Healthy work consists of cycles of effort, reward, and rest. The overall goal is to manage dopamine.

Depression is the feeling of depletion & hopelessness, when the cycle gets out of balance, e.g. too much reward for too little rest, too much effort for too little reward or rest, too much rest for too little reward or effort.

When off-balance, one needs to start the cycle slowly in small iterations, building up longer cycles like kindling a fire.

How does serotonin fit into this? How does anxiety fit in? How does loneliness fit in? How does social and emotional connection? Are those orthogonal or are they related?