I thought of my own depression as like being surrounded by a dark spooky forest, with each tree representing every single bad thing that had ever happened to me. Medication can help you forget that you're lost in there but it's not the real solution. You have to work your way through it, feeling each tree for it to disappear and see that bit more clearly. It's very very hard and you most likely have to go through much darker areas to come out of the other side. From other people's perspective, it looks extremely self-indulgent and unproductive, so they're always trying to pull you back from venturing further. It's always the quick fix that everybody wants for themselves and each other, but depression builds up over years and years, it's going to take just as long to unravel it.