At any point, you could invest, and fix it. You have ideas and options. You have resources.

If you refrain from doing everything you can to handle your situation, that makes you irresponsible.

Progress is…

That’s not it though, because progress is not an illusion, it’s just that you keep letting your bar rise with each time you get better, you can’t just jump into everything after you’ve healed a tiny bit, you have to let yourself fully heal before you start stressing the wound, otherwise it will keep re-opening and you’ll end up having trouble again.

It is important that when you are doing better, you don’t let your expectations of yourself rise too much. Just because you have healed somewhat does not mean that you are cured, and that all of a sudden you can do everything you do when you are not depressed. If you try to do everything too quickly, then it makes sense that you will end up being overwhelmed and becoming depressed again.  You have to make sure to set your base zero, and then gradually measure your progress from there.