those people were not exactly treated well but it was accepted that this condition existed.
Burn-out comes from "too much forced, unwanted activity" instead of "too much thought". I would say that a depressed person that realizes they are blocked by pessimism and takes on too many things will relapse into burnout. So it's more about doing a few things that are in your nature and not necessarily doing too many things that you don't want.
When we're engaged with labor of some kind -- and this can be mental or physical -- we're not at all concerned with how we feel. We don't even notice time passing; the action is the thing that consumes us. It is only during times of idleness that we engage in the activity of trying to make sense of ourselves, or obsess over meaning in our lives.
A Pascal quote is probably more elegant: “All of human unhappiness comes from one single thing: not knowing how to remain at rest in a room.”
Yes, absolutely.
Although some people will object that if you simply cannot engage in any kind of activity, this solution is no longer available to you.
I am just of the group who wants to relentlessly keep pushing to at least do something, because I don't believe that many people are really incapable of doing anything.[/QUOTE]
