No, anxiety and depression aren't simply a matter of perspective.

Or because of a legitimate chemical imbalance or some other cognitive issue they can’t control alone. Right?

- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/2022...

and

> "the etiology of depression is incredibly complex, the narrative that it is caused by a simple “chemical imbalance” persists in lay settings. We sought to understand where people are exposed to this explanation"

- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11752450/

and

> "Onset of depression more complex than a brain chemical imbalance. It's often said that depression results from a chemical imbalance, but that figure of speech doesn't capture how complex the disease is. Research suggests that depression doesn't spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals."

- https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-dep...

and

> "Analysis: Depression is probably not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain – new study"

- https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2022/jul/analysis-depression-prob...

(These are not thoroughly checked articles, they're the first few search results; however claims that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance ought to be able to show where that idea originated, how the imbalance is measured in patients, where that hypothesis is supported by evidence, why antidepressents don't fix depression in half of patients, and several more suspicious things).

(I've written paragraphs and paragraphs thinking through some of my views in this thread. You wrote three words naming a thing which doesn't seem to exist. If you want more engagement, engage more. What words am I twisting? Where did you say it was anything more detailed than that? What behaviour that people "can't control alone" are you talking about?)

For emphasis: I do not think it is simply/exclusively “chemical imbalance.”

I'm incredibly optimistic and am content with my position in life. My default state is being mindful of the present and I don't think about things too far into the future. I very rarely ever feel stressed out over things in life.

However, none of that changes the fact that I feel completely empty and find no joy in things. Interests are nearly non-existent, emotions dialed to 1, and the only thing I'm motivated to do is lay in bed staring at the ceiling... unless I'm on sertraline.

Admittedly that's just anecdotal, but I worked in a clinical neuroscience lab researching treatments for severe treatment-resistant depression (read: people who tried so many options including CBT that they even tried electroshock therapy). The only thing that helped those subjects was a regimen of personalized neuroimaging-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation for 10 minutes every hour for 10 hours every day for a week. Even then, it wasn't permanent. Some saw improvement for months, others only weeks.

For some people, it's not just a matter of "perspective".

Maybe the idea that we should find joy and feel full is wrong?

We are on a random planet circling a random star in an unfathomable Universe.

STOP looking for meaning and you are liberated. The quest for meaning by itself might be exhausting and makes you feel depressed.

It's not as liberating as you might think. A joyless existence is either suffering or nothingness. A life without meaning, either internal or external, is one where nothing is meaningful with no motivation thus one of crippling catatonia til death.

All I can say is just that it doesn't feel good and if you can't feel good about anything, your calculus of your life inevitably leads to the conclusion that existence isn't worth it.

Go somewhere where you need to work physically you az off to afford daily food. You will be so exhausted eventually that: 1 you will not have any energy left for thoughts. 2 If you have any energy left, you will give it to angriness which will lead to other circumstances which are none related to find the meaning of life.

Ignorance may lead to happiness and friends :)

I didn't have anxiety, just depression. I rarely thought. I existed on autopilot. I was physically exhausted on a daily basis as a division 1 athlete in college. Often went days without eating either because I simply forgot to eat or forgot to make time for it between classes and training. Didn't change anything.

I think something people are forgetting is that motivation is either driving you toward something you want or driving you away from things you specifically don't want. A complete lack of motivation means I wasn't motivated to do anything to get something, but also I wasn't motivated to anything to avoid something either. I wasn't motivated to eat to avoid hunger pangs. I wasn't motivated to quit my sport to avoid routine physical exhaustion. Instead, my empty autopilot existence just freely acted on the expectations of those around me as a proxy for motivation.

If One can´t be happy with what One have now, One will never-ever be in any circumstances.

This is not your case certainly but is connected with the autopilot (meaning we don´t get to choose.

This one came out good :)

In my own opinion, we need to stop viewing "mental health" as a separate class of conditions from general/physical health. A mental illness is a health/medical condition just like any other and shifting our views and diagnostic criteria in that direction would do a lot to remove the stigma associated with mental illness.

Someone with depression has a chronic illness, not a temporary "it's just in your head" condition.

In case of depression in particular, it appears to be a label given to a big bag of various issues you may have causing similar symptoms.