I wouldn't be so quick to call it depression. This person is seeing a truth about the state of affairs in the corporate world and hasn't yet figured out how to integrate that truth and become functional in our broken system.

Well both can be true. https://www.vice.com/en/article/8x9j3k/depressed-people-see-...

Depression often is the seeing things as they are and being unable to accept the ugliness and imperfection of our reality. Same with cynicism.

doing mostly 'cog in a machine' type of work in order to make enough money to be safe and have some extra for fun and future planning is a core part of nearly every human life on the planet and most people get on fine with it, without wanting to kill themselves.

in fact for most people the situation is significantly worse, OP is in a privileged position in a relatively well paid industry with relatively non-menial work and is still complaining. there is no other way around it, there is something wrong with OP.

and before all of this corporate stuff developed, people were mostly farming all day which is hardly an improvement.

depression need not enter the picture. imo being a privileged baby having way too high expectations of what life is supposed to give you is all explanation necessary in this case. imo OP needs to stop being a baby and grow up. this might be caused by reading too much about how awesome other people have it and being jealous / not able to cope that OP is not in the same situation, but whatever the cause, the effect is obvious.

This is generally called an existential crisis.[1] Being rich and privileged can actually cause this to happen. If you are poor you really don't have the time and energy to worry about the meaning of life because you are focused on not being homeless, or hungry, or unsafe, or alone.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_crisis

“ OP needs to stop being a baby and grow up…”

You sound angry and defensive about your own solution to the problem. It’s not obvious how that is a more healthy response than to be depressed about it.

Cows and chickens rarely kill themselves even in industrial farms, that doesn't mean they have a good life.

>imo being a privileged baby having way too high expectations of what life is supposed to give you is all explanation necessary in this case. imo OP needs to stop being a baby and grow up.

I have a ton of debts and I've spent about 90% of my life living in poverty, I've spent my first year of college sleeping on the floor of a storage room with no shower or toilet. Does that look like privilege to you?

Maybe you're too simple minded to realize that just because you have it a bit better than some people doesn't mean you're in a good situation. What's the point of being safe if most of your life is spent making some rich guy's life better? The fun I got after work was never nearly enough to outweigh the stress and the waste of time at work.

According to your way of thinking a fed homeless man should be happy because he is fed. A hungry homeless should be happy because he is not handicapped. A blind homeless starving man should be happy because he's not also deaf and an amputee. Where does it stop exactly? At death? Everyone who did not yet die of torture should be happy, otherwise it just mean they're a privileged baby who is expecting too much of life?

What gaslighting! OP says the work for profit situation makes him depressed. Replier takes this and on the basis of five paragraphs of text discards this notion and says it must be some deeply rooted unrelated personal problem.

I'll take OP's assessment on its own merits and validate it and say the screwy work situation out there can be depressing.

Another interesting thing with replier is how he is trying to isolate you. You are alone in his view, or at least marginal, and have some deeply rooted defective aspect. The truth is OP is not alone in his thinking, as other posts in this thread can attest, and link to places like /r/antiwork where you can find more who think like this. You can see the move here to try to keep you isolated, and dull you on organizing together with others of a like mind.

This is a neoliberal take. Consider the deeper roots may be part of the system you’re absolving of responsibility, whether out of your own optimism or realism

+1. Personal roots always lead to the environment around a person. How someone responds plays a role in the result, but that absolutely should not obscure the fact that the circumstances are an enormous factor.

For example one of those deeper roots might be that most prestigious well-compensated jobs actually don't have value to anyone except the owners of capital who will become richer from the work we do!

Seriously I had more positive impact on more people's lives as a poverty wages barista than I do as a six figures software dev. That is depressing.

if _only_ i were being exploited to make someone else money, but still provide some value to someone. its entirely likely that you're window dressing in a potemkin company designed soley to attract investment.

Why do you feel the need to tell people that they are suffering from depression online?

Did you fill out the HAM-D questionnaire in your head based off his post?

Well, the poster asked how people work a job without offing themselves.

Saying someone who is considering suicide might instead consider talking to their doctor doesn’t seem all that controversial to me?

I've seen doctors, lots of them. I tried multiple antidepressants. The most effective antidepressant seemed to be 10mg of QuittingMyJobs.

Honestly absolutely nothing is going good in my life right now, and I'm STILL HAPPIER than when I had a 9-5 job.

I'm in a better place mentally without a job, without any meds and without money, than with a job, a ton of money and a treatment.

> Saying someone who is considering suicide might instead consider talking to their doctor doesn’t seem all that controversial to me?

It doesn't, and if they said that, I wouldn't have replied that way.

This is such a kafkaesque comment. "See this horror you are gazing upon? the trouble with you is you refuse to see how this horror is indeed a good thing! It is you who suffer from a sickness, and until you see this horror for the good thing it is you will continue to be unwell"

Jesus Christ, calm down. Someone not liking the current job landscape isn't a basis to diagnose them with depression. Unless you're a tenured psychologist, you shouldn't be handing out free advice online. Even then, the psychologists I do know refuse to spread that kind of FUD online. Everyone's situation is unique, trying to box things in to "similar situations" is a good way to make bad generalizations.

For what it's worth, I have ADHD and see a lot of myself in this. Grinding out code for some dry product is incredibly hard to sustain for me.