This picture tweeted by The Academy (Oscars) about Robin Williams is beyond poignant:

[jeff47]

39. Yes. The problem is you are building a mental framework that is outside your experiences.

But I do have relatives and friends who have suffered from severe depression and suicidal thoughts... and more than one is no longer with us because of it. In far too many cases, they thought that this solves their problem and those of the people who suffer because of them.

Utterly wrong. They thought it stopped their pain. It's not a solution, it's a way for the hurt to stop.

And they are not so stupid that suicide does not occur to them unless they see a picture like the OP. I can assure you that people with clinical depression are extremely aware that suicide is an option. Long before you were aware that they were depressed.

They often think that they're being self-sacrificial easing the troubled of those they love... that the world is better off without them.

No, there isn't anything positive involved, such as self-sacrifice.

You're coming to this situation as someone who is not depressessed, attempting to create a mental framework from your guesses and what you think people with depression are feeling.

The problem is your model is very wrong. It has massive holes where you completely miss major factors in depression, such as extreme self-loathing. Or the utterly artificial construct of a person that they show to everyone.

You are then taking your model and attempting to say "if I felt like this, how would I react to that picture?". Adding another level of indirection and error on top of what is already there. And then you assert that these problems would not occur without something like that picture.

What you're doing is similar to a man saying "feminists think this". Or a suburban white person saying "inner-city blacks think this". You can't successfully build a mental framework that simulates what they are experiencing, because their reality is radically different from your experiences.

Someone with depression looks at that picture, and sees that the people have worth. They have skills. They also are loved and valued. And the hug would be utterly wonderful because it is gushing with worth, acceptance and unconditional love. It's "I'll be there with you, even when we are walking through the depths of hell." It's a hug of two people's genuine personalities.

That picture is what every depressed person desperately wants, and thinks they can not get.