Depression Is A Flaw In Chemistry, Not In Character......

It definitely can, but it helps to remember it's not who you are anymore than breaking an arm defines you. You are not defined by your depression.

Yes i did't say you're defined by your depression. I mean after experiencing a depression, and after moving on, you are not the same guy you used to be.

Well the same can be said of just aging. Even if you didn't have depression, in the time that had passed you would be different.

How is that helpful, and how would that not be on behalf of the person...? (That sounded kind of bitchy when I typed it out, but I'm honestly curious.)

Because just seeing it as a chemistry thing makes us think that the solution is in medicine. Maybe pills can help, but we'd be a lot better off if we work to fix the social ills that contribute to it. Like, if a person is depressed partly because he has been abused, we don't just throw a prescription his way and call it good. We try to fix the actual problem.

I see what you mean, but I think that's why it's called a mental disorder - you have to fix the mental problem (at least that's my view). The problem with calling it a social thing is that people like my mother assume "oh, it's not a /real/ problem, you just need to think positive thoughts". Obviously that isn't true, but you can see the balancing act involved here.

Yeah, I suppose. We just have to understand what it actually is, and how both sides of it are true.

Yeah, because that's not something we've studied with science or anything.