…in my experience the preoccupation with “professional help” is deeply unhealthy. By creating a comforting relief from the ouside, the specialist makes the illness more attractive and tends to draw the treated mind deeper into it. It is downright dangerous and worse, is imminently avoidable in most cases.

I don’t suffer from clinical depression myself, but I do have some indirect experience with it. Based on that I would say…it depends.

Some therapists may indeed make things worse, but the right therapist can help, if the client is sufficiently determined. Some of the available drugs can be helpful for some people, though they aren’t a complete answer in themselves.

In any case, given the stakes involved, it’s worth a shot.