> I do sometimes wonder if some instances of depression aren't simply a cause of people not having families
As a child raised by a depressed and emotionally unstable parent, I have to disagree. Being well-adjusted is a good predictor for being a good parent. Even if in some cases people with mental health issues have a positive transformative experience, it's at best a dice role to treat it as therapy, and early childhood trauma is the collateral.
Replace "some" with "lucky". Is that not what STEAM often tries to do, increase the probability of a positive outcome over a negative. Improve luck.
A person does not fight cancer. A person is lucky if the cancer treatments are effective and they survive. Modern day cancer treatments increase the luck of survival.
Some depression is self induced. Always and continually focusing on the negative of thee past. Seems like top post might of had this type. Time need to support the child replaced the time to keep playing back those scenarios in their head with the continue down the road of depression. Tied with changes to their environment.
As a child raised by a depressed and emotionally unstable parent, I have to disagree. Being well-adjusted is a good predictor for being a good parent. Even if in some cases people with mental health issues have a positive transformative experience, it's at best a dice role to treat it as therapy, and early childhood trauma is the collateral.