Welcome to the Kingdom of Paracetamol-Ibuprofenia (beating a rather dead horse?)

[P3nT4gR4m]

Animals get depressed.

'nuff said.

Because of physiological issues or because they see some animals dying on teevee?

My point is that, when dealing with metacognition, there seems to be a lot more things that can lead to depression. Overthinking life. Trains of thought that serve absolutely no useful function other than to make one feel all worthless and alone and a whole host of other things that lead to a depressed state. A lot of stimuli which, were we merely happy idiots (like a dog or a cat), would not affect us in the slightest. Being smart is a double edged sword. As soon as we learn to control this awesome consciousness of ours a bit better, a lot of this stuff will just melt away.

[Freeky]

P3nt, animals get depressed for reasons other than their brain chemicals are wonky.

Lets look at dogs, since you seem to think all dogs lead perfect lives and never get sad.  A dog who is very attached to his owner will get depressed if its owner leaves it at home while he or she go on vacation.  It might get depressed if its favorite human was the kid, and then the kid grows up and moves out.  I think its probably a safe bet that most dogs in animal shelters are depressed from being stuck in cages all day until someone takes them home or they get euthanized.

[P3nT4gR4m]

No argument, there. Dogs are great little minds, they grieve, the mope, they get PTSD if they see their pal get run over by a bus but they don't get depressed as much as humans do. There are far fewer things will depress a dog. Wishing their lives had meaning, feeling hard done by because next doors poodle got a better collar than they did, wondering what kind of world this is to raise pups in? Not a big cause of doggie neurosis.

[Freeky]

Okay, dogs have fewer causes for getting depressed.  But I would rather be a person just like I am now and all that entails and have purpose in my life and the ability to think about it than to be something that goes around killing things for fun, for the sheer pleasure of it, which is what we were before we developed reason.

[P3nT4gR4m]

We still go around killing. Nowadays it's generally frowned upon to do it for fun but we have a whole host of convoluted reasons available to make sure the bodycount keeps piling up. Killing for truth and justice and liberty and other abstract constructs of the narrative we call life. I'd rather be a person just like I am now, too but then I'm not getting depressed over the same shit that everyone else is.

Complicated heads get tied in knots easier than uncomplicated ones is kinda my point. Working out how to prevent or untie the knots isn't easy but it helps. Dealing with pathological trains of thought is part of this. Feeling like your life is meaningless or that this or that part of your world is going to hell and there's nothing you can do to stop it is a pathological train of thought. There's little or no benefit to it. It's easy to say but much harder to do when it's your life that appears to be going down the shitter but it's good if you can not think it.