comment: >
context: Your title and explanation of your view really are at odds with each other.
  First 
  
  I've read and heard multiple testimonies about how working out helped someone through depression or provided a gateway to other productive habits and ultimately a better life.
  
  This can be true,
  
  However, I propose that you will not start working out when you are at your lowest.
  
  And this can so be true. 
  You can be depressed, and not be at your lowest point. And being at your lowest point might look very different from person to person. And just because you are better than your absolute lowest point, does not mean you are "overcoming it"
  So you may be not at your worst, and still very depressed, and getting yourself out of your home and working out may help you to continue to get a better mental health. >
  
  Mind and body are connected.
  Working out releases endorphins which feel good.
  It may not cure depression, but physical exercise can absolutely help alleviate some of the symptoms and take the edge off.
  As someone who has lived with depression most of his adult life, I can promise you that getting the drive to work out was not already overcoming it. >
  
  I don't think op was denying that at any point, they just said that if you can find the strength to workout you probably aren't doing so bad that you thought you did. 
  When I'm depressed I have to fight with myself for hours to even go to pee. I'm definitely not in the mental state to lift some weights. I know everything that needs to be done, but it's like the commands my brain gives doesn't reach my muscles. >
  
  
  I don't think op was denying that at any point, they just said that if you can find the strength to workout you probably aren't doing so bad that you thought you did.
  
  By that logic if you can find the strength to seek out any means of treatment for your depression, you probably aren't all that depressed in the first place, so nothing cures depression because if you can make the effort to seek out a cure you're not actually depressed. >
  
  
  By that logic if you can find the strength to seek out any means of treatment for your depression, you probably aren't all that depressed in the first place, so nothing cures depression because if you can make the effort to seek out a cure you're not actually depressed.
  
  In a way, this is kind of true. It's why depression is such a huge problem.
  When you're deep enough, the solution cannot come from one's self. One would need a really good support system where other people essentially force you to get help. >
  
  It cures depression in all animals (including humans) tested in trials. I doubt rats are benefiting from 'willpower' when they workout. >
  
  
  I've read and heard multiple testimonies about how working out helped someone through depression or provided a gateway to other productive habits and ultimately a better life.
  
  Yes their are many different levels from absolute crippling to mild life isn't worth living.
  Working out can give you bursts of "happiness" which can allow you to preform more tasks which provides a mood benefit. This is generally a positive feedback loop.
  
  However, I propose that you will not start working out when you are at your lowest. Instead you'll do so once you have found enough surplus willpower to pick it up 
  
  Each person has their lowest and it's highly suggested to be an activity to try breaking your rut. Just a few times can have a massive effect on your mental health. It's like cleaning if your force your self into in once the after effects potential can carry you through.
  
  That is not to say that a healthy habit like working out cannot have a positive effect on your well-being. It's just that chances are that if you manage to start the habit you were probably already in a better place than you thought. 
  
  Yep a new study agrees that 4 weeks can be equivalent to anti depressants. But you can have the habit ingrained and really it's just the will power to change and you'll exercise so it's a lot lesser of a step.
  People react to things differently and pushing them to a positive activity is all that's needed to get out of that rut. >
  
  The problem is, we can't really know if someone is truly just so depressed that they can't muster the willpower to get out of bed or whatever, or whether it's at least partially just ordinary laziness. I think it's a bit of a chicken and egg problem with depression. Do you need to muster willpower in order to start to overcome depression? What does it even mean to create willpower when previously there was none? How is this achieved? If one doesn't have the willpower to do anything, where does the willpower come from when they are finally able to start getting better? It just magically appears with no cause?
  It seems to me that getting over depression is just a matter of getting off your ass. And I think everyone can do that (barring physically disabled people obviously). To say "I'm too depressed" is just a copout. I get that mental illness can be weird, contradictory, and nebulous, but at the end of the day it really is just a matter of thinking in such a way, reaching some particular line of reasoning in your own mind, which sparks the motivation to finally get off your ass and create meaning in your life. >
  
  I used to always think I'm just extremely lazy; I was literally sleeping 20 hours a day for many years. 
  I now realized how deceiving the word "laziness" is. Almost no one is truly "lazy". Even if people are "lazy", it's only at a very occasional intervals where they are too tired.
  The reason people don't do things have a lot more to do with procrastination, not laziness.
  The difference, is that laziness is about conserving energy; i.e you would choose the option that expends the least amount of energy on your body.
  Humans are not designed to want that; we get impatient and bored, and we shake and move around for no reason at all just to cure some of that boredom/impatience all the time. So we're not lazy.
  There are just some really bad cognitive beliefs that have been drilled into us making us avoid doing things and want to push it back. >
  
  Willpower has nothing to do with depression. >
  
  willpower is a nebulous thing, peer pressure isn't willpower but can be just as effective >
  
  I think that you are very much on to something here.  Depression is just lots of sadness its an absence of motivation.  
  I think that motivation works in a counter intuitive way.  You'd think that the more you push yourself to do stuff, the more you use up your motivation.  But at least in my own experience I find the opposite to be true. 
  If i sit around on the couch and veg out, it does not cause my reserves of motivation to refill.  rather it makes me feel more lazy.  if it do it for too long it makes me feel bad about myself and saps my motivation to do anything else.  Depression is a spiral and if you start sinking it makes it more likely that you will continue sinking.
  if I get up, get moving and do something productive, it doesn't deplete my motivation.  Rather it makes me feel good about myself.  I feel a bit of pride, a hit of dopamine and that makes me want to work even harder.
  With a depressed person, i think your right in that if they start a great exercise routine it probably means they are already well on their way to recovery.  and if they are not recovering they cannot start an exercise routine.
  but if you are not able to start hat exercise routine, its not hopeless.  Rather then a whole routine go for a walk, do 1 pushup, or touch your toes 3 times.  If the goal is to ambitious you set a smaller goal.   A great goal is one that you can achieve but not too easily.  A bad goal is too hard or too easy.
  Working out might not be the first step, the first step might just be googling "fun workouts" or "at home workouts" or "easy work outs".  But its also not the last step.  it is part of the process. >
  
  What exactly is your argument? I think that you’re saying it is unlikely that you will start working out while severely depressed, so the supposed life changing effects of the exercise are more the fact that you weren’t at your lowest point anyways. Tell me if I’m wrong, but I’ll go on that interpretation. 
  Depression has peaks and troughs, like any other illness, and most people with depression have good and bad days. There isn’t really an identifiable “lowest point,” because you never know what your lowest point will be. 
  Gaining the willpower to start exercising can happen on a “peak” day, where you feel up to pushing yourself. Yeah, in a week or a month you might sink back to a trough, but maybe it’ll be an easier trough because you’ve found a new, healthy coping mechanism. 
  As with all treatments or medicines or therapies or whatever we want to label it as, you need to want to do them. By your logic, all treatment is ineffective because you needed the willpower to seek it out, so you must have already been overcoming your depression. >
  
  
  However, I propose that you will not start working out when you are at your lowest.
  
  1, Not what depression is or how it functions. I was diagnosed with depression and depression itself is very much a long-term problem, not a short-term state of mind. There were days I was happy, days I was sad, days I was manic, etc... The problem was the "average" mood/motivation/energy level to which always return. Which was pretty low. It's perfectly possible to work out (find the energy, find the motivation, etc...) on good days. And even continue doing it on bad days if you built up the routine.
  2, Not how everybody sees working out. To me, working out was very much the coping mechanism for my depression. You know how when you procrastinate you do everything but your homework? Well, that's how working out felt to me, it was the procrastination. It wasn't something I had to motivate myself to do, I was doing it gladly. It was everything else that was the problem for me. 
  
  You finding the willpower to start working out means you were already overcoming it.
  
  Nope, wrong. You can have severe depression while living an incredibly healthy lifestyle. Or while having a happy marriage, or while going out with friends on most nights. None of these is indicative of CURING or OVERCOMING depression. That's the scary part about depression. You can feel like a low-energy wreck who wants to die during any of these lifestyles. >
  
  First of all, no one really says "cures" like an antibiotic cures and infection.  That individuals report this is akin to them saying that great relationship cured it, or finding god, or focusing on job or school and so on.  The narratives of what helps someone overcome depression are always simplified and should not be taken as truths that it will always work for everyone.
  Can depression prevent someone from pulling it together and getting exercise?  Yes.  But...does exercise change the chemistry of the body and mind?  Yes, and in ways that improve mood.  You seem to interpret others narratives of personal experience as if they are a prescription that is 100% foolproof and I don't think people are saying that.  But, you swing the pendulum too far - exercise can improve mental state, period.  Can depression prevent you from exercising?  Sure.  Must it?  No, not for everyone.
  The "probably in a better place than you thought" is akin to saying to someone "hey...you're not REALLY depressed", which is something you should generally avoid doing! >
  
  For me working out isn't just a "productive habit" but it instead provides me with tangible mental benefits: My overall mood will improve, my anxious thoughts become less "sticky", I feel more relaxed, and I generally start thinking more positively. The effects of working out are very similar to the effects of my antidepressant (flouxetine) minus the improved sleep. Another big difference is the timing. Flouxetine took around 2-3 weeks before I felt something but the effect is pretty much permanent (as long as I take it I assume). Going to the gym on the other hand provides immediate relief but the effects decay over the next ~12h.
  And this brings me to my main point. For me it's super easy to go to the gym during depressive episodes because I know that doing so will provide immediate relief. Furthermore I will generally start to sleep less and lose interest in my other hobbies, so there's pretty much nothing that competes with my time. Being physically active also doesn't require mental energy since the movements happen pretty much subconsciously so this isn't even a factor. >
  
  Have you tried it?
  
  However, I propose that you will not start working out when you are at your lowest. Instead you'll do so once you have found enough surplus willpower to pick it up and stick with it. When heavily in a rut it is hard to find such surplus willpower because so much of it is used to get through life.
  
  I totally agree with the idea that some people are just completely clueless about how debilitating mental illness can be, and people simply can't just "power through it". 
  However, I don't think that that is the lowest point. 
  That is actually a point of equilibrium. 
  For me, I've not been motivated at all to do anything the past 10+ years. I was sleeping upwards of 20 hours a day. 
  But in a few rare events, my depression/anhedonia got SO BAD, that I just couldn't take it anymore. I HAD to get up and do something.
  There were times I wouldn't clean my room for MONTHS. I had garbage piling up like mountains.
  But when depression got so bad, I just couldn't even stay still. I couldn't sleep. I just kept pacing back and forth in my room, until eventually I just decided screw it, might as well clean it up cuz I can't go back to sleep or anything anyway.
  I also got back to swimming; once back in 2018 when the first wave of my depression hit, and again this year, when the 2nd wave hit;
  I feel SO much better after a swim or a cold shower. It's literally like night and day. All of my worries, my misery just completely disappears for a short while after those activities. It's like magic. 
  Once you're out of the actual 'lowest point', that's when you reach an equilibrium level of misery where you're still depressed enough to have no motivation, but it's not so bad that it actually motivates you to change your situation. >
  
  Your logic seems like it applies too going to a doctor and asking for a pill as well.  Like... when you are looking to see if a pill is effective against depression you'd say "does it work if you do it".
  Nobody is saying it's a "cure" anyways.. it's a therapeutic.  Cures "cure" something.  If it's cured you don't have to keep doing it.
  And your point is some people may be too depressed to take the therapeutic.. yes, this is true.
  Your claims that doing so means you're already getting better, that's not true.  You can be mildly depressed, but not so depressed you can't exercise, for years.
  Your logic suggests that the only form of depression is severe, debilitating depression. >
  
  Correct.