Yes, there are the criminals you mention, but they’re not necessarily chronic depressives–nor are chronic depressives necessarily criminals.
I am who and what I am. I didn’t choose that any more than you chose your background. I’ve been depressed, if ‘depressed’ means the inability to adequately deal with any kind of stress, ever since I can remember and I remember a long ways back. I was a relatively low weight birth baby–just around 5 lbs. I had whooping cough when I was 8-9mo. old. I weighed about 12 lbs. at 14 mo. I was considered sickly. And yet, I was always active. Maybe that’s the difference. I danced, swam, rode horseback, played basketball, climbed trees, followed what the boys did–I did most of the things I wasn’t supposed to be able to do. I did it because I ‘had to.’ I did it because I wasn’t ‘supposed to.’
As for excuses, aren’t you giving one now? Aren’t you saying that you can’t help yourself because the causes of your depression keep you from doing so? When you were working, why were you ‘unproductive,’ as far as your boss was concerned? Was your boss a lousy boss? Did your boss have a standard of productivity that other people met and did you, in your mind, meet and/or exceed his standard. Or were you often absent or late? I ask because I’ve been fired from two jobs because I was smarter than my bosses–or at least they thought so.
If you were born without boots, I was born without booties. That’s why I’ve suggested that we agree to disagree. Okay?