Why is depression treated differently than other debilitating, fatal illnesses?

[CavalierClay]

I don't mean to sound like an angsty teenager (no offence meant to the angsty teenagers), but:

Severe, clinical depression (as well as anxiety) can be and is a terrible affliction.

It is typically discussed these days as an illness. We all know the metaphor of a broken leg used to describe mental illness, that even though you cannot see the sprain because it is locked in someone's skull, they are ill all the same.

And yet, these diseases are treated differently than other debilitating illnesses. While a number of conditions can be just cause for medically assisted suicide in some countries, depression and anxiety are not. Why is this?

Why am I allowed to "go out on my own terms" if I have some terrible cancer or degenerative illness, but if I have an illness that rots away at my reality and disables me from living a 'normal' life I have to continue living?

 

[rikamonie]

the government doesn't believe in depression or thinks that its something you can fix with medication unfortunately

 

[SpottedPanda]

I think it boils down to the idea that there's some hope with cases of depression, when with other conditions it is seen as a hopeless scenario for the individual

 

[GoneGoneGone]

Obviously there is the interest of big pharma to pop millions full of meds