Gaelic - what I beleive and most pof my colleagues do as well is that "depression" is actually several differnt things that we can't tell apart very well yet. It is like pneumonia - before the days of X- Rays and microbiology all pnuemonias looked the same whether caused by bacteria A or B, TB virus, cancer or toxins in the lungs. It is also likely that most "depressions" have more than one cause.
There are some very strong indicators that some of these different "depressions" are highly unlikely to get better without medication - and it takes a trained professional to tease them all out.
Many of the causes are out of the persons control - genetic inheritance, some viral infections, damage in the womb, some neurological diseases, reaction to chemicals (alcohol being a biggy - stopping it doesnt cure the depression), hormonal changes. Some things can be dealt with and changed, and for some causes you can change the way you react to them.
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