It happens a lot, particularly in the States. You are feeling awful for no apparent reason, wondering if you wouldn't be better off dead. So you hie yourself off to a psychiatrist, who prescribes pills, or to a psychologist, who gives you training in counteracting depressive thought patterns. And you feel better, or you don't.

The problem with both the pills and the thought-pattern training is that they concieve of the depression as something that is wrong with you, something in your skull. If your attitude could be adjusted, you would become “functional” again.

And that's as far as they want, or perhaps are licensed, to take you.

I am not licensed to do anything grander than driving, but I say that it's not all in your head. The solution isn't replacing an unpleasant illusion with a pleasanter one. People are what depresses people, and you should figure out who is making you miserable and do something about it. A little experimentation may be required. You may cause pain to others and yourself, and you may find that it's not the first person you think of who causes the trouble. But only breaking or reconfiguring your relations to the other social animals in your life will get you out of the helplessness that is the root of the condition. Painting the cell walls a brighter color won't do it.

(Follow-up remark, May 10: Of course these suggestions are not to be taken dogmatically as the exclusive, guaranteed road to happiness. “Experimentation” means: use the scientific method. Try something and if it doesn't work, stop and try something else. Be ready to test founding assumptions. When possible, have a back-up plan.)