Please don't take HN threads into nationalistic flamewar. There could be an interesting point to make about how different countries and cultures approach mental illness, but snark and internet tropes are exactly the wrong way to do it.
The HN guidelines include: "Don't be snarky." "Eschew flamebait." "Omit internet tropes."
I can understand why you find that offensive. But there are a lot of offensive things, or things that someone finds offensive, floating around—for this reason, we're all responsible for metabolizing those reactions in ourselves rather than venting them into the commons. It's the only way to prevent discussion quality from further declining.
Of course, you would have been welcome to post a thoughtful, neutral reply questioning whether medication is needed for that, and explaining why. In such a comment, it might be natural to mention that where you live, attitudes toward this are very different, etc. Although these topics are divisive and intense, there's no intrinsic reason why they need to become flamewars.
Re your second question, I don't think it's a problem for people to share their experiences and viewpoints, especially on issues that touch nearly everyone, and I don't think doing that really counts as "medical advice". There's no implicit claim to authority in an internet forum comment; on the contrary, readers all know to add an implicit "This is just an internet comment" disclaimer.
HN is basically an internet watercooler, a place for conversation, finding common ground, and so on. We trust readers to be smart enough to make up their own minds.
Perhaps change [1] clinical to chronic or need to may. It come off strongly than I intended.
> Depression ranges in seriousness from mild, temporary episodes of sadness to severe, persistent depression. Clinical depression is the more-severe form of depression, also known as major depression or major depressive disorder.
I certainly didn't mean to imply everyone with depression should default to any depression related medication.
Need is not the right word because it depends on the person. Some can get better with the right therapy alone. Others don't even respond to therapy + meds but might improve with more invasive neurological interventions.
But there are certainly people in our present world who do need meds to get out of the depression hole. There are people that do not respond to therapy alone but do respond to meds with therapy.
I don't think there's anything wrong with your comment, indeed the statement you're quoting is extreme. But I think HN has the tendency to go too far to the other extreme. At the end of the day, clinical depression is very heterogeneous. You need to do what works best for you.
Btw in case it isn't clear how meds are supposed to work in practice - medication for depression is not something you just pop and forget about. Any reputable psychiatrist will include therapy as part of the initial treatment plan, they don't just write a prescription and send you away.
Yes bad clinicians exist, but I think the pill popping trope for psych is way less common than people assume. Perhaps part of the source of this stigma is the role of the general practitioner. It is not uncommon to see random non-psychiatrist MDs prescribing SSRIs or stimulants, and in those cases it's a lot less likely the corresponding behavioral therapy is happening.
Anyway, medication is an absolute life saver for those people who need help in making the behavioral changes to begin with. There is a large body of studies at this point showing that simultaneous meds and therapy can improve depression symptoms more than the sum of their parts. Gold standard practice is to try tapering off of meds after the course of therapy, and more often than not the symptom improvements persist.
OP should get a professional opinion specific to his situation. He shouldn't go with the intention of seeking meds, but they should be something he inquires about. Some of the sibling comments here are acting like needing meds is a lack of will power, which is just as unhelpful as indiscriminately pushing meds.
I didn't mean to say everyone feeling depressed should take medication as the default solution.
When I prefixed "clinical" above, I wanted to imply persistent and chronically present issues.
Any decent psychiatrist will not prescribe you medication unless you absolutely require it and will run multiple tests ruling out heart problems, blood pressure issues, thyroid, liver, and many more. A therapist isn't qualified to run and test for alternative medical issues which may manifest as above.
This is why I really wanted to assert that seeing a psychiatrist or medical practioner is important first step.
You may have persistent depression due to unrelated medical issues which may need medication.
Chronic health issues often have a persistent medical cause but not always.
How to know someone is American before they even mention "other English speaking countries"