Depression Due to Loneliness

Our genetic predestiny will tell us to find a mate, and it is half instinct and half intellect going "Woah Nelly!"

When we rationalize that predestiny away, we learn distraction helps remove the pain of melancholy, which is what's left over after binding instinct qnd repressing libido.

However, repressing libido can cause stress which may uncover subclinical schizophrenia.

Depression isn't all about suppressed rage; it's about suppressing instinct with the mind using intellect like damming a mighty river (the libido).

I am not suggesting that the relationship thing is a must, but "mental illness" is not just about child abuse. it's also about self-abuse.

For repressing human nature has consequences, just like a longjam can cause floods, and "mental illness" is that flood.

Thus, depression may simply be due to loneliness, and its etiology a result of repressing the libido.

This is why painting and other creative acts relieve depression. By the act of creation, we release libido in a sublimated manner. By releasing libido, our attention focuses on the created work of art. With our attention focused on creating, less time is devoted to building castles in the mind called neuroses.

When less time is devoted to neuroses, more time can be devoted to activities designed to recreate the Garden of Eden as it were. Hence the term, "recreation".

Therefore hobbies are the most expedient of therapies for depression.