IMO ...
You could argue that both points of view are correct.
If you accept the science that all thought involves neurotransmitters, then it's entirely possible that negative thinking and feeling can mess with them, causing and then perpetuating a depressed state.
Over time, this could develop into the "bitter and content with their misery" rut, in which the person may be incapable of altering their thoughts on any but the most superficial level - I can say anything I want to myself, but it never changes how I feel.
Drugs, or anything extremely pleasurable performed too often, can deplete the brain of its supply of a given neurotransmitter, specifically the ones dealing with pleasure, which can induce a depressed state that is perpetuated by the addiction, the need for that external source to bring the levels back up.
Originally posted by ER!C L!VE
Mr. Mystery, why are you so passionate about people needing to 'own up' instead of using psychotropic drugs?
It could be that taking medication could create a sort of dependency as well, that while the medication could fix things, the effect wouldn't last if you stopped taking them, because it would still be an external source.
He's probably thinking that if a person were to get out of their neurological condition on their own, the effect would essentially be permanent as the neurotransmitter levels have gotten back to normal and are not being elevated artificially. This would obviously involve ridding yourself of whatever is causing the lower levels in the first place, be it a depleting excess (drugs, masturbation, etc.) or a lack of (negativity, inactivity, etc.) pleasure neurotransmitters.