I wish it was this easy. But mental health is as complex and multifaceted as our brain is. There can be more than one reason why a once happy engineer is now struggling to complete basic tasks, and they are often hard to find and explain or to relate to simple explanations like these (which is why more and more people are turning to therapy for answers).

You raise good questions, but thousands more could be asked: Are you taking care of your foundations? Sleeping enough? Eating nutritious food? Do you have any bad habits or trauma that you haven't even acknowledged to yourself? Is your work environment healthy? What things aren't healthy that you've normalised? Are you seeing enough friendly people in your day to day life? And so on.

My point is that there are rarely easy answers to easy questions such as these, so "bucking up" can be seen as either great advice or irresponsible and insensitive, and it doesn't necessarely apply to "most of y'all". So maybe you need to buck up, but also don't be frustrated if you don't. Maybe the solution is elsewhere.

I think mental health is way over blown in terms of complexity.

>My point is that there are rarely easy answers to easy questions such as these

I'd argue these are all binary questions and pretty easy to answer:

>Eating nutritious food? : Yes/No

>Sleeping enough?: Yes/No

>Are you taking care of your foundations? Yes/No based on above plus Yes/No to "Sufficient Exercise?"

>Do you have any bad habits or trauma that you haven't even acknowledged to yourself?: Yes/No (Stop playing videogames, reduce phone use, limit drugs and alcohol)

>Is your work environment healthy?: Yes/No (If 'No' how can you leave it)

> Are you seeing enough friendly people in your day to day life? : Yes/No

An easy happiness formula is:

1. Eat right: Maintain a healthy diet to keep your physical energy stable.

2. Exercise: Keep active every day to release mood-boosting chemicals.

3. Get enough sleep: Prioritize rest to reset your mental state.

4. Imagine an incredible future: Daydream about grand possibilities, even if you don't fully believe them at first.

5. Work toward a flexible schedule: Having control over your time is one of the highest drivers of happiness.

6. Do things you can steadily improve at: Progress and mastery trigger the chemicals in your body that make you happy.

7. Help others: Once you’ve helped yourself first, giving back provides profound psychological benefits.

8. Reduce daily decisions to routine: Remove mental clutter and decision fatigue by establishing steady habits