No, it is intended to be specific advice on how to temporarily treat symptoms of a condition. It could be incorporated into a larger therapy. For example, aspirin or acetamenophen products are used to quickly relieve a fever. Do you snap at people who offer these, because they don't treat the underlying problem (a viral infection)?
My point is that depression is a real thing, that you need proper treatment for. All your theories are great, but it is about as valid as my butcher telling me how I should code my next project because he just got finished watching the Social Network.
I am sure you mean well, but the reality is that unless you an actual therapist, offering up advice does more harm than good.
Why do you have such high respect for the knowledge these therapists have? Isn't it a bit like cargo cult science?
If this sounds provocative, it is because I am trying to get a response and more info. Why is it that the various psychology schools are SO respected that any layman's advice or armchair theory is instantly considered "harmful" even though it is HELPFUL to people I know who aren't clinically depressed? I am just trying to understand why someone offering normal and rational advice is told that they are causing harm. There's some unsaid extra assumption here about the depressed people, and I would like to know what it is, and where is the evidence for it.
