When someone is suffering with depression, the last thing they want is for you to offer them alternative ways to think about their suffering; they may need space, love, companionship, or distraction without coaching through ideologies.

Humans are born with base consciousness—pure awareness like a newborn infant—but slowly build a 'false self' with stories about identity (gender, nationality, personality traits, preferences) that often becomes the locus of suffering.

When depressed, if Holmes can access a 'quiet space'—the part that notices thoughts rather than being identified with them—he experiences relief because this witness is impartial, neutral, not connected to life circumstances.

Depression for Pete Holmes manifests as irrational bouts of anxiety and sudden episodes of despondency that arrive unexpectedly, requiring him to withdraw from activities.

Thoughts (like 'I'm hungry') are communications directed at awareness or base consciousness, not self-evident truths; awareness is the witness that observes these thoughts.

Spiritual mystics across traditions (St. Francis, etc.) practice non-identification with the body and ego; they separate the observing self from the experiencing self to reduce identification with suffering.

Through meditation, mindfulness, contemplation, and study, one can practice witnessing depression in real-time rather than only in hindsight, and with practice, identify less with emotions and life circumstances.