Depression is a neurochemical imbalance, crippling to the point of not having control over your thoughts and feelings. What has helped me is the number one recommended treatment for depression; medication and therapy. I’m sure yoga, church, oils, diets, etc have helped others and that’s awesome for those people. However, some of us need medication and therapy. Then there are some who require more invasive measures like electroshock therapy and other experimental methods to treat their depression.
The main point I want to make for those who have never experienced depression, severe depression has absolutely nothing to do with other people. Depression in an internalized self-loathing prison only those who’ve experienced it could explain. There are no words from friends or relatives explaining how much you are loved or needed that will change a person’s mind in the depths of depression. This is why I need medication, this is why talk therapy sessions usually end up with a medical professional helping me through basic daily functions. Not reminding me how great I am, rather how to get out of bed, take a shower, and take my meds.
For those struggling with depression please remember you were prescribed medication and therapy for a reason. This is why I’m the friend who will openly ask “did you take your meds?”
If you suspect a person is struggling with depression, engage them. Talk about medication, doctors, and therapists. Drive them to their appointment, the pharmacy, watch them take their meds. Spend the night & the next morning watch them take their meds again and again……You cannot stop the self-loathing, the thoughts and feelings so don’t worry about what to “say” to a person with depression. It’s what you can do to assist in their treatment that could save their life.
Please don’t be angry at those who’ve lost the battle struggling with depression.
Bourdain lived a full life and always kept it real. I am eternally grateful to have lived on the planet at the same time and experienced his world. I would have spent my life interning for him 
Noonday Demon is the best written experience of depression I’ve ever come across.
