> What happens when a depressed person forces themselves to do things that are associated with not being depressed? Workout, dopamine fasting, social interaction.

[Note: I am not a doctor, but I lived with people with depression]

Apparently, in the case of true clinical depression (i.e. not just "feeling down"), not much. The typical reaction is "yeah, whatever", and they do it for as long as you want them to do it because they don't feel like resisting.

A change of behavior/lifestyle can certainly help, in the same way that lifestyle changes can help with many other diseases, but forcing depressive people to do what non-depressive people do looks just as effective as forcing people with broken legs to walk.

It also looks like there is more than one form of depressions. But the way I see it, depressive people are not sad, they are emotionless. Nothing brings them joy, but nothing saddens them either. I didn't even notice any "binge" behavior, they are just as likely to gain or lose weight, because who cares about eating. Depression is not grieving.